Wylie Avenue Days

The Pittsburgh History Series is an ongoing series of hour-long documentaries that highlight various parts of our city's history. Since 1988, these documentaries have captivated local audiences by mixing memories, old films, [mementos], home movies, snapshots and new interviews.

1991-01-01 | en

Nazi Town, USA

In February 1939, more than 20,000 Americans filled Madison Square Garden for an event billed as a “Pro-American Rally.” Images of George Washington hung next to swastikas and speakers railed against the “Jewish controlled media” and called for a return to a racially “pure” America. The keynote speaker was Fritz Kuhn, head of the German American Bund. Nazi Town, USA tells the largely unknown story of the Bund, which had scores of chapters in suburbs and big cities across the country and represented what many believe was a real threat of fascist subversion in the United States. The Bund held joint rallies with the Ku Klux Klan and ran dozens of summer camps for children centered around Nazi ideology and imagery. Its melding of patriotic values with virulent anti-Semitism raised thorny issues that we continue to wrestle with today.

2024-01-23 | en

Brigitte macron, un roman français

2018-01-01 | fr

December 6, 1960

Independence Day celebrations at the Finnish presidential palace December 6, 1960.

1960-12-31 | fi

Benedict Arnold: Hero Betrayed

Benedict Arnold is not the villain of American history most people were taught to believe. New facts and never before presented material illuminate his heroic contributions to the American Revolution and explains his later change of allegiance.

2021-11-02 | en

8 Flags for 99¢

A short documentary that explores a blue-collar community’s growing unease with the Vietnam War. It was produced in response to President Nixon’s famous November, 1969 speech when he contrasted the unlawful and vocal anti-war protesters to the respectful “silent majority” who were in favor of remaining in Vietnam to fight communism. This film explores the thoughts and opinions of the “silent majority” represented by the folks living in the Garfield Ridge neighborhood on the southwest side of Chicago.

1970-01-01 | en

All the Presidents' Wives

A look at the women who has served as First Ladies of the United States.

2008-06-24 | en

Chi-Town

An underdog basketball player from Chicago goes on a meteoric rise to become one of the best college point guards in the nation. But while he pursues dreams of the NBA, his success contrasts with the effects of gun violence on his friends back home.

2018-03-11 | en

Document: A Film About Malojian

Featuring legendary recording engineer Steve Albini, 'Document: A film about Malojian' captures the energy of a band at the top of their game, as they rush to complete their third album, "This is Nowhere", in just four days.

2016-10-15 | en

Logan Sargeant: Racing Against the Odds

An ESPN documentary detailing Logan Sargeant's entry into Formula 1.

2024-03-27 | en

Cruel Architecture, a Tool of Gentrification

A short documentary shot in November 2021 in Berkeley. It reflects on the ethos of privatization in American culture and how public spaces are being built to exclude people through cruel architecture. The context used is the gentrification circle around the University of California Berkeley intended to build student housing. An eye-opening journey that explores structures and elements you would never have stopped at.

2021-12-18 | en

Conversations Between Shifts

A portrait of Chicagoland ICU nurse Jeanette Alvarez-Basem captured through the perspective of her son Ben Basem. Between her night shifts and Illinois Nurses Association union meetings, Jeanette navigates what it means to be a nurse and a human during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

2021-10-14 | en

Mon Chirac

At the close of Jacques Chirac's life, politician Jean-Louis Debré has wished to make a film to celebrate his friend, to tell the story of their friendship and professional understanding, and to make an intimate portrait of the former President of France through the accounts of a few very close friends. Thanks to Jean-Louis Debré's presence, Claude Chirac and some of Jacques Chirac's closest friends, famous or unknown, agreed to talk to the camera, sometimes for the first time, to evoke their untold-before memories and tell about the moments that bonded the two men for a lifetime.

2019-03-18 | fr

Un peu, beaucoup, passionnément... Les Présidents et les Français

2019-10-02 | fr

Nazis in the CIA

Florian Hartung and Dirk Pohlmann have reconstructed a previously unknown dimension of the collaboration between Nazis and the CIA in the Cold War. Drawing upon recently released documents, the film exposes for the first time a perfidious, worldwide net that reaches deep into the power structures of the Federal Republic of Germany. Lending their authority to the fact-finders’ mission are high-ranking statesmen, journalists and historians.

2013-10-15 | de

Crossing the Divide

Two Canadians, one Liberal and one Conservative, attend a U.S. convention focused on depolarizing politics, determined to engage in tough conversations for a healthier democracy.

2025-04-30 | en

'Twas the Fight Before Christmas

In this true-life twist on a holiday fable, Jeremy Morris brings a whole new meaning to Christmas spirit when his extravagant seasonal display sparks a dispute with his neighbors that lands them all in court.

2021-11-24 | en

Qui a tué François Fillon ? L'Enquête

For three months, the teams of Grand Angle investigated the fall of François Fillon. The right-wing candidate was the favorite of the presidential election. Was he the victim of a conspiracy? From a black cabinet? Settling accounts within his own camp? Has not he also been a victim of himself? The main protagonists of this incredible series have agreed to come back behind the scenes of this descent into hell. Headliners on the right, members of the campaign team, friends, enemies.

2018-02-03 | fr

America's Untold Journey: 450 Years of the African American Experience

Chronicles over four centuries of African American influence on the development of the modern-day United States. Before Plymouth Rock and Jamestown, St. Augustine, FL had built a multicultural colony of free and enslaved men and women. This small colony would eventually set the stage for the first Underground Railroad in the late 1600s. Then, 300 years later, be the epicenter of events that would lead to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

2016-01-31 | en

Bittersweet

An oral history documentary of people of color at Miami University during its Public Ivy period—from 1970 to the early 2000s.

2023-02-21 | en