In 1848 during the tumultuous era of European revolutions shaking the continent out of its feudal-based empire-based system the Wallachian politician Nicolae Balcescu is trying to reach the same revolutionary goals at home.
This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short tells the story of 18th Century French physician Dr. Philippe Pinel, who initiated enlightened, humane treatment of the mentally ill.
Begun in Austria in 1944/45, finished and released in 1949, this is a biography of the minor Austrian composer Carl Michael Ziehrer, who overcomes hypersensitivity in competitive situations which leads initially to failures in both career and romance.
The complex and beautiful hieroglyphic script of the ancient Maya was until recently one of the last great undeciphered writing systems. Based on the best-selling book by Michael Coe, called by the New York Times "one of the great stories of 20th century scientific discovery", Breaking the Maya Code traces the epic quest to unlock the secrets of the script across 200 years, nine countries and three continents.
Drama-Documentary in which historian Dan Snow explores the political intrigues and family betrayals between Vikings, Anglo-Saxons and Normans that led to the Battle of Hastings.
La doble vida del faquir (The magicians) returns to the scene of a school in the Catalan town of Sant Julià de Vilatorta where, in 1937, in the midst of civil war, a film-maker in hiding and a group of orphaned children dressed up as sultans and explorers shot an exotic adventure film. The films protagonists relive those childhood days when they were able to switch their school smocks for oriental turbans, while reality imposed its own fancy dress ball with military uniforms and priests dressed in civilian garb.
More than half a million native Hawaiians were living in the islands at the time of European contact in 1778. Within 50 years, that population was cut in half as Western diseases claimed thousands of lives. A litany of events followed: American missionaries preached unfamiliar ideas and customs; sugarcane and pineapple plantations absorbed individual farmlands; waves of immigrant workers arrived, making Hawaiians a minority in their own land; and WWII brought a lasting military presence. University of Hawai'i sociologists estimate that the extinction of full-blooded Hawaiians could come within the next 45 years. This compelling story of a race displaced and now on the verge of extinction is brilliantly told in this award-winning documentary created by the great-granddaughter of Hawaiian high chiefs and English seafarers.
For the past twenty years, in the Burgundy region of France, archaeologists and craftsmen have been working on the reconstruction of the fortified castle of Guedelon using the same techniques and materials available in medieval times; a fascinating project that brings to the present a vivid image of the past.
This Carey Wilson Miniature takes a further look at prophecies by 16th century seer Nostradamus.
In the early 19th century the Romanian Theodor Diamant was inspired by the French utopian socialist Charles Fourier and established one of Fourier's "phalansteries" in Rumania. The film dramatizes the origins and demise of this effort, called the "Scaieni Phalanstery (the term is derived from "phalanx" and "monastery"). Among the socio-political commentary that is conveyed throughout, there is an important collusion between the army and the wealthy landowners of the time, and as the film points out in its own way, neither of these groups has ever been convicted of socialist/utopian tendencies.
Terrorist Palestine organization hijacks a jet.
A historical drama focusing on the days leading up to Albania's declaration of independence from the Ottoman Empire in November 1912.
The Russian filmmaker, Pavel Klusjantsev, has had an extraordinary influence on an entire genre of films. Throughout his career at the film studio in St. Petersburg, Klushantsev pioneered and invented legendary techniques for filming the planets, stars and weightnessless - long before anyone else. He went on to redefine the science fiction genre and influence the way Hollywood made their science fiction films, including the Academy Award-winning Visual Effects Master, Robert Skotak, a man who spent years trying to track Klushantsev down
The Quran is the Holy Book of Islam, a religion shared by more than a billion followers worldwide. For the Muslim tradition, since its revelation to the Prophet Muhammad between the year 610 and 632 of the Christian era in Mecca and Medina, the Koran is immutable, and has remained maintained. However, recent discoveries of Koranic manuscripts analyzed by scientists, dated around the year 680 - the oldest known in the world - revealed that the Koran has a history. During the first century of Islam, and before the canonical version of the Caliph Uthman imposed itself, the holy book of Islam would have known competing versions, a different organization of the suras, variable readings due to a writing, in its beginnings, very rudimentary… It is to this meeting of knowledge, at the crossroads between the Muslim tradition and scientific research, that this journey to the origins of the Koran invites.
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