Historical Documentary Movies

Working from the text of James Baldwin’s unfinished final novel, director Raoul Peck creates a meditation on what it means to be Black in the...

What happened after Einstein fled Nazi Germany? Using archival footage and his own words, this docudrama dives into the mind of a tortured genius.

A keen chronicle of the unlikely rise to power of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) and a dissection of the Third Reich (1933-1945), but also an analysis of...

The world's greatest pin-up model and cult icon, Bettie Page, recounts the true story of how her free expression overcame government witch-hunts to...

In 1975, as America faced social and political upheaval, filmmakers turned chaos into art.

Director Claude Lanzmann spent 11 years on this sprawling documentary about the Holocaust, conducting his own interviews and refusing to use a single...

A century after Shackleton's Endurance sank beneath the ice, explorers uncover the legendary shipwreck and an amazing tale of survival.

Using original footage and interviews, this documentary tells the nail-biting story of Apollo 13 and the struggle to bring its astronauts safely home.

As early as 1920, the journalists of the "Münchener Post" recognized the danger posed by Adolf Hitler. Consistently and boldly they wrote about...

A showcase of German chancellor and Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler at the 1934 Nuremberg Rally.

Using archival footage, cabinet conversation recordings, and an interview of the 85-year-old Robert McNamara, The Fog of War depicts his life, from...

Egyptian archaeologists dig into history, discovering tombs and artifacts over 4,000 years old as they search for a buried pyramid in this...

In one of those wonderful coincidences of history, lumière, the French word for “light,” was also the last name of brothers...

This comedic retrospective mixes archival footage and scripted sketches as it revisits all the dread — and occasional delight — that 2021...

The Mediterranean. Because people have been travelling there for thousands of years, it is believed to be without secrets. And yet, far below its...

Marijuana is the most controversial drug of the 20th Century. Smoked by generations to little discernible ill effect, it continues to be reviled by...

A depiction of the last living generation of German participants in Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich.

This documentary delves into the mysteries surrounding the Neanderthals and what their fossil record tells us about their lives and disappearance.

Derry, 1972; As the civil rights movement across the North of Ireland begins to secure unprecedented wins, the British state responds with lethal...