Top Rated History Movies on Kanopy - Page 37

Paul Bowles: The Cage Door Is Always Open

2013

Paul Bowles: The Cage Door Is Always Open

2013
5
The American composer and author Paul Bowles was a man with a great deal of charisma and influence. When he moved to Tangier, Morocco, in 1949, half the world followed him to the enigmatic city. His marriage with author Jane Bowles was a loving relationship of opposites, even though both were homosexual. Based on exclusive interviews with Bowles shortly before his death interwoven with anecdotes recounted by his friends and co-workers, the film portrays a daring and visionary life as well as a relationship shaped by an interdependency that encompassed much more than sexuality.
The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement

2011

The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement

2011
5
The film features 85-year-old Mr. Armstrong, an African American barber in Birmingham, Alabama, as he experiences the manifestation of an unimaginable dream: the election of the first African American president. This colorful and courageous activist of the Civil Rights era casts his vote, celebrates Obama's victory and proudly unfurls the American flag as he is inducted into the Foot Soldiers Hall of Fame. Mr. Armstrong links the magnitude of the present paradigm shift with challenges he faced in the past: from his sons' integration into an all white school to the Bloody Sunday march for voting rights. The documentary raises questions about democracy and patriotism in the face of adversity, and the vigilance and action required to ensure continued forward movement to end racial injustice.
Azure Dust - Inside Chernobyl's Exclusion Zone

2016

Azure Dust - Inside Chernobyl's Exclusion Zone

2016
7.8
The story about Chornobyl area, all around the world we know of the disaster in 1986. The film may be called a guide to the Exclusion Zone. Thanks to the unique footage from the place of the tragedy, that the crew succeeded to capture, the viewers will have a chance for a full immersion into the atmosphere of the events and, along with the heroes of the film, feel the dreadful and amazing air that reigns where one of the major anthropogenic disasters took place.
The Conqueror: Hollywood Fallout

2024

The Conqueror: Hollywood Fallout

2024
4.5
The story of one of the great environmental disasters to befall the United States, and the terrible movie that helped bring the catastrophe to light.
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.
Orders from Above

2021

Orders from Above

2021
6.5
Adolf Eichmann is finally captured and brought to Israel to stand trial. Without enough evidence to prosecute him, Police Captain Avner Less must extract a confession from the mastermind of the Holocaust.
After Jackie

2022

After Jackie

2022
8.5
After Jackie celebrates the 75th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s integration into Major League Baseball. Robinson opened the door for other African Americans to join the league and this documentary taps into key people and events in the aftermath.
Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power

2022

Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power

2022
1.5
Through first person accounts and searing archival footage, this documentary tells the story of the local movement and young Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizers who fought not just for voting rights, but for Black Power in Lowndes County, Alabama.
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.
The Exiles

2022

The Exiles

2022
8
Brash and opinionated, Christine Choy is a documentarian, cinematographer, professor, and quintessential New Yorker whose films and teaching have influenced a generation of artists. In 1989 she started to film the leaders of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests who escaped to political exile following the June 4 massacre. Though Choy never finished that project, she now travels with the old footage to Taiwan, Maryland, and Paris in order to share it with the dissidents who have never been able to return home.
Stratton Castle: Tale of Jessie Goldenheart

2021

Stratton Castle: Tale of Jessie Goldenheart

2021
3.5
Set in the 1800's of Scotland when servants didn't rise above their station comes a love story for the ages. As the master of Stratton castle lies dying he makes his son promise to take over the lands and find an appropriate match, however, unbeknownst to his father, Walter has already fallen in love with Jessie, a beautiful servant girl. Now he must fight against his forbidden passion for fear of scandal and ruin or risk it all for Jessie the Golden Hearted.
Sabina - Tortured for Christ, the Nazi Years

2021

Sabina - Tortured for Christ, the Nazi Years

2021
8
A story of transformation and hope in a time of turmoil and terror
Journey to Royal: A WWII Rescue Mission

2021

Journey to Royal: A WWII Rescue Mission

2021
9
WWII hero with the 4th Emergency Rescue Squadron, Lt. Royal Stratton, leads a deadly mission to save the lives of nine downed airmen adrift in enemy waters of a war-torn South Pacific. Immersive cinematography and gripping action, mixed with firsthand accounts and historical images, showcase the valor of this squadron who faced overwhelming odds to bring their brothers home.
Filmmakers for the Prosecution

2023

Filmmakers for the Prosecution

2023
6.5
In 1945, two young American soldiers, brothers Budd and Stuart Schulberg, are commissioned to collect filmed and recorded evidence of the horrors committed by the infamous Third Reich in order to prove Nazi war crimes during the Nuremberg trials (1945-46). The story of the making of Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today, a paramount historic documentary, released in 1948.
Black Patriots: Heroes of the Revolution

2020

Black Patriots: Heroes of the Revolution

2020
8
A documentary chronicling the role of Black heroism in America's Revolutionary War.
Part One: China in Revolution 1911–1949

1989

Part One: China in Revolution 1911–1949

1989
8
The first film, China in Revolution, describes the epic upheaval that began in China with the fall of the last emperor in 1911. Over the next four decades, the Chinese people were caught up in struggles with warlords, foreign invasion and a bitter rivalry between the Chinese Communist Party and the Nationalist Party. The film highlights the two figures who came to shape events, Chang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong. First they worked as allies to unite the country and then they fought a bloody civil war that was won by the Communists in 1949.
Cold War Secrets: Stealing the Atomic Bomb

2015

Cold War Secrets: Stealing the Atomic Bomb

2015
8.5
On the 29th of August 1949, the USSR set off their first atomic bomb, just four years after the Americans. The speed with which they achieved this surprised the world. What nobody knew was that it was the result of espionage. At the centre of the operation was a very unusual female spy, Elizabeth Zaroubin, in a story worthy of the best spy novels ever written.
The Secret History Of Air Force One

2019

The Secret History Of Air Force One

2019
6
This one-hour special utilizes exclusive footage to bring audiences inside Air Force One like never before. Gripping archives paired with insider interviews will illuminate the hidden history of presidential flight and unveil the incredible history of America's most famous plane.
The Jesus Strand: A Search for DNA

2017

The Jesus Strand: A Search for DNA

2017
5
Geneticist George Busby and biblical scholar pastor Joe Basile travel the globe extracting and analyzing samples from the most famous religious relics from history in search of the DNA of the most famous figure in history; Jesus Christ.
Woman with an Editing Bench

2016

Woman with an Editing Bench

2016
7
Inspired by the woman who edited "Man with a Movie Camera" (1929), "Woman with an Editing Bench" reveals the personal impact of Stalin’s censorship of cinema on a woman navigating politics, bureaucracy and the impetuous outbursts of collaborators to create something beautiful despite the odds.