Fighter for Freedom: The Frederick Douglass Story

The Picture Taker

October 2022 •English

From his Memphis studio, Ernest Withers’ nearly 2 million images were a treasured record of Black history but his legacy was complicated by decades of secret FBI service revealed only after his death. Was he a friend of the civil rights community, or enemy—or both?

Escape from the World's Most Dangerous Place

April 2012 •English

Successful model Samira Hashi makes an emotional return to Somalia, one of the most dangerous places in the world and the place she was born. Civil war broke out in 1991, 10 days after Samira's birth, but two years later her family managed to flee the country and she grew up in the UK.Now, as Samira and the war both turn 21, she's going back for the first time to visit the people and places she left behind. The contrast with her safe and glamorous life in London could not be starker as she experiences firsthand the war's effect on a generation of young people growing up in conflict.

Is That Black Enough for You?!?

October 2022 •English

A look at the Black revolution in 1970s cinema, from genre films to social realism, from the making of new superstars to the craft of rising auteurs.

The Tulsa Lynching of 1921: A Hidden Story

May 2000 •English

Documents the race riot of 1921 and the destruction of the African-American community of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. With testimony by eyewitnesses and background accounts by historians.

For Love of Liberty: The Story of America's Black Patriots

January 2010 •English

This High Definition, PBS miniseries uses letters, diaries, speeches, journalistic accounts, historical text and military records to document and acknowledge the sacrifices and accomplishments of African-American service men and women since the earliest days of the republic.

How the Monuments Came Down

June 2021 •English

How the Monuments Came Down is a timely and searing look at the history of white supremacy and Black resistance in Richmond. The feature-length film-brought to life by history-makers, descendants, scholars, and activists-reveals how monuments to Confederate leaders stood for more than a century, and why they fell.

Booker T. Washington: The Life and the Legacy

May 1982 •English

Traces the life of Booker T. Washington, ex-slave, author, educator, and political leader, focusing on his stewardship of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Uses historic photographs, re-created vignettes, and interviews with contemporaries such as W.E.B. DuBois to present Washington's complex personality and his influence on southern life after the Civil War. Also examines his controversial policies of Black economic self-reliance and political accommodation

Colombia in My Arms

November 2022 •Finnish

After 52 years of armed conflict the FARC guerrillas are about to hand over their arms in exchange for political participation and social inclusion of the poor. Ernesto is one of them. The much celebrated Colombian peace agreement throws Ernesto and the polarised society around him into chaos in which everyone is afraid of the future and their own survival.

Maria's Story

January 1991 •English

It is El Salvador, 1989, three years before the end of a brutal civil war that took 75,000 lives. Maria Serrano, wife, mother, and guerrilla leader is on the front lines of the battle for her people and her country. With unprecedented access to FMLN guerrilla camps, the filmmakers dramatically chronicle Maria's daily life in the war.

The Wars of the Roses: A Bloody Crown

January 2002 •English

Using historically-accurate, battle-filled re-enactments and interviews with expert historians and noted authors, this two-part documentary series brings to vivid life the captivating true stories behind Britain's bloody civil wars.

George Washington Carver at Tuskegee Institute

December 1937 •English

Color footage of inventor George Washington Carver at Tuskegee University in Alabama. Dr. Carver is filmed at his apartment, office, laboratory, and garden.

Maurice Hines: Bring Them Back

November 2019 •English

Maurice Hines, a charming, gay African-American entertainer navigates the complications of show business while grieving the loss of his more famous, often estranged younger brother, tap dance legend Gregory Hines.

Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives

February 2003 •English

When 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 in this unique HBO documentary special, featuring the on-camera voices of over a dozen top African-American actors.

Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson

September 2004 •English

The story of Jack Johnson, the first African American Heavyweight boxing champion.

Behind the Smoke Screen

January 2013 •Italian

Lincoln@Gettysburg

November 2013 •English

An examination of how President Abraham Lincoln used contemporary telecommunications to his maximum advantage in the American Civil War.

The History of the Civil War

June 1921 •Russian

The epic story of the Russian Civil War (1918-21): the White Terror, the counterrevolutionary uprisings, the guerrilla war, the Kolchak front, the Wrangel front and the Kronstadt rebellion. Chaos and violence, devastation and death.

A Different Kind of Gun

January 2007 •Arabic

"The reason why they kill people is because they do not have any education," a Sudanese boy says about the bloody conflict in his fatherland. Shortly before, we see images of a bombed school. In this film, the youngest and most innocent generation of Sudanese explains how it deals with the war that is tearing the country apart. Will the orphaned children avenge their murdered parents, or will they forgive the killers and start working on a new life? At any rate, these children's dreams for the future are anything but violent. One of them wants to learn English to be able to liberate his country, another wants to study to "be something," a third wants to become president to bring total peace, and yet another simply wants to be like her grandmother. Despite all the atrocities they have witnessed, the children mainly want to rebuild things, to put an end to the destruction.

The Last of the First

May 2004 •English

The Harlem Blues & Jazz Band during its sunset years: 87-year-old Al Casey, who had worked closely with Fats Waller throughout the 1930s; guitarist Lawrence Lucie, 95 years young, from the bands of Louis Armstrong, Benny Carter and Duke Ellington; saxophonist Bubba Brooks, 79, who was with Bill Doggett; Edwin Swanston, 80, pianist with Louis Armstrong's Orchestra; 91-year-old drummer Johnny Blowers, ex-Bunny Berigan, Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra; Ivan Rolle, 85, bassist with Jonah Jones; and 88-year-old Laurel Watson, one-time vocalist with Duke Ellington and Count Basie. Baron's cameras record the musicians through their tours and concerts, capturing their joy in performing together. A celebration of the jazz spirit.

JazzTown

March 2021 •English

Denver’s iconic and Grammy Award-winning musicians reveal the secrets of their success and longevity in the music business while warning the young lions to whom they pass the torch to stay relevant in a marketplace both treacherous and brutal. The majestic Rocky Mountains tower over a bustling metropolis filled with steamy and romantic nightclubs where jazz flourishes on stage. JazzTown features never seen before live concert footage on historic stages that have now crumbled due to economic stresses of the Covid Pandemic. ~ Dianne Reeves, 5-time Grammy Award winner for Best Jazz Vocalist ~ US Senator John Hickenlooper (former jazz club owner) ~ Ron Miles (Colorado Music Hall of Fame, Joshua Redman, Bill Frisell, Ginger Baker) ~ Charlie Hunter (Snarky Puppy, Christian McBride, Stanton Moore) ~ Art Lande (Mark Isham, Gary Peacock) ~ Ayo Awosika (Session Singer on Soundtracks to: Wakanda Forever, Nope, Dune, The Lion King ... tours with Miley Cyrus,) and many more.