Popular History Movies on Kanopy - Page 40

The Ornament of the World

2019

The Ornament of the World

2019
7.8
Filmed in Cordoba, Granada, Seville, and Toledo, this documentary retraces the 800-year period in medieval Spain when Muslims, Christians, and Jews forged a common cultural identity that frequently transcended their religious differences, revealing what made this rare and fruitful collaboration possible, and what ultimately tore it apart.
Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space

2023

Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space

2023
5
Raised in the small all-Black Florida town of Eatonville, Zora Neale Hurston studied at Howard University before arriving in New York in 1925. She would soon become a key figure of the Harlem Renaissance, best remembered for her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. But even as she gained renown in the Harlem literary circles, Hurston was also discovering anthropology at Barnard College with the renowned Franz Boas. She would make several trips to the American South and the Caribbean, documenting the lives of rural Black people and collecting their stories. She studied her own people, an unusual practice at the time, and during her lifetime became known as the foremost authority on Black folklore.
Robin Bank

2022

Robin Bank

2022
6.9
The story of Enric Duran, a Catalan activist who, during the economic crisis of 2008, stole —by borrowing loans that he never paid back— half a million euros from banks, donated them to social projects and announced it to the media to denounce the practices of the banking system.
Nazis on Drugs: Hitler and the Blitzkrieg

2019

Nazis on Drugs: Hitler and the Blitzkrieg

2019
6.2
For all its talk of racial, spiritual, and physical purity, the self-anointed “Master Race” harbored a secret…theirs was an axis of drug addicts. This two-hour special explores the origin, impact, and lasting effects of the state-sponsored drug use that helped build—and eventually burned—the Third Reich. Incredible new sources of information, including a detailed journal maintained by Hitler’s personal physician, reveal the extent of not just his, but the entire Nazi Party’s reliance on drugs to power their war effort.
Hard Hat Riot

2025

Hard Hat Riot

2025
On May 8, 1970, construction workers violently clashed with students demonstrating against the Vietnam War in lower Manhattan. The workmen, who came to be known as “hardhats,” were at the cutting edge of a new kind of class war. With the war in Vietnam raging on, it was the sons of the working class who were doing most of the fighting. Workmen saw the protesting students as privileged “draft dodgers” disparaging the country and those who fought for it. On the other side, many student activists saw the workers as pawns, unwilling to see the changes that America needed. Hard Hat Riot tells the story of a struggling metropolis, a flailing president, a divided people, and a bloody juncture when the nation violently diverged ― culminating in a new political and cultural landscape that radically redefined American politics and foreshadowed the future.
Girls in Gingham

1949

Girls in Gingham

1949
6.5
A moving saga focusing on the women in a family that spans three generations and almost 70 years of German history, from the Wilhelmine period through the end of WWII. This film shows that it takes a combination of hard work, political consciousness and family work in tandem to face the tragedies of war, economic hardship and death.
Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery

2014

Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery

2014
7.1
Wolfgang Beltracchi got away with forging art masterpieces for over 40 years. He may be egotistical and nihilistic, but his genius in undeniable. He managed to fool gallery owners, historians and investors with the stroke of a brush. This documentary follows his last days as a free man.
Walter Winchell: The Power of Gossip

2020

Walter Winchell: The Power of Gossip

2020
10
The life and times of radio commentator and syndicated newspaper gossip columnist Walter Winchell, who reached an audience of 50 million at his peak.
Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World

2011

Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World

2011
6
This ninety-minute film takes audiences on an epic journey across nine countries and over 1,400 years of history. It explores themes such as the Word, Space, Ornament, Color and Water and presents the stories behind many great masterworks of Islamic Art and Architecture. Narrated by Academy Award winning performer Susan Sarandon, this dazzling documentary reveals the variety and diversity of Islamic art. It provides a window into Islamic culture and brings broad insights to the enduring themes that have propelled human history and fueled the rise of world civilization over the centuries
Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip

2003

Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip

2003
7.4
In the spring of 1903, on a whim and a fifty-dollar bet, Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson set off from San Francisco in a 20-horsepower Winton touring car hoping to become the first person to cross the United States in the new-fangled "horseless carriage." Most people doubted that the automobile had much of a future. Jackson's trip would prove them wrong.
Empire of the Nude: The Victorian Nude

2001

Empire of the Nude: The Victorian Nude

2001
The Victorian era is often cited for its lack of sexuality, but as this documentary reveals, the period's artists created a strong tradition surrounding the classical nude figure, which spread from the fine arts to more common forms of expression. The film explains how 19th-century artists were inspired by ancient Greek and Roman works to highlight the naked form, and how that was reflected in the evolving cultural attitudes toward sex.
Crownsville Hospital: From Lunacy to Legacy

2018

Crownsville Hospital: From Lunacy to Legacy

2018
7.8
Crownsville Hospital: From Lunacy to Legacy is a feature-length documentary film highlighting the history of the Crownsville State Mental Hospital in Crownsville, MD.
Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin

2003

Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin

2003
5
Documentary on Bayard Rustin, best-remembered as the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington.
Winning a Continent

1916

Winning a Continent

1916
5
This epic film was one of the first South African dramatic film productions. It tells the story of the Boers’ Great Trek at the end of the 1830s, concluding with a hegemonic reconstruction of the 1838 Battle of Blood River, where a few hundred armed Afrikaners defeated several thousand Zulus.
Black Patriots: Heroes of the Civil War

2022

Black Patriots: Heroes of the Civil War

2022
7
This one-hour documentary takes viewers through an evolution of African American involvement over the course of the Civil War through the stories of some of the most crucial and significant figures of the day including Harriet Tubman, Robert Smalls, Frederick Douglass, the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and the most celebrated regiment of black soldiers during the Civil War, the famed 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment.
Slavery by Another Name

2012

Slavery by Another Name

2012
7.2
A documentary that recounts the many ways in which American slavery persisted as a practice many decades after its supposed abolition.
Flannery

2019

Flannery

2019
Explore the life of Flannery O’Connor whose provocative fiction was unlike anything published before. Featuring never-before-seen archival footage, newly discovered journals, and interviews with Mary Karr, Tommy Lee Jones, Hilton Als, and more.
The Adventures of Werner Holt

1965

The Adventures of Werner Holt

1965
7.8
Two 17-year-olds, Werner Holt and Gilbert Wolzow, are pulled out of school and into Hitler's army. Gilbert becomes a fanatical soldier; but at the front, Werner begins to understand the senselessness of war.
My Journey Through French Cinema

2016

My Journey Through French Cinema

2016
7.5
Famous French director Tavernier tells us about his fantastic voyage through the cinema of his country.
Combat Obscura

2018

Combat Obscura

2018
6.9
Former combat videographer Miles Lagoze presents personal footage of U.S. Marines in the Afghan war zone.