History Collection

The plot is based on the story of the complex relationship between Peter Schmidt and Zinaida Rizberg, with whom he corresponded after a chance meeting on the train.

This brief look at mid nineteenth century New York City, a period of mass immigration, street gangs, political corruption, and the worst civilian insurrection in the country's history, lends insight into the inspiration for Martin Scorsese's new movie, Gangs of New York.

"A Species Odyssey" portrays the origins of Mankind from the moment the first primate stood up on their hind legs and set off to conquer the African Savanna, to modern Man, setting off to conquer space. 7 million years of triumph fraught with difficulties and extraordinary events that make Man what he is today.

Osa de la Vega, Cuenca, Spain, 1913. Gregorio and León, employees on the estate of the village's mayor, a powerful landowner, are arrested and accused of the murder of José María el Cepa, a shepherd who mysteriously disappeared three years earlier.

Civil Rights Movement activist, TSSAA Hall of Fame Basketball Coach, swim coach, teacher, musical director, father, grandfather, and friend to many, Coach Sylvester Ford Sr. was known by many as “Big Time.” The nickname was given to him as a kid for his height, but “Big Time” showed time and time again why his nickname was about way more than his looks– it’s also because of how he showed up big for his community. Hometown Feature Audience Award winner at Indie Memphis 2024, Big Time chronicles the life of legendary Memphis basketball coach, Sylvester Ford Sr., while inspiring us all to live “big time” lives along the way.

The year 2017 marks the 500th anniversary of one on the most important events in Western civilization: the birth of an idea that continues to shape the life of every American today. In 1517, power was in the hands of the few, thought was controlled by the chosen, and common people lived lives without hope. On October 31 of that year, a penniless monk named Martin Luther sparked the revolution that would change everything. He had no army. In fact, he preached nonviolence so powerfully that — 400 years later — Michael King would change his name to Martin Luther King to show solidarity with the original movement. This movement, the Protestant Reformation, changed Western culture at its core, sparking the drive toward individualism, freedom of religion, women's rights, separation of church and state, and even free public education. Without the Reformation, there would have been no pilgrims, no Puritans, and no America in the way we know it.

Soma, an immigrant from a defeated country, lives as a fortuneteller in Japan. She is saved from corrupt court officials by Kojiro Masakado, a warrior from Bando. They get swept up in a conflict between Bando and the imperial forces.

Their family name alone evokes horror: Himmler, Frank, Goering, Hoess. This film looks at the descendants of the most powerful figures in the Nazi regime: men and women who were left a legacy that indelibly associates them with one of the greatest abominations in history. What is it like to have grown up with a name that immediately raises images of genocide? How do they live with the weight of their ancestors' crimes? Is it possible to move on from the crimes of their ancestors?

1984 was not a leap into the future-but a look at the dangers already present-in Orwell's lifetime. The Road to 1984 intertwines vision and reality. It displays the passion and chronicles the career of Orwell--who warned us of what could happen if we stayed on that road--his road to 1948 and ours to 1984.

Tuur and Lambert are best friends. But the war is closing in and is about to change their lives forever. Tuurs dad joined the resistance and even his big brother seems so be part of it. Lamberts family on the other hand choose to obey the Germans. Then a new girls from the city shows up, befriending the boys but telling her secret to only one of them. A choice that separates the boys and ultimately gets her in trouble.

It's a warm November day in the early 1960s and Liz has just picked up the kids for her weekly carpool. Little does she know that this will be a drive she'll never forget.

In 1812, during the French period, large parts of Germany are occupied by the troops of Napoleon. Several paramilitary Freikorps units battle the French forces, among them the Black Brunswickers led by the 'Black Duke' Frederick William of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. After the War of the Fifth Coalition, the Black Hussars are pursued by Napoleon throughout the country, but frequently take refuge with the noble-minded German people.

The movie follows the life and career of Madame Durocher, first woman to be accepted in the Brazilian Medical Academy.

Historical drama about the Tatarbunar uprising in southern Bessarabia in September 1924. The plot is based on the complicated relationship between two brothers standing on opposite sides of the barricades. The betrayal of one of the brothers led to a spontaneous uprising of the poor, which swept the entire south of Bessarabia and was brutally suppressed by the punitive occupation forces.

As Japan’s Tokugawa shogunate nears the end of its rule, Edo North Magistrate Toyama no Kinsan is called upon to judge the most difficult case of his career. In a masterfully woven tale, he has to face the truth about his estranged father’s possible involvement in a nefarious plot to take over rule of the Hizen Shimabara clan by assassinating the rightful lord, his son, and install one of Shogun Ienari’s offspring as daimyo.

They forged a new land in the untamed wilderness - with their heart, their hands, and their faith in god.

Oroqen Hunter directed by Wang Ping. It tells the story of the deep revolutionary friendship forged between Gai'er Mountain, the leader of the Oroqen tribe, and Wang Dahu, a commander of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army, during their resistance against Japanese invaders. Sworn as brothers, they led the Oroqen people to assist the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army in fighting the Japanese in the regions of Nenjiang, Nehe, Dedu, and Arun Banner.

After the martyrdom of Joseph Smith, Jr., his wife Emma Hale Smith was left with much to shoulder: salvaging Joseph’s estate, the safety of her family, her own grief, and growing isolation as danger and rumors increased. Through the eyes of one of her sons and Lucy Mack Smith, Emma’s struggles are shown with new light and understanding, revealing a courageous woman who stood as a pillar of strength for her family.

The construction of the Aswan dam as seen by those who took part in it: engineers, workers, Egyptians, and Soviets.

From 1996 to 1998, a low-budget TV commercial for Saskatoon’s Great Buffet of China aired relentlessly. Featuring a Caucasian pitchman introducing the phrase “How Chee” and a group of amateur young actors repeating it, the ad became infamous. Some laughed. Others cringed. Many called it the worst commercial ever made. Thirty years later, it still resurfaces—at one point even going viral in China. How Chee! explores the unlikely origins of the ad, the friendship between an immigrant restaurant owner and the professor who tried to help save his business, and the now-adult actors who became locally famous long before going viral was a thing.

A riveting political thriller starring Shawn Doyle (John A. Macdonald), Peter Outerbridge (George Brown) and David LaHaye (George-Etienne Cartier) and set during the struggles that take Canada from colony to country.

Archival film maestro Göran Hugo Olsson has assembled—from a vast catalogue of footage in the vaults of Sweden’s national television service SVT—accounts of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as witnessed and represented by Swedish journalists. Stories of the beginning of the Israeli state interwoven with the Palestinian struggle for independence. News coverage with Yasser Arafat and interviews with Israeli foreign minister Abba Eban during a visit to Sweden unseen since first broadcast. From the tenth anniversary of Israel’s founding to the First Intifada, perspectives and encounters with statesmen, civilians, revolutionaries, and intellectuals tell the story from myriad angles of an evolving media landscape, revivifying a history of the ongoing conflict.

Brash and opinionated, Christine Choy is a documentarian, cinematographer, professor, and quintessential New Yorker whose films and teaching have influenced a generation of artists. In 1989 she started to film the leaders of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests who escaped to political exile following the June 4 massacre. Though Choy never finished that project, she now travels with the old footage to Taiwan, Maryland, and Paris in order to share it with the dissidents who have never been able to return home.

The story of Italian cinema under Fascism, a sophisticated film industry built around the founding of the Cinecittà studios and the successful birth of a domestic star system, populated by very peculiar artists among whom stood out several beautiful, magnetic, special actresses; a dark story of war, drugs, sex, censorship and tragedy.

Discover how the 1900 outbreak of bubonic plague set off feat and anti-Asian sentiment in San Francisco. A fascinating medical mystery and timely examination of the relationship between the medical community, city powerbrokers and the Chinese-American community, Plague at the Golden Gate tells the gripping story of the race against time to save San Francisco and the nation from the deadly plague.

Surpassed only by the Bible and Shakespeare, Agatha Christie is the most successful writer of all time. We all know her characters and incredible plot twists, but what do we know about Agatha herself? Combining rare access to Agatha's family, her personal archive and speaking to those who know her work best, discover what made the world's most successful crime writer tick.

Poland, 1970. When popular protests erupt in the streets due to rising prices, the communist government organizes a crisis team. Soon after, the police use their truncheons and then their firearms. The story of a rebellion from the point of view of the oppressors.

The story is set in Chiran, Kagoshima, the site of a secret base used to launch kamikaze missions during the war. At the time, a group of young girls known as the Nadeshiko Tai were gathered to help out at the base. The drama will be part documentary and it is based on the experiences of 78-year-old Shoko Nagasaki, a survivor of the Nadeshiko Tai.

The childhood of the movie director Antoine Lisner, who left Algeria in 1962. In order to present his new movie, he comes back to Algiers with his son.

In-depth look at the city hosting the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

Beyond the Great Wall is a true story based on how Wang Chao-chun sacrificed her love and life for the good of the Chinese people during war time fears between China and the Huns.

Summer 1900, Switzerland. Elisabeth, 17, is about to take her vows when the sudden death of her older sister forces her to leave the convent and return to the family farm. Stifled by the suffocating and strict rules of the village, walking in her sister’s step to uncover the mystery of her death, Elisabeth is slowly driven to rebel against the local order and for her right to live her life.

”Cornelis” is the unique chronicle about one of Sweden’s greatest music legends - Cornelis Vreeswijk. An honest and gripping account of an exceptionally talented, but self-destructive artist’s intense life both on and behind the stage. A man who during his whole life was searching for love and confirmation.

At the beginning of the Civil War, Union gunboats sailed into Port Royal Sound, on the Sea Islands off the coast of Georgia. White plantation owners fled, and the 10,000 blacks who lived there, almost all of whom were slaves, were freed in the first test of President Abraham Lincoln's dream of emancipation. Charlotte Forten, a 21-year-old educated black woman, helped the freed slaves to begin to build a new society. That experience forms the plot of this drama, based on Charlotte Forten's journals, which was telecast on "American Playhouse."

Viktor Kingissepp has been the underground head of the Communist Party of Estonia for three years. He corresponds with Moscow, writes speeches for the members of the Communist Workers' Party and makes leaflets for the events of trade union. His purpose is to overthrow the Republic of Estonia since he does not believe in Estonian independence nor in any national ideals. Yet the clock keeps ticking, tuberculosis spreads rapidly, the world revolution is being postponed. What to do in order to make one's efforts work?

This tribute program takes you back into the world of Thierry Ardisson, a particularly creative, provocative, and erudite host and producer. From "Tout le monde en parle" to "Salut les Terriens !", via "Lunettes noires pour nuits blanches", the program retraces his more than 40-year career and his extraordinary journey, featuring cult interviews, testimonials, and archive footage. Numerous guests will pay tribute to him and share their memories and anecdotes on set. Thierry Ardisson, "the man in black," shook up the French audiovisual landscape and left his mark on his era. The program is broadcast on all TV5 Monde channels and on TV5 Québec/Canada.

These are the years of the First World War and Dr. Stefano Zorzi spends his days in the Exemption Clinic in a large city of Northern Italy, where he not only takes care of soldiers who arrive from the massacre of the front, but also he fights simulation and self-harm of those who hope to be dispensed, by sending them before the Military Court. If Stefano, in fact, does his utmost to heal soldiers and send them back to fight, Dr. Giulio Farradio makes them ill, or helps them to self-injure seriously enough to be exonerated. The two doctors, who went to university together and were great friends, they not only (secretly) challenge each other on a professional level, but also on the sentimental one: they are both linked to Anna, a courageous nurse with a strong character. But when the great ‘Spanish’ fever epidemic arrived in 1918, the time for love, politics and science ends up getting confused dangerously...

The incredible story of Bruno Lüdke (1908-44), the alleged worst mass murderer in German criminal history; or actually, a story of forged files and fake news that takes place during the darkest years of the Third Reich, when the principles of criminal justice, subjected to the yoke of a totalitarian system that is beginning to collapse, mean absolutely nothing.

In Renaissance Florence, a Florentine trader meets a shipwrecked stranger, who introduces himself as Tito Melema, a young Italianate-Greek scholar. Tito becomes acquainted with several other Florentines, including Nello the barber and a young girl named Tessa. He is also introduced to a blind scholar named Bardo de' Bardi, and his daughter Romola. As Tito becomes settled in Florence, assisting Bardo with classical studies, he falls in love with Romola.

Czechoslovak historical film about Saint Wenceslas. It was the most expensive Czech film to date, with the largest set constructed in Europe to accommodate an all-star cast of over a hundred, together with 1,000 extras for the lavish battle scenes.

Set at the turn of the century, the story concerns a Polish poet living in Cracow who has decided to marry a peasant girl. The wedding is attended by a heterogenous group of people from all strata of Polish society, who dance, get drunk and lament Poland's 100-year-long division under Russia, Prussia, and Austria. The bridegroom, a painter friend, and a journalist each in turn is confronted with spectres of Polish past.

The Philippines, 1898, during the Spanish-American War. Fifty Spanish soldiers guarding the outpost established in the small village of Baler endure the cruel siege of the Filipino rebels for eleven months, although the war is almost lost…

Professor Lola Sánchez investigates the truth behind the events experienced by Rafael Sánchez Mazas, one of the founders of the Falange Española party, during the Spanish Civil War.

When the Raja of Jhansi dies, the British place harsh conditions before letting the Raja's son, Gangadhar, take over the throne. Jhansi's Rajguru plans ahead by getting a young girl, Manu, from a neighbouring kingdom to marry Gangadhar, despite their age difference. Manu is anointed the Rani of Jhansi and her name is changed to Laxmibai (Kashish). She soon gets pregnant but the newborn child dies a few months later. Bereft, Gangadhar's health begins to fail. With no hope of a natural heir to the kingdom, Gangadhar and Laxmibai adopt a young boy, Diwakar. When Gangadhar dies, Laxmibai attempts to have Diwakar anointed the Raja. However, the British object and soon declare war on Jhansi. How Laxmibai joins forces with Tatya Tope and fights the British to death iforms the rest of the film.

After the death of Octavian, the rebel populations of Illyria and Pannonia pose a grave threat to the Roman Empire. Tribune Marcus Ventidius is sent to subdue the uprising and, after a bitter battle, captures Pannonian chief Magdus together with a number of women hostages. These include Magdus's own daughter Helen, betrothed to cruel Illyrian warrior Batone who has killed many Romans. Julia, daughter of the Roman governor Messala, is in love with Tribune Marcus and, jealous of his sympathy for the barbarian girl, plots an escape by Helen and her father. Pursuing the fugitives, Marcus crosses a mountain pass where Batone has laid a trap.

Composed entirely of never-before-seen 8mm and 16mm footage filmed between 1925 and 1961 by baseball players, their families and their fans, this second chapter in the HBO series "When It Was a Game" brings many lost moments to life. Narrated by Peter Kessler, the documentary features clips of Joe DiMaggio, Ty Cobb, Roy Campanella, Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Satchel Paige, Tommy Lasorda and Babe Ruth.

During the war, on the banks of the Garonne, there is a café, the Café du Pont, where workers and sailors gather. Ten-year-old Pierrot's parents dedicate all their time and energy to the place. The German Occupation imposes restrictions and fear, but Pierrot knows that his father discreetly carries out brave actions and that his mother, both strong and fragile, knows how to settle any conflict - in her own way.

The traveler who never leaves his cabinet – that’s what his contemporaries used to call Jules Verne. He was a person with an extraordinary lust for life whose fantasy had no limits, he literally taught us how to dream. Which of us did not aspire of circling the world with Phileas Fogg and Jean Passepartout? Who hasn’t dreamt of roaming the sea with captain Nemo on his quest for vengeance? This film is yet another piece from the series “Great Dreamers” which already includes some of the most well-known visionaries such as Nicola Tesla (“Free Energy of Tesla”) and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (“Tsiolkovsky’s Worlds of Miracle”). By having utilized advanced CGI technologies we were able to recreate the life of outstanding persons, pioneers and path breakers in science and research.

Second half of the 19th century. In a small town in South Bohemia, fifth-former Jan Ratkin is living through the confusions of first love together with his classmates.

An action-packed film about the role of Mikhail Frunze in the liquidation of Father Makhno’s gangs in Ukraine.

Umon goes on an investigation to unveil the murderer known as Red Lizard.

In 1898, a band of Spanish soldiers heroically defended Baler against Filipino forces for 337 long and grueling days. The battle, now referred to as the Siege of Baler, is the setting of a forbidden love between a Mestizo soldier and a Filipina lass who lived at the end of the 19th century.

Narrator Robin Roberts recounts the story of the 15th National Guard, part of the 369th Infantry in World War I, and how the predominantly African American unit faced down the realities of war abroad alongside injustice and prejudice at home.

Stall-Erik och snapphanarna is a Swedish film project that began filming in 1996 with a preliminary premiere in 2025. Director, producer and lead actor is Anders Olofsson. Olofsson is entirely responsible for the financing of the project and the casting.

In 1920, a combat flight training school named "Willows" is founded in California. People who want to fight for Korea’s independence from Japan gather at the school. Their mission is to bomb the palace of the Japanese emperor. The pilots’ ardent desire for Korea’s independence grows, but as they prepare for their mission, a spy in the school ruins their plans. However, KIM Ja-jung and the other pilots manage to get on board for what will most likely be their last flight.