The Mongol invasion of Iran leaves the country devastated but the people fight for their right in their own way.
Social & External
Unknown Role
A 200 year-old vampire who drives for a ridesharing app picks up a passenger who bears an uncanny resemblance to a long lost love.
1907. Magnifica, young Costa Rican harpist, is preparing for her concert at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels where she studies with her fiancé. Inspired by the life of Pacifica Zelaya.
Working men and women leave through the main gate of the Lumière factory in Lyon, France. Filmed on 22 March 1895, it is often referred to as the first real motion picture ever made, although Louis Le Prince's 1888 Roundhay Garden Scene pre-dated it by seven years. Three separate versions of this film exist, which differ from one another in numerous ways. The first version features a carriage drawn by one horse, while in the second version the carriage is drawn by two horses, and there is no carriage at all in the third version. The clothing style is also different between the three versions, demonstrating the different seasons in which each was filmed. This film was made in the 35 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and at a speed of 16 frames per second. At that rate, the 17 meters of film length provided a duration of 46 seconds, holding a total of 800 frames.
Stranded in Cold War-era Berlin, a British counterintelligence officer awaits the day his handlers will finally arrive to collect him. Given no information but a time and place, he diligently keeps his appointment, watching and waiting for something to happen; even as weeks turn to years . . .
This historical drama tells the story of Qin Shihuang, who unified China's vast territory and declared himself emperor in 221 B.C. During his reign, he introduced sweeping reforms, built a vast network of roads and connected the Great Wall of China. From the grandiose inner sanctum of Emperor Qin's royal palace, to fierce battles with feudal kings, this film re-creates the glory and the terror of the Qin Dynasty, including footage of Qin's life-sized terra cotta army, constructed 2,200 years ago for his tomb.
A French silent film directed by Louis Feuillade.
Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.
Short news featurette produced by Pathe-RKO after the Russians launched the first orbiting satellite, Sputnik. It is a patriotic 'call to arms' from the threat posed by this and the need for Americans to spend more on education in general and a college education in particular. A visit to the University of Buffalo highlights its science programs and the need for more graduates from all technical disciplines if America is to rise to the challenge. It bemoans the fact the PhDs earn less than a mechanic and the need to re-order priorities.
Martyrs of the Inquisition
A Soviet film about construction workers.
The girl Hanusya and her younger brother Andriyko lived in the village, whose mother was taken captive by the Horde, and whose father, who went to free her, also disappeared. The Cossack Stepan is courting Hanusya, but she promised to marry only after the return of her parents. All three find themselves in danger, because they are pursued by the devil, who was driven out of hell by Satan himself, having ordered to harm at least one human soul.
Who is Jocky Wilson? 20 years ago every child in Kirkcaldy, on the east coast of Scotland, could answer this question. One of the best darts players ever, world champion in 1982 and 1989 - a national hero. But in '95 Jocky paid the price for his self destructive life style. In search of his myth, we follow the forces that shaped Jocky's hometown and its inhabitants as we discover lost memories of the man who once inspired the nation.
Based on an excerpt from the novel by L.N.Tolstoy "War and Peace." The war of 1812. The defeated Napoleonic army is retreating. Three Russian soldiers settled in a snowy forest near a fire: a young (Zaletayev), an elderly and a middle-aged one. Zaletayev fantasizes — as if he had captured Napoleon. The soldiers laugh good-naturedly at him. After dinner, they fall asleep... Two Frenchmen go to the clearing — an officer and a soldier. Russian soldiers wake up and, seeing that the officer is barely standing on his feet from cold and hunger, take him to the colonel. The French soldier sits down to the fire. The Russians give him porridge and vodka. The soldier, encouraged, sings a french song. Zaletayev echoes him. A tired Frenchman falls asleep on Zaletayev’s shoulder. The soldiers carefully shelter him. “Also people,” an elderly soldier says with a sigh.
Take a technological thrill ride The Magic of Flight takes you on a technological thrill ride faster, higher and wider than modern science or even your imagination! Relive the first flight of the Wright Brothers, then soar with the Blue Angels as they defy the laws of gravity. Narrated by Tom Selleck.
Set in 1932, at the height of prohibition and the growing American eugenics movement, the state of Vermont passes a law allowing for sexual sterilization of "idiots, imbeciles, feeble minded or insane persons likely to procreate." Dormancy follows a young woman and her new husband who work the land and earn a small income herding sheep and working with lumber. The couple is lured into a rural clinic where they subjected to the sadistic goals of the doctors and eugenics field workers. For this modest family, life will never be quite the same...
Archival footage of an American Nazi rally that attracted 20,000 people at Madison Square Garden in 1939, shortly before the beginning of World War II.
In this short documentary, five black women talk about their lives in rural and urban Canada between the 1920s and 1950s. What emerges is a unique history of Canada’s black people and the legacy of their community elders. Produced by the NFB’s iconic Studio D.
A parody version of the famous book by Charles Darwin. For adults.
A short film depicting the execution of Mary, Queen of the Scots. Mary is brought to the execution block and made to kneel down with her neck over it. The executioner lifts his axe ready to bring it down. After that frame Mary has been replaced by a dummy. The axe comes down and severs the head of the dummy from the body. The executioner picks up the head and shows it around for everyone else to see. One of the first camera tricks to be used in a movie.
