Genre: Historical Documentaries
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Attila '74: The Rape of Cyprus (1975)
This documentary by Cyprus-born filmmaker Michael Cacoyannis tells a story close to the director's heart: It explores Turkey's 1974 invasion of the tiny island of Cyprus, whose…
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General Idi Amin Dada (1974)
Cast: Idi Amin Dada
Directed by: Barbet Schroeder
Director Barbet Schroeder, with the full cooperation of the infamous dictator Idi Amin, delivers a fascinating documentary on the former Ugandan leader. He talks about his outreach to Arab…
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Hearts and Minds (1974)
Cast: Daniel Ellsberg, William C. Westmoreland, Bob Hope …
Directed by: Peter Davis (II)
An Academy Award-winning documentary that casts a sharp eye toward the U.S. government's costly -- in terms of lives, budget and honor -- all-out effort during the Vietnam War. Director…
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Hatfields & McCoys: An American Feud (1974)
In the heart of Appalachia, along the border of the Tug Fork River, a family feud ignited when Floyd Hatfield stole a hog from an unsuspecting Randolph McCoy in 1878. After 11 years'…
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The Unquiet Death of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (1974)
Directed by: Alvin Goldstein
Two decades after the infamous execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg at Sing Sing prison, filmmaker Alvin Goldstein replays the events that led up to their deaths and examines the case from…
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Promised Lands (1974)
Cast: Yoram Kaniuk, Yuval Ne'eman
Directed by: Susan Sontag
Set in Israel during the final days of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, this powerful documentary -- initially barred by Israel authorities -- from writer-director Susan Sontag examines divergent…
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The Great American Cowboy (1973)
Cast: Larry Mahan, Joel McCrea
Directed by: Kieth Merrill, Keith Merrill
Narrated by Cowboy Hall of Fame actor Joel McCrea, this Oscar-winning documentary explores the world of American rodeo and the ties between the lives of pioneer settlers and contemporary…
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Double Headed Eagle: Hitler's Rise to Power (1973)
Cast: Adolf Hitler
Directed by: Lutz Becker
Filmmaker Lutz Becker sifted through hundreds of yards of archive and newsreel footage from 1918 to 1933 for this objective, journalistic look at the rise of the Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler.…
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The Angry Brigade: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Britain's First Urban Guerilla Group (1973)
Cast: Angry Brigade
Directed by: Gordon Carr
Produced in collaboration with the BBC, Gordon Carr's documentary recounts the exploits and prosecution of the Angry Brigade, the British libertarian communist group responsible for a…
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Winter Soldier (1972)
Cast: Joe Bangert, Scott Camil, Evan Haney …
Banned by network television when released, this daring 1972 documentary examines reports of atrocities committed by U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War. Using the 1971 Detroit Winter…
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FTA (1972)
Cast: Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Len Chandler …
Directed by: Francine Parker
Francine Parker's documentary -- which disappeared from theaters after only one week -- chronicles the Pacific leg of the 1971 "Free the Army" tour, the anti-Vietnam War revue featuring…
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The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971)
Directed by: Howard Alk, Mike Gray
During the 1969 shooting of a documentary about Illinois Black Panthers' leader Fred Hampton, he was killed by Chicago cops, and the filmmakers' crime scene footage -- included in…
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Huey P. Newton: Prelude to Revolution (1971)
Cast: Huey P. Newton
Directed by: John Evans
Hear the inside story of Huey Newton and the Black Panthers with this documentary that examines their efforts to promote the rights of African Americans as well as the organization's…
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Miracle of Survival (1970)
Cast: Steven Hill
Directed by: Larry Frisch
Chronicling the events surrounding the birth of the state of Israel in 1948, this documentary also includes the horrific events in Europe that sparked the nation's founding and the…
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American Revolution 2 (1969)
Directed by: Howard Alk, Mike Gray
This remarkable documentary captures the social turbulence of 1960s Chicago, highlighted by footage of the protests and riots surrounding the 1968 Democratic National Convention. In the…
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Salesman (1968)
Cast: Paul Brennan, Charles McDevitt, James Baker …
Directed by: Charlotte Zwerin, Albert Maysles, David Maysles …
Before delivering Gimme Shelter, cinema verité filmmakers Charlotte Zwerin and brothers Albert and David Maysles hatched this culturally significant documentary examining the utterly…
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Millay at Steepletop (1968)
Cast: Sloane Shelton
Directed by: Kevin Brownlow
Visit Steepletop, the upstate New York farm of Edna St. Vincent Millay, the first female recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. This documentary combines interviews and readings of…
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Kartemquin Films Collection: The Early Years: Vol. 1: Parents / Thumbs Down (1968)
Directed by: Gerald Temaner, Gordon Quinn
Kartemquin Films' commitment to heralding the significance of everyday life is highlighted in these two 1968 documentaries. In Parents, young people from a lower middle-class Chicago…
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Project XX: End of the Trail (1967)
Cast: Walter Brennan
Directed by: Donald B. Hyatt
This classic episode of NBC News' "Project Twenty" series presents an early look at the travesty of the frontier settlers' inhumane treatment of Native Americans in the West.…
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The Sixth Side of the Pentagon / The Embassy (1967)
Directed by: Chris Marker, Francois Reichenbach
With the first half of this double feature, cinema pioneer Chris Marker collaborates with filmmaker Francois Reichenbach to document the 1967 Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam protest in…
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Rocky Road to Dublin (1967)
Cast: Sean O'Faoláin, Conor Cruise O'Brien, John Huston …
Directed by: Peter Lennon
After a decade abroad, Dublin-born journalist Peter Lennon returned to Ireland to survey the modern landscape, and the resulting 1967 documentary captures a populace firmly under the thumb of…
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The War Game / Culloden (1966)
Cast: Michael Aspel, Peter Graham, Peter Watkins …
Directed by: Peter Watkins
Peter Watkins presents a double bill of political, military films he produced for the BBC: The War Game, winner of the Best Documentary Oscar in 1966; and Culloden, a re-creation of the…
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Africa Addio: English Version (1966)
Directed by: Gualtiero Jacopetti, Franco Prosperi
Their cameras capturing history in the making, Italian documentarians Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi chronicle the collapse of colonialism in Africa as the continent dissolves into…
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Before Hollywood There Was Fort Lee, N. J. (1964)
Amazing, but true: Fort Lee, New Jersey (just across the George Washington Bridge from Manhattan), was once the epicenter of American film production. This documentary of a truly bygone era…
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Churchill: The Finest Hours (1964)
Cast: Orson Welles, Winston Churchill, George Baker …
Directed by: Peter Baylis
As the Nazis unleash their destructive fury on Europe, Prime Minister Winston Churchill helps rally the British with his trademark gumption, wit and eloquence, as evidenced in these archival…