Films about history
Short Film
Digital Premiere: May 3, 2018
Celebrating those who helped us along in life.
Short Film
Digital Premiere: Feb. 22, 2018
A California teenager gets sent to Louisiana for a summer with her great-grandmother.
Short Film
Digital Premiere: Feb. 8, 2018
A story for anyone who’s ever dreamt of spending a night in a library.
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: Oct. 23, 2017
A boxing match in Brooklyn; life in postwar Bosnia; the daily routine of a Nigerian midwife; an intimate family moment at home: these scenes and others are woven into a tapestry of footage captured over the twenty-five-year career of cinematographer Kirsten Johnson. A work that combines documentary, autobiography, and ethical inquiry, Cameraperson is a thoughtful examination of what it means to train a camera on the world. Official Selection, 2016 Sundance Film Festival.
Short Film
Digital Premiere: Sept. 17, 2017
Tom Geerdes, a Vietnam veteran, remembers his long journey toward healing after returning home from the war.
Feature Film
Encore Broadcast: Aug. 7, 2017
Iris pairs the late documentarian Albert Maysles (Grey Gardens, Gimme Shelter), then 87, with Iris Apfel, the quick-witted, flamboyantly dressed 93-year-old style maven who has had an outsized presence on the New York fashion scene for decades.
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: July 24, 2017
Three Italian Jewish brothers set off on a journey through Tuscany, in search of a cave where they hid as children to escape the Nazis.
Short Film
PBS Premiere: July 24, 2017
In the Oscar-nominated Joe's Violin, a donated musical instrument forges an improbable friendship. Nominated, 2017 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject.
Short Film
PBS Premiere: Oct. 24, 2016
Reverend James L. Seawood remembers what happened to his elementary school after the last African American family was forced out of Sheridan, Arkansas, in the 1950's.
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: June 27, 2016
In this Oscar®-nominated film, winner of more than 70 awards, an optometrist identifies the men who killed his brother in the horrific 1965 Indonesian genocide. He confronts them while testing their eyesight and demands they accept responsibility. Winner, Grand Jury Prize, Critics Prize and Human Rights Award, 2014 Venice Film Festival.
Short Film
PBS Premiere: June 29, 2015
Theresa Burroughs recalls her persistence to claim her right to vote during the Jim Crow era in the rural South.
Feature Film
PBS Premiere: Sept. 22, 2014
Meet Ed Koch, the quintessential New Yorker. Combative, funny and blunt, he was mayor from 1978 to 1989, an era of graffiti, near-bankruptcy and crime. Before his death in 2013, the intensely private man recalled his life and legacy.