Social/History documentaries
Socially historical and other history-focused documentaries that I've seen and rated.
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- StarsAaron PedersenErnie DingoUrsula YovichFirst Australians chronicles the birth of contemporary Australia as never told before, from the perspective of its first people. First Australians explores what unfolds when the oldest living culture in the world is overrun by the world's greatest empire. Over seven episodes, First Australians depicts the true stories of individuals - both black and white - caught in an epic drama of friendship, revenge, loss and victory in Australia's most transformative period of history. The story begins in 1788 in Sydney, with the friendship between an Englishmen (Governor Phillip) and a warrior (Bennelong) and ends in 1992 with Koiki Mabo's legal challenge to the foundation of Australia. First Australians chronicles the collision of two worlds and the genesis of a new nation.
- DirectorRob EpsteinJeffrey FriedmanStarsLily TomlinTony CurtisSusie BrightA documentary surveying the various Hollywood screen depictions of homosexuals and the attitudes behind them throughout the history of North American film.
- StarsSamuel WestAdolf BuchnerJutta RüdigerAn examination of how a cultured people could have allowed Adolf Hitler's rise to power.
- DirectorEd BellThomas LennonStarsWhoopi GoldbergAngela BassettMichael BoatmanWhen the Civil War ended in 1865, more than four million slaves were set free. Over 70 years later, the memories of some 2,000 slave-era survivors were transcribed and preserved by the Library of Congress. These first-person anecdotes, ranging from the brutal to the bittersweet, have been brought to vivid life, featuring the on-camera voices of over a dozen top African-American actors.
- DirectorGreta SchillerRobert RosenbergStarsRita Mae BrownBruce NugentHenry OtisThe history of the Gay and Lesbian community before the Stonewall riots began the major gay rights movement.
- DirectorJohn ScagliottiStarsCraig RodwellMelissa EtheridgeMike CarneyDocumentary/Historical retrospective of the Gay Rights movement from the 1969 Stonewall riots to the present.
- DirectorVeronica Alice MannixStarsAl ArsenaultToby HintonDave KolbDocumentary film produced by the National Film Board of Canada. Shot on Vancouver's Downtown East Side, the film follows interactions between police officers and drug addicts and documents the extreme poverty and suffering many addicts endure.
- DirectorCarl DealTia LessinStarsMichael BrownGeorge W. BushJulie Chen MoonvesA redemptive tale of an aspiring rap artist surviving failed levees and her own troubled past and seizing a chance for a new beginning.
- DirectorLoretta AlperStarsStanley AronowitzEdward AsnerRoseanne BarrBased on the forthcoming book by Pepi Leistyna, Class Dismissed navigates the steady stream of narrow working class representations from American television's beginnings to today's sitcoms, reality shows, police dramas, and daytime talk shows. Featuring interviews with media analysts and cultural historians, this documentary examines the patterns inherent in TV's disturbing depictions of working class people as either clowns or social deviants - stereotypical portrayals that reinforce the myth of meritocracy. Class Dismissed breaks important new ground in exploring the ways in which race, gender, and sexuality intersect with class, offering a more complex reading of television's often one-dimensional representations. The video also links television portrayals to negative cultural attitudes and public policies that directly affect the lives of working class people. Featuring interviews with Stanley Aronowitz, (City University of New York); Nickel and Dimed author, Barbara Ehrenreich; Herman Gray (University of California-Santa Cruz); Robin Kelley (Columbia University); Pepi Leistyna (University of Massachusetts-Boston) and Michael Zweig (State University of New York-Stony Brook). Also with Arlene Davila, Susan Douglas, Bambi Haggins, Lisa Henderson, and Andrea Press.
- DirectorAlanis ObomsawinKahentiiosta était à Kanehsatake, du début à la fin de la crise. Le film décrit ce qu'elle y a vécu, puis surtout sa comparution au tribunal parce que le Procureur général n'acceptait pas son nom mohawk et enfin sa vie et celle d'autres «warriors» au camp militaire de Farnham.******This documentary short by Alanis Obomsawin tells the story of Kahentiiosta, a young Kahnawake Mohawk woman arrested after the Oka Crisis' 78-day armed standoff in 1990. She was detained 4 days longer than the other women. Her crime? The prosecutor representing the Quebec government did not accept her Indigenous name.
- DirectorMichael MitchellMort RansenStarsMichael MitchellA documentary about a group of native Americans near the Canadian border. They attempt to blockade a road that runs through their land, leading to the Canadian police getting involved to open the road.
- StarsSimon SchamaMichael KitchenSamuel WestA comprehensive historical survey of the British Isles.
- DirectorRobert J. FlahertyStarsAllakariallakAlice NevalingaCunayouIn this silent predecessor to the modern documentary, film-maker Robert J. Flaherty spends one year following the lives of Nanook and his family, Inuits living in the Arctic Circle.
- DirectorTimothy CopestakeStarsBettany HughesAntonio AlmagroMoussa AouniThis program contends that the popular perception of the Muslim occupation of Spain toward the end of the first millennium is largely wrong. The eighth century Muslim invasion of the Iberian Pennisula was largely welcomed by the locals and rejuvenated the area with advanced technology, agriculture and a construction boom. This program describes these innovations. All this changed in the eleventh century when the regional government fragmented. That set the stage for the Christian invasion and the Islamic fundamentalist resistance leading to more of a civil war than a holy war that decimated the region with corruption, destruction and exile.
- DirectorLexy LovellMichael UysStarsMichael McPhearsonPerry ParksWill WilliamsFollows the journeys of five combat veterans from different generations of American wars as they sign up, go into battle, and eventually change their minds about what it means to be a good soldier.
- DirectorSam GreenBill SiegelStarsLili TaylorPamela ZJim LangeThe remarkable story of The Weather Underground, radical activists of the 1970s, and of radical politics at its best and most disastrous.
- DirectorRobin HessmanTells the story of five people from the last generation of Soviet children who were brought up behind the Iron Curtain. Just coming of age when the USSR collapsed, they witnessed the world of their childhood crumble and change beyond recognition. Through the lives of these former schoolmates, this intimate film reveals how they have adjusted to their post-Soviet reality in today's Moscow.
- StarsGus Casely-HayfordAbune PaulosStephanie Wynne-JonesA paucity of written records means we know less about Africa's ancient history than almost anywhere else on Earth. Cultural historian Dr Augustus Casely-Hayford uses culture, artifacts and traditions to explore that history.
- DirectorJennifer BaichwalStarsEric SchlosserMargaret AtwoodConrad BlackAn adaptation of Margaret Atwood's book examining the metaphor of indebtedness.
- DirectorMurray SipleStarsMurray SipleThis documentary follows a group of homeless men who have combined bottle picking with the extreme sport of racing shopping carts.
- DirectorDavid ZeigerStarsMichael AlaimoEdward AsnerJoe BangertNO! SIR! tells an almost entirely forgotten story of the military men and women who forced the U.S. government to end the Vietnam War
- DirectorShui-Bo WangStarsClarence AdamsDella AdamsHoward AdamsThe story of twenty-one American POWs who, after the Korean War ended, chose to live in China instead of returning the USA.
- DirectorSelwyn JacobStarsFrederick WardEddie BaileyEarl BriscoeThe story of African-Canadian railroad porters on the Canadian railways.
- DirectorAmy BergStarsOliver O'GradyThomas DoyleAdamDocumentary about Father Oliver O'Grady, a Catholic priest who was relocated to various parishes around the United States during the 1970s in an attempt by the Catholic Church to cover up his rape of dozens of children.
- DirectorAlex KleiderCorey OgilvieStarsMisha KleiderGregor RobertsonGabor MatéDocumentary about homelessness and drugs in Vancouver Canada.