History

Auckland / Tāmaki Makaurau is New Zealand's largest city and the main commercial hub of the country. Auckland has always been regarded as "different"; it has always been a contested place, a crossroads. In 2009, just before Auckland was to become the Super City, we asked some of the city's best informed and outspoken residents to help us tell the story of the place. The result is a rich and at times contradictory composite of views which yet add up to something deeply informative and memorable.

Set during China's the Warring States Period (476-221 BC), benevolent warrior Chenkang Lu (Joe Odagiri) enters into a torrid love affair with a woman (Maggie Q) from the nomadic Harran tribe. Their relationship sends the warrior to a place where humans were once wolves...

How a covert US Military operation fooled the Germans to help 73 prisoners of war escape in one of World War 2s greatest untold stories.

Druscilla and Baudica continue to take great risks for what they hope will be great rewards in their slave trading business. Choosing the daughter of a German noble family proves to have disastrous consequences as they engage in satisfying their lesbian desires with the ultimate but dangerous game of submission, training women and teens to become their docile submissive dolls to their erotic fantasies and sexual demands.

Two German Jewish brothers reunite many years after World War II.

Die Narbe. Westberlin (West) features a Helicopter ride following in real time (76 minutes) as closely as possible the entire length (156 km) of the former Wall that divided the city. The original soundtrack is by FM Einheit (former member of Einstuerzende Neubauten), including some pieces by Klaus Wiese (former member of Popul Vuh). Both sound researchers underline the magical aerial views of the city under snow with a definite uneasiness, permanently reminding us of the past and of our longing for resolution. When the helicopter reaches Wannsee, the city turmoil runs into a more meditative rhythm.

In 1968 Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys met a dynamic and passionate singer/songwriter and introduced him to Hollywood. The two set out to record that artist's first professional album. The album became known as LIE. In 1969 this artist achieved incredible fame, but not for his music. The artist's name was Charles Manson.

A psychological, heart-wrenching love story that provides a unique and inside look at Charles Darwin. Torn between faith and science, he struggles to finish his legendary book "On the Origin of the Species," which goes on to become the foundation for evolutionary biology.

The life of the poet, filmmaker, journalist, politician, teacher and union leader Homero Manzi. Since his time in prison, his friendships, the bohemian life, his time in the cinema and his memorable musical compositions.

Hildegard von Bingen was truly a woman ahead of her time. A visionary in every sense of the word, this famed 12th-century Benedictine nun was a Christian mystic, composer, philosopher, playwright, poet, naturalist, scientist, physician, herbalist and ecological activist.

Mu Myeong is a Joseon dynasty headhunter who meets and falls in love with lady Ja Yeong who will become the future Empress Myseongseong. A few years later, Ja Yeong enters the royal palace to marry King Gojong. Mu Myeong still having feelings for Ja Yeong and in an attempt to get closer to her becomes her personal body guard.

A documentary on the life and career of Victor Fleming, director of such iconic movies as The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind.

Autumn 1961: The GDR regime secures the border between the workers' and peasants' state and the class enemy in the West. To ensure this, the leadership also orders the use of firearms against those fleeing the republic. In Böseckendorf, close to the border, people are not prepared to accept this development. When one of the residents accidentally learns of a secret plan from the SED district leadership, which reveals that all unruly residents are to be forcibly relocated in just a few days, the people of Böseckendorf spontaneously decide to flee en masse. But can an entire village escape the GDR state power unnoticed overnight?

When 12 year old twins Madison & Reagan Church wanted to know why they couldn't find bank bailouts, takeovers of car companies and universal health care in the Constitution they were "studying" in school, they asked their dad where to find it. The result is an exciting journey through the Founding era to discover the truth behind our governments founding document and the men who proposed and opposed it.

January 1953: On the eve of his death Stalin finds himself yet another imaginary enemy: Jewish doctors. He organizes the most violent anti-Semitic campaign ever launched in the USSR, by fabricating the "Doctors' Plot," whereby doctors are charged with conspiring to murder the highest dignitaries of the Soviet Regime. Still unknown and untold, this conspiracy underlines the climax of a political scheme successfully masterminded by Stalin to turn the Jews into the new enemies of the people. It reveals his extreme paranoia and his compulsion to manipulate those around him. The children and friends of the main victims recount for the first time their experience and their distress related to these nightmarish events.

The tale of one man who fought against the tyranny of a ruler and led his people in battle in the ultimate sacrifice for his country.

Spring 1923. Krzysztof Grabień, the son of a teacher from a village near Przeworsk, arrives on the Polish coast encouraged by news of the construction of a port in Gdynia. Next to a point recruiting workers, Krzysztof meets Volodya Yazovetsky. The peer persuades him to go into an illegal but profitable business. At the garkuchnya works Lucka Konka, whom Krzysztof likes with reciprocity. Volodya meets French engineers who are to help build the wharves of a future port.

A kind grandmother regales her grandchildren with timeless stories of Lord Siva to correlate with their daily chores.