March 7, 2012
Mexican writer Paco Ignacio Taibo II reconstructs one of the most remarkable founding myths of the United States of America: the epic battle of the Alamo, a fortified former Spanish mission near San Antonio de Béjar, in which a group of secessionist Texans withstood for thirteen days the merciless assaults of the Mexican army of President General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
March 5, 2012
Buta the sword for hire is recruited by the Tufugu Pirates on their voyage to seek a stockpile of treasure. On board he discovers a child Kitsune locked away below deck. After some misunderstandings and with the promise of more money, the two of them go on their own adventure.
March 4, 2012
The truth about the million British horses that served in World War I is even more epic than Steven Spielberg’s War Horse feature film. This documentary tells their extraordinary, moving story, begining with the mass call-up of horses from every farm and country estate in the land. Racing commentator Brough Scott tells the tale of his aristocratic grandfather General Jack Seely and his beloved horse Warrior, who would become the most famous horse of the war. The British Army hoped its illustrious cavalry regiments would win a swift victory, but it would be years before they enjoyed their moment of glory. Instead, in a new era of mechanised trench warfare, the heavy horses transporting guns, ammunition and food to the front-line troops were most important. A quarter of a million of these horses died from shrapnel wounds and disease. But the deep bond that developed between man and horse helped both survive the hell of the Somme and Passchendaele.
March 3, 2012
Live chronicle of the landmark federal trial of California's Prop. 8 using the actual court transcripts and first-hand interviews.
March 2, 2012
Stars above follows the stories of three women from the same family across three different decades. The main characters – Saima, Tuulikki and Salla – each lives in the same country house. Saima´s story takes place in the war time 1942, when Finland fought against Soviet Union, Tuulikki´s story in colourful year 1978 and Salla´s story in the present day. Each woman is between 30 and 40. This deep and beautiful, yet humorous film pictures the encounters between people and the possibilities for choice. How much does the time we live in affect us - and our ability to hold on to our dreams? What are those things which we pass on from one generation to the next? What changes, what remains the same? And to what extent do mothers´ choices, let alone their unspoken secrets, affect their daughters´ lives?
March 2, 2012
Komboodhi is the leader of a tribe that steals from the rich to survive. He befriends Varipuli, unaware of his past, only to learn that his village has been hunting him to offer his life to god.
March 2, 2012
Heist: Who Stole the American Dream? reveals how American corporations orchestrated the dismantling of middle-class prosperity through rampant deregulation, the outsourcing of jobs, and tax policies favoring businesses and the wealthy. The collapse of the U.S. economy is the result of conscious choices made over thirty five years by a small group: leaders of corporations and their elected allies, and the biggest lobbying interest in Washington, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. To these individuals, the collapse is not a catastrophe, but rather the planned outcome of their long, patient work. For the rest of the country, it is merely the biggest heist in American history.
March 1, 2012
Could a recently excavated, 12,000 year old temple have propelled us out of the stone age and into the space age? Archaeologist Dr. Jeff Rose investigates an extraordinary find in Turkey.
March 1, 2012
A powerful documentary starring Morgan Freeman about the genesis of The Blues in the South and the music spreading around the world. Morgan Freeman shares his story of his experience of growing up in Clarksdale, Mississippi and his love for the Blues.
February 28, 2012
Lyrical and meditative, The Amish answers many questions Americans have about this insistently insular religious community, whose intense faith and adherence to five hundred year-old traditions have by turns captivated and repelled, awed and irritated, inspired and confused for more than a century. With unprecedented access to the Amish built on patience and hard-won trust, the film is the first to deeply penetrate and explore this profoundly attention-averse group. In doing so, it paints an extraordinarily intimate portrait of contemporary Amish faith and life. It questions why and how the Amish, an insistently closed and communal culture, have thrived within one of the most open, individualistic societies on earth.
February 28, 2012
In 1427, Lady Maria Van Arnstein is informed that her beloved husband Michel Van Arnstein was murdered in a battle against the Hussitas. However he was actually betrayed by his ambitious cousin Hettenhein that wants his lands and castle. The Pope's Great Inquisitor Janus Suppertour meets King König Sigismund and tells that he wants Maria for him.
February 28, 2012
During the Republican run of the 2008 Presidential election, candidate John McCain picks a relative unknown, Alaskan governor Sarah Palin, to be his running mate. As the campaign kicks into high gear, her lack of experience, in both political and media savvy, becomes a drain upon McCain and his strategists.
February 24, 2012
A riveting portrait of the great writer whose stories became the basis of the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof. Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness tells the tale of the rebellious genius who created an entirely new literature. Plumbing the depths of a Jewish world locked in crisis and on the cusp of profound change, he captured that world with brilliant humor. Sholem Aleichem was not just a witness to the creation of a new modern Jewish identity, but one of the very men who forged it.
February 23, 2012
Rooted in the tropical underground of Los Angeles nightlife, Wildness is a portrait of the Silver Platter, a historic bar that has been home to Latin/LGBT immigrant communities since 1963. With a magical-realist flourish the bar itself becomes a character, narrating what happens when a weekly party (organized by Director Wu Tsang, DJs NGUZUNGUZU, and Total Freedom) called Wildness explodes into creativity and conflict. What does "safe space" mean? Who needs it? And how does it differ among us? At the Silver Platter, the search for answers creates coalitions across generations.
February 21, 2012
During the summer of the year 1610 one of the first telescopes made by Galileo ends up in the hands of Jean Kepler in Prague who at the time was the astronomer of Emperor Rudolp II. Kepler observes the night-sky as nobody has seen it before him. His observation platform becomes the meeting place of Prague's imperial court. In this entourage Kepler separates science from superstition, freedom from intolerance.
February 20, 2012
In this two-hour H2 special, historian and weapons expert Mike Loades goes medieval diving deep into the world of the Middle Ages. From the 5th to the 15th centuries, Mike battles the realities vs. the myths of this extraordinary time crusading for the core of real life while delivering fun-filled facts. From living, working and fighting to how to keep a knight's armor shiny using a vigorous rub of sand, vinegar and urine, Going Medieval is an expert account of life during medieval times.
February 18, 2012
In 1975, Thomas Harlan's crew filmed Torre Bela's homestead occupation, in the center of Portugal. Three decades later, RED LINE revisits this emblematic film of the Portuguese revolutionary period: in which way did Harlan interfered in the events that seems to naturally develop in front of the camera? What was the impact of the film on the lives of the occupants and the memory of that period?
February 14, 2012
Toussaint opposes the Spanish army and joins the French troops. On Saint-Domingue he succeeds to push the English back. He proclames himself as the gouvernor of Saint-Domingue. To restore the economy he takes a bold descision. He calls for the workers to return to the plantages...
February 14, 2012
Symbolizing the turning point occurred in the Battle of Sakarya in Turkish-Greek War, tells one of the most moving stories.
February 13, 2012
12 episodes documentary about Turkish political history focused on period between 1993 and 2002.