Sons and Daughters

Vive la Revolution! Joan Bakewell on May '68

May 2018 •English

In 1968 Joan Bakewell was one of the few female TV presenters, fronting the BBC's Late Night Line-Up and addressing daily the most pressing issues of the time. In this film she looks back at the events that led to what for many became the defining event of that extraordinarily turbulent year - the protests in France in May. While the rest of the world was in turmoil, with the Vietnam War causing increasing dissent, the Civil Rights movement growing in intensity and young people finding new ways of expressing themselves, as 1968 began it seemed to France's president, General de Gaulle, that his country was immune to the kind of protest sweeping the rest of the world.

Alene Duerk: First Woman to Make Admiral

January 2020 •English

Following the tradition of military service in her family, Alene Duerk enlisted as a Navy nurse in 1943. During her eventful 32 year career, she served in WWII on a hospital ship in the Sea of Japan, and trained others in the Korean War. She became the Director of the Navy Nursing Corps during the Vietnam War before finally attaining the rank of Admiral in the U.S. Navy. Despite having no other women as mentors (or peers), Admiral Duerk always looked for challenging opportunities that women had not previously held. Her consistently high level of performance led to her ultimate rise to become the first woman Admiral.

Gewalt no Mori - Kare ha Waseda de shinda

May 2024 •Japanese

A documentary about the end of the student movement in 1972 and the lynching of Daizaburo Kawaguchi, a student at Waseda University. The documentary interweaves testimonies from japanese intellectuals and a short play, written and directed by Shôji Kôkami, about the murder.

MIAU

July 2022 •Portuguese

Two Forgotten Boxes

January 2020 •Italian

Before becoming a film critic, then a maker mainly of sharply engaged documentaries, usually in tandem with her late husband Lino Del Fra, Cécilia Mangini was a photographer. Taking pictures was something she did all her life, alongside whatever else she was working on. In 1965 Mangini and Del Fra went to war-torn Vietnam to make a film they never finished. More than half a century later, she returned to these images, moving and still, some of which she found again by accident.

Vietnam: American Holocaust

November 2008 •English

VIETNAM: AMERICAN HOLOCAUST exposes one of the worst cases of sustained mass slaughter in history, carefully planned and executed by presidents of both parties. Our dedicated generals and foot soldiers, knowingly or unknowingly, killed nearly 5 million people, on an almost unimaginable scale, mostly using incendiary bombs. Vietnam has never left our national consciousness, and now, in this time, it has more relevance than ever. Claiborne documents the Whitehouse fabrication of the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, and further, raises the question of whether JFK was assassinated to promote the Vietnam War. Martin Sheen, who played the leading role in Apocalypse Now almost 30 years ago, has generously lent his powerful voice to this actual history of the War in Vietnam.

Jeremiah

November 2015 •English

A U.S. Navy Commander Jeremiah Denton leading a plane sortie into North Vietnam was shot down and captured as a POW. For 8 years of his life, he was a prisoner at Hanoi Hilton where he and other POWs were tortured. In a press conference, being forced by the North Vietnamese to say he was being treated well he blinked out the letters TORTURE in Morse code.

Exit Music

April 2018 •English

Born with cystic fibrosis, 28 year old Ethan Rice faces his demise with a dark sense of humour and more concern about what his passing will mean to those he leaves behind than for himself.

At Berkeley

November 2013 •English

Direct cinema pioneer Frederick Wiseman takes an in-depth look at the preeminent American university during a fall semester that saw a vigorous debate taking place over tuition hikes, budget cuts, and the future of higher education in the United States.

Standing Army

January 2010 •English

Standing Army, directed by Enrico Parenti and Thomas Fazi, is an award-winning documentary film about the global network of U.S. military bases, the impact that these have on local populations, and the military-industrial complex that lies behind it.

When a City Rises

April 2021 •

Behind the gas masks of Hong Kong’s democracy movement, the often very young activists are just as diverse as the youths of the rest of the world. But they share a demand for democracy and freedom. They have the will and the courage to fight – and they can see that things are going in the wrong direction in the small island city, which officially has autonomy under China but is now tightening its grip and demanding that ‘troublemakers’ be put away or silenced. Amid the violent protests, we meet a 21-year-old student, a teenage couple and a new father.

America: From Hitler to M-X

December 1982 •English

Anti-war feature documentary uncovering America's support of Hitler and the role of big business in the development of the atomic bomb, the Cold War, and nuclear power.

Napalm

June 1967 •English

A variety of locals react to a napalm plant and an ensuing protest in Redwood City CA during the Vietnam War.

Das Dorf der Freundschaft

August 2001 •German

A German Documentary about the “village of friendship” that was created by American Veteran George Mizo to help the Vietnamese kids suffering from the Vietnam War.

Research and Crime: the Reich University of Strasbourg

June 2018 •German

Strasbourg was home to one of three Reich Universities founded by the Nazis, known as a project close to Hitler's heart. The university, founded in 1941, is infamous for the human experiments performed on KZ prisoners by the professors of the medical faculty. What did its dean, Johannes Stein, grandfather of documentarian Kirsten Esch, know of these crimes?

Concerned Student 1950

March 2016 •English

A series of racist acts prompts three Mizzou students to pick up cameras and take us inside the student movement that brought down their college president. From the hunger strike, to victory, to the fear of violent reprisals, we live with the students who started a campus revolt.

The Jock: A Montford Point Marine

July 2023 •English

"The Jock: a Montford Point Marine" unveils the harrowing yet inspiring journey of an American Marine from the segregated boot camp of Montford Point, North Carolina. Raised on the tough streets of Philadelphia, Dave Culmer is drawn to the Marines, enchanted by the impeccable attire and imposing stature of a local Marine. After being dismissed from high school, he finds his path leading him not to the widely known Parris Island boot camp, but to the lesser-known Montford Point. His path to becoming a Marine is fraught with discrimination and grueling trials that push him to his physical and mental limits. Amid the struggle, he learns resilience, embodying the relentless spirit of Montford Point that drove these men to exceed expectations set by a society that predicted their failure.

Winter Soldier

January 1972 •English

For three days in 1971, former US soldiers who were in Vietnam testify in Detroit about their war experiences. Nearly 30 speak, describing atrocities personally committed or witnessed, telling of inaccurate body counts, and recounting the process of destroying a village.

Sir! No Sir!

May 2005 •English

Sir! No Sir! is a documentary film about the anti-war movement within the ranks of the United States Military during the Vietnam War. It consists in part of interviews with Vietnam veterans explaining the reasons they protested the war or even defected. The film tells the story of how, from the very start of the war, there was resentment within the ranks over the difference between the conflict in Vietnam and the "good wars" that their fathers had fought. Over time, it became apparent that so many were opposed to the war that they could speak of a movement.

Hearts and Minds

December 1974 •English

Many times during his presidency, Lyndon B. Johnson said that ultimate victory in the Vietnam War depended upon the U.S. military winning the "hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese people. Filmmaker Peter Davis uses Johnson's phrase in an ironic context in this anti-war documentary, filmed and released while the Vietnam War was still under way, juxtaposing interviews with military figures like U.S. Army Chief of Staff William C. Westmoreland with shocking scenes of violence and brutality.