Subgenre Sampler
Rental > Documentary > History: 12 Films to Rent on VHS
- Epitaph (TV Series) (2001)
- Feat. Paul Gittens
- TV series that scours the cemeteries of New Zealand for the intriguing, weird and worthy tales of our ancestor's demises.
Paul Gittens is the…
- Millennium (1999)
- Dir. Various
- Exhaustive history of the last thousand years, taken from the book by Felipe Fernandez–Armesto and presented by CNN. Refreshingly deals not…
- Cold War (1998)
- Dir. Various
- With encyclopedia–like detail, this lengthy documentary series analyses every aspect of the Cold War, from the onset of frosty relations…
- Peoples Century (TV Series) (1997)
- Dir. Various
- Indispensible BBC TV series covering 20th century history told via the accounts of ordinary people, gives a vivid and sobering taste of world events.…
- Russia - The Missing Years (1996)
- A glance at the disturbing facts of the Eastern Front conflict of 1942–43 that resulted in Russian glory at a cost of three million lives.…
- Last Bolshevik, The (1993)
- Dir. Chris Marker
- Chris Marker's video essay celebrates the life and work of little known film pioneer Aleksandr Medvedkin to reflect on the legacy of Soviet…
- Seven Songs for Malcolm X (1993)
- Dir. John Akomfrah
- A tribute to the revolutionary activist compiles interviews with people that knew him and those that know much about him as well as authentic footage…
- JFK: Assassination Tapes (1992)
- Dir. John Barbour
- Largely a basis for Oliver Stone's opus, Jim Garrison himself speaks frankly about his investigation into the alleged cover–up surrounding the…
- Berkeley in the Sixties (1990)
- Dir. Mark Kitchell
- A lively, dense study of 1960s counter–culture in microcosm, this chronicles the rise and fall of the student movement in a Californian campus…
- Tokyo Olympiad (1965)
- Dir. Kon Ichikawa
- Ichikawa produced this 'definitive' sports documentary from the output of over a thousand cameras to capture the fascinating human element behind the…
- CNN: 1991 Year in Review
- America's News Network takes a look at a significant year in history – from the Russian revolution and the Gulf war to general events in sport,…
- Death Row + Worst Crimes of the 20th Century
- Part one looks at the history of capital punishment in America while the second examines four of the most horrific mass murders of this century…