film | story - Film Type: Mini-Series

A History of Britain

Director: Clare Beavan, Martina Hall, Ian Bremner, Liz Hartford, Jamie Muir
Release Date: 2000
Production Country: United Kingdom

Historian Simon Schama narrates his history of Great Britain, emphasizing that no single "history" can tell the entire story–but makes a valiant effort to cover everything he can.

A History of Scotland

Director: Andrew Downes, Tim Neil
Release Date: 2008
Production Country: United Kingdom

Scotland may be a tiny nation occupying the northern third of a tiny island in the North Atlantic, but it has a large and unique history of its very own.

A Rumor of War

Director: Richard T. Heffron
Release Date: 1980
Production Country: United States

Lt. Philip Caputo is sent to Vietnam with the first American troops, believing that this will be nothing more than a small and insignificant war. During his tour of duty, Caputo is transferred from the front lines to a post where he documents the casualties for both sides before being returned to the front, discovering along the way how very wrong his original assessment was—and how very different this war is from any the United States has fought before.

Against the Wind

Director: George Miller, Simon Wincer
Release Date: 1978
Production Country: Australia

A young Irish girl is unjustly sentenced to prison and deported to Australia. She must survive not only the horrific voyage there, but also her years of service before she can be free. While there, the lower classes and other convicts protest and occasionally outright rebel against the power and privilege the moneyed classes hold over them.

America: A Personal History of the United States (Alistair Cooke’s America)

Director: Michael Gill, David Heycock, Tim Slessor, Ann Turner
Release Date: 1972
Production Country: United Kingdom, United States

Veteran correspondent Alistair Cooke takes an in-depth comparative look at the history and the national mythology of the United States.

Anne of Avonlea (Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel)

Director: Kevin Sullivan
Release Date: 1987
Production Country: United Kingdom, Canada, United States

Having left Matthew and Marilla's home to make her own way in the world, Anne takes a teaching position at the Kingsport Ladies College, determined to inspire and enlighten those around her, only to find that not everyone understands or appreciates her belief that there can be more to a girl's life than the traditional expectations of marriage and motherhood–until she, too, is forced to admit that she may have made the biggest mistake of her own life when she refused Gilbert Blythe's marriage proposal before leaving Avonlea.

Anne of Green Gables

Director: Kevin Sullivan
Release Date: 1985
Production Country: Canada, West Germany, United States

When elderly siblings Matthew and Marilla decide to take in an orphan boy to help on their farm, not only are they sent a young girl by mistake, the girl, Anne Shirley, turns out to be a dreamer with a positive genius for getting into trouble. Marilla, however, remains especially unconvinced that Anne is worth the chaos that follows her, no matter how desperate the child is for a place and people to call home, or how needy Marilla and Matthew's own lives are for the kind of joyful chaos that only family can bring.

Anzacs

Director: Pino Amenta, John Dixon, George Miller
Release Date: 1985
Production Country: Australia

After war is declared, a dozen young men in Australia are recruited for the army. Brought together in boot camp, the young men eventually ship out for war, together facing battle, loss, and victory—for those who survive.

Attila the Hun

Director: Dick Lowry
Release Date: 2001
Production Country: United States, Lithuania

Though orphaned as a child, Attila shows exceptional skill in battle and leadership and rises to not only command his own people, but also unite the banners of numerous tribes under his command. And while Attila can respect the genius of Rome's military strategies, it doesn't mean he is going to back away from a battle that will win him a new home for his people.

Auschwitz: The Nazis and the 'Final Solution'

Director: Laurence Rees, Catherine Tatge
Release Date: 2005
Production Country: United Kingdom

Interviews with soldiers and survivors, archival film footage, computer-generated imagery, and re-enactments provide a unique look at the history of Auschwitz, the most infamous of World War II Nazi death camps; both the camp itself and the larger story of Hitler's Final Solution comprise the larger story.

Band of Brothers

Director: Phil Alden Robinson, Richard Loncraine, Mikael Salomon, David Nutter, Tom Hanks, David Leland, David Frankel, Tony To
Release Date: 2001
Production Country: United Kingdom, United States

The men of E Company from the U.S. 101st Airborne Division come together, experiencing life, death, joy, and sorrow as they serve their country in the battlefields of Europe.

Captain James Cook

Director: Lawrence Gordon Clark
Release Date: 1987
Production Country: Australia, West Germany, France, Spain

Captain James Cook sets sail to observe the transit of Venus across the sun, but also winds up connecting Europe and the British Empire with Australia and Hawaii.

Carlos

Director: Olivier Assayas
Release Date: 2010
Production Country: France, Germany

Venezuelan Illich Sanchez learned communism from his father and was later educated in England and Moscow, but finds his true purpose in life when he is recruited into the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, becoming a widely feared and wanted terrorist.

Centennial

Director: Virgil W. Vogel, Paul Krasny, Harry Falk
Release Date: 1978
Production Country: United States

In a Colorado valley that will be called Centennial, a young Arapaho warrior befriends a Canadian trapper, unaware that the trapper is only the first of an oncoming tide of European immigrants. Years later in Centennial valley, a German miner plants potatoes and dreams of wealth, while a young English debutant has better business sense than any of the men in her life.

Christopher Columbus

Director: Alberto Lattuada
Release Date: 1985
Production Country: Italy, United States, France, West Germany

An Italian boy grows up to be an expert sailor and navigator, as well as somewhat of an adventurer, and later manages to convince the Spanish crown to finance his attempt to find a shortcut to Cathay. Though Columbus never finds his shortcut, what he does find will change the course of world history.

Civilisation (Civilisation: A Personal View by Kenneth Clark)

Director: Michael Gill, Peter Montagnon, Ann Turner
Release Date: 1969
Production Country: United Kingdom

British art historian, Kenneth Clark, surveys the history of Western Civilization, highlighting what he believes are its defining moments and greatest achievements.

Cleopatra

Director: Franc Roddam
Release Date: 1999
Production Country: Germany, United States

While fighting in Egypt, Julius Caesar seduces the young Cleopatra and she bears his son, causing his wife and extended family in Rome to become concerned that his indiscretion will upset all their carefully laid plans for their political future, a future that involves Caesar's nephew taking over as dictator and head of the Republic, not one that includes a half-bred child and his upstart Egyptian girl-queen mother.