What starts out as a voyage to the West in pursuit of the American Dream quickly turns deadly for the Donner party after a series of bad decisions and severe weather. Trapped in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, this group of nearly 80 settlers fell prey to sub-zero temperatures, torrential rainfalls, extreme heat, and ten-foot snow drifts. Punishing storms trapped the party with nearly no food or shelter for 5 months in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Many died, some succumbed to cannibalism to survive, and others delved deeply into their faith while waiting to be rescued. “The Donner Party” explores this exciting journey through a hybrid of first-person narration, remarkable reenactments, expert interviews, CGI, and archival materials.
Could a nineteen-year-old girl change the course of history simply by faith? From ordinary farm girl to extraordinary hero, the life of Joan of Arc was one of conviction and courage. Fifteenth-century France was devastated by an ongoing war in which women did not fight. Yet Joan heeded the counsel of angels and transformed into a military leader, something her country needed but many feared. In this BYUtv original special, discover the stalwart spirit, military prowess, and enduring influence of Joan of Arc.
Cynthia and Celinde are two and one. They share the same space, inhabit the same bodily form, in a perennial embrace, yet have separate personas. Located in the surfaces and membranes of the visual, virocrypsis displays their desires, identities and gestures.
In November 1915, Einstein published his greatest work: General Relativity, the theory that transformed our understanding of nature's laws and the entire history of the cosmos. This documentary tells the story of Einstein's masterpiece, from the simple but powerful ideas at the heart of relativity to the revolution in cosmology still playing out in today's labs, revealing Einstein's brilliance as never before.
This video observes patrons waiting to access the internet at the Central Public Library in downtown Atlanta. This Central Library, designed in 1969 and finally completed in 1980, was the last built project by Bauhaus-trained architect Marcel Breuer. On the morning of November 25, 2015, the wait for a free computer station at the Central Library was 40 minutes. This video documents that wait.
During the Joseon Dynasty, lowborn Chae-sun challenges the rule that states only men allowed to sing while navigating devotion to her teacher and the demands of the king's father.
One of the most extraordinary civic buildings in America, San Francisco's City Hall rose from the rubble of the 1906 earthquake to become both the symbol of a resilient citizenry and the epicenter of a city in constant change. "The People's Palace" commemorates this remarkable piece of architecture and the dramatic events that have taken place under its dome: labor strife, political assassinations, civil rights struggles, and celebrations that have forged the character of contemporary San Francisco. Featuring interviews with mayors, journalists, scholars, and everyday citizens who have witnessed history within its walls.
Arguably one of the most fateful and resonant events of the last half millennium, the Pilgrims journey west across the Atlantic in the early 17th century is a seminal, if often misunderstood episode of American and world history. The Pilgrims explores the forces, circumstances, personalities and events that converged to exile the English group in Holland and eventually propel their crossing to the New World; a story universally familiar in broad outline, but almost entirely unfamiliar to a general audience in its rich and compelling historical actuality. Includes the real history of the "first thanksgiving".
When Ernest Shackleton is given the ship Endurance to reclaim the record for the furthest south expedition, his journey is cut short when his ship becomes trapped in the ice pack and begins to sink.
The true story of Assis Chateaubriand, the first magnate of communications in Brazil. Due to his influence during the late 1930s up to the early 1960s, he has come to be called 'the Brazilian Citizen Kane'.
Mabel Dodge Luhan was a trailblazing feminist 100 years ahead of her time. She was a champion for Women and Native American rights. In 1917 she moved from Greenwich Village to Taos, New Mexico. There she married Tony Lujan, a Tiwa Indian from Taos Pueblo.
This story explores the inner world of a rebel who belongs to an ultra-leftist underground outfit that is battling the government forces. Seriously injured during an ambush, he hides out in a village, his fate dependent on the mercy of the villagers. They believe he is to blame for the death of the innocent native girl killed during the ambush. Left alone with his disturbing thoughts, he will have to dependent on the kindness of strangers, loyalty of his comrades and sheer will power to survive.
300 Spartans-The Real Story. Putting aside the myths and legends, this documentary takes a detailed look at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC Greece leading to the last stand of the 300 Spartans and Spartan King Leonidas. On the 3rd day of the battle, when Leonidas was being surrounded, he sent most of his troops away and covered their retreat with a last stand because Spartans never retreated.
"Nothing Escapes My Eyes" is about a silent transformation of a place and a human being. Inspired by the texts of Edward W. Said, the poems of Mahmoud Darwish and Verdi’s opera Aida, the film depicts in a metaphoric form current issues of cultural identity, loss and the pressures to conform. With no dialogue, the film is backed by a musical excerpt from Aida whose lyrics express the difficulties of being loyal to one’s country and cultural identity. The personal and urban transformation tackles on issues of identity, loss and disorientation as a result of historical colonialism and contemporary globalization.
Chinatown Fair opened as a penny arcade on Mott Street in 1944. Over the decades, the dimly lit gathering place, known for its tic-tac-toe playing chicken, became an institution, surviving turf wars between rival gangs, changing tastes and the explosive growth of home gaming systems like Xbox and Playstation that shuttered most other arcades in the city. But as the neighborhood gentrified, this haven for a diverse, unlikely community faced its strongest challenge, inspiring its biggest devotees to next-level greatness.
A historical and present day look at the Wilmington Massacre of 1898 and how the descendants of the victims of the event are asking for legal action in regards to compensation.
In late eighties, in Ceausescu's Romania, a black market VHS bootlegger and a courageous female translator brought the magic of Western films to the Romanian people and sowed the seeds of a revolution.