On April 27, 1813, American forces defeated the British at York (present-day Toronto) and captured the capital of Upper Canada - but not before suffering their own losses. History Television's Explosion 1812 looks at the Battle of York and unearths new evidence around this lesser-known event from the War of 1812.
A documentary focusing on the life stories of Jewish American World War II veterans. The film explores their unique experiences of being Jewish soldiers during a time of extreme anti-Semitism both abroad, and in America.
Swedish-Eritrean radio host Meron Estefanos produces her weekly program at home in Stockholm where she broadcast, devoted entirely to the hundreds of Eritrean refugees held hostage in the Egyptian Sinai Desert. The Bedouins kidnap Eritreans making their way to Israel and demand large ransoms from their families. We follow Meron in her attempts to turn the tide by calling the hostages and kidnappers alike during her radio show. The film focuses on the stories of two hostages: A) Hiriyti was pregnant when she got kidnapped. We hear the young woman talking with her husband Amaniel in Tel Aviv, who is doing everything he can to free his wife and their baby from the torture camp. B) The ransom for 20-year-old Timnit has been paid, but her brother haven't heard anything from her since her flight to the Egyptian-Israeli border. The battle for Hiriyti's release and the search for Timnit takes Meron to Sinai. There, she stumbles on the marks left by the many atrocities.
A young Polish partisan flees from the Warsaw Uprising. Whilst hiding in the yard of a countryside manor, he is chased up a tree by a large wolfhound. With his rifle out of reach, there seems to be no way to escape his predicament.
New York, 1941, shortly before the US enters the war. Stevie Mayer is an intelligent twelve-year-old who’s father suddenly disappears after being chased by two threatening men. Alone and unprotected, Stevie is left with a mysterious suitcase that everybody wants and nobody is who they claim to be. Thrown headlong into a mind-twisting plot, Stevie begins to suspect that his father is part of ring of Nazi spies. With the help of Miriam, a young Jewish refugee in his class, Stevie attempts to unravel the puzzle that leads to an explosive conclusion. It is a tale of non-stop adventure and a budding young love.
Just moments before the end of hostilities, a foolhardy order ricochets through the front- line trench. Sergeant Archie Jones and his pals find themselves going over the top one last time. All they had to do was wait just one more hour. As eleven o'clock approaches Archie, badly wounded, slips between two worlds. One filled with the familiar sounds and smells of death, the other of warm sunshine, a soft embrace and the innocent smile of a child. When all seems lost help is offered from an unexpected hand.
The story of the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African American pilots who saw combat during the Second World War. The 332nd Fighter Group stands apart from any other air force fighter groups in the Second World War: all personnel, from pilots to ground crew to surgeons, were black. They confounded expectations and prejudices existing in America in the thirties and forties about the abilities of black Americans. They excelled as pilots and became a crack unit, showing great courage and skill and achieving where other fighter groups had failed. Despite this, they were segregated on the ground and in the air from the white flyers whose lives they protected. (Alexander Street)
This gripping documentary recounts the story of the long search for Nazis in hiding from 1945 to the present day. Sixty years of relentless investigations, set-backs, trials and dramas brought about principally by three extraordinary individuals: the Austrian death camp survivor, Simon Wiesenthal and the German/French couple Beate and serge Klarsfeld who devoted their lives to search for the highest level Nazis still at large.
An original documentary, this film contains previously classified footage provided by the Defense Department. Included is an exclusive on-camera "host" appearance by General Colin Powell, actual archival and pictorial footage, interviews, narrative with celebrities and key military personnel and the returning home after Desert Storm.
Poland, 1944. Assembled for a top-secret rescue mission, a daring team of Special Forces soldiers quickly find themselves trapped deep behind enemy lines.
Ken Burns meets Spinal Tap in a subversive tour de force relaying the outrageous life stories of four forgotten Civil War heroes: an opium-addicted gay Colonel, an aging Chinese launderer, a nerdy escaped slave, and a one-armed teenage prostitute. Both wickedly satirical and deeply affectionate, The Battle of Pussy Willow Creek tells the "100% true" story of how these oddball outsiders saved the Union from a nefarious foreign plot, how the forces of bigotry expunged their stunning victory from the history books, and - most importantly - how meeting one's ex on the field of battle can be just the thing to re-spark a detoured romance.
Set in March, 1945 during the battle known as "The last great killing ground in the west", RHINELAND tells the story of a young replacement thrown into an under-strength mine platoon. A burned-out lieutenant and a bitter sergeant are his only guides as he struggles to come to terms with the brutality of war during the final bloody months of World War II.