Michael Grade reveals the story of General Tom Thumb, the world's first global show business celebrity who went from humble beginnings in America to international superstardom.
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Michael Grade reveals the story of General Tom Thumb, the world's first global show business celebrity who went from humble beginnings in America to international superstardom.
The tomato was discovered by Europeans at the same time as the New World. The Aztecs bequeathed this plant, which now covers a third of the planet's arable land...
1943. In a small village, Amerigo, due to his crippled leg, is the only man who hasn’t gone to war. He lives with his wife, Ida, and their daughter, Annetta, who is very sick and in urgent need of a medic.
Les Huguenots is a monumental fresco featuring various impossible loves in the context of the Saint Bartholomew Massacre. Andreas Kriegenburg places these timeless conflicts of love and religion in an immaculate setting in which the costumes appear yet more flamboyant and the victims’ blood more violently red.
Drama-documentary about Winston Churchill's extraordinary experiences during the Great War, with intimate letters to his wife Clementine allowing the story to be told largely in his own words. Just 39 and at the peak of his powers running the Royal Navy, Churchill in 1914 dreamt of Napoleonic glory, but suffered a catastrophic fall into disgrace and humiliation over the Dardanelles disaster. The film follows his road to redemption, beginning in the trenches of Flanders in 1916, revealing how he became the 'godfather' of the tank and his forgotten contribution to final victory in 1918 as Minister of Munitions. Dark political intrigue, a passionate love story and remarkable military adventures on land, sea and air combine to show how the Churchill of 1940 was shaped and forged by his experience of the First World War.
A deep delve into the assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moise. Described as a thriller 'in the tradition of Graham Greene or John Le Carré', the film will offer access to those involved in the murder of Moise, who was shot inside his home in July 2021. It will also feature secret footage from Haiti’s prisons and an encounter with a fugitive who witnessed the killing.
They were heroes of a special kind. They came from the steppes, the sons of farmers, of factory floor women. Salt-of-the-earth, strapping young men, model husbands, who believed in communism with all their hearts. Bright futures lay ahead of them. In the name of the Inter-cosmos Program they were about to conquer space. The second they touched down, they were treated like pop stars and worshiped as heroes. And today? What do the heroes of socialism do without socialism?
The boys of 'La Banda' who are a sensation among children get involved in an adventure to avoid the children's happines to be taken away.
An account of the many assassination attempts suffered by dictator Francisco Franco (1892-1975), perpetrated between 1936 and 1964, taking as a starting point the short story entitled 'La verdadera muerte de Francisco Franco', an ucronic fantasy published in 1960 by the Spanish writer Max Aub (1903-71), who fled Spain after the Civil War (1936-39) and established in Mexico in 1942.
In 1942, more than 8,000 Jews were arrested on 16 and 17 July and sent to the Vélodrome d'Hiver sports center in the 15th district, a stone's throw from the Eiffel Tower, before being deported. The expression "Vel d'Hiv round-up" has become part of our collective memory, to the point of becoming the main memorial reference point for France during the dark years. Based on research carried out in unpublished or rarely explored archives, this film retraces the history of this roundup as experienced by hunted Jews and police trackers, from its planning in the Vichy offices to its hour-by-hour unfolding in the streets of Paris.
Two lifelong friends from a small town graduated high school and are about to start a new chapter in their lives. Lucy will leave the town to attend her dream university. Stella will stay in the town to work on her father's farm. In their last night together they have to come to terms with their separation.
Last years in the Life of german Dramatican Georg Büchner. Around the year 1830 he and his fellow students try to initiate a revolution in Germany, but they are not successful. Büchner has to leave the country and seeks exile in France and Switzerland, where he falls ill with typhus.
Piecing together the powerful testimonies of Bedouin women fighting to preserve their culture and history, we move between fragmented representations of their homes as the protagonists narrate their stories giving voice and texture to absence, taking up space, refusing to be erased.
Shot by Methodist missionaries, this is an incredibly charming record of small-town life in an unidentified location in China. We see a bustling wharf town with canal-side dwellings, distinctive school buildings, and a hospital where newly graduated nurses pose for a group portrait. The relaxed smiles of Chinese and Europeans are captured in intimate close-ups, suggesting a tight-knit community.
19th century Sardou period melodrama turned into a vehicle for diva star Lyda Borelli: an aristocratic French lady leaves her unfaithful husband and becomes involved with a member of Robespierre's revolutionary regime.
The village of Odenton is cursed. Every month, for three nights as long as days, the sky turns purple, and the moon red. Doors lock, curtains close, and Odenton falls silent...as beasts arrive to hunt. Not a soul is heard...except for a Doctor determined to cure the curse, and end the BLOODHAVEN.
Directed by Albert Capellani.
Karl and Tristan grow up during the Nazi dictatorship. Tristan succumbs to the ideology of hatred, while Karl desperately tries to protect his family—especially his sister Erika, who has Down syndrome.
Dr Fern Riddell is a young historian and author who goes back to the archives to challenge more traditional historical views of Victorian society. Her investigation into a sensational Victorian high court trial, which took place in 1877, sheds new light on the ‘no sex please, we are British’ cliché often associated with Victorian England.
What happens when the Cold War impacts the automobile industry in Eastern Europe? Carmakers of the region were as creative & competitive as those in the West. They made an incredible number of vehicles, stories of which are still unknown. But they were also subject to other constraints, mixing politics, planned economy and sometimes concern for prestige... This documentary will take us through amazing stories, from the end of the Second World War to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The final decades of the Roman Republic: For nearly a hundred years, the rival aristocratic cliques that dominated politics had been fighting each other for power. The newcomer Octavian, underestimated by many, fought ruthlessly and cruelly for sole rule. He was the nephew of Julius Caesar, who allied himself with Mark Antony after his assassination. Soon, these two, too, were fighting each other. Historians have called Octavian a "butcher." Yet, with the honorary name Augustus, "the Exalted," he went down in history as a peacetime emperor.
On August 23, 1973 a bank robbery at the Kreditbank in Stockholm went badly wrong. It turned into a hostage situation which lasted six days, and gave its name to a phenomenon. Stockholm Syndrome is a way of describing the emotional bonds which some people can form with a captor or abuser. And it all started in that bank in Stockholm. During the siege, despite being held against their will in a dangerous situation, the four hostages bonded with the bank robbers and turned against the police. They continued to defend their captors after their release and refused to testify against them. In fact, they even raised money for the bank robbers’ defence. This survival mechanism came to be known as “Stockholm Syndrome.” In this film, nearly fifty years after the events, we hear directly from the hostages, bank robbers and police and find out what happened during those six eventful days.
Documentary about the repression and persecution suffered by gays and lesbians during Franco's Spain and in the first years of the Transition. Through its own testimonies, the documentary relives the suffering they had to endure and reveals a hidden chapter in the recent history of Spain.
A sickly scrawny man in a striped uniform takes a shaving brush and foam, and with a sharp blade, he shaves the back of the head of Rudolf Höss, the commandant of the Auschwitz camp himself. They will never speak with one another, and Joseph (we only learn his name during the credits) will never harm Höss, will not stop the flood of horrible murders with yet another murder. This short sketch about life of a death camp makes us feel pain and grief of millions of people who had passed beyond the walls of the shaving room during the imprisonment of Joseph, the man who outlived his torturer.
Sartre and Camus, the two most world-famous, 20th century, French writers, form a legendary and inseparable couple. The two extraordinary thinkers propelled the figure of the politically engaged writer into the limelight.
The passion to tinker with historical military technology in your own garage is not only great in the USA. Meanwhile, the trend has also arrived in Germany. The technical performance behind the historical relics fascinates the insiders of the scene. From the Military Technology Festival Finowfurt to the practice lesson in the Panzerfahrschule: The N24 reportage gives insights into the world of military technology fans, into their hobbyists’ rooms and their collector’s showcases. (Text: WORLD)
In ancient times Rome looked upon Carthage as her greatest rival, and determined to plan her downfall. Cato, a Roman Senator, appealed to the Senate to conquer Carthage, and under a pretext that she had failed to keep faith, the Romans began a new war. The Roman army embarked for Africa and landed near Carthage.
A British submarine on patrol is accidentally rammed by a merchant ship, that tears a big hole in in sub which sinks trapping the crew.
1962, at the end of the Algerian War, Algerian independence activists are released from Rennes prison. For one night, filmmaker Yann Le Masson films them. They tell him their vision for the future of Algeria and the place women must occupy in the new society to be built. Fifty years later, with the soundtrack missing, Raphaël Pillosio sets out to find these women. Two deaf people set about lip-reading the women filmed by Yann Le Masson, revealing snatches of sentences, words cut short by the camera's shifts. An investigative film in which the few activists still alive discover their old testimonies and tell us their silent story. The reconstruction of the lost soundtrack will remain in suspense; no happy ending will come to absorb the absence, to cancel the ferocious operation of time. An essay film about cinema that depicts their disappearance, and forever keeps them alive.
A documentary retracing the years of the WWI. The starting point is a collection of mostly unpublished period stereophotographs.
From Jean Monnet's idea of a transnational European army to the abolition of customs borders, seven years behind the scenes towards the Treaty of Rome. A docu-fiction "embedded" in the great and small histories of Europe.
August 24, 1937: a day in the life of expressionist sculptor and author Ernst Barlach (Fred Düren). Barlach lives in the small town of Güstrow, keeping to himself and wanting to steer clear of politics. On this day he learns that the Nazis have dragged his famous 1927 sculpture The Hovering Angel out of the Güstrow Cathedral. Barlach begins to reflect on his life of “inner emigration” and on his work.
A look at the development of space travel and the potential for humans to one day walk on the surface of Mars. From the desperation of War machines to the curiosity of space exploration. Detailed accounts of previous missions for the exploration of Mars, including the landing of the rovers on the surface of the planet. After the Soviets gained possession of the V2 manufacturing facilities, production of these rockets began in the Soviet Union, and on the 4th of October 1957, SPUTNIK 1 became the first artificial satellite to be launched into space. This was the next step in the evolution of mankind. It was the beginning of the Space Race.
The ambiguities of Verdi’s theatre are particularly clear in his baritone roles, among which is that of Boccanegra, corsair turned doge of Genoa and the troubled observer of the conflicts that tore apart 14th century landowners and peasants. An eminently political opera in which power struggles are interwoven with family conflicts, Simon Boccanegra echoes the life of its composer – the man who championed the cause of Italian unification and overcame the loss of his wife and children.
Documentary in which Andrew Graham-Dixon reveals how the Medici family transformed Florence through sculpture, painting, and architecture and created a world where masterpieces fetch millions today.
Documentary film about the extraordinary life story of the Protestant theologian Martin Niemöller. The film links Niemöller's biography with the development of Germany during the 20th century.
The docufictional narration of the genesis of the Risorgimento epic from the birth of Vittorio Emanuele II until the First War of Independence (1849), of which the Proclama is the epilogue.
The movie "L'instant de la paix" consists of three segments: 1. "Les rideaux blancs" (France) 2. "Berlin N 65" (West Germany) 3. "Matura" (Poland)
In 1728, 12-year-old James Annesley was snatched from the streets of Dublin and sold into slavery in America - the victim of a wicked uncle hell-bent on stealing his massive inheritance. Dan Cruickshank traces James's astonishing journey from the top table of 18th century society to its murky depths. The story, which helped inspire Robert Louis Stevenson's book Kidnapped, reveals some disturbing home truths that cast a shadow over the century of the Enlightenment.