DOCUMENTARY foreign history & culture
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- DirectorDavid GrubinStarsRichard GereBlair BrownThe Dalai LamaAfter 400 BC, a new philosophy was born in South east Asia, generated from the ideas of Buddha, a mysterious Prince from Nepal who gained enlightenment while he sat under a large, shapely fig tree.
- DirectorJoe BerlingerStarsShohreh AghdashlooTaner AkçamHagop AsadourianFilmmaker Joe Berlinger meets with historians and scholars to discuss the Armenian Genocide and the continuing denial by the Turkish government of it ever happening.
- DirectorKazuo HaraStarsKenzo OkuzakiRiichi AikawaMasaichi HamaguchiA documentary following Kenzo Okuzaki, a 62-year-old WW2 veteran notorious for his protests against Emperor Hirohito, as he tries to expose the needless executions of two Japanese soldiers during the war.
- DirectorGeramie BarméRichard GordonCarma HintonStarsNanyang LiRui LiShao-Chi LiuAbout the shifting, unpredictable currents behind the Chinese Cultural Revolution, this documentary shows the various phases of the 12 years from 1964 through the purging of the Gang of Four at the end of 1976, with some retrospective information about the Long March and the 1958 Great Leap forward. It is built around contemporary interviews with survivors of three families: The most prominent is Liu Shaoqi, the President of China until 1967 & the highest ranking target of the revolution, his wife, Wang Guangmei and his daughter Liu Ting. The most complete coverage was given to a former secretary to Mao, Li Rui, who was banished when he questioned the Great Leap forward. He was rehabilitated in the early 60's, but not brought back into the Party and was banished again when the Cultural revolution started. Li's daughter Li Nanyang who was 11 or 12 when Li Rui was first imprisoned, was a staunch supporter of the Cultural Revolution, but she was never allowed to join the Party because of her father's background. Both daughters' reactions to and discomfort with their fathers was a major thread. This film also highlights the social pressure and Li Nanyang's loss of face among her student peers, which lasted until her father was rehabilitated in 1979. The third family was middle class and capitalist before the 1949 revolution and was therefore suspect. The older brother, Yu Luoke who was refused entry to university, asserted that the revolution was going astray by focusing on the family background of students. His poster asking for equal treatment for everyone, no matter what their family background was celebrated for several months, but then he was arrested and finally executed in 1970. His brother, Yu Luowen now still does not know the whole story, but can tell of how their paper was shut down when the winds changed in 1968. Another thread focused on two teenaged Red Guards, and their disillusionment with the violence that developed after the first few months of the Cultural Revolution.
- DirectorNoriaki TsuchimotoA documentary about the plight of the victims of Minamata disease, which was caused by the ingestion of fish containing abnormal amounts of mercury released into the sea by a fertilizer factory owned by the Chisso company.
- DirectorTom PiozetStarsEdward EdwardsEd HarrisShirley KnightA film about the state of Chinese occupied Tibet and its history of oppression and resistance.
- DirectorDavid MunroStarsJohn PilgerHenry KissingerRichard NixonDisturbing documentary, shot on site less than a year after the Khmer Rouge downfall, depicting the shocking situation and recent history of Cambodia.
- DirectorRob LemkinThet SambathStarsThet SambathNuon CheaPol PotOne of the most harrowing and compelling personal documentaries of our time, ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE exposes for the first time the truth about the Killing Fields and the Khmer Rouge who were behind Cambodia's genocide.
- DirectorRithy PanhStarsRandal DoucJean-Baptiste PhouRithy Panh uses clay figures, archival footage, and his narration to recreate the atrocities Cambodia's Khmer Rouge committed between 1975 and 1979.
- DirectorJoshua OppenheimerStarsAdi RukunM.Y. BasrunVolker HanischA family that survived the genocide in Indonesia confronts the men who killed one of their brothers.
- DirectorJoshua OppenheimerAnonymousChristine CynnStarsAnwar CongoHerman KotoSyamsul ArifinA documentary which challenges former Indonesian death-squad leaders to reenact their mass-killings in whichever cinematic genres they wish, including classic Hollywood crime scenarios and lavish musical numbers.
- DirectorAri FolmanStarsAri FolmanRon Ben-YishaiRonny DayagAn Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict.
- DirectorRichard GordonCarma HintonStarsDeborah AmosCarma HintonEdward StanleyA Frontline documentary about the events that took place in Tianamen square in 1989.
- DirectorDavid MunroStarsJohn PilgerAlan ClarkJames DunnDocumentary of the events that occurred in the East Timor genocide during 1990-91.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsWerner HerzogThis film surveys the disaster of the Kuwaiti oil fields in flames, with little narration and scarcely any interviews. Hell on Earth is presented in such transcendent visions and music that one can only be fascinated by it.
- DirectorAbdallah OmeishSufyan OmeishStarsJames AkinsArik AschermanBishop Barltlett Jr.A thought-provoking and powerful documentary film on the current and historical root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and U.S. political involvement.
- DirectorKevin MacdonaldStarsMichael DouglasAnkie SpitzerJamal Al GasheyThe Palestinian terrorist group Black September holds Israeli athletes hostage at the 1972 Summer Olympic Games in Munich.
- DirectorDror MorehStarsAmi AyalonAvraham ShalomAvi DichterA documentary featuring interviews with all surviving former heads of Shin Bet, the Israeli security agency whose activities and membership are closely held state secrets.
- DirectorEmad BurnatGuy DavidiStarsEmad BurnatSoraya BurnatMohammed BurnatA documentary on a Palestinian farmer's chronicle of his nonviolent resistance to the actions of the Israeli army.
- DirectorJames MillerStarsJames MillerSaira ShahThe harrowing documentary that portrays the horror of the Israeli conflict and the resulting death of its director, James Miller.
- DirectorTony StarkStarsJohn PilgerFatima Abed-RaboAmjad Abu LabanA documentary about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has lasted for more than 50 years. Contains some interviews with the children in this conflict.
- DirectorB.Z. GoldbergJustine ShapiroCarlos BoladoStarsMoishe Bar AmB.Z. GoldbergShlomo GreenSeveral Jewish and Palestinian children are followed for three years and put in touch with each other, in this alternative look at the Jewish-Palestinian conflict. The three filmmakers followed a group of seven local children between 1995 and 1998. They all have a totally different background. These seven children tell their own story about growing up in Jerusalem. Through this portrait of their generation, we see how deep rooted and almost insoluble the problems of the Middle East have become. When the protagonists speak out in an epilogue a couple of years later, it becomes apparent that all have lost their childlike innocence.
- DirectorAnders ØstergaardStarsGeorge W. BushJoshua Min HtutKo MuangUsing smuggled footage, this documentary tells the story of the 2007 protests in Burma by thousands of monks.
- DirectorLauren GreenfieldStarsImelda MarcosEtta RosalesFerdinand MarcosAn extraordinary look into the political career of Imelda Marcos, this documentary tells a cautionary tale of a powerful leader whose questionable sense of reality divided the Philippines.
- DirectorSlavko MartinovStarsTony BlairLloyd BlankfeinGeorge BushAn anti-western propaganda film about the influences of American visual and consumption culture on the rest of the world, as told from a North Korean perspective.