Easter Island Origins

This documentary explores the events surrounding the greatest maritime tragedy in the history of the Pacific coast, the sinking of the Princess Sophia. The Canadian Pacific steamer had left Skagway, Alaska, on October 23, 1918, on its way to Vancouver, when a fierce blizzard hit. The ship veered off course and ran aground on a reef. Despite the proximity of several other ships, the harsh weather prevented any evacuation attempt. Almost 48 hours later, the Sophia slipped off the reef and sank. The following morning, rescue ships faced the terrible evidence: only the tip of its mast was visible. None of the 353 passengers and crewmembers survived. Archival photos, 3D animation, exclusive interviews and underwater photography relate an important chapter of maritime history, while vividly portraying a place and time.

Click for full movie details & trailers.

When the revolution in Nicaragua won its victory nearly 40 years ago, the world began to dream. A young generation was taking the reins in a country of grand utopias. From West Germany alone, 15,000 “brigadists” travelled to help rebuild the war-torn country: liberals, greens, unionists, social democrats, leftists and church representatives harvested coffee and cotton, built schools, kindergartens and hospital wards. No movement has mobilised so many people. What became of the hopes and dreams of the revolutionaries and their supporters?

The story of two soldier-cameramen, Sgt Mike Lewis and Sgt Bill Lawrie, who witnessed the liberation of Belsen during the closing days of World War II.

The Faraway Nearby follows the tragic life of pioneer physicist Joseph Weber, whose pursuit of gravitational waves takes him on a dizzying journey from the height of acclaim to the depths of despair and disdain when he breaks the cardinal rule of science and clings to his ideas though his results can't be duplicated. Physicists, artists, and other creatives explore the emotional side of discovery and question whether the risk is worth the journey.

The inside story of the Artemis II mission - filmed over three and a half years at NASA. How did four astronauts travel to the moon, going deeper into space than ever before?

The documentary of the Nuremberg War Trials of 21 Nazi dignitaries held after World War II.

This educational documentary describes the political, social, and religious conditions of sixteenth century Europe. It also Interprets the reforms of Martin Luther as a part and/of these conditions as indications of future trends.

Click for full movie details & trailers.

Click for full movie details & trailers.

In 1872, in the cave of Cavillon in Monaco, archaeologist Émile Rivière (1835-1922) unearthed an apparently very old human skeleton, at least 24,000 years old, a discovery that changed the modern image of prehistoric men and women.

Deep beneath the legendary Easter Island, National Geographic undertakes a groundbreaking expedition to map a vast cave system utilized by the people who carved these iconic statues. Protected by sheer cliffs, narrow labyrinths and underwater entrances, many of the caves have not been explored for decades. Recently discovered human remains and telltale artifacts reveal details of the island's intriguing history and culture.

Click for full movie details & trailers.

Marijuana is the most controversial drug of the 20th century. Smoked by generations to little discernible ill effect, it continues to be reviled by many governments on Earth. In this Genie Award-winning documentary, veteran Canadian director Ron Mann and narrator Woody Harrelson mix humour and historical footage together to recount how the United States has demonized a relatively harmless drug.

Druids have existed far longer than hitherto assumed, since the 4th century BC. Their traces are found all over middle Europe: from the northern Balkans to Ireland. Their cultural achievements were equal in almost every way to those of the Romans and Greeks: They could read and write and spoke Greek and Latin - for centuries, they were the powerful elite of their culture. Only one single Druid is known by name to history: Diviciacos - an aristocrat of the Aedui and personal friend of Julius Caesar. Diviciacos was a politician, a judge and a diplomat, but he lived at a time when the Celtic lands of Gaul were conquered by the Romans. Greek and Roman contemporaries distrusted the actions of this forbear of the famous comic book druid Getafix: They imagined him in bloody rituals in somber woods.

Cruelty, psychological and sexual violence, humiliations: reality television seems to have gone mad. His debut in the early 2000s inaugurated a new era in the history of the audio-visual. Fifty years of archives trace the evolution of entertainment: how the staging of intimacy during the 80s opened new territories, how the privatization of the biggest channels has changed the relationship with the spectator. With the contribution of specialists, including philosopher Bernard Stiegler, this documentary demonstrates how emotion has made way for the exacerbation of the most destructive impulses.

In 150 years, twice marked by total destruction —a terrible earthquake in 1923 and incendiary bombings in 1945— followed by a spectacular rebirth, Tokyo, the old city of Edo, has become the largest and most futuristic capital in the world in a transformation process fueled by the exceptional resilience of its inhabitants, and nourished by a unique phenomenon of cultural hybridization.

Three million years ago, camels roamed through Greenland’s endless forests and our ancestors lived in the trees. It all came to an end with the Ice Ages. What died and what survived, as natural selection shaped the evolutionary tree during this epochal shift from hot to cold? Until now, scientists have known less about the natural world before the Ice Age than they did about the age of dinosaurs, which ended 64 million years ago. A new discovery is set to reveal this lost world, species by species. Led by Danish gene-hunter Eske Willerslev, a team of scientists for the first time in history is sequencing DNA from before the Ice Age. The picture that emerges is of a hot planet, when forests blanketed the Arctic and carbon levels matched those in our atmosphere today. Is this a portrait of our own climate future?

Did you know that the first cowboys were black? Using magnificent archives and testimonies from historians, Cécile Denjean restores justice to African-Americans in the story of the conquest of the West.

A documentary made by History Time on YouTube. Written, researched and produced by Pete Kelly.