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THE FEATURE DOCUMENTARY SHOWCASES GRANT, THE MAN RATHER THAN the legend. Within ten years, Grant's life takes a stunning turn from a father struggling to make a living to the general who won the Civil War. Grant would later become the 18th President of the United States.
It was his early years that defined Grant. He was a man with no money and no prospects. In 1859, at age 37, Grant made a choice to free his only slave rather than sell him for profit. Before anyone had heard of U.S. Grant, the man who would become a great general was already a man of courage and principle.
While other Union generals refused African-American soldiers, General Grant valued their contributions and accepted all he could. When many in both North and South turned away from African-American equality after the Civil War, President Grant kept fighting ¡X as he did during the war. Grant accepted unconditional surrender when it came to civil rights and lobbied Congress to pass the 15th Amendment, forever giving African-Americans the right to vote.
Two elderly men possess starkly contrasting attitudes towards their high-ranking Nazi fathers. A study of brutality, self-deception, guilt and the nature of justice.
A bracingly rigorous examination of inherited guilt and pain, WHAT OUR FATHERS DID explores the relationship between two men, each of whom are the children of very high-ranking Nazi officials but possess starkly contrasting attitudes toward their fathers.
The film was written and is hosted by eminent human rights lawyer Philippe Sands, who became fascinated by its central figures, Niklas Frank and Horst von Wachter, while researching the Nuremberg trials.
The film comes to a climax when they travel to Lviv in Ukraine, where it becomes clear that Frank and von Wachter's Nazi fathers were responsible for the annihilation of Sands' own Jewish grandfather's entire family. WHAT OUR FATHERS DID is a compelling examination of brutality, self-deception, guilt and the nature of justice.
"This is both an intensely personal story for me as well as one with contemporary and universal relevance as anti-Semitism spreads across Europe and the wounds created in Ukraine during WWII can still be felt today." - Philippe Sands
In 1979, when Soviet troops entered Afghanistan, they said it was only a 'limited contingent' of armed forces. Little did they know that the war would last ten years, and play a key role in the collapse of the Soviet Union (not to mention launch Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda).
AFGHANISTAN 1979: THE WAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD examines this final conflict of the Cold War focusing on events from the side of the 'invading' Soviets. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who here speaks publically on the Afghanistan invasion for the first time, is joined by Afghan, Russian, and American generals, journalists, intelligence analysts, and resistance leaders.
Together with the use of hitherto secret Soviet archives (the film reveals the single hand-written page that was the only record of the official decision to intervene in Afghanistan, a country that was never named in the document but instead designated by the initial "A"), the film offers a privileged reading of contemporary history, and an expanded understanding of how we have come to such a seemingly intractable situation in the region.
By Bill Morrison
Music composed by Aleksandra Vrebalov and performed by Kronos Quartet
Given up as lost for generations, footage from World War I never before seen by modern audiences comes to thrilling new life in BEYOND ZERO: 1914-1918. Auteur director Bill Morrison scoured film archives for rare 35mm nitrate footage shot during the Great War. Now, viewers can see an actual glimpse of a war fought in fields, in trenches, and in the air emerges for the first time.
Through a veil of physical degradation, unstable chemical elements and the bleeding of original film dye, viewers can see soldiers performing training exercises, parades and troop movements. While some of the battle footage was re-enacted for cameras, some is documentary footage of the war itself. All the footage was originally shot on film at the time of the conflict.
A prismatic and cinematic a message in a bottle from a century ago and accompanied by a magnificent score by Aleksandra Vrebalov performed by the Kronos Quartet, BEYOND ZERO: 1914-1918 is a powerful record of wartime past. Out on the same fields with the soldiers 100 years ago, the film is itself both collaborator and survivor.
Capitalism has been the engine of unprecedented economic growth and social transformation. With the fall of the communist states and the triumph of "neo- liberalism," capitalism is by far the world's dominant ideology. But how much do we understand about how it originated, and what makes it work?
CAPITALISM is an ambitious and accessible six-part documentary series that looks at both the history of ideas and the social forces that have shaped the capitalist world.
Blending interviews with some of the world's great historians, economists, anthropologists, and social critics, with on-the-ground footage shot in twenty-two countries, CAPITALISM questions the myth of the unfettered free market, explores the nature of debt and commodities, and retraces some of the great economic debates of the last 200 years.
Each fifty-two minute episode is designed to stand alone, making these ideal for classroom use or as an additional resource for students:
Episode 1: Adam Smith, The Birth of the Free Market
Capitalism is much more complex than the vision Adam Smith laid out in The Wealth of Nations. Indeed, it predates Smith by centuries and took root in the practices of colonialism and the slave trade.
Episode 2: The Wealth of Nations: A New Gospel?
Adam Smith was both economist and moral philosopher. But his work on morality is largely forgotten, leading to tragic distortions that have shaped our global economic system.
Episode 3: Ricardo and Malthus: Did You Say Freedom?
The roots of today's global trade agreements lie in the work of stockbroker David Ricardo and demographer Thomas Malthus. Together, they would restructure society in the image of the market.
Episode 4: What If Marx Was Right?
Have we gotten Marx wrong by focusing on the Communist Manifesto instead of on his critique of how capitalism works - a critique that is relevant and as penetrating as ever?
Episode 5: Keynes vs Hayek: A Fake Debate?
The ideological divide between the philosophies of John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek has dominated economics for nearly a century. Is it time for the pendulum to swing back to Keynes? Or do we need a whole new approach that goes beyond this dualism?
Episode 6: Karl Polanyi, The Human Factor
An exploration of the life and work of Karl Polanyi, who sought to reintegrate society and economy. Could the commodification of labour and money ultimately be as disastrous as floods, drought and earthquakes?
CAPITALISM is an impressive series that makes economics accessible through an interdisciplinary approach that explores the work of great thinkers, while embedding economics in specific social, political, and historical contexts. The series can be watched as a whole, but each episode also stands alone.
The series features some of the world's top economists, historians, anthropologists, and sociologists, including Thomas Piketty, Noam Chomsky, Yanis Varoufakis, Nicholas Phillipson, Kari Polanyi Levitt, David Graeber, and Abraham Rotstein.
The story of Britain's longest strike, the 1984-85 miners' strike, when Margaret Thatcher declared war on the unions, as told by those who lived through it.
THE ENEMY WITHIN provides unique insight into one of the most dramatic events in British history: the 1984-85 Miners' Strike. No experts. No politicians. Thirty years on, this is the raw first-hand experience of those who lived through Britain's longest strike. Follow the highs and lows of that life-changing year.
In 1984, a Conservative government under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declared war on Britain's unions, taking on the strongest in the country, the National Union of Mineworkers. Following a secret plan, the government began announcing the closure of coal mines, threatening not just an industry but whole communities and a way of life.
Against all the forces the government could throw at them, 160,000 coal miners took up the fight. THE ENEMY WITHIN tells the story of a group of miners and supporters who were on the frontline of that strike for an entire year. These were people that Margaret Thatcher labelled "the enemy within".
Using interviews and a wealth of rare and never before seen archival footage, THE ENEMY WITHIN draws together personal experiences - whether they're tragic, funny or terrifying - to take the audience on an emotionally powerful journey through the dramatic events of that year.
Greenhorn is a powerful film that gives human dimension to the Holocaust. It poignantly underscores our flawed humanity and speaks to the healing value of friendship. Greenhorn, adapted from the childrens novel of the same name, is based on the true story of an 11-year old Holocaust survivor named Daniel who arrives at a Brooklyn yeshiva in 1946. He is befriended by Aaron, a boy with a stutter, and the two of them stand up to the bullies who make fun of them, Aaron because of his stutter and Daniel because of the small box (his only possession), with its terrible secret that he wont let out of his sight. Daniel, the young survivor, rarely talks, but the narrator, a stutterer who bears the taunts of the other boys, comes to consider Daniel his friend. The mystery of what is in the box propels this short film, but it is in the complex relationships of the school boys that the human story is revealed. In the end, Aaron, the stutterer, finds his voice and a friend in Daniel, and their bond offers hope for a future life of dreams realized, one in which Daniel is able to let go of his box.
The first Europeans came to America for different reasons, but they had the same goal: the freedom to live their lives their own way, without oppression or interference. They could not have imagined all the struggles and challenges they would have to face just to survive in this vast, untamed landscape. Somehow they managed not only to survive but flourish, laying the groundwork for the modern world's representative democracy. This new program, produced expressly for the classroom takes students on a fascinating journey that began at Jamestown with just 104 settlers, and ended -- or started again -- less than 200 years later, with the Declaration of Independence.
This important new program traces the conflict in the Middle East back to ancient times, when the Hebrews first claimed the Promised Land. The Jews fought against invaders of Israel many times, and conquerors expelled Jewish rebels as a way to keep control of this land. In the 20th century, Jews were able to reestablish a Jewish state out of Palestine, as well as Israel's other Arab neighbors. The program shows the circumstances that led up to the founding of Israel, and the claims both groups have to this ancient land. The program end in 1967 with Israel taking over the "Occupied Lands."
Witness the collapse of Russia's ancient autocracy and the rise of Communism. Get an inside close-up of Lenin from 1918-1924, including his funeral and entombment.
Eyewitness views of the attack at Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt delivering his war message to Congress, troops landing at Iwo Jima, and the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.