History Collection

Spanish actor Pepe Viyuela embarks on a personal journey on the trail of his grandfather Gervasio, a soldier in the Republican Army during the Spanish Civil War.

The Mona Lisa by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci is the most famous painting in the world. What is the secret behind the "real" Mona Lisa? It draws legions of visitors to the Louvre in Paris to contemplate her enigmatic expression. In this "detective story," historians tell us how Leonardo developed the painting and uncover the long-hidden identity of the smiling woman.

A documentary on the life and career of Victor Fleming, director of such iconic movies as The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind.

In Vienna 1820, the Manto Mavrogenous encounters a group of Greek students and talk of revolution to be made. Returning to Greece uncle of the initiates at Friendly Society. Madonna sells its dowry and equip their ships and army to help the revolution. Meet the founder of the Friendly Society, Dimitrios Ypsilanti, and builds relationships with him but encounters the objections of the political leaders of the struggle and particularly of Ioannis Kolettis who fears the two young people like to be the first king of the new nation. To break up the uses of beautiful paintings Niki monk who just came from Paris.

In a house in the heart of the Casbah of Algiers, a family is torn apart by the weight of war. Three divided brothers, caught up in the contradictions of a country in struggle, gradually unite around a single cause: the liberation of Algeria. Ibna El Casbah is a tense, emotionally-charged behind-closed-doors story that captures the moment when intimacy becomes history.

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

England, 1960. The Crown sues the publisher Penguin Books in order to ban the publication of Lady Chatterley's Lover, a novel by the British writer D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930), published privately in Italy in 1928, which celebrates nature and deals with sex without taboos.

This historical drama, set in 1905, depicts the difficult plight of Korean henequen field laborers in Mexico. The story follows the love between the daughter of an aristocratic family fallen on hard times, and the son of a butcher.

1976 brings several events that leave their mark on Sweden. Silvia Sommerlath marries King Carl Gustaf, and Thorbjörn Fälldin takes over as the new prime minister. On the music scene, international visits stand out when the rock bands Kiss and Sweet come to Sweden. And as Christmas approaches, Trazan Apansson appears on the TV screen for the very first time.

The story of the unknown man who 30 years ago stood up to brutality of his government in a way that continues to inspire and defined resistance to tyranny for a generation.

About the commander Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration. Mortally wounded in the Battle of Borodino, he slowly dies in the village, at the estate of his aunt. The hero recalls the past, his experiences. Each episode of Bagration's life is a page of Russian history: the military march across the Alps, the capture of the impregnable Devil's Bridge, meetings with Alexander I, the battle of Borodino.

Mesopotamia was the site of the Sumerian civilisation, which flourished at the confluence of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. From 5000 to 2000 BC, the Sumerians flourished in a hostile environment by developing agriculture and irrigation and they opened up the trade routes of the ancient world. It was the Sumerians who invented writing and the wheel, and they first divided time into minutes and seconds. In the end however the Babylonian civilisation took the place of the Sumerians. However their heritage and myths live on in the Mediterranean and Western worlds to this day.

An immersion into the life and writings of the extraordinary American science fiction writer Philip K. Dick (1928-82), whose outstanding work predicted like no other the dystopian debacle toward which the chaotic world of the 21st century is inevitably heading.

End of the 1930s. The times of Stalin's terror. Lieutenant Scherbakov got the order to shoot several "enemies of the people". Unexpectedly, a rural wedding found itself at the crime scene. Pursuant to the instruction, witnesses were also eliminated...

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.

A young peasant is forced to flee for killing involuntarily an abusive guard. After an entire year hiding in a remote fishing island, he decides to return to his countryside and reunite with his wife and daughters.

Representing a destitute mother in an infanticide trial, a female lawyer attempts to convince a conservative prosecutor of the benefits of Japan's democratized post-war legal system.

At the request of Lord Krishna, a dedicated devotee, Lakshmi, attempts to marry a selfish playboy, Pundarika.

A scripted drama telling the story of Walt Disney's quest to build Disneyland.

An orphan in 18th century London lashes out against the harrowing child labor market.

One of the most controversial men of his age, Alexander Hamilton was a gifted statesman brought down by the fatal flaws of stubbornness, extreme candor and arrogance. His life and career were marked by a stunning rise to power, scandal and tragedy. But his contributions survive. As Secretary of the Treasury during the tumultuous early years of the republic, Hamilton led the transformation of the young country into industrial powerhouse.

When Lady Sheila Boothroyd hears that the planning authorities are determined to drive a road through her grounds, she announces her intention to kill herself at the precise moment that the bulldozers start on their shameful work. As the hour strikes and the bulldozers' roar is heard, her husband General Sir William Boothroyd enters in full regimental regalia, while his old ex-army servant sounds the Last Post. Then, as the whole family stands stricken, the door opens...

Mexico is in the midst of Revolution when the protagonist returns after studying in Paris to find his native town in Chihuahua occupied by Francisco Villa’s revolutionary forces. He visits his deserted home and remembers people and events from his adolescence that provide glimpses of pre-Revolutionary society under dictatorship: his uncle, the chief of police; his sister’s involvement with a liberal political association; bathing with the girls from a local brothel; a labor strike that ended in a massacre. Returning to the present he discovers that his father has been assassinated and, in the company of his father’s former servant, joins the revolutionary movement.

He's one of America's most cherished myths... and one of its most wrong-headed. America's Robin Hood who robbed not only the rich but the poor and defenseless as well, always saving the treasure for himself.

The exciting story of the splitting of the atom, a scientific breakthrough of incalculable importance that ushered in the nuclear age, has a dark side: the many events in which people were exposed to radiation, both intentionally and by accident.

An investigation into the mysterious people who built Machu Picchu, the 15th-century Inca citadel located in southern Peru.

Carmine Gallone and Amleto Palermi’s The Last Days of Pompeii 1926 stages in sumptuous colour tinting the epic fall of the ancient city buried by Mount Vesuvius’ eruption. Adapted from Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s love story, the film was innovative in its special effects and an early major box-office hit. A beautiful tinted restoration print was prepared using photochemical processes by Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia-Cineteca Nazionale in the mid-1990s and the premiere screening of the restoration print was held in the amphitheatre in Pompeii, followed by a screening at the major restoration festival ‘Il Cinema Ritrovato’ in Bologna in 1998.

A biopic by the dramatist Trevor Griffiths of Aneurin "Nye" Bevan, the British Labour politician who founded the country's National Health Service in the 1940s.

Short film in which Barbara's father is killed in a raid of the Vandals. When Barbara and the other women are threatened, she throws a box with explosives, killing the attackers.

In the Benin Empire of 1897, an orphan girl discovers she holds the power of the sacred Aruosa stone. As the Oba faces British conquest and betrayal from within, she must embrace her destiny to save the kingdom.

In a country mired in repression, a Venezuelan mother lives a terrifying day when she witnesses from her window how her neighbors are taken to prison after peacefully protesting. Desperate, she contacts her son, a young national guard, to confront him about his role in the oppressive system. As fear and tension grow, The Mother must choose between silence or risking everything to defend the truth.

Based on the true story of John Scobell, one of the first African American spies in our nation’s intelligence service. In 1861, President Lincoln commissions his spymaster Allan Pinkerton to incorporate a new network of African American spies. This group, operating right under the noses of their Southern masters, comes to be known as The Royal Lincoln League.

Two part film about David Bek and Mkhitar Sparapet's major Armenian uprising against Safavid Persia in the Syunik region in the 18th century.

Bonn 1948. The member of parliament and lawyer Elisabeth Selbert fights tirelessly for the inclusion of the sentence "Men and women have equal rights" in the Basic Law of the future Federal Republic of Germany. Despite the opposition she encounters during sessions in the Parliamentary Council , there is _she does not stop and stubbornly sticks to her plan . Selbert experiences a grandiose triumph when her application is included in the new Basic Law under Article 3, Paragraph 2 . In doing so , she lays the foundation for what has now been a 65-year political and social debate on the subjectEqual rights.

El Grito Sagrado (The Silent Call) is a fictionalized retelling of Argentina's fight for independence from Spain. The story is "personalized" by being related through the eyes of Mariquita Sanchez de Thompson y Mendeville, played by popular Latin American leading lady Fanny Navarro. Rebelling against the cozy traditionalism of her family, Mariquita weds tireless patriot Martin Thompson (Carlos Cores). She remains by her husband's side as he helps to fend off a British invasion and to achieve freedom for the Argentine slave population. Oddly, the principal villains in the film are the British, a reflection perhaps of Argentine dictator Juan Peron's ongoing efforts to curry favor with Spain.

In this evocative, atmospheric biography, Roberto Rossellini brings to life philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal, who, amid religious persecution and ignorance, believed in a harmony between God and science.

The Battle of New Orleans: A Meaningful Victory explores how the British misjudged their opponent and miscalculated the complexities of the battle ground. It also describes why the multi-cultural population of New Orleans proved the naysayers wrong about their loyalties to a young nation. WYES Community Projects Producer Marcia Kavanaugh and Tom Gregory hosted and produced this documentary.

Depicts assorted natural and human disasters, including the crash of the Hindenburg (1937), earthquakes in Alaska (1964) and Long Beach (1933), the LeMans auto racing crash at which 82 people were killed (1955), Hurrican Camille (1964), the eruption of the Mt. Etna volcano (1971), a tornado (1974), the collapse of Idaho's Teton Dam (1976), the sinking of the Andrea Doria (1956) and the Texas City explosion which devastated Galveston (1947).

On a hot summer night in 1985 Greenwich Village, a young man, new to the city, leaves a gay bar with a flamboyant performance artist. What starts as a hot date soon uncovers much deeper layers of race, class, history, and disease.

Edina, a young Jewish ballerina must fight for survival as she is snatched from her home and sent to a Nazi concentration camp.

About the initial period of the revolutionary activity of the Russian revolutionary Joseph Dubrovinsky (1877-1913, Innokenty is one of the underground nicknames of the Bolshevik), about the years of active propaganda work, a duel with the "king of the Okhrana" Zubatov, exile and the resumption of work underground.

Moscow, January 1948. In the bitter cold, a large crowd attends the State Funeral of the Yiddish actor and director Solomon Mikhoels. An official proclamation mourns the death of "a great People's Artist of the Soviet Union." What people are really mourning is the death of the most popular Jewish theater in the Soviet Union, and the man who kept it alive against all odds for over 20 years. No doubt many suspected the truth: he had just been assassinated by Stalin's secret police.

For years, archaeologists have been fascinated by the statue with a lion's body and human head. To discover the mysteries of the Sphinx, the team go inside the magnificent monument.

1918. After the death of the mother, the father decides to take the children to Moscow to see a distant relative. On the way, the guys experience a raid by a White Guard gang on a train, the death of their father, and meet the homeless child Yashka, who brings a plan to Lenin - how to destroy all the bourgeoisie and all the counter-propaganda in one day. The boys become involved in revolutionary events, and ahead is Moscow, a chance meeting and conversation with Lenin and Dzerzhinsky, the fight against counter-revolution...

A walk through the life and work of the brilliant French filmmaker Georges Méliès (1861-1938), pioneer of special and visual effects.

Veterans of the Vietnam War tell about their experiences. The disasters but also the glorious moments of war. The central figure in the documentary is the scenario writer of Full Metal Jacket, Michael Herr. The veterans describe how it felt to kill for the first time and how those feelings still haunt them.

With exclusive access to never-seen-before classified government files and explosive video and audio recordings, this is the scandalous story of how thousands of alleged Nazi war criminals hid in Australia after WWII and managed to evade justice – despite a government-sanctioned Special Investigations Unit desperate to prosecute them.

Amidst a mostly Catholic community, a small tiny Anglican church offers more to the community of Placentia than people may think, and holds many connections and history to the rest of the world.

The extraordinary, complex, nuanced, restless, and rebellious personality of Walter Bonatti is recounted in a docufiction that traces the life of the greatest mountaineer of all time, without neglecting his overwhelming love story with movie star Rossana Podestà.

Sentenced to life imprisonment for illegal activities, Italian International member Giulio Manieri holds on to his political ideals while struggling against madness in the loneliness of his prison cell.

The Australian Chamber Orchestra has always forged its own path. With Artistic Director and violinist Richard Tognetti at the helm, the ACO has been producing films for over a decade, from their award-winning collaborations with BAFTA-nominated director Jennifer Peedom (‘Mountain’, ‘River’) to their acclaimed series of cinematic music films, ‘ACO StudioCasts’. Directed by Matisse Ruby, ‘The Four Seasons’ film release is the latest from this ground-breaking, world-renowned ensemble. Arguably the most popular and recognisable piece of classical music ever written, this performance directed by Richard Tognetti, highlights the profound symbiosis between Vivaldi’s Venice and the Middle East. Interspersing Vivaldi’s masterpiece with music by Australian-Egyptian composer and Oud virtuoso Joseph Tawardros, the film honours Vivaldi’s classic while giving it new life. A must-see for music lovers and cinephiles alike.

Hygienic habits are as old as the various human civilizations; but each era establishes its own customs: whether private or public, everywhere and at all times, methods of personal cleanliness have depended on cultural conventions, religious morals, political ideologies and economic interests; because the control of basic hygiene has also been and is one more tool in the infinite exercise of power over the masses.

Zurich in 1519: The young widow Anna Reinhart lives a barren life between fear of the church and worries about the future of her three children, when the arrival of a man in the city causes turmoil: The young priest Ulrich Zwingli takes up his new position at the Grossmünster in Zurich and sparks fierce discussions with his sermons against the grievances of the Catholic Church. Zwingli's revolutionary thoughts frighten Anna. But when she sees how Zwingli lives charity and not just preaches, she increasingly becomes fascinated by him. But Zwingli's success quickly becomes dangerous. His ideas almost trigger a civil war, and at the same time a struggle for power and interpretive sovereignty breaks out in the inner circle of the movement. When the Catholic forces begin to form internationally, the relationship between Zwingli and Anna is put to a hard test.

A documentary that tells the tale that the victors still do not want you to know. Learn the terrible truth about the rape, torture, slavery, and mass murder inflicted upon the German people by the Allied victors of World Word II.

A forgotten history of Northern Ireland is unveiled through a journey into Ulster Television’s archives, and the rediscovery of the first locally-produced network drama, Boatman Do Not Tarry.