Popular History Movies on Kanopy - Page 44

Death and the King's Horseman

2023

Death and the King's Horseman

2023
10
In British-occupied Nigeria, a Yoruba king, the Alafin, has died, and it is the duty of his horseman, Elesin, to accompany him into the afterlife. While lustily enjoying the pleasures of this world, Elesin proudly anticipates his transition to the next – but the sacred ritual is interrupted, resulting in unforeseen tragedy. Inspired by a real-life incident, this masterpiece from Nobel Prize winner Soyinka celebrates a community striving to uphold its culture in the face of colonial power.
Ralph Ellison: Invisible Man, Celebrated Writer

2005

Ralph Ellison: Invisible Man, Celebrated Writer

2005
3.2
Ralph Ellison was an African-American writer and essayist, who's only novel Invisible Man (1953) gained a wide critical success. Ellison's ambitious journey from a childhood of hardship and poverty to celebrated African American writer is chronicled in this inspiring program through exclusive interviews and personal recollection.
Modus Operandi

2008

Modus Operandi

2008
Between 1942 and 1944 some 24,916 Jews were deported from Belgium to Auschwitz. The roundups and deportations were organized and carried out by the Nazis with the - not always conscious - cooperation of Belgian authorities. The attitude of the authorities here varied from outright resistance to voluntary or unwitting collaboration.
Liberty & Slavery

2016

Liberty & Slavery

2016
5
America's Founding Fathers were yearning for a nation of individual liberty. But, the origins of America were overflowing with a deep-seated paradox. The Founding Fathers were rallying the colonists to liberty, while many were slave owners.
Unconquered: Allan Houser and the Legacy of One Apache Family

2008

Unconquered: Allan Houser and the Legacy of One Apache Family

2008
In decades past, Native American artists who wanted to sell to mainstream collectors had little choice but to create predictable, Hollywood-style western scenes. Then came a generation of painters and sculptors led by Allan Houser (or Haozous), a Chiricahua Apache artist with no interest in stereotyped imagery and a belief that his own rich heritage was compatible with modernist ideas and techniques. Narrated by actor Val Kilmer and originally commissioned as part of an exhibit of Houser’s work at the Oklahoma History Center, this program depicts the artist’s tribal ancestry, his rise to regional and national acclaim, and the continuing success of his sons as they expand upon and depart from their father’s achievements. Key works are documented, as is Houser’s tenure at the Santa Fe–based Institute of American Indian Arts.
Maralinga Tjarutja

2020

Maralinga Tjarutja

2020
The Maralinga people survive aggressive colonisation, including dispossession to enable atomic testing, and through their tenacious spirit and cultural strength fight to retain their country.
Diego Rivera: I Paint What I See

1992

Diego Rivera: I Paint What I See

1992
8
The first biographical film on the famed Mexican artist, traces his life from childhood through his Cubist period, his leading role in the Mexican mural renaissance, his fame as a muralist in the USA, and his later years. The film explores Rivera's life and work, including his stormy relationship with Frida Kahlo and the destruction of his famous mural at Rockefeller Center. Shot on location in Mexico and the United States, the film includes a remarkable collection of archival film and photographs, much of which has not been seen before. The text is drawn from the writings of Rivera and Kahlo and from other historical texts. Using Rivera's own words, this richly detailed film brings to life the difficulty he faced in his transition from studio artist to public and political artist, and the conflicts that arose from that point onward.
Apollo's Daring Mission

2018

Apollo's Daring Mission

2018
5.5
Apollo astronauts and engineers tell the inside story of Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon. The U.S. space program suffered a bitter setback when Apollo 1 ended in a deadly fire during a pre-launch run-through. In disarray, and threatened by the prospect of a Soviet Union victory in the space race, NASA decided upon a radical and risky change of plan: turn Apollo 8 from an earth-orbit mission into a daring sprint to the moon while relying on untried new technologies. Fifty years after the historic mission, the Apollo 8 astronauts and engineers recount the feats of engineering that paved the way to the moon.
Seeing Red: Stories of American Communists

1983

Seeing Red: Stories of American Communists

1983
6.3
A unique documentary that looks at the political activities of the American Communist Party in the early to mid-twentieth century.
The Secret History of The White House

2019

The Secret History of The White House

2019
Piecing together information from secret sources and a two-hundred-year evolution of the White House, investigative journalists and government insiders weigh in on the mystery of an unusual white box and a top-secret construction project dubbed the "Big Dig" that took place outside of the West Wing from 2007-2012. Using little known images, previously classified material and detailed graphics, the search for truth reveals not only what secrets might lay below the White House, but how their existence could affect democracy as we know it.
Nero's Golden House

2001

Nero's Golden House

2001
Still We Rise

2022

Still We Rise

2022
50 years on, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy is the oldest continuing protest occupation site in the world. Taking a fresh lens this is a bold dive into a year of protest and revolutionary change for First Nations people.
Television Under the Swastika

1999

Television Under the Swastika

1999
6.8
A history of Nazi television programming and technology, from 1935 to 1944.
Hagia Sophia

2014

Hagia Sophia

2014
Considered the finest example of Byzantine architecture in the world, Hagia Sophia was constructed on a scale unprecedented in human history. Built in the amazingly short time of five years, it bears witness to an amazing scientific knowledge and a rich cultural heritage from the past.
Mute Fire

2019

Mute Fire

2019
6.1
On 6 March 1906, four men were executed for the attempted murder of Colombian president Rafael Reyes. The event was photographed, and the photos were later used for a fictionalised film on the failed coup. From then on, cinema in this South American country has been inextricably linked to its violent history. Moving images have been used for historiography, propaganda, disinformation and to instil unity in a nation that refuses to come together. Falsos positivos, murdered youths disguised as guerrillas by the army to simulate military success, are a common element.
The White Line

2020

The White Line

2020
7
Framed by scenes of Namibia's formal independence as a newly formed African country in 1990, Desiree Kahikopo's historical romance takes us back to 1963, soon after the 1959 uprising in Old Location — an area segregated for black residents of Windhoek, the capital of Namibia (then a territory of South Africa). It is in this setting that Sylvia Kamutjemo (Girley Charlene Jazama, who also produces), a black domestic worker, meets Afrikaner police officer Pieter de Wet (Jan-Barend Scheepers) on a routine passbook check. As the pair exchange letters and a story of forbidden love across racial lines unfolds, Kahikopo explores an underrepresented period of Namibian history with compassion and hope.
The Johnstown Flood

2003

The Johnstown Flood

2003
6
On a stormy day in May of 1889, the South Fork Dam impounding Conemaugh Lake exploded, unleashing a 40-foot wall of water. The bustling industrial city of Johnstown, PA, in the valley below was reduced to a wasteland, killing more than 2,200. This heavily dramatized documentary reviews the factors that led to the dam's collapse, while dramatic reenactments and survivors' personal testimonies detail the horror.
The Image You Missed

2018

The Image You Missed

2018
5.5
An Irish filmmaker grapples with the legacy of his estranged father, the late documentarian Arthur MacCaig, through MacCaig's decades-spanning archive of the conflict in Northern Ireland. Drawing on over 30 years of unique and never-seen-before footage, 'The Image You Missed' is an experimental essay film that weaves together a history of the Northern Irish 'Troubles' with the story of a son's search for his father. In the process, the film creates a candid encounter between two filmmakers born into different political moments, revealing their contrasting experiences of Irish nationalism, the role of images in social struggle, and the competing claims of personal and political responsibility.
Abe's Honest Words: The Life of Abraham Lincoln

2016

Abe's Honest Words: The Life of Abraham Lincoln

2016
From the time he was a young boy roaming the forests of the unsettled Midwest, Abraham Lincoln knew in his heart that slavery was deeply wrong. The passion for humanity that defined Lincoln's life shines through in this portrait of a truly great American president.
Speeches That Changed The World

2016

Speeches That Changed The World

2016
Words and delivery can combine to galvanize an audience, creating ‘I remember where I was when...’ moments. JFK at the Brandenburg Gate or Martin Luther King at the Lincoln Memorial provide unforgettable examples that still stir today. This collection of classic speech excerpts contains not only inspiring orations to democratic freedom and the noblest aspects of human endeavor, but also some of the darkest and most despicable speeches delivered in modern times.