History Collection

Patrick Henry's rousing speech before the Virginia legislature argues for colonial independence.

Based on the old Norse poem, 'Þrymskviða', Freyja is called to Asgard to help Thor and Loki find Mjǫllnir, hoping it will satiate Asgard's hunger for war.

The story of how sound was paired with images in early years of cinema; offering an in-depth look at the people behind-the-scenes and the technological innovations that culminated in Warner Brothers' ground breaking film, "The Jazz Singer" (1927).

Set in 1937 Stalinist Georgia, the film traces the parallel destinies of a mother, condemned by the government as "an enemy of the people" and exiled to a work camp in Siberia, and her daughter, who meanwhile is sent to an orphanage. Arriving at the overcrowded work camp, the mother and other women who are not considered strong enough to be labourers, must journey still farther, crossing the icy Siberian landscape in search of food and shelter. At the same time, the daughter escapes the orphanage and returns to her former home, where she finds that a KGB officer has taken up residence. He protects her and an uneasy rapport between them develops—one of abhorrence and attraction, need and suspicion.

Essie Coffey gives the children lessons on Aboriginal culture. She speaks of the importance of teaching these kids about their traditions. Aboriginal kids are forgetting about their Aboriginal heritage because they are being taught white culture instead.

The epic tells about the life and heroic deeds of Koroghlu (literally "son of the blind man") as a hero of the people who struggled against unjust rulers, defending his clan or tribe.

October 1941. German forces have penetrated deep into Russia and are laying waste to everything they see. The Soviet high command takes every chance they get to secure the rear and take anything of historic importance out of harm's way.

Most people don't think about singing when they think about revolutions. But song was the weapon of choice when, between 1986 and 1991, Estonians sought to free themselves from decades of Soviet occupation. During those years, hundreds of thousands gathered in public to sing forbidden patriotic songs and to rally for independence. "The young people, without any political party, and without any politicians, just came together ... not only tens of thousands but hundreds of thousands ... to gather and to sing and to give this nation a new spirit," remarks Mart Laar, a Singing Revolution leader featured in the film and the first post-Soviet Prime Minister of Estonia. "This was the idea of the Singing Revolution." James Tusty and Maureen Castle Tusty's "The Singing Revolution" tells the moving story of how the Estonian people peacefully regained their freedom--and helped topple an empire along the way.

Based on the true story of Operation Acid Gambit, one of the most daring military raids in history.

The movie is about Count Ioannis Kapodistrias, one of the most important diplomats of the 18th century, who became the first governor of the independent Greek state (1827).

The gruesome story of the Jewish ghettos during the Nazi occupation of Eastern Europe in the dark days of World War II, based on the records written by their inhabitants, who bear witness to the human tragedy of the Shoah; but also to an indomitable will to live.

Dramatization of the life of blind musician ABing (Huà Yànjūn).

A drama that tells the story of the physician and politician MUDr. František Kriegel, the hero of the Prague Spring of 1968, who was arrested and kidnapped to Moscow on the night of August 21st together with five leaders of the party and the state (Dubček, Černík, Smrkovský, Špaček and Šimon). He was the only Czechoslovak politician who managed to stand up to Brezhnev in Moscow captivity, even under the threat of liquidation, and not to sign the Moscow Protovol which meant agreeing to the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968.

Behind the scenes of Aaron Spelling's nighttime soap opera.

A comedy about the love of the Czech nobleman Záviš of Falkenštejn for the Hungarian princess Kunhuta, who later married Přemysl Otakar II and became the Czech queen.

Sidney Poitier and Michael Caine both received Emmy nominations for their performances in this made-for-TV movie. The plot follows Nelson Mandela's 27-year struggle to end apartheid.

Historical Bio-Pic, based on the life of Hope Bridges Adams-Lehmann, being the first female physician and member of womens-lib movement in Germany at the end of 19th century.

A historical drama about the revolution of 1848/1849 in the Austrian empire.

The story of Mexican President Benito Juárez and the emperor Maximilian of Habsburg and the empress Carlota.

This early short by Jaromil Jireš anticipates the formal and stylistic experimentation that would characterize VALERIE AND HER WEEK OF WONDERS.

Fourteen year old Polish boy Stas Tarkowski and eight year old Nel Rawlison from England are kidnapped as the hostages by Arabic fanatics and taken to their religion leader. Then they manage to escape and try to return to their fathers. Children have a lot of dangerous adventures, meet two Black kids; Kali and Mea, who also help them, make a friendship with an elephant and help one Black's tribe.

Benedict Arnold is not the villain of American history most people were taught to believe. New facts and never before presented material illuminate his heroic contributions to the American Revolution and explains his later change of allegiance.

Ninsho becomes a monk, following his mother’s wish who died when he was little. His father devotes his fortune for Ninsho to become a great monk. Ninsho helps with relief effort to save people who suffer from famine and disease. One day, he meets a woman with problems with her legs. She makes a living by begging. Ninsho carries her on his back everyday.

During a turning point in Indonesian history, a family must endure personal turmoil while their nation faces drastic political upheaval.

Part of a specialized series entitled “Le Grandi Operette” (The Great Operettas), this specific video version presents the Italian-language adaptation of Jacques Offenbach's opera.

The film portrays the Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter August Strindberg's life 1849-1912. Through his extensive correspondence and literary production, from the supposed first work, the drama "The Free Thinker" (1869), to the posthumously published "The Occult Diary" (published 1977 ). But also his three wives, Siri von Essen, Frida Uhl and Harriet Bosse, and the children Karin, Greta and Hans are given space in the film. The unpublished first drama "The Free Thinker", depicts a young man forced to break with family and tradition to follow his conscience and ideals, becomes a prophecy about the author's own life.

United in Anger: A History of ACT UP is an inspiring documentary about the birth and life of the AIDS activist movement from the perspective of the people in the trenches fighting the epidemic. Utilizing oral histories of members of ACT UP, as well as rare archival footage, the film depicts the efforts of ACT UP as it battles corporate greed, social indifference, and government negligence.

Cecilia is a commoner who runs an inn, where the specialty is the "spaghetti alla carbonara". Moreover, the woman is tied to the movement of young patriots, named "Carbonari", who want a united Italy, and are struggling against the power of the pope. Cecilia believes she lost her husband in a fatal accident, and has made a new lover: Fabrizio, who is also a patriot. One day the guy's saved by a monk, when he is about to be imprisoned by the soldiers of Cardinal Rivarola. The monk is the husband of Cecilia, not dead in the accident, and now he helps her to fight against the power of Rome with the Carbonari.

United Europe, the Baltic Sea coast. It is the Day of Thanksgiving, the most important national holiday since the denazification of the late 1960s, carried out almost two decades after the end of World War II. A war won by the Nazis. Europeans denounced the crimes of Nazism and took on themselves the blames of the victors.

During the Battle of Waterloo, a soldier's wife searches for her missing husband in the nearby forest and must resort to extraordinary measures to survive.

On September 11, 2001, the unimaginable transpired when devastating attacks on the World Trade Center forced the shutdown of the entire U.S. airspace. Thousands of kilometres away in Gander, Newfoundland, a group of Nav Canada air traffic controllers suddenly had the lives of 33,000 people in their hands and had to think fast to find a place for them to go. Discovery uncovers how these unsung heroes managed to safely land 224 planes in four hours, without incident.

The Second World War is over. But after each war the human destinies are left. This film is about two of them. The former officer of the Wehrmacht. The former prisoner of the Nazi concentration camp.

A true story about Johann Georg Elser, a quiet carpenter who tried to assassinate Hitler with an explosive device in 1939.

Tells the story of Larry and Trudie Long, a popular Asian American nightclub act of the '40s and '50s, told through the eyes of their daughter, actress Jodi Long.

New York, June 3, 1968. Valerie Solanas enters the Factory, Andy Warhol's studio, and fires three shots at him, who miraculously survives, but is seriously wounded. What led this woman to try to kill the famous pop artist, as well as to write a manifesto calling for the eradication of men?

This epic version of the Mulan tale was an early epic, shot on location in Northern China using hundreds of extras. It is the story of Hua Mulan, a young woman who takes her fathers place in the army as he is unwell. She gains glory but must eventually deal with her deception.

Five friends – a poet, an actor, a painter, an architect and a primitivist film director – are five red avant-garde artists who try to find the embodiment of their hopes and dreams in the young Soviet state. The Revolution is boiling up like a bottle with apple cider: winged service dogs and heart-shaped potatoes, dead Semashko, the People’s Commissar for Health, and cheerful angels, love for the Tsar and love for the young secretary Annushka, executions and pregnancies – everything is interlaced and inseparable!

The last part of the epic "Khan Asparukh" - "Land Forever" is an impressive finish to scale narrative, created for the nationwide celebration of 13 century anniversary of the Bulgarian state. The authors collected in final chord all storylines, culminating in the political strengthening of the young Bulgarian state. In the center of the film epic again is the image of Khan Asparukh - a lofty romantic hero who embodies the virtues and energy of his people.

The film depicts episodes of Iakob Dzhugashvili's life in a German concentration camp and his heroic death.

The woman who birthed the most children in the City of Toronto within a certain time period would inherit a fortune in the midst of the Great Depression

This film takes us into the harsh realm of BC's early coal mines, canneries, and lumber camps; where primitve conditions and speed-ups often cost lives. Then, the film moves through the unemployed' struggles of the '30s, post WWII equity campaigns, and into more recent public sector strikes over union rights.

Rascar Capac, the sinister creature featured on Hergé's album The Seven Crystal Balls (1948), has left its mark on many generations of readers. To draw it, the Belgian cartoonist was probably inspired by a mummy exhibited in the first pre-Columbian exhibition organized by the Brussels Cinquantenaire Museum in 1923. Two intrepid archaeologists embark on a fascinating journey to reconstruct the story of the mysterious mummy.

The young Valkó wants to plan a block of apartments that will still be modern fifty years from now. His ambitious plans are continuously rejected by his manipulative and careless superiors. So instead of the modern block of flats he only plans a bachelor apartment.

In 1890s Western Ukraine, Ivan Didukh, a proud and ripe Galician farmer, has decided to abandon his ancestral home to emigrate to Canada in search of a better life. His final hours are clouded by both internal and communal discord as his village convenes to ceremonially mark his departure. The celebrations that echo those of a funeral, forecast the imminent death of a man estranged from his motherland, and of an antiquated way of life on the cusp of obsoletion.

The story of Sam Houston, hero of the Texas revolution, statesman, and first president of the Republic of Texas.

Tarihci Dede is giving information to a couple of children about Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's success and his way to shape todays Turkey.

Jack is poor, lonely and desperate to change his life. So when he's offered the chance to join an Arctic expedition, he jumps at it. After they reach the remote, uninhabited bay where they will camp for the next year, Gruhuken, Jack feels a creeping unease. One by one, his companions are forced to leave, and Jack realizes that he is not alone.

1940, Kawamoto Akiko lives in Hiroshima with her father and mother, Genkichi and Shizuko, as well as her two younger brothers. Akiko loves playing her favourite piano. As the war situation worsens, she is busy helping out the war efforts. On the morning of August 6, 1945, she disobeys her father and heads into the centre of town for work. In Hiroshima 75 years later, her favourite piano remains, restored and playable following its survival of the atomic bombing

In 1523, young Thomas Müntzer arrives with his wife Ottilie in the Thuringian village Allstedt to assume the rectorate. As a follower of Luther′s teachings, he finds in the Bible not only reasons for clerical, but also for secular reforms. But when Luther turns away from the rural population after a discord with Müntzer, it is Müntzer who becomes the peoples′ spokesman. He is forced to go to Southern Germany, where he convenes with revolting farmers. But his way leads him back to Thuringia. In 1525, he and Heinrich Pfeiffer form the centre of the Thuringian peasant uprising in Mühlhausen, but their success is diminished by the fact that peasants and craftsmen don′t seem to be able to work together. In Frankenhausen, Müntzer becomes the leader of a peasants′ army that is set to fighting the ruler′s army – and sustains a devastating loss. Müntzer is arrested and sentenced to death by decapitation for his insurgency.

'JFK: Seven Days That Made a President' investigates the seven key days in JFK's life that helped shape his character and have come to define him.

Emma Darwin, widow of scientist Charles Darwin, finds herself on a late life journey of self-discovery as she faces a challenge to her faith in the form of her beloved atheist husband’s as–yet unpublished autobiography.

GDR 1961: Tamara Bunke, daughter of Jewish exiles from Argentina, not only falls for the political goals of the rousing revolutionary Che Guevara during a state visit. She also meets Ulises Estrada, the commandant of Che's team. Ignited by the fire of the revolution, she gets involved in a diabolical espionage deal with the Stasi in order to cheat her way out of Cuba. In Cuba, she ends up caught between all fronts: under the watchful eye of the Stasi, which expects results from her, but in reality solely dedicated to Che's revolution, Tamara allows herself to be trained as a double spy by Che's troops. At the same time, her honest love grows for Commandante Ulises, who eventually gives her the choice of following her personal happiness and going into hiding rather than following Che's plans to liberate South America, which by now he considers a suicide mission. An unresolvable, deeply tragic conflict that ends fatally for Tamara in the battle of Bolivia's Rio Grande..

DocuDrama about 13th century pre-Christian culture. Danish spy Lars enters the tribal lands of the Baltic peoples, where he takes part in religious rites, cruel forays, gets high during the Summer Solstice, becomes slave to the Couronians and even fights the crusaders. Who were the last pagans of Europe and how did they live? It is a unique trip into the textures of the past and into the unknown lands of the Baltic Tribes.

A landlord chases his escaped serf but some town takes the refugee under its protection. That leads to a serious confrontation. Based on a true story.

A psychological war drama inspired by true events of Rifleman Kulbir Thapa, an inexperienced soldier goes through an incredible journey that eventually cements his name among the legendary Gurkha warriors.

1890s, Russian-occupied Poland. When Marcin Borowicz begins his gymnasium education, he is confronted with brutal indoctrination and attempts of resistance.

Carinthia, southern Austria, 1942. Mila and her brother Hanzi, who are Slovenian, join the armed resistance to German occupation. Mila becomes a commander of a partisan group at the age of 20 and soon finds herself making decisions about life and death.