Movies/Documentaries: African History

Set in a mountain village in Kenya the film tells the remarkable true and uplifting story of a proud old Mau Mau veteran who is determined to seize his last chance to learn to read and write - and so ends up joining a class alongside six year-olds. Together he and his young teacher face fierce resistance, but ultimately they win through - and also find a new way of overcoming the burdens of the colonial past.

Donald Woods (Kevin Kline) is chief editor of the liberal newspaper "Daily Dispatch" in South Africa. He has written several editorials critical of the views of Steve Biko (Denzel Washington). But after having met him for the first time, he changes his opinion. They meet several times, and this means that Woods and his family get attention from the Security Police. When Steve Biko dies in Police custody, he writes a book about Biko. The only way to get it published is for Woods to illegally escape the country.

Simon Bolivar fought over 100 battles against the Spanish Empire in South America. He rode over 70,000 miles on horseback. His military campaigns covered twice the territory of Alexander the Great. His army never conquered -- it liberated.

A look at the relationship between pioneering 19th century French neurologist Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot and his star teenage patient, a kitchen maid who is left partially paralyzed after a seizure.

A drama that chronicles the life of Winnie Mandela from her childhood through her marriage and her husband's incarceration.

Biograpical epic of Malcolm X, the legendary African American leader. Born Malcolm Little, his father (a Garveyite Baptist minister) was killed by the Ku Klux Klan. Malcolm became a gangster, and while in jail discovered the Nation of Islam writings of Elijah Muhammad. He preaches the teachings when let out of jail, but later on goes on a pilgrimage to the city of Mecca, there he converts to the original Islamic religion and becomes a Sunni Muslim and changes his name to El-Hajj Malik Al-Shabazz. He is assassinated on February 21, 1965 and dies a Muslim martyr.

Based on Pat Barker's novel of the same name, 'Regeneration' tells the story of soldiers of World War One sent to an asylum for emotional troubles. Two of the soldiers meeting there are Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, two of England's most important WW1 poets.

A political thriller: the real-life story of a South African hero's journey to freedom. In the country's turbulent and divided times in the 1980s, Patrick Chamusso is an oil refinery foreman and soccer coach who is apolitical - until he and his wife Precious are jailed. Patrick is stunned into action against the country's oppressive reigning system, even as police Colonel Nic Vos further insinuates himself into the Chamussos' lives.

A profile of anarchist and bank-robber Salvador Puig Antich, whose 1974 execution under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco ushered in a period of unrest that helped Spain transition to democracy.

Wronke Prison, 1916. Social democrat

'Tula, The Revolt' is an international English spoken feature length movie about the leader of the big slave uprising on the island of Curacao, a Dutch colony in 1795. 'Tula The Revolt' tells the true story of a man who dared to stand up against his oppressors leading his people in a peaceful march for freedom, equality and brotherhood. An action movie, but at the same time a character movie, giving the audience the insights of a reluctant leader, his hopes, his fears, his values, his love, his faith, but also his inevitable destiny.

A Jewish family in Germany emigrate short before the Second World War. They move to Kenya to start running a farm, but not all members of the family come to an arrangement with their new life. Shortly after their departure, things are changing in Germany very quickly, and a turning back seems impossible. So everyone has to arrange himself with the new life in a new continent.

26 year-old Karl Marx embarks with his wife, Jenny, on the road to exile. In 1844 Paris, he meets Friedrich Engels, an industrialist's son, who investigated the sordid birth of the British working-class. Engels, the dandy, provides the last piece of the puzzle to the young Karl Marx's new vision of the world. Together, between censorship and the police's repression, riots and political upheavals, they will lead the labor movement during its development into a modern era.

Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.

A drama based on the true-life experiences of four combat photographers capturing the final days of apartheid in South Africa.

James Gregory once lived in a farm and had befriended a native youth, Bafana, and had even had a photograph taken with him. Years later, now married to Gloria and father of three children (Chris, Brett, and Natasha), James has nothing but shame and regret, as many South African Caucasians in the oppressive Apartheid-era ridiculed him, leading him to hate Africans. He seeks to redeem himself by spying on imprisoned African National Congress Leader, Nelson Mandela. In the restrictive high security prison his job is to censor all written and verbal communications between prisoners, their visitors, and correspondence. James is uncomfortable when he witnesses Caucasian police and security officers' brutality against civilians, including infants, and tries to understand why Nelson became a rebel. This leads him to examine the 'Freedom Charter', a banned document, reportedly known to incite violence against 'whites'. And when he does read this document, he changes his mind about Nelson's freedom struggle. Soon he, himself, will be alienated by his very own peers. Isolated, he receives death threats over the phone and has to face the trauma of the 'accidental' death of Brett. In addition, he and his family are kept under close watch by the security forces amidst tight economic sanctions by the international community, and growing unrest by the natives who continue their fight for equality, and freedom for Nelson Mandela.

Tuesday, June 4, 1968: the California Presidential primary. As day breaks,

The painter Goya becomes involved with the Spanish Inquisition when his muse, Ines, is arrested by the church for heresy. Her father, Thomas, comes to him hoping that his connection with Brother Lorenzo, whom he is painting, can secure the release of his daughter.