Discover Movies

Bob Ballard reveals the inside stories behind his most exciting discoveries, while sharing the personal triumphs, challenges and tragedies that led him to them.

In Kings of War, director Ivo van Hove focuses on political leadership. The original texts were retranslated by Rob Klinkenberg and then thoroughly adapted: the Hundred Years' War between England and France, and the Rose Wars between the houses of Lancaster and York for the English throne, which are emphatically present as a historical context in the original pieces, were referred to the background in the adaptation in order to accommodate a varied portrait of successive kings. As leaders in times of political instability and war, they show remarkable affinities with world leaders today.

A cinematic, character-driven insight to what it meant to produce and to own a car in communist times: the Socialist propaganda dreams and the hard reality of living that dream. The freedom that these slow and clumsy vehicles were giving to their owners; the cars as an instrument in the Cold War battle; legends and homemade tune-ups as an attempt to stand at least a little bit off the crowd.

The War of the Roses (1455-1485), a turning point in the history of England, where the Lancasters and the House of York divided the domestic princes and knights between them in a power struggle. Henry Tudor (later Henry VII), a Lancaster through his mother's line, finally wins. This begins the Tudor dynasty and lays the foundation for modern England. Henry VII, who lived between the times of Richard III and Henry VIII, has been regarded as a mysterious person. As a member of the Lancaster family (the red roses), he was drawn into conflict with Edward IV and Richard III of the York family (the white roses). This work depicts a man thinking of his mother and the expectations of his friends throughout his life, as he aimed for peace in England and the throne.

Who, apart from moviegoers, knows Alice Guy (1873-1968) today? However, she was the first woman behind the camera and the first female director and producer of fiction films in history.

The Soviet occupation of Bulgaria (1944-1947) causing the greatest political, financial and moral turning point in the new Bulgarian history.

The film narrates, from an intimate point of view, the daily life of President Dilma Rousseff in her official residence, the Palácio do Alvorada, while awaiting the verdict of the impeachment process. Portraying the hallways of the palace, designed by Oscar Niemeyer, we see the coming and going of political meetings, the daily routine of the kitchen, the exchange of guards, whispers and phone calls. We feel the growing tension of officials, advisers and former ministers.

In May 1943, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the new head of the Reich Central Security Office, gave Hitler a report describing in detail the organization of the French Resistance. Indeed, during the Second World War, most of the Resistance networks had been infiltrated by traitors, the "V Man" (trusted men) in the service of the occupier. The Germans had established treason as a system and recruiting Frenchmen ready to inform on them was one of their priorities. It was these Frenchmen, whose number is estimated at between 20,000 and 30,000, who dealt terrible blows to the Resistance.

LETTERS, a dramatic historical fiction written by Mrs. Evelyn Merritt in 2010, tells the story of U.S. soldiers and their loved ones through their correspondence beginning with the Civil War and ending with the War in Iraq. Sahuarita High School students adapted the Readers’ Theatre play into a movie, reasoning the student actors would be kept safe from Covid-19 by filming them individually, and afterward the footage could be reassembled into a screenplay following the original dialogue.

May 10th, 1981. François Mitterrand is elected President of the Republic. The “soviet tanks” supposedly coming upon the Champs-Élysées dressed in red, feared by some, did not march. Serge Moati takes a personal look at this episode, focusing on the relationship the president had with television, that he witnessed and played a role in.

100th Anniversary overview of the Labin Republic - the world's first anti-fascist uprising.

In 139 BС Zhang Qian, official ambassador of Han Empire, led a diplomatic mission of more than 100 people to the Western Regions. One day Zhang and his guide Tang Yi were surveying a map as usual, but unexpectedly intercepted by the Huns on the way. The Huns captured prisoners for ten years, but it was only beginning of legendary Han expedition.

The small swiss village of Mitholz got destroyed in 1947 after an Ammunition depots of the Swiss Army exploded. After decades of secrecy, the population learned in 2018 that the danger had not been averted yet and that the residents need to leave their homes. A story about the abuse of trust and the mistakes of a government whose citizens pay the price for.

A Polish historical film, based on Marek Nowakowski's book "Report on Martial Law. Notes from Everyday Life." An interesting procedure of the production is the combination of a classic feature film with animation stylized as a comic book.

Fred Pellerin and Kent Nagano revive the great tradition of the OSM and offer a new symphonic Christmas tale! They take you to Saint-Élie-de-Caxton, where the first post office in history was run by Madame Alice Lavergne. For a long time the only reliable channel through which we could send and receive, this trunk service constituted the privileged link to maintain between us everywhere. Letters, cards, invoices, packages, forms, catalogs: everything went there.

As the Communist Party of China celebrates its 100th anniversary, this documentary looks back at the party’s history, from the 1920’s, to the Civil War, the Great Leap Forward, the Great Famine, the Cultural Revolution and the reforms by Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. Did the Great Famine cost more than 15 million lives? How does the Cultural Revolution continue to shape Chinese politics today? What was capitalism like after Mao’s death? Through rare and never-before-seen historical footage, expert interviews and eyewitness accounts of the Great Famine, Tiananmen incident, and the Cultural Revolution, get to know how one party has so profoundly shaped China.

On September 13, 1971 the State of New York shot and killed 39 of its own citizens, injured hundreds more, and tortured the survivors. Elizabeth Fink tells the story of the Attica prison rebellion, and how she exposed the cover up.

Artist Enid Baxter Ryce created an experimental documentary with a musical score by Philip Glass to portray, in moving images, the history of "atmospheric rivers," or streams of water vapor in the sky. Just like rivers that move water around on the land, atmospheric rivers—never visible to the naked eye—were a vital force in shaping the colonization of the American West. Today, the evolving scientific and cultural understandings of atmospheric rivers exemplify the complexity and importance of the stories we tell ourselves about science, climate, and the natural world. This film was created at the Days and Nights Festival held at the Philip Glass Center for the Arts, Science, and the Environment.

40 years of Neues Theater Halle means 40 years of theater history and stories that have been lived and experienced. It began with the initiative of actor and director Peter Sodann, who, with the participation of his acting ensemble, built a theater in the center of Halle (Saale) that is unique in Germany. It continued through the peaceful revolution and the growth in audience numbers in the period after 1989/90, and ended with the end of his tenure as founding artistic director.

First feature-length documentary about the Archangel Michael in the annals of cinema, with large ensemble cast and multiple story lines in five languages. Filmed on location in eight countries.

Almost 1 million people in 22 countries carried out the unprovoked murder of 11 million innocent men, women and children. The Allies knew where a great many of the murderers could be found - Germany, Austria, Italy, the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia, and numerous countries in South America. The Allies unanimously agreed to prosecute those responsible when they drew up The London Agreement in August 1945, but, after the late 1940s, these very same Allies did almost nothing. Why were so many were actively permitted to get away with their crimes?

The TV film is about Hobu Chandra, the king of Bombagarh and his wife Kusumkoli. Everyone in Bombagarh was happy. Then arrives Gurjar Gobu and things take a turn when he becomes the new minister.

Three soldiers moving through the Cuban jungle: combat exercises and camouflage techniques are practised, but the battle never arrives. The nature of their mission becomes an ever-greater mystery, echoing unanswered in the impassive natural surroundings.

Ludwig van Beethoven, absorbed in his world, composes in the forest under the snowstorm. In the solitude of this place, his temple, he feels happy, full, fertile. Johanna, his sister-in-law, widow of his brother Caspar, approaches him by surprise and chases him through the trees, trying to reach an agreement with him about the guardianship of his son Karl. In his will, Caspar left his brother Ludwig as the sole guardian of his son Karl. But Ludwig was away for a few hours on Caspar's last night and when he returned in the morning the will had changed... Between them there is more than a hard fight for the child. They are two untamed, wild, asocial beings, fighting for their freedom.

A retrospective on the career of Doc Emrick featuring interviews of those who worked with him.

This play unpacks many events chronicling the Victory at Mactan in 1521.

A documentary, filmed entirely in the Basque Country, about Basque mythology and the ancestral beliefs of its people. Created by writer Toti Martínez de Lezea and anthropologist Anuntxi Arana, Amari immerses us in a world of legends full of supernatural beings that formed and continue to form part of the Basque people's imagination.

From a long lost US base beneath the Arctic ice cap, to a sunken Soviet submarine, the Cold War's toxic legacy is both fascinating and terrifying.

A true icon of British history, Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) laid the foundations of modern nursing. A beautiful tribute to a pioneer whose integrity, selflessness and zeal are to be admired.

Old photographic plates were found from Louejärvi village in Rovaniemi. Young photographer Hilja Paloniemi was given the job to help to clean the photographic plates. It was found out that the old photos were taken by Matti Körkkö in the early 1900s, including pictures of legendary Nätti-Jussi.

The Trojan War: a universal myth, celebrated by the oldest known poet: Homer. A ten-year war, with its legendary heroes: Helen, Agamemnon, Priam, Hector, Odysseus, and Achilles... What if this war had really taken place? For centuries, the Trojan War was considered a myth, a story of the siege and eventual destruction of the ancient city of Troy. However, archaeological excavations conducted in Turkey in the second half of the 19th century yielded surprising discoveries. Heinrich Schliemann discovered the so-called Priam's Treasure, which indicated the existence of an advanced civilization during the period described by Homer.

History is full of messy figures and rarely is one so controversial as Tipu Sultan, the Tiger of Mysore. Even the question of whether his birthday should be officially celebrated in India caused protests in 2015. So what makes him so controversial? Tipu Sultan was one of the few rulers able to go toe to toe with the East India Trading Company. He fought against British control, and his artillery was so advanced, the British even stole remains off the battlefield to study for their own use. He brought his region of Mysore into an era of prosperity. But outside of Mysore, people knew him as a tyrant. Those religious beliefs not compatible with his own were persecuted, including members of his own religion. A tiger or a tyrant, which one is the true Tipu Sultan?

Through daily routines in a rural village, an indigenous elder couple recall their strange marriage to their grand-daughter, and sometimes to each other, in the changing rhythm of nature around them.

CIA vs. Bin Laden. 20 years after 9/11 and 10 years after his death. The most revealing documentary ever produced about the 10 year hunt for Osama Bin Laden by the Central Intelligence Agency. We interview former Directors, CIA case officers, military leaders, members of European intelligence services, and US Congressman who played direct roles in the hunt and elimination of the world's #1 terrorist. Many of the people most deeply involved with the hunt and killing of Bin Laden have been reluctant to share their stories until now. There was simply no benefit for these quiet professionals, their families, or the agencies they served to be in the public eye. But they have collectively decided that now is the time - to go on record and tell their stories before it's too late. As far as possible, we will permit testimonies of those who dealt directly with the ex-Al Qaeda leader. His family, his lieutenants, his fighters.

The story of the most notorious land pirates who stalked the Southeast during the turn of the 19th century. Samuel Mason, a Revolutionary War hero, turns to a life of crime. Meanwhile, Big Harpe and Little Harpe, America’s first serial killers, wreak havoc through the region. Soon, these three outlaws will meet along the wilderness road.

On operated by Prussian prime minister Otto von Bismarck the German Empire is finally founded in 1871 on the floors of Versailles castle, ancestral seat of the French monarchy.

Sumer. Babylon. The epic Gilgamesh and the Tower of Babel. Today, these names still resonate. They embody Mesopotamia - the land between the two rivers of Tigris and Euphrates. Regarded as a cradle of civilization, within this historical region humanity organized itself into a society of tens of thousands. Jawad Bashara, an Iraqi writer exiled in France under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, returns to his country, embarking on a hazardous journey in search of our origins.

Rome, 1944. An Italian cook meets a young American soldier with a mission: to set up a special meal for the Allied forces stationed in the city.

1943. A young clown falls in love with a Jewish girl and hides her in his circus to help her escape Nazi persecution.

At the height of his fame, the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) decides to leave Paris without warning. The public becomes concerned and the press investigates. A portrait of an extraordinary musician, whose personality is as surprising as his work.

On the night of August 18, 1991, a coup, or putsch, was attempted in Moscow. The coup threatened to return the Baltic States to the occupation of Soviet Union. This documentary tells the story of how the event unfolded in Latvia.

The Man in the Iron Mask was imprisoned for 34 years! Who was 'The Man in the Iron Mask'? It is undoubtedly the oldest French state secret. A secret so well kept that it remains an unsolved enigma of history to this day. 350 years after the events, the Man in the Iron Mask continues to be the subject of the wildest speculations. Who was he? Why would anyone want to hide his identity at all costs? What was his secret? Louvois, minister of Louis XIV, sends him in July 1669 to the Prison of Pignerol, a small French locality in Northern Italy. The masked man joins two infamous courtiers: Nicolas Fouquet and the Comte de Lauzun. But what crime could this subject of Louis XIV have committed to remain alive yet imprisoned until 1703? To this day, our questions outnumber our answers… Twin brother to the Sun King? Cromwell’s son? The queen’s lover? Eustache Danger? No less than 50 suggestions exist concerning the identity of the prisoner hidden behind this notorious mask.

The documentary film about the academic painter Ester M. Šimerová and her husband, the art photographer Martin Martinček, is based on personal correspondence with the painter's mother. Against the backdrop of tragic events, it shows the life of people who found happiness in absolute misfortune. He re-finds, shows places in the mountainous landscape of Liptov and lets the story of people who were almost forgotten come to life.

On the 5th of March 1985, a crowd gathered in a South Yorkshire pit village to watch a sight none of them had seen in a year. The villagers, many of them in tears, cheered and clapped as the men of Grimethorpe Colliery marched back to work accompanied by the village’s world-famous brass band. The miners and their families had endured months of hardship. It had all been for nothing. The miners had lost the strike called on March 6th 1984. They would lose a lot more in the years to come. But was it a good thing for the country that the miners lost their last battle?

A fresh new look at Lolita, the famous and controversial novel published in 1955 by Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov (1891-1977), a masterpiece of English-language literature that has been constantly misinterpreted by countless readers who have mistakenly turned its young heroine into an erotic icon.

A grim world is blessed by pre-modern man's wrath and it's beautiful light succumbs to the dark abyss of the neolithic reign of mother natures new conquerors, the Homo-Sapiens and their predecessors. Detailed thematic depictions of man's effects on earth and their ascent to dominance presented in short stop-motion animated segments fantasizing about the human race's beginnings and eventual domination of our world.

"Viriyaporn Boonprasert" is the name of a filmmaker who has been making social satire films since 2012, and no one knows who she is until now. But Viriyaporn's films reflect the condition of Thai society and Thai politics in the past to the present.

In autumn of 1921, the AVUS, the ‘Automobil-Verkehrs- und Übungsstraße’ (The automobile traffic and training road), was inaugurated in the southwest of Berlin with a car race. The two long straights, each ten kilometres long, were connected by two turns: It was a high-speed track which was meant to expedite the development of the automobile in Germany. The Documentary explores the moving story of the first cars-only road in the world.

East Germany, 1988. 19-year-old Franka doesn't really care for politics. She prefers going to the disco and dreaming about seeing Bruce Springsteen and Michael Jackson live in concert. But beneath her carefree façade, she is scarred by the loss of her baby brother. But then she meets Stefan: He's young, idealistic, and part of an environmental activist group. A mix that makes Franka instantly make fall for him – and his group, which welcomes her with open arms. But this wild, revolutionary influence does not stay unnoticed: Her mother, who's with the Party, is worried about Franka. As Stefan's group loses the support of the church, leaving them vulnerable to the state, Stefan and Franka are soon in the government's line of fire…

Both sought freedom, both got it. Francisco Ramírez and La Delfina star in one of the most exciting Argentine legends in a captivating historical short film.