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The Christmas Truce

World War I began in August 1914, and by December all thoughts of quick victory had faded. Fighting was most fierce in a thin strip of land called the Western Front. A system of trenches separated Allies from Germans, with the area in between known as No Man's Land. On Christmas Eve, an astonishing event began--up and down the Western Front, Allied and German soldiers met peacefully in No Man's Land. Actor Ioan Gruffud narrates a feature-length look at the fabled Christmas truce, filled with eyewitness accounts.

The Christmas Truce

8.0 2002
Little Ice Age: Big Chill

Not so long ago, civilization learned that it was no match for just a few degrees drop in temperature. Scientists call it the Little Ice Age--but its impact was anything but small. From 1300 to 1850, a period of cataclysmic cold caused havoc. It froze Viking colonists in Greenland, accelerated the Black Death in Europe, decimated the Spanish Armada, and helped trigger the French Revolution. The Little Ice Age reshaped the world in ways that now seem the stuff of fantasy--New York Harbor froze and people walked from Manhattan to Staten Island, Eskimos sailed kayaks as far south as Scotland, and two feet of snow fell on New England in June and July during "the Year Without a Summer". Could another catastrophic cold snap strike in the 21st century? Leading climatologists offer the latest theories, and scholars and historians recreate the history that could be a glimpse of things to come. Face the cold, hard truth of the past--an era that may be a window to our future.

Little Ice Age: Big Chill

7.0 2005
Ali Raïs

Ali Raïs is a pirate armed by the Bey of Tunis. In the year 124, his fleet was arrested by the Marquis of Santa Cruz and he found himself a prisoner, with his six hundred men in Palermo. Italian witnesses will recognize him and denounce him to the Inquisition as a renegade, an indictment which is liable to the stake. Ali seeks to influence the course of the trial, he denies ever having been a Christian and proclaims himself a Muslim, the son of a Muslim. A long game of failure takes place between the court and the prisoner, he alternately tries to speed up or slow down the course of the trial depending on the nature of the information and testimony available to the inquisitors. We believe we are witnessing a modern trial where the shots alternate according to the investigations. This story of Ali Raïs was however not invented, the character is real and all the facts are recorded in a handwritten account of the hearings of the court of the inquisition.

Ali Raïs

NR 2007
The Old Quarry and Other Haunted Places of Central New York

The state of New York is rife with ghosts and other spirits, at least according to this video tour of some of the state's most haunted sites. The supernatural tour starts at the abandoned Split Rock Quarry in Syracuse, the site of a terrible explosion at a TNT factory. It moves on to two spooky castles in central New York and culminates at Fort Ontario (on the shores of Lake Ontario), which boasts two centuries' worth of documented ghost stories.

The Old Quarry and Other Haunted Places of Central New York

NR 2006
Concerto

Concerto is about how, in the last part of World War II, a special piano concert is held in the forest outside Davao City, in Mindanao. In these boondocks, a displaced Filipino family, lead by Military Commander Ricardo and his wife Julia, become acquainted with a group of Japanese officers, similarly camped nearby. Their son Joselito, a Japanese speaker, becomes the conduit with the neighboring Japanese. Their daughters Niña, an aspiring concert pianist and the musically gifted, Maria, who is able to play by ear, are alternately repulsed and intrigued by the officers. Family values are questioned as the family treads the thin line between enmity and friendship with the occupying Japanese. Based on true stories from the director's own family history, Concerto celebrates a family whose reverence for life, expressed through their love of music and friendship, can survive even war, and shows how beauty and compassion does grow in even the harshest of conditions. - Written by anonymous

Concerto

NR 2008
The Gunpowder Plot

A BBC Timewatch documentary examining history's first major attempted terrorist attack. His attempt to blow up Parliament has seen Guy Fawkes go down in infamy, but the attempted coup was about much more than just one man. Hatched by a group of 13 conspirators, the 1605 plot came after decades of simmering religious tension in England. Fed by an atmosphere of fear and alienation, a group of disaffected young Catholics decided to assassinate King James I and the entire political establishment. Now with the help of CGI to recreate early 17th-century London, see how much damage would have been caused by the explosion, while dramatic reconstructions uncover the men behind the plan and explore what drove them to radicalism.

The Gunpowder Plot

NR 2005
Crime Wave: 18 Months of Mayhem

This historical documentary chronicles the 18-month period from mid-1933 to late 1934 when John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson, Machine Gun Kelly and others indulged in the most sweeping crime wave the U.S. has ever experienced. It was an era when outlaws became folk heroes because they robbed from the rich, even if they didn't share much with the poor. It was also a time when the newly formed FBI extended its reach as a law enforcement entity.

Crime Wave: 18 Months of Mayhem

NR 2008
Pearl Harbor: A Day of Infamy

On the morning of December 7, 1941, a surprise attack by Japanese naval aviation against the American held island of Oahu and Pearl Harbor thrust the United States into World War II. This story details one of the most momentous events in American history and a crucial turning point in the 20th century. Most importantly, it is a story of the people who were there, told through eyewitness accounts of American and Japanese veterans, some of whose stories have never been told. This is a story of perseverance and heroism in the face of overwhelming odds. This is the story of Pearl Harbor.

Pearl Harbor: A Day of Infamy

7.0 2004
Shutdown: The Rise and Fall of Direct Action to Stop the War

In the winter of 2002-'03, as the US was building its case to attack Iraq, people around the world responded with a series fo the largest peace protests in history. Shutdown: The Rise and Fall of Direct Action to Stop the War, is an action-packed documentary chronicling how DASW successfully organized to shut down a major US city and how they failed to effectively maintain the organization to fight the war machine and end the occupation of Iraq. Created by organizers involved with DASW, Shutdown combines detailed information on organizing for a mass action, critical interviews on organizing pitfalls, and the wisdom of hindsight. It is a must-see film for those engaged in the continuous struggle toward social justice.

Shutdown: The Rise and Fall of Direct Action to Stop the War

NR 2009
History of the German Submarines 1914-1945

In Germany the Kriegsmarine played no role for many centuries. It was not until Kaiser Wilhelm II built a fleet of his own to protect the German colonies and defend against a British naval blockade. Being hopelessly under the British navy, the Imperial Admiralty preferred the use of submarines to achieve the greatest possible military effect with relatively small means. In the Second World War, too, the German submarines played a central role in the naval war until the Allied oversight and new detection systems hunted the hunters. Of the 40,000 U-boat men of the German war marines, 30,000 did not return home. The film tells the exciting story of the German U-boat arm from the early beginnings to the surrender in May 1945. In addition to the 66-minute feature film, the DVD features 117 minutes interviews with important German U-boat commanders: Erich Topp, Otto Kretschmer , Rolf Thomsen, Gerd Kelbling and Reinhard Hardegen.

History of the German Submarines 1914-1945

NR 2005
Block Party

The image shows two faces of the story of hip-hop music, which submerged in the seventies in the New York outskirts of The Bronx. Two vinyl records are turning on a turntable. On the one hand the soundtrack is heard of three decades ago, on the other the voices of musicians today. The turntable is mounted at the foot of a block in the Bronx. It is the end of a Block Party, a ghetto party centring on hip-hop. In the same image those artists are brought together who stood at the cradle of this musical genre.

Block Party

NR 2002
Leif Ericson - Voyages of a Viking

The tale had been kept alive for generations but the intriguing story of Vinland seemed more legendary than true. But a landmark discovery rewrote the history of human exploration and showed he had indeed visited North America. Five hundred years before Christopher Columbus Leif Ericson and the Vikings sailed from Greenland to a new land sighted further west. For centuries their story was shrouded in mystery. But a remarkable discovery by archeologist Anne Ingstad uncovered the site of the legendary Vinland a Viking settlement in Newfoundland. BIOGRAPHY journeys to the Dark Ages to tell the story of one of the greatest explorers of all time and the extraordinary journey that made him a legend. Tour the site where Ericson set foot on the New World and learn what is known of his life from the world's leading scholars. Set sail for history in this unique program which re-creates one of the most important journeys in human history and introduces the legendary explorer at its heart.

Leif Ericson - Voyages of a Viking

8.0 2008