History Movies

Pope John Paul II

Bio-drama tracing the life and career of Polish cardinal Karol Wojtyla from his days as a young activist in Poland to his rise and installation in 1978 as Pope of the Catholic world.

The Night of Counting the Years

Set in 1881, a year before the start of British colonial rule, it is based on the true story of the Abd el-Rasuls, an Upper-Egyptian clan that had been robbing a cache of mummies they have discovered at tomb DB320 near the village of Kurna, and selling the artifacts on the black market. After a conflict within the clan, one of its members made a crucial decision when the Antiquities Service arrived.

Sleepless Oedo

We are now in the early 18th century, the Kyouhou era, when the merchant culture was flourishing. In Yoshiwara, the red light district of Edo, there is a popular courtesan with good looks and character, called Usugumo. She in fact is a daughter of a Christianized prostitute and Tokugawa Yoshimune (who was a real historical character and the 8th Shogun of Japan), but the power struggle in these times doesn't allow her to be with her father. Her fate is about to change when she meets the blond haired thief, Kikunosuke. With Kikunosuke, a doctor named Aoto Touichirou, who uses the yet unfamiliar Western medicine, and her pet cat, Kotetsu, Usugumo forms a thief group, the Kikugumi. In the meanwhile, a member of a mysterious group appears, aiming for Usugumo...

Hershey

Based on the life of Milton Hershey, founder of the iconic Hershey chocolate company. Milton's grit and determination to conquer the world of candy-making propel him from bankruptcy to monumental success, and the love of his life, Kitty, helps him build a legacy sweeter than any candy bar. But when Kitty falls ill, Milton’s wild optimism teeters on the edge of destruction, and she sparks an even bolder dream: to leave their fortune in the hands of America’s orphans.

Variola Vera

An Albanian pilgrim, infected with an unknown disease, is on his way back to Belgrade from the Middle East. When doctors realize that it is a disease that has been considered eradicated, it is already too late - variola vera begins to languish and the hospital is quarantined.

The Song of Roland

Roland des Roncesvalles is a legendary knight from the age of chivalry in France. In the 11th-century epic La Chanson de Roland, he is depicted as a key figure in halting the advance of the Arabs into France. In this story, the 10th-century legend is staged by a group of 12th-century pilgrims using the 11th-century poem. Their acting is interrupted by a violent peasant uprising, which kills many of the pilgrims. However, one of the survivors, is converted to the peasant cause and later speaks out in favor of more just treatment for the downtrodden.

Broad Peak

After climbing Broad Peak mountain, Maciej Berbeka learns his journey to the summit is incomplete. 25 years later, he sets out to finish what he started.

Effi Briest

When 17-year-old Effi Briest marries the elderly Baron von Instetten, she moves to a small, isolated Baltic town and a house that she fears is haunted. Starved for companionship, Effi begins a friendship with Major Crampas, a charismatic womanizer.

Journey to Mecca

The 20 year old Muslim religious law student Ibn Battuta (1304–1368), whose full name was Abu Abdullah Muhammed Ibn Abdullah Al Lawati Al Tanji Ibn Battuta, set out from Tangier, a city in northern Morocco, in 1325, on a pilgrimage to Mecca, some 3,000 miles (over 4,800 km) to the East. The journey took him 18 months to complete and along the way he met with misfortune and adversity, including attack by bandits, rescue by Bedouins, fierce sand storms and dehydration.

The Twin Swords

Gui Wu happens upon a kidnapping with his wife Gan Lian-zhu at the Red Lotus Temple. Lian-zhu sends Wu to go for reinforcements while she stays to fight the kidnappers. Fortunately, the mysterious Scarlet Maid is surreptitiously helping her.

Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession

A documentary on the Z Channel, one of the first pay cable stations in the US, and its programming chief, Jerry Harvey. Debuting in 1974, the LA-based channel's eclectic slate of movies became a prime example of the untapped power of cable television.

Two Hearts As One

A look inside the story of two newlyweds who are parted from each other and spend the next half-century of their lives trying to reunite.

Liberté '56

Sugarcoated Arsenic

"A 16mm cinematic exploration of African American intellectual, social, and political life at the University of Virginia during the 1970s. Conceived and written by UVA History Professor and author Claudrena Harold and directed by Harold and UVA Professor of Art, filmmaker/artist Kevin Jerome Everson, the film stars Erin Stewart (the bank teller/race driver in Everson's 2006 feature film "Cinnamon") as Vivian Gordon (the director of UVA's Black Studies program between 1975 and 1980). The film tells the story of African-American women and men who through their public and private gestures sought to create a beloved community that thrived on intellectual exchange, self-critique, and human warmth." - Trilobite-Arts-DAC, Claudrena Harold, Picture Palace Pictures

A Prayer for Rain

Thirty years on from the 1984 Union Carbide plant malfunction, the consequences of which are tragically ongoing, A Prayer for Rain is the powerful and moving story of the Bhopal tragedy, one of the great corporate and environmental scandals of the last half-century. It dramatises the dependence of the local community on the chemical plant that will eventually cause catastrophe, and the series of oversights that led to an event that stands as a benchmark for corporate irresponsibility in the developing world.

Sweet Country

An American couple in Chile is drawn into the turmoil that followed President Salvador Allende's 1973 overthrow.

St. Giuseppe Moscati: Doctor to the Poor

Giuseppe Moscati, Doctor saint of Naples, was a doctor of the early twentieth century, from an aristocratic family devoted his career to serving the poor. The film focuses on the human side, partially leaving aside the spiritual part.

The Prado Museum: A Collection of Wonders

Actor Jeremy Irons embarks on an epic journey through the halls of the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, two hundred years after its inauguration, along corridors where thousands of masterpieces of all time tell the lives of rulers and common people, and tales about times of war and madness and times of peace and happiness; because, as Goya said, imagination, the mother of the arts, produces impossible monsters, but also unspeakable wonders.

Edward VIII's Murderous Mistress

The extraordinary story of Edward VIII's first love affair, involving a murder trial, a secret cache of vanished letters, and a cover-up to save the reputation of the future King.

My Brother's Killer

The unsolved murder of Billy London, a gay adult film performer brutally killed in West Hollywood, was an urban legend for 33 years. A documentary intended to honor his life took an unexpected turn when members of the community joined forces to uncover overlooked clues, and seek a resolution to the mystery of who killed him. Drawing on a rare trove of VHS and personal footage, the film reveals a chilling overlap between the victim and some of the suspects who were captured on camera in films made in the narrow window of Billy's death.