Solidarność: How Solidarity Changed Europe

Gdańsk, Poland, September 1980. Lech Wałęsa and other Lenin shipyard workers found Solidarność (Solidarity), the first independent trade union behind the Iron Curtain. The long and hard battle to bring down communist dictatorship has begun.

2019-10-01 | de

The Fall of Communism as Seen in Gay Pornography

Every image in The Fall of Communism as Seen in Gay Pornography comes from gay erotic videos produced in Eastern Europe since the introduction of capitalism. The video provides a glimpse of young men responding to the pressures of an unfamiliar world, one in which money, power and sex are now connected.

1998-01-06 | en

Rockin' the Wall

Rock and roll's part in bringing down the Berlin Wall and smashing the Iron Curtain is told from the perspective of rockers who played at the time, on both sides of the Wall, and from survivors of the communist regimes who recall the lifeline that rock music provided them.

2014-09-08 | en

The Last Days of the USSR

From 1989 to 1991 a string of unpredictable events happened that brought to light the rivalry between two men: Gorbachev, hindered by the economic results of his perestroika, and Yeltsin, embodying the hopes of the Russian people. Illustrated with interviews of top protagonists such as Mikhail Gobachev himself, the documentary recounts the critical last two years of the former USSR.

2011-12-12 | fr

Once Upon a Time in the East

In the 90s Bulgaria joined the Eastern Bloc's race for freedom. But as thousands flooded the streets calling for democracy the shadows were giving birth to criminal enterprise. And before anyone could realise, the criminals had taken over the new 'democratic' society. The street gangs dominated, a steel hand of fear was forced on the population. And freedom had come to Bulgaria! They quietly privatised everything in their own interests.

2011-03-31 | en

American Reds: The Failed Revolution

The documentary AMERICAN REDS provides a historical overview of 20th century Communism and the growth, decline and contemporary relevance of the Communist Party, USA (CPUSA). Since its founding in 1919, the CPUSA has championed the struggles for democracy, labor rights, women’s equality, and racial justice. During its heyday in the 1930s and 1940s, it attracted millions of Americans to support its causes and almost 100,000 men and women to enlist in its ranks. The film begins with the Party's emergence as a small militant sect in the 1920s and documents its rise to the foremost radical group in the United States during the Great Depression, fighting against racism, sexism and fascism, as well as for the rights of workers to organize. It ends with the decline of the Party during the Cold War under the assaults of the FBI and anti- communist crusades.

2016-01-01 | en

Homeland

The film is an emotional story about fateful historical events in the 20th century, which took place in three Baltic countries- Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The story is also about their efforts to gain independence.

1990-04-01 | lv

Farewell, the spy who loved France

"The Farewell Affair" is one of the greatest espionage stories of the Cold War that will result in the accelerated fall of the USSR. It involves Vladimir Vetrov, a KGB agent put in the closet, who decides to contact the DST and deliver several lists of technological and scientific agents and secrets, which the KGB has been stealing from the countries of the Western Blocs for decades.

2019-10-24 | en

Cesta ke svobodě

2019-11-17 | cs

The Soviet Union's Last Stand

Documentary telling the inside story of Communist hardliners' failed attempts to seize power from Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, which resulted in the rapid collapse of the Soviet Union.

2001-12-17 | en

East-West Passage

In the summer of 1989 tens of thousands of tourists from communist East Germany came to Hungary. They were deeply disillusioned because they felt they had no future in East Germany. There was no freedom, no choice in the shops, salaries were low and they could not travel except to Eastern Europe. They wanted to go to a prosperous and free West Germany but they could not get passports, so they hoped that by travelling through Hungary, the least suppressed country of the Soviet Block, they could cross the Iron Curtain into Austria and then travel on into West Germany. For them the Hungary of twenty years ago was the new east-west passage. Written by Czes

2010-02-02 | hu

Palombella rossa

Michele is a Communist MP who loses his memory in a car crash—although nobody seems to notice. Over the course of a water polo match ahead of election day, he begins to remember his past life, revealing the picture of a man whose personal and political identity crisis mirrors the one of Italian communism.

1989-09-15 | it

Forward, Comrades

A young girl who treated her pets as comrades and liked to play with construction blocks, experiences her life changing after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

2013-06-19 | zh

East Side Stories

Hungarian tales around the end of the regime(s).

2012-01-19 | hu

Did Michael Knight End the Cold War?

A young Czech boy, living and surviving the Czech Revolution of 1989 with his favorite TV series Knight Rider and riding around on a BMX bike.

2009-11-14 | cs

Miyamoto and the Machine: The Story of KenKen

Ten years ago, Tetsuya Miyamoto had a dream to change the world through puzzles. In his classroom in Yokohama, KenKen was born. Enter a world where puzzles matter. From Tokyo to New York, from the classroom to the puzzle page to the tournament floor, Miyamoto and the Machine takes you into the brain of the inventor and the players, all while the machines of business and technology crash into artistry and humanity. Miyamoto believes each handcrafted puzzle tells a story, and if you look hard enough between the rows, columns, and cages of KenKen, you can find the story of the sensei who started a global phenomenon.

2020-12-20 | en

Battlefield Behemoths: A History of the Tank – The World Wars.

Filmed just over a century after the first tank battle in 1918, this documentary series explores how the vehicles forever changed warfare.

2018-12-29 | de

Searching for Nika

Returning to Kyiv to search for his missing dog during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, director Stas Kapralov documents his journey as he joins forces with volunteers and becomes part of a movement to rescue animals caught in the crossfire of war.

2023-08-26 | uk

By the Way, Woody Allen is Innocent

Cartoonist Rick Worley's in-depth and unapologetic analysis of the 1992 Woody Allen / Mia Farrow custody hearing and its (factually muddled) online reevaluation amidst the #MeToo movement.

2020-05-14 | en

Great Poets: In Their Own Words

A journey into the BBC archives unearthing glorious performances and candid interviews from some of Britain's greatest poets.

2014-08-10 | en