History Collection

“Entre el grito y la celda” is a film adaptation of the theatrical monologue “Lolita", which has been performed locally and internationally for the past 11 years, with over 60 performances in 5 countries, 5 states in North America, and more than 40 municipalities in Puerto Rico. The story is set in late 1954, when political prisoner Lolita Lebrón had already been sentenced to 50 years in prison at the federal prison in Alderson, West Virginia, for leading an attack on the United States Congress. The film explores Lolita's life and patriotic thoughts through poetic language, intertwining her three most significant aspects: her fervent religiosity, her fight for justice from the perspective of a young woman and mother, and her patriotic bravery to risk her freedom for causes and values she firmly believed in. The movie highlights the themes of national identity and the struggles of a resilient woman who became, for many, the Mother of the Puerto Rican Nation.

An epic 3+ hour chronology of scenes from over 200 films and television shows shot in Massachusetts from the silent era to today. Highlighting recognizable locales from Martha’s Vineyard to Harvard Square to Great Barrington, along with bygone landmarks and Boston streets, and featuring James Cagney, Tony Curtis, Elizabeth Taylor, Luciano Pavarotti, Harrison Ford, and all the Afflecks and Wahlbergs you can handle.

The life of Ukrainian-Soviet avant-garde composer Alexander Mosolov inspires three stories about creation and individualism in the face of state power, set against the Great Purge of the 1930s and the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Sons, daughters and grandchildren of the greatest generation travel to England to uncover the history of a disappearing World War II air base.

Isaac Julien's visionary film Lessons of the Hour explores the incomparable achievements of Frederick Douglass, America’s foremost abolitionist figure. After escaping slavery in Maryland, Douglass gained prominence on the abolitionist circuit as an extraordinary orator, becoming the most photographed American of the 19th century. Julien’s project is informed by some of Douglass’s most important speeches, such as Lessons of the Hour, What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?, and Lecture on Pictures, the latter being a text that connects picture-making and photography to his vision of how technology influences human relations. Julien's work gives expression to the zeitgeist of Douglass’s era, his legacy, and the ways in which his story may be viewed through a contemporary lens. The presentation also includes photographs and tintypes produced in conjunction with the film.

March 1943. In the middle of the Italian occupation of Corsica, two Communist resistance brothers strategically link up with two Italian trouffions in order to get the information necessary to organize the parachute drops on the Balagne. A real friendship is born between these men, the first steps of the reversal of the situation and of the alliance that followed the Allied landing in Ajaccio in September of the same year.

Father of English literature, the poet Geoffrey Chaucer, involved in storytelling a rainy night at an inn.

Based on the 1925 novel The Sailor's Return by David Garnett. A sailor returns to his hometown to open a pub bringing with him his new black wife. Very quickly they find themselves ostracised by the community.

The deportation of 4000 Jews from Budapest to Auschwitz in July 1944, as told by George Tabori, and how the narrator’s mother escaped it, owing to coincidence, courage and some help from where you’d least expect it.

In the final weeks of WW2, as the Nazis are on the verge of surrender, a young British stenographer is faced with a difficult decision when his commanding officer orders him to write a letter authorizing an airstrike that could result in thousands of civilian deaths.

The noble patrician Gaius Marcius became famous for his military exploits and victories over the enemies of the Romans, the Volscians. However, his hatred of the plebeians and thirst for power led to Coriolanus being condemned to eternal exile from Rome. Then he decided to betray his homeland and take command of the Volscian army.

By mid-1945, Hitler is dead and the war has ended in Europe. Halfway around the world, however, the fighting is still going strong on a small island in the Pacific. Okinawa was the site of the last battle of the last great war of the 20th century, with a casualty rate in the tens of thousands. Through it all, military cameramen risked their lives to film the conflict, from brutal land combat to fierce kamikaze attacks at sea. See the footage they captured and experience this intense battle the way the soldiers saw it -- in color.

Documentary about the psychotherapist Irvin D. Yalom.

From the director of Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, this is the Passion embedded in a contemporary story. An anarchist jailed for an attempted assassination is told the Passion story by the prison chaplain.

The Reality of Time takes viewers on an immersive journey through the mysteries of time, from the Big Bang to modern physics, ancient philosophy, and myth. Using groundbreaking generative AI to re-create scientific phenomena, historical epochs, and mythological concepts, the film brings to life complex ideas that bridge science and storytelling. It is the world's first feature length cinematic movie created with Generative AI.

Back in 1950s, as the communist regime escalates, a group of Czech young people starts a resistance movement in an underground jazz club.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta, one of the few canonized saints of our day, is discovered through the eyes of Kavita, a young Englishwoman abandoned by her boyfriend after she’s found to be pregnant. Kavita journeys to Calcutta to escape her pain and soon discovers that even holy people like Mother Teresa have to face life’s challenges and, in fact, struggle through years of spiritual crisis known as the “dark night of the soul”. Inspired by Teresa’s example of perseverance and compassionate love, Kavita rediscovers hope and purpose.

The Serbian state is a friend of the Ottoman Empire, but the Byzantine Empire wants to destroy this friendship. To this end, the Byzantine knight Nicholas will marry the daughter of the Serbian king and has also kidnapped the Ottoman artillery commander. Malkoçoğlu takes action to rescue the artillery commander and prevent the marriage.

When King Cheol-jang dies, the throne passes to his son King Ko-jang but, because he is considered to be too inexperienced, his ambitious uncle rules as regent. The rightful king's wife, the politically brilliant Queen Min, refuses to accept this situation and brings about the uncle's exile in order to secure the throne.

Mukash is chased by officials, learns of the devastation of war from a blind woman and helps her daughter to freedom beyond the river crossing, he, having to choose a tragic solution.

One of the greatest storytellers of our time, and arguably the greatest mythologist, Joseph Campbell spent most of his long, rich career explaining how ancient myths like the Hero’s Journey are relevant to modern life. In understanding the importance of myth as a vital, vibrant source of "mankind’s one great story," Campbell inspired others to embark on a quest for the meaning of myth in their own lives. This biographical portrait, filmed shortly before his death in 1987, follows Campbell’s personal quest—a pathless journey of questioning, discovery, and ultimately of delight and joy in a life to which he said, "Yes."

In the chaotic, highly emotional period after the First World War in 1918, the foreign ministers Gustav Stresemann (1878-1929) and Aristide Briand (1862-1932) put all their energies into trying to lead their countries, Germany and France, which were at enmity with each other, into a peaceful future and a united Europe. After their deaths, Europe has to go through a second hell before the plan of these two visionaries succeeds. The cinematic mix of archive footage and re-enactments shows two statesmen, full of facts and emotion, who give each other nothing in difficult negotiations, but at the same time hold on to their shared vision. Even if these two human lives were not enough to reap the fruits of their labor, they sowed the seeds for the next generation. In 1926, Aristide Briand and Gustav Stresemann were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. It is a sign that the peoples of the world believe in a Europe at peace.

After the cession of Taiwan to Japan in 1895 by the Manchu government, people on the island staged a series of anti-Japanese revolts to oppose the tyrannical rule of the Japanese militarists.

The film based on the novel of the same name by Alexandre Dumas, is concerned with fraternal royal strife at the court of Henri III. Tragically caught between the millstones of history are the gallant Count de Bussy and the woman he adores, la Dame de Monsoreau.

The film is based on K. Kuliev's novel "Magtymguly". A story about a Turkmen spiritual leader, philosophical poet, Sufi and traveller who wrote under the pen name Pyragy (Feraghi) and is considered to be the most famous figure in Turkmen literary history. After graduating from the Khiva Madrasa, the poet Pyragy (Feraghi) Magtymguly returns to his native Turkmen aul. He teaches children, composes poems, loves a beautiful girl and is loved by her. But local bey Cherkez-khan does not like the poet's calls to unite Turkmens, and his soldiers burn the village. Khan appoints the captured Magtymguly his court poet but, having received a refusal, the tyrant orders to kill the poet. But the guard helps the poet to escape. Having returned to the burnt aul, Magtymguly begins to call on Turkmens to unite with Russia, because they could not deal with their troubles alone.

The Polish national chess squad, the 'Golden Team', won the world chess championship in Hamburg in 1930, and was renamed by the German press as the 'Bombenmannschaft' ('Bomber Crew'). The film focuses on team leader, Akiba Rubinstein, alongside his fellow players Dawid Przepiórka, Ksawery Tartakower, Mieczyslaw Najdorf, Paulin Frydman and Kazimierz Makarczyk. They battle to win the trophy as well as dealing with the mental illness of Rubinstein and the outbreak of World War II. The film tracks the fate of the Polish players, some of whom are Jewish, as the Nazis occupy Poland.

The image of Greater Poland in the breakthrough years 1913-1918. It tells about the fate of Polish junior high school students and their attitude towards the Prussian partitioning authorities, activity in the independence underground, and participation in the preparations for the Greater Poland Uprising.

Urbino Martínez, on his deathbed, regrets his wrongdoing after betraying Emiliano Zapata.

Through letters, diaries and personal testimonies, an account of the complexity and variety of experiences of LGBT Italians during the Fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini (1922-43); intimate words that contrast with the lyrics of popular songs and the propaganda of the time, obsessed with extolling the myths of virility, femininity and motherhood and constrained by sexual repression.

In this film essay, critic Peter Buchka explores the German cinema of the 1920s, ranging from the disquieting images of Fritz Lang's Metropolis to the castrating sexuality of Marlene Dietrich in Die Blaue Engel. The program provides an introduction to Weimar cinema, with Buchka's essay narrated over the images from film clips of 1920s era German films.

Musa, who is only a thirteen-year-old shoe shiner, undergoes destiny through his adventure of waging war during the war time. Will he manage to bring peace among the troops who keep on fighting for nothing?

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.

1227, the last night of dying Genghis Khan. With promises and threats tyrant tries to persuade captive Otrar physician Akerke, the widow of the scientist, who was killed by Mongol soldiers, to save his life. But patriotic woman does not want to deliver the oppressor of his people and severely exposes his bloody tyranny of power.

Esther Robinson's portrait of her uncle Danny Williams, Warhol's onetime lover, collaborator and filmmaker in his own right, offers a exploration of the Factory era, an homage to Williams's talent, a journey of family discovery and a compelling inquiry into Williams's mysterious disappearance at age 27.

George Stoney investigates the living conditions, both good and bad, in the rural, segregated South.

This silent-screen classic, like many others produced near the end of the silent era, was both a theatrical extravaganza boasting an original orchestral score and an item which languished in obscurity for many years. When Carlo Piccardi took what was left of the score by Maurice Jaubert and re-created it, the existing footage was restored and paired with a new orchestral performance which was shown in Paris in 1988. The film's story concerns the travails of a woman who has been living quite comfortably as the mistress of a colonel in the Tsar's army in Russia. However, she eventually encounters a penniless young lieutenant and falls madly in love with him, as he does with her. Despite her best intentions of remaining with the colonel, and his intention to avoid trouble with his fellow soldiers, they cannot forswear this relationship, and tragedy is the inevitable result. The title refers to a moving incident in the story, and translates as "the wonderful lie of Nina Petrovna."

As Cathy Linton nears death, she finds herself in a loop of memories while coming to terms with the truth of the world she’s lived and loved in.

An early film version of the Charles Dickens classic about the French Revolution and its subsequent Reign of Terror.

The images comprise only of material Sergei Loznitsa found in the Moscow film archives about the siege of Leningrad during the World War II. By providing the originally silent images with a meticulously reconstructed soundtrack, the scenes from everyday life under siege seem to be set in the present. By not intervening in the montage but giving the scenes room to tell a story, the scenes transcend the specific historic events and lead a new life. They do not evoke memories of the past, but become a breathtaking reanimation of reality.

The highest spiritual symbol of the Capa Ninja Clan, the Buddha statue, resurfaces after being stolen from them years ago. Three groups set out to get the statue...let the battles begin!

The actions of the Russian and British embassies and the security forces of the central forces have made the people miserable. Mahmoud Khan, who is the secretary of the British Embassy, resigns from his job in the British Embassy and joins the people and incites them against the British and the Central Powers ...

In the mountains of Madrid, Spain, a railway track on an abandoned bridge and a poem erased from the wall of a ruined building reveal a deliberately silenced story: the system established by Franco's dictatorship after the civil war (1936-39) that allowed hundreds of companies to use thousands of convicted Republicans as slave labor.

On October 4, 2018, France celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Fifth Republic. It is a republic born in the throes of the Algerian War and one which—from the day it was founded by General de Gaulle until the presidency of a very Jupiterian Emmanuel Macron—has been assailed as a “Republican monarchy” by partisans of a more assertive parliamentarian state. By revisiting the struggle of those who dared oppose the new regime — only to suffer a crushing defeat on September 28, 1958, when they were barely able to garner 20% of the vote against the constitutional text — this film shines a powerful new light on the origins of the Fifth Republic and its consequences for the next 60 years. It is a constitutional debate that planted the seeds for a complete upheaval of the French political landscape, on the left in particular, and set the country in motion toward what would be called the Union of the Left.

The Story of a Japanese-Canadian woman who finds friendship after her family is interned to a small town during World War II.

The legend of the Suram Fortress.

This exceptional documentary gives a voice to those who knew Jean Moulin, his friends and comrades-in-arms and fellow resistance fighters. The valuable testimonies of Lucie and Raymond Aubrac, Claude Bourdet, Jean-Pierre Lévy, and Daniel Cordier, among others, bring to life this young prefect steeped in republican values, recounting his difficult but decisive task of unifying the resistance movements, his actions and role within Free France, until his arrest on June 21, 1943.

Takarazuka Moon Troupe 2013 version of The Rose of Versailles: Oscar and Andre

Georgian village during the revolution of 1905. The struggle of the peasantry against the landlords. Tariel Golua's son, Levan, leads the rebellion. Tariel himself is in favor of a peaceful solution to the conflict, but when his son is brutally killed, and the houses of the rebels and their supporters are set on fire, Tariel is convinced that it is impossible to gain freedom without an armed struggle.

A young Bulgarian girl digs into her grandfather's turbulent life in an attempt to unravel the past and find answers and explanations for the catastrophic fall of communism.

1969. Nine-year old Caro lives on a pig farm in a small town with her four other siblings and another on the way. She is curious and determined to understand the mysteries of the world around her. But her devout catholic father can't explain the new world and her mother is too busy for philosophy so she converses to God. One day at school she is horrified to learn that man will soon set foot on the moon. In her eyes it's not possible that God would allow anyone to get so close to Heaven. Her clowning father agrees and, unable to cope with modern-day progress, hits the bottle. Caro is preparing for her first holy communion to become 'a bride of God' but before that she seals a pact with her father to overcome her fear of swimming in exchange, he will not touch a drop of alcohol.

In the Hussite times, religious truth was sifted even on the tips of weapons. When in 1430 the Hussites set out on a raid to Nuremberg, the so-called Spanila Cavalry, to defend their doctrine, the young commander of the cavalry, the landowner Keřský, whose bride had once been kidnapped by a vicious crusader, saw it as an opportunity for personal revenge. Although Oldřich Daněk has tried to establish a distinctive interpretation of historical events, he reflects on where the blinded desire to punish a bad deed with further cruelty leads, but his version seems too thesis-like and lifeless, it does not rise above the descriptively illustrated scenes from old Czech chronicles...

An in-depth look at the work and views of the man described as 'one of the greatest minds in human history'. He first emerged through his pioneering work in linguistics in the 1950s but later became a political activist and a critic of US foreign policy in Vietnam, its neo-liberal capitalism, and mainstream media. Consisting primarily of interviews with Chomsky and other writers, academics, philosophers, social commentators and broadcasters, this film explores the breadth, originality and importance of his work; and the alternative narratives he has advanced at some of the most critical periods in recent history.

A chronicle of the life of Bertrand du Guesclin, grand officer of the French army in the 14th century.

A portrait of the actress and singer Pepa Flores, an incarnation of the recent history of Spain, who, in just twenty-five years of intense career, went from being Marisol, child prodigy of the Franco dictatorship, to being one of the first communist militants, icon of the Transition; an idol of the masses who became a discreet person after having claimed her right to remain silent.

Nova and National Geographic present exclusive access to an astounding discovery of ancient fossil human ancestors.

1972 was the year a great affair ended, as the human race fell out of love with the moon. Just three years after the world was gripped by Neil Armstrong's giant leap for mankind, the last man left the moon and we have never been back. This film tells the epic story of our love affair with the moon - what inspired it, how it faded away and how we are now falling in love all over again.

The life of irreverent poet Gregório de Mattos, who lived in Bahia, Brazil, in the 17th century. Nicknamed Mouth of Hell, he used his transgressive poetry against the élite of the time.