Documentary / Biography

<p>After fleeting marriages to Henry Fonda and William Wyler, Margaret Sullavan found contentment as the wife of producer Leland Hayward (Jason Robards) and as the mother of three. Or so it seemed, until the marriage crumbled, the children rebelled and she was found dead...

<p>In this 80-minute documentary, three 10-year-old children leave their native countries to participate in one of the Islamic world's most famous competitions, a test of memory and recitation known as The International Holy Koran Competition. Up against much older students, these youngsters have committed...

<p>On the afternoon of July 26, 2009, Diane Schuler drove the wrong way on the Taconic State Parkway in New York for nearly two miles, eventually smashing into an oncoming SUV and killing herself, her daughter, three nieces, and all three people in the...

<p>This feature documentary follows members of the Ramapough Mountain Indian tribe in Ringwood, NJ, in their five-year search for justice through a mass-action, tort lawsuit. From the middle '50s to the late '70s, the Ford Motor Company operated an assembly plant in Mahwah, NJ...

<p>At Afghanistan's Badam Bagh Women's Prison, half the inmates are jailed for "moral crimes." Though these would hardly be considered punishable crimes in the Western world, behavior in Afghanistan is strictly controlled by an ideology of honor, and transgression can bring ruin to an...

<p>Intrepid journalist/filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi -- who has built an award-winning reputation with her playful, politically charged HBO documentaries focusing on both the famous (George Bush, Ted Haggard, John McCain, Barack Obama) and not-so-famous (right-wing Republicans, Evangelicals, motel kids in California) -- unabashedly waves the...

<p>In the true Olympic spirit, HBO Sports presents JOE LOUIS: AMERICA'S HERO BETRAYED, a profile of Joe Louis, the greatest heavyweight boxer of his time who transcended not only his race, but also the sport of boxing, to personify America's struggle with the Nazis...

<p>HBO Documentary Films presents Silencing the Song: An Afghan Fallen Star, a follow up to the Sundance Award-winning Afghan Star, which premiered on HBO in March 2010. Afghan Star followed the stories of four contestants on Afghanistan's hugely popular reality-TV singing competition, including one...

<p>Here is the incredible story of how an Austrian paper-hanger rose from total obscurity to become the absolute master of the German people -- the definitive pictorial record of the Nazi demagogue who unleashed his private madness on the world. Based on William L....

<p>Rhapsody in Blue is a story that is as enchanting as the music of its central character, the legendary George Gershwin. Robert Alda plays the talented composer in this moving tribute to one of America's premier musical artists. Although it was intended that the...

<p>From Emmy - winning filmmakers Marc Levin and Daphne, The Louisiana state bird -- the brown pelican -- spent 45 years on the endangered species list. After years of being relocated back to its natural habitat, the April 2010 BP explosion and oil spill...

<p>Dazzling? Daring? The Great Waltz may have you searching for ways to describe its great charms. This cinematic rhapsody loosely based on the life of composer Johann Strauss is truly "an overlooked gem" (The Motion Picture Guide). To capture what the film calls "the...

The assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 had a devastating effect on the people of the United States and left a deep psychic wound that is still felt by those who were inspired by his vibrancy and passion for positive change. Two days...

<p>From Emmy - winning filmmakers Marc Levin and Daphne Pinkerson, this 40-minute documentary recounts the horror of March 25, 1911, when young garment workers perished in the worst industrial accident in New York City history (up until 9/11), triggering widespread reforms and ushering in...

<p>They're found, funny and forgotten no more, the answer to Stooges lovers' prayers. Leonard Maltin narrates a wild and woolly compilation of the Three Stooges' earliest movie work, all mayhem-filled moments of the year Moe, Larry and Curly spent at MGM studios as part...

<p>Producer-writer-director Jamie Uys, who brought us the uproarious "The Gods Must Be Crazy," delivers awe-inspiring family entertainment in this unique look at the animal world. Four years of production, one hundred thousand miles of travel and half a million feet of film went into...

<p>Juarez is the story of three men -- Benito Juarez (Paul Muni), Napoleon III (Claude Rains) and Emperor Maximilian (Brian Aherne) -- driven by political passions. And of a woman, Empress Carlota (Bette Davis), driven to madness. John Garfield and Gale Sondergaard join the...

<p>Being stigmatized with the label "learning disabled" can have a devastating effect on children struggling with dyslexia. Facing the social and academic challenges of growing up and going to school when dealing with words is a daily struggle, children living with dyslexia are the...

<p>Debbie Reynolds ("Singin' in the Rain," "Mother") stars in this inspirational true story of a Belgian nun who writes a song for a motherless boy. Through the help of kindly priest, Ricardo Montalban ("TV's "Fantasy Island," "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan"), she goes...

<p>The Vagina Monologues, created and performed by Eve Ensler, debuted off-off-Broadway in 1996. This controversial work soon rode a wave of national acclaim and continues to be performed in North America and around the world. It has been translated into 14 different languages and...

<p>This Oscar -nominated documentary is both a poignant profile of former Gov. Booth Gardner as he battles the physical and mental onslaught of Parkinson's Disease, and an exploration of the contentious debate between proponents and foes of Initiative 1000, a controversial bill championed by...

President John F. Kennedy kept a unique inauguration gift on his White House desk: a coconut encased in plastic. The tale of that coconut is the heroic story of PT 109. Academy Award winner* Cliff Robertson stars in this stirring saga of Kennedy's wartime...

<p>Directed and produced by award-winning photographer/filmmaker Neil Leifer, this 31-minute documentary demonstrates, through an extreme example, how creative people with disabilities are transcending their limitations to create art. The subjects in Dark Light: The Art of Blind Photographers have been drawn to photography for...

<p>The Music Lovers. Mahler. Valentino. In these and other films, Ken Russell explores the lives of artists and in turn finds inspiration for his own considerable cinematic creativity. Savage Messiah belongs to that Russell oeuvre and it draws from the filmmaker a work often...

<p>April 14, 1865. As four year of Civil War draw to a close, our country again faces unforgettable tragedy: the assassination of the President. Starring Lance Henriksen as the Great Emancipator and Rob Morrow as assassin John Wilkes Booth, this riveting recreation of The...

<p>This 30-minute documentary takes an enlightening look at young people with a wide spectrum of learning differences, offering a compelling portrait of the ways in which these children are able to compensate by using their strengths to overcome their challenges. Many say they are...

<p>A true twentieth century Renaissance man, Gordon Parks is one of the most prolific and diverse artists in America today. A preeminent photographer, poet, novelist, composer and filmmaker, Parks's artisitc vision knows no boundaries. This candid portrait of the artist is a journey through...

<p>Bravo, Enrico! Bravo, Mario! Renowned tenor Mario Lanza portrays his long-time singing idol Enrico Caruso in the crowd-pleasing musical that was 1951's #4 box-office hit. Suggested by Dorothy Caruso's biography of her husband, The Great Caruso rings out with aural pleasures (27 musical selections)...

<p>Across the United States, violent crime in prison is an everyday reality, with inmates routinely exposed to assault, riot, rape and murder. Gladiator Days: Anatomy of a Prison Murder examines the culture of institutional violence through the events that led to one brutal prison...

<p>A mother decides her 22-year-old son's been a virgin long enough. A couple yearns for a little extramarital action. A pimp wants to add a fresh filly to his stable. A husband looks to cash in on his wife's birthday present. A pair of...

<p>From acclaimed director Kirby Dick (HBO's Showgirls: Glitz and Angst, Cinemax's Chain Camera and The End), this Academy Award-nominated and Sundance-selected feature documentary tells the deeply personal story of a man who confronts the trauma of past sexual abuse by a local priest, only...

<p>Acclaimed filmmaker Rory Kennedy examines the aim and effectiveness of the controversial Southern U.S. Border Barrier, a 700-mile fence erected along the more than 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. Kennedy follows her title subject through private ranches, protected wilderness, bustling border towns and scrub desert, offering...

<p>Located just south of Buffalo, the little Victorian-style village of Lily Dale, NY, is home to the world's largest community of "mediums" women and men who claim to have the special capability of communicating with the dead. Every July since 1879, the town's residents...

<p>El Espiritu de La Salsa -- (The Spirit of Salsa) Lonely hearts from all over New York City meet in Spanish Harlem once a week at Santo Rico Dance School, where they learn to perform Salsa. The film follows a diverse cast of New...

<p>In Homeless: Children Of the Working Poor Alexandra Pelosi follows children living in motels as their families struggle to survive in one of the richest zip codes in America.</p>

<p>12TH AND DELAWARE visits a street corner in Ft. Pierce, Fla. that is ground zero for the ferocious abortion-rights battle. On one side of the intersection stands A Women's World, an abortion clinic; across the street is the Pregnancy Care Center, a pro-life outpost...

<p>STUDS TERKEL: LISTENING TO AMERICA chronicles the life of America's greatest oral historian. Intermixed with the telling of Terkel's eccentric career -- as actor, musicologist, activist and bestselling author, -- are glimpses of this man's quintessentially American philosophy that every life counts; everyone's story...

<p>While exploring the larger Iranian struggle that was taking place and that rallied around her image, For Neda tells the personal story of Neda Agha-Soltan and her tragic death in the Iranian protests following the recent presidential election results.</p>

<p>Hank Williams is making a buck pitching a snake-oil cure-all to the gullible, capping his spiel by picking up his guitar and singing. In the crowd is The Drifting Cowboys, a group of touring country-western musicians who happen to be passing through. Say, Hank,...

<p>What do you do with a pitcher whose dominance has helped his team claim two world-championship banners? If the pitcher is burly lefty George Herman Ruth, you banish him from the mound, put a bat in his hand and watch him clout one record-setting...

<p>A severe drought threatens Navajo herdsmen living on the parched 1949 Utah-Arizona border. But two intrepid friends -- one Navajo, one the son of a white trader -- hear of hidden pastureland offering abundant water somewhere beyond the red cliffs. So they set off...

<p>"What is the fate of the world?" With breathtaking Technicolor photography and thrilling up-close encounters with the undersea world, The Sea Around Us gave audiences early warning about the environmental dangers threatening our planet. Based on Rachel Carson's acclaimed book and written, directed and...

Two billion years in the making!" trumpeted the ads for this fabulous Technicolor treat from Irwin Allen (The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno). The Animal World investigates the wonders of an astonishing array of creatures from butterflies to whales. But the unquestioned highlight is...

<p>The music, composed long ago, still speaks to us. It reaches out to tell us of profound struggles and great genius, of aching setbacks and glorious triumphs, of three people whose names, like their music, echo across the years: Clara Wieck, Robert Schumann and...

<p>The mother died under the executioner's axe; the daughter rose to become England's greatest monarch -- the brilliant and cunning Queen Elizabeth I. Jean Simmons portrays young Bess in this rich tapestry of a film that traces the tumultuous, danger-fraught years from Elizabeth's birth...

<p>From the acclaimed Maysles Films production team, this Oscar-nominated, Sundance Award-winning documentary follows three generations of African-Americans from Mississippi as they battle extreme poverty and illiteracy. Living in a trailer without running water or lights, matriarch LaLee Wallace watches her grandchildren struggle in school,...

<p>Charismatic, charming and complex, Sergio Vieira de Mello was the UN's go-to guy, a man who could descend into the most dangerous places, charm the worst war criminals, and somehow protect the lives of the ordinary people to whom he'd devoted his life. Based...

<p>A fictional account of the disappearance of the famed murder mystery writer Agatha Christie. On a cold winter day, her damaged car with her expensive fur coat is found abandoned at the side of a country road. The authorities initially suspect that she could...

<p>The sassy daughter of a local innkeeper, Peggy O'Neill (Joan Crawford) uses her smarts and good looks -- not to mention her close personal friendship with President Andrew Jackson (Lionel Barrymore) -- to make a scandalous impression on Washington's power elite in this lavish...

<p>Pay the man, get out of prison. It's a sweet deal for the Tennessee officials who let killers and rapists go free for a price. And who would have the guts to defy the state's power elite? No one, except a courageous single mom...