Agustin's Newspaper - Journalism students at the University of Chile embark on an investigation of El Mercurio, the oldest newspaper in Chile.
Alabba - An exploration of the fascinating history of Santeria.
All Restrictions End - Reflections on Islam and clothing, Iranian cinema, Persian painting and more characterize this thought-provoking artistic documentary.
Amateur Photographer - The story of a German soldier and the photographs that he took, while serving on the Eastern Front during WWII.
A concise and fast-paced history of the volatile forces at work in Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua in the 1980s
Angry Monk - Gendun Choephel, a legendary figure in Tibet, turned from the monastic life he was born to (as the reincarnation of a Buddhist lama), to become a fierce critic of his country's religious conservatism and isolationism.
Antonio Negri - The biography and current relevance of the sociologist and political philosopher, co-authoer of EMPIRE, and his role as an intellectual leader of the anti-globalization movement.
The Apology - In this Peabody Award-winning film, former "Comfort Women" forced to serve Japanese troops during WWII tell their harrowing stories.
As a Young Girl of Thirteen - Holocaust survivor Simone Lagrange vividly recounts her experiences in Auschwitz, and the role she played in bringing Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie to justice.
B
The Battle of Chile (Part 1 and Part 2) - The epic chronicle of Chile's open and peaceful socialist revolution, and of the violent counter-revolution against it in 1973. Judy Stone of the San Francisco Chronicle called it "a landmark in the presentation of living history on film."
The Battle of Chile (Part 3) - Deals with the creation by ordinary workers and peasants of thousands of local groups of "popular power."
The Battle of Chile - The epic chronicle of Chile's open and peaceful socialist revolution, and of the violent counter-revolution against it in 1973, now on a special edition 4-DVD set.
Be Seeing You - In Chris Marker's film, workers at a textile factory on strike in pre-May '68 France, not just for more money, but for a different way of life.
Behind the Rainbow - An in-depth exploration into the recent internal conflicts of the ANC in South Africa, leading to Jacob Zuma's election as president.
Berlin 1885: The Division of Africa - The story of the first international conference on Africa, which established its division amongst the European powers, and created Congo as a personal possession of the Belgian king.
Beyond My Grandfather Allende - Director Marcia Tambutti Allende seeks to understand the man behind the legend that was her grandfather, Salvador Allende.
Beyond Zero: 1914-1918 - Auteur filmmaker Bill Morrison brings to life a new cinematic record of World War I.
Black Africa White Marble - A contemporary David-and-Goliath story that sheds a harsh light on the colonial past and troubled present of The Republic of Congo.
Black Sun - A history of the esoteric ideas and myths that served as a breeding ground for Nazi ideology and inspired Adolf Hiter.
Bones of Contention - Explores the theme of historical memory in post-Franco Spain, focusing on the unknown story of LGBT repression under Franquismo.
Boyamba Belgique - The day before Congo gained independence, the sabre of the Belgian king Baudouin was stolen by a young Congolese. Fifty years later the filmmakers search for him, and discover the meaning of his act.
C
The Children of 209 Saint-Maur Street - An emotional historiography on Jewish children whose lives in a normal Parisian apartment building were upended by the Nazi occupation.
Chile, Obstinate Memory - Patricio Guzmán's landmark film The Battle of Chile(1976) documented the "Popular Unity" period of Salvador Allende's government, the tumultuous events leading up to the 1973 coup, and Allende's death. Guzmán has returned to show The Battle of Chile in his homeland for the first time, and to explore the terrain of the confiscated (but reawakening) memories of the Chilean people.
Chronicle Of A Genocide Foretold - Shot over three years, CHRONICLE OF A GENOCIDE FORETOLD follows several Rwandans before, during, and after the 1994 genocide.
Class of Struggle - Workers at the Yema Watch Factory in Besancon depict their own labor struggles in this collective production initiated by Chris Marker.
A Common Purpose - The trial of the "Upington 25" in South Africa in 1986 saw twenty-five men and women from a black township tried for the murder of a local black policeman.
The Cordillera of Dreams - Patricio Guzmán's latest film completes a trilogy on his native Chile, and the lasting impact of Pinochet’s coup d’état.
D
The Democratic Revolutionary Handbook - A how-to manual to the recent democratic (but definitely not spontaneous) revolutions in Georgia, Serbia, and the Ukraine.
Division of Hearts - Ordinary people from Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh recount their tumultuous experiences after the 1947 British subdivision of colonial India.
E
East Punk Memories - Punks who struggled with Hungary's communist regime discuss their experiences, music and mohawks.
The East Wind State Farm - Condemned "Rightists" sentenced "thought reform" share first-person accounts of life in a notorious Chinese labor camp.
The Embassy - In one of Chris Marker's few fiction films, political dissidents seek refuge in a foreign embassy after a military coup d'état in an unidentified country.
End of the Dialogue - A landmark film that was one of the first to reveal the full horrors of apartheid to the world.
The End of the Ottoman Empire - Part 1 - The Ottomans ruled three continents for six centuries. How did their rule end, and how does this history inform politics today?
The End of the Ottoman Empire - Part 2 - The Ottomans ruled three continents for six centuries. How did their rule end, and how does this history inform politics today?
The End of the Ottoman Empire - The Ottomans ruled three continents for six centuries. How did their rule end, and how does this history inform politics today?
Episode 1 - Capitalism is much more complex than the vision Adam Smith laid out in The Wealth of Nations. Indeed, it predates Smith by centuries and took root in the practices of colonialism and the slave trade.
Episode 2 - Adam Smith was both economist and moral philosopher. But his work on morality is largely forgotten, leading to tragic distortions that have shaped our global economic system.
Episode 3 - The roots of today's global trade agreements lie in the work of stockbroker David Ricardo and demographer Thomas Malthus. Together, they would restructure society in the image of the market.
Episode 4 - Have we gotten Marx wrong by focusing on the Communist Manifesto instead of on his critique of how capitalism works - a critique that is relevant and as penetrating as ever?
Episode 5 - The ideological divide between the philosophies of John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek has dominated economics for nearly a century. Is it time for the pendulum to swing back to Keynes? Or do we need a whole new approach that goes beyond this dualism?
Episode 6 - An exploration of the life and work of Karl Polanyi, who sought to reintegrate society and economy. Could the commodification of labour and money ultimately be as disastrous as floods, drought and earthquakes?
Eternity Has No Door of Escape - A history of "outsider art" or "art brut" spontaneously produced by self-taught creators on the fringes of society.
Fang - Mixes documentary and fiction techniques to recount an African art object's 100 year journey - a whole century of Western attitudes towards African culture packed into 8 minutes!
Far from Vietnam - The landmark collaboration between Jean-Luc Godard, Joris Ivens, William Klein, Claude Lelouch, Chris Marker and Alain Resnais in protest of the Vietnam war.
The Forgotten Space - Allan Sekula and Noel Burch investigate maritime trade, the global supply chain and 21st-century capitalism.
Forgotten World - Discover a historic maze of stone circles, terraces and engravings that offer archaelogists new insight into South Africa's past.
Gai Shanxi and Her Sisters - The story of one woman's brutal ordeal as a "comfort woman" for the Japanese Army during World War II.
A Grin Without A Cat - Chris Marker's epic film-essay on the worldwide political wars of the 60's and 70's: Vietnam, Che, May '68, Prague, Chile, and the fate of the New Left.
Guerrilla Grannies - Women veterans of Mozambique's independence war offer an intimate view of the country's troubled history since 1975.
H
Heimat is a Space in Time - Stretching from the dawn of World War I to the present day, Thomas Heise’s monumental essay film reflects on the fraught evolution of Germany’s national identity through the prism of one family’s history.
Hiroshima Bound - A personal documentary that tracks the construction of America's collective memory (or lack of one) of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Hotel Terminus - Pt. 1 - Marcel Ophuls' Academy Award winning examination of the Nazi officer Klaus Barbie, the infamous "Butcher of Lyon," weaves together 40 years of footage and interviews.
Hotel Terminus - Pt. 2 - Marcel Ophuls' Academy Award winning examination of the Nazi officer Klaus Barbie, the infamous "Butcher of Lyon," weaves together 40 years of footage and interviews.
Hotel Terminus - Pt. 3 - Marcel Ophuls' Academy Award winning examination of the Nazi officer Klaus Barbie, the infamous "Butcher of Lyon," weaves together 40 years of footage and interviews.
How Putin Came to Power - A detailed investigation, with archives and exclusive interviews with the participants, into how Vladimir Putin rose from mayoral aide in St. Petersburg, to President of Russia, in only eight years.
The Human Zoo - The story of 25 people from four Chilean indigenous groups who in the 19th centry were exhibited as attractions across Europe.
I
In Search of Memory - The life and work of one of the most important neuroscientists of the 20th century, Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel.
In the Intense Now - A meditation on 1968 political uprisings in France, Czechoslovakia, China, and Brazil.
The Ister - A journey up the Danube River, this film takes up some of the most challenging paths in Martin Heidegger's thought. With the philosophers Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Jean-Luc Nancy, Bernard Stiegler, and filmmaker Hans-Jürgen Syberberg.
J
J'y Crois - I Believe In It - A beautifully composed political documentary investigating the decentralization process in Mali.
Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir - From 1967, for the first time on video or DVD, a portrait of two of the most influential and controversial writers and thinkers of the 20th century. They discuss their work, lives, and the role of intellectuals in modern society.
K
K.O.R. - An insider's look at Poland's dissident Workers Defense Committee - and how the group's actions led directly to the formation of the Solidarity union and the end of Poland's Communist regime.
Karamay - In Karamay, filmmaker Xu Xin helps a community break the silence nearly two decades after a horrible fire killed nearly 300 schoolchildren.
Kuxa Kanema - The story of Mozambique's National Institute of Cinema (INC) - a history of the birth and death of local cinema, and the birth and death of an ideology.
L
La Commune - A 5 hour 45 minute event. Based on a thorough historical research into the Paris Commune of 1871, this film leads to an inevitable reflection about the present.
The Last Bolshevik - This two-disc set includes Chris Marker's tribute to Russian film director Alexander Medvedkin, Medvedkin's silent classic HAPPINESS (1934), and loads of extras.
Last Grave at Dimbaza - Shot secretly and smuggled out of South Africa at the height of the apartheid era, this was the most widely screened and influential anti-apartheid documentary. Now restored and on DVD for the first time.
Le Joli Mai - Chris Marker and Pierre Lhomme's legendary portrait of Paris and Parisians at the close of the Algerian war.
Leninland - The world's largest museum devoted to Lenin offers a "true Soviet-era experience." But can it survive in the new Russia?
Level Five - In Chris Marker's futuristic reverie, game-developer Laura creates a video game based on the WWII Battle of Okinawa.
The Life and Times of Sara Baartman - Kidnapped from South Africa in 1810 and "exhibited" around Great Britain, Sara Baartman was treated as a scientific curiosity.
Living With The Past - Cairo is one of the few medieval cities in the world that remains relatively intact. This a portrait of Darb al-Ahmar, a neighborhood in the old city now facing a process of radical change.
Lotman's World - The story of Yuri Lotman (1922-1993), little-known - except maybe in Estonia! - pioneer of semiotics.
Marx for Beginners - Hilarious 7 minute animated introduction to Karl Marx's worldview.
A Mayan Trilogy: Life, Death & Migration - Now on one DVD, Olivia Carrescia's three films on the Mayan Indians of Guatemala preserve a record, and provide an acute observation on how the indigenous culture has been affected by, yet survived, that country's tumultuous history.
Milosevic on Trial - Four years of the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, charged with 66 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide for his role in the conflict in the former Yugoslavia.
Mina's Recipe Book - Before dying of starvation in a concentration camp, Mina carefully recorded her favorite recipes, hoping they would somehow make it to her daughter overseas.
The Miners' Hymns - The ill-fated coal mining communities in North East England are the subject of this inspired documentary by multi-media artist Bill Morrison. Music by Johann Johannsson.
Mobutu, King of Zaire - Part 1 - Part one of the definitive history and visual record of the rise and fall of Joseph Désiré Mobutu, ruler of Zaire (the Congo) for over 30 years.
Mobutu, King of Zaire - Part 2 - Part two of the definitive history and visual record of the rise and fall of Joseph Désiré Mobutu, ruler of Zaire (the Congo) for over 30 years.
Mobutu, King of Zaire - Part 3 - Part three of the definitive history and visual record of the rise and fall of Joseph Désiré Mobutu, ruler of Zaire (the Congo) for over 30 years.
The Moroccan Labyrinth - The little-known history of Spain's bloody colonial ambitions in North Africa, and how they became a prelude to the Spanish Civil War.
Mustapha Kemal Ataturk - The story of the founder of the Republic of Turkey, called Atatürk ("the father of the Turks").
N
Nanjing - Till today the history of the 1937 "Rape of Nanking" is a point of contention between China and Japan. How is it seen in each country, and can a shared memory ever be constructed?
900 Days - Unforgettable stories of WWII's deadly Siege of Leningrad, which took more than 1 million lives.
The Nine Lives of Norodom Sihanouk - The life story of Norodom Sihanouk, by turns Cambodia's King, Prime Minister, Prince, Head of State for Life, Exile, and Prisoner.
Nostalgia for the Light - In Chile's Atacama Desert, Patricio Guzman studies distant galaxies, ancient civilizations, and the remains of the disappeared.
O
1989: A Statesman Opens Up - How did a political novice guide Hungary through a critical historical period and contribute to the fall of the Berlin Wall?
A Belgrade apartment divided in two—with one half that has been locked for generations—tells the story of Serbia's political turmoil.
Our Newspaper - A couple starts their own newspaper in rural Russia... which lands them in danger.
P
The Patriot Game - The history of the long and bitter battle for Northern Ireland.
The Pinochet Case - The story of the landmark legal case against General Augusto Pinochet of Chile, before and after his arrest in London in 1998.
Putin's Witnesses - Director Vitaly Mansky ("Under the Sun") documents Russian President Vladimir Putin's rise to power.
R
Rabbit a la Berlin - 2010 Academy Award Nominee, Best Documentary Short Subject. The history of the Berlin Wall from the rabbits' point-of-view.
Red Persimmons - A visually elegant paean to the cultivation and harvesting of the sweet red fruit, and the disappearance of a traditional way of life in rural Japan.
Remembrance of Things to Come - This tapestry of still photographs, subject-skipping montage and rapid shuttle of wit and philosophy is pure Chris Marker.
A Road to Mecca - The story of Leopold Weiss, a Viennese Jew who converted to Islam in the 1920's and became the Muslim scholar Muhammad Asad.
S
Salvador Allende - Patricio Guzmán (The Battle of Chile) tells Allende's story, from his youth in Valparaiso and his early career, to his presidency of Chile and death during the coup of September 11, 1973.
Scars of Memory - An oral history of the 1932 massacre of 10,000 El Salvadorans, a trauma that has resonated through six decades of military rule, until the 1992 peace accords ended a brutal, 12-year civil war.
Searching for Lin Zhao's Soul - A landmark documentary on the gifted young poet who spoke out at the height of Chairman Mao's rule... and her subsequent fate.
Shi'ism - Across Iran, Lebanon and Iraq a cross-section of major contemporary Shiite figures discuss and debate the history, theology and values of this minority branch of Islam.
Sleeping Souls - A political hireling working for "United Russia" explains the cold inner mechanic of the system.
Snake Dance - A reflection on the Promethean dimensions of nuclear power, following German-born Aby Warburg and Robert Oppenheimer, inventor of the atomic bomb
Sociology is a Martial Art - An introduction to the work of Influential sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, whose 40 books and countless articles represent a renovation and application of social science.
SPK Complex - In 1970, Dr. Wolfgang Huber and a group of patients founded the anti-psychiatric "Socialist Patient's Collective" in Germany, causing run-ins with the local authorities.
Stony Paths - Following in his great-grandfather's footsteps, Arnaud undertakes a trek across Anatolia to study the Armenian Genocide.
Tango of Slaves - A Holocaust survivor's journey to Warsaw becomes the springboard for a meditative essay about history, memory, and their preservation in imagery.
Though I Am Gone - Pioneering artist Hu Jie uncovers the shocking story of girls' school headmistress who was beaten to death by her students during the Cultural Revolution.
Time Immemorial - Presents the case of the Nisga tribe in their long fight for aboriginal rights in British Columbia.
Time of the Locust - Critically examines American involvement in Vietnam through a compilation of American, Japanese and Vietnamese combat footage.
Tinghir-Jerusalem - Filmmaker and historian Kamal Hachkar goes in search of a community that has vanished - and confronts fundamental questions of his own identity in the process.
The Tiniest Place - The story of a small village in El Salvador, destroyed during the country's civil war, and its remarkable rebirth today.
To Tell the Truth - Two films that place familiar historical events in a startling new perspective and help viewers understand the choices behind, and consequences of, on-screen "reality."
To Tell the Truth: The Strategy of Truth - Directly follows the previous episode and examines documentary filmmaking in times of war and how it was used as propaganda.
To Tell the Truth: Working for Change - A history of documentary filmmaking in the US and UK from 1929-1941, including The Great Depression and The New Deal.
The Two Lives of Eva - The complicated, traumatic story of a young woman, the filmmaker's mother, a well-off, Polish Lutheran before WWII, who afterwards married a Jewish Warsaw ghetto survivor.
V
Van Gogh - The film charts the life and spiritual odyssey of one of the great modern painters purely through use of his paintings.
W
Wandering Souls - Thirty years after the end of the war against the United States, two Vietnamese veterans continue to search for the remains of their dead comrades.
Which Way Is East: Notebooks from Vietnam - When two American sisters travel north from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, conversations with Vietnamese strangers and friends reveal to them the flip side of a shared history.
Y
Yiddish - Seven young scholars share their love for Yiddish avant-garde poetry written between the World Wars.
Z
Zone of Silence - Five Cuban intellectuals discuss censorship as a historical, political and social phenomenon.
Zone of Silence - Five Cuban intellectuals discuss censorship as a historical, political and social phenomenon.
Zygosis - A radical and humorous electronic homage to John Heartfield, anti-Nazi German satirist who pioneered the photomontage.
More Films & DVDs on World History
Andre's Lives - The story of Andre Steiner, dubbed "the Jewish Schindler," who saved thousands of Slovak Jews during the Holocaust.
Awakening from Sorrow: Buenos Aires 1997 - Documents the power to transform pain into action and to lift the veil of repression that has gripped a generation of young people orphaned by Argentina's 'Dirty War.'
Back to Ararat - Examines this century's first genocide - the killing of 1.5 million Armenians during World War I.
Ben Barka - A biography of Moroccan opposition leader Mehdi Ben Barka, abducted on the streets of Paris and murdered in 1965, the infamous "Ben Barka affair."
A Child's Century of War - Takes the viewer on a journey through the past century - the bloodiest in history - from the perspective of children, and tells their stories in their voices.
China Yellow, China Blue - Two-part documentary tells the history of China in the 20th Century - entirely with original archives and motion pictures.
The Comrade - The story of Luiz Carlos Prestes, legendary leader of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) for over 35 years, who died in 1990.
Death Squadrons - The previously untold story of how the French military trained Latin American death squads in the 60s and 70s (and even U.S. Special Forces in the early days of our Vietnam War).
Disco and Atomic War - The Soviet regime in Estonia went head to head with J.R. Ewing and the heroes of Western television...and lost.
Drowning by Bullets - Exposes the massacre, cover-up, and the years of denial of what was undoubtedly one of the darkest nights in the history of France.
Euskadi: A Stateless Nation - The first definitive film treatment of the Basque-Spanish conflict, EUSKADI looks at the tumultuous history of a long running struggle which is far from its resolution.
FALN - A remarkable time capsule of Venezuelan political and social history, and valuable background to the ongoing social conflicts in that country.
Fernando is Back - Documents the workings of Chile's Forensic Identification Unit in its quest to reclaim the identities of those 'disappeared' and killed during the Pinochet dictatorship.
Flower in Otomi - Tells the story of Deni Prieto Stock, killed by the Mexican army in 1973.
Forever Lenin - Why, and how, was Lenin mummified in 1924? And how, and why, is he still on display in Red Square today?
Forging Identity - The remarkable' life of Adolfo Kaminsky, master forger. He helped thousands of Jews escape Nazi persecution, and after the war many 'underground' movements.
Human Weapon - The first sober, in-depth examination of the history of suicide bombing. Filmed in Iran, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Israel, Palestine, Europe and the United States.
The Internationale - Draws on people's stories of an emotionally charged radical song (the long-time anthem of socialism and communism) to celebrate the relationship between music and social change.
The Invisible Frame - A filmic journey starring Tilda Swinton as she traces the former Berlin Wall via bicycle.
Justice and the Generals - Investigates the human rights and legal issues involved when two Salvadoran generals are sued in an American court for atrocities (such as the murder of four American churchwomen) committed during El Salvador's civil war.
Kim's Story: The Road from Vietnam - The story of Kim Phuc, the subject of perhaps the most famous photograph of the Vietnam War, is a story of the personal and public healing of wounds from this century's longest, most divisive war.
Magnitogorsk - The fortunes of three generations living in the shadow of Russia's most breathtaking industrial project of the 1930s. The film was inspired by Joris Ivens'Song of the Heroes. (from the January, 1998 Catalog Supplement)
The Other Day - Filmmaker Ignacio Aguero's gentle exploration of home, family, history and Chilean society.
Outlaw-Matsu Comes Home - Shohei Imamura follows a former Japanese soldier during his first trip home after having been abandoned by the military in Thailand during World War II.
Rapayan - High in the Andes mountains of Peru, above a small village that scarcely seemed to notice, archaeologists have found the ruins of an indigenous settlement that predates the Incas.
Red Hat - Where Are You Going? - An examination of the socio-political role of the Mossi chiefs in the West African nation of Burkina Faso.
Revue - A portait of life in the USSR in the '50s and '60s, this is the new film by Sergei Loznitsa (Blockade).
Samora Machel, Son Of Africa - Before his death in a mysterious plane crash, Mozambican President Samora Machel gave the filmmaker and exclusive interview that forms the basis for the look at one of Africa's most important freedom fighters and revolutionaries.
A Song for Ireland - Traces the history of Ireland through her music, and Ireland's music through her history.
Sotsgorod: Cities For Utopia - Uncovers the secret history of Western architects who moved to the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 30s, to design the huge new industrial cities being built across Siberia and the steppes.
Stealing the Fire - In 1996, the German nuclear engineer Karl-Heinz Schaab was accused of selling secret information to Iraq. But was Schaab a shrewd traitor or a simple pawn in a much more extensive network?
The Sugar Curtain - An intimate portrait by Camila Guzmán Urzúa about growing up in Cuba during the "golden years" of the Cuban Revolution.
Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square - An artist's personal exploration of China's recent history from the Cultural Revolution through the 1980s, told through a rich collage of original artwork, archival and family photographs, and animation.
Svetlana About Svetlana - A rare filmed interview with Svetlana Alliluyeva, Joseph Stalin's daughter.
Syria: the Assads' Twilight - A lively documentary history of Syria's Assad regime, tracing its origins and influence, even as it clings to power in the face of the Arab spring.
We Loved Each Other So Much - The Lebanese singer Hoda Nouhad Haddad, better known as Fairuz, is a legend in the Arab world. The stories of diverse Beirut inhabitants and of their love for her provide a moving commentary on Lebanon's tumultuous history.
Yugoslavia: Origins of a War - Provides a detailed background to the ethnic conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, using only archive and unpublished material.
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