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A Century on Film looks back at a world-changing century of human drama and tragedy through rare and precious archival footage. Episode 1 begins with the World War I, including moving scenes from the world's first full-length war documentary, The Battle of the Somme. It was filmed by British army cameraman, Geoffrey Malins, who wrote, "What a record. …When this devastating war was over, people would be able to view all over again the fearful shells bursting, killing and maiming…" A wealth of other historical footage and testimonies bring the Great War to life in a dramatic opening to this fascinating series.
A Century on Film looks back at a world-changing century of human drama and tragedy through rare and precious archival footage. In the second installment covering World War I, we feature German scientific genius, Fritz Haber, who developed the world's first chemical weapons. The story of his scientist wife's response reflects the differing views of scientific progress in a human drama that plays out with tragic consequences. Images of the destructiveness of war, the heroes it created, and the roots of our modern world are also explored in rich and moving detail.
In the final of our 3 episodes covering World War I, A Century on Film looks back at Emir Faisal, who led the Arab Revolt with the help of the legendary Lawrence of Arabia. Faisal entered Damascus triumphantly in October 1918 only to be told soon after by the British that Syria would be a French protectorate. This episode also illuminates the activities of American financial powerhouse, J. P. Morgan and Company, in funding the Allies during the war, and Germany's support of Lenin's return to Russia before the October Revolution in 1917.
Our focus turns to the Roaring Twenties in the United States after World War I. Powerful families have positioned this New World nation as a rising superpower.
Early in 1929, the American boom still knows no bounds. But on October 24, 1929, Wall Street sees the biggest crash ever recorded. We show footage and a dramatic voiceover from just days after "Black Thursday". John D. Rockefeller records a message for those left in despair by the crash.
We trace in historic images the man who manipulated the German legislature into supporting his minority National Socialist party through deal making and intimidation - surrounding the Reichstag with storm troopers to help achieve his ends. Hitler also claimed to be inspired by Henry Ford's anti-Semitic ideas. A compelling introduction to Hitler's rise.
The outbreak of World War II. In September 1939, Germany invades Poland and quickly succeeds in conquering much of Europe. Private footage shows Hitler triumphantly inspecting a fallen Paris. His systematic persecution of the Jews proceeds unfettered as people turn a blind eye. America remains neutral reflecting local sentiment, but as Hitler moves into the Soviet Union, and then Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, the war becomes a worldwide affair.
In the final stages of World War II, Soviet forces turn the tables on the German military machine. But Hitler's gas chambers continue exterminating Jews and others in an unprecedented genocide while America and Germany compete for supremacy in military technology - foreshadowing a cold war world. The Allied landing at Normandy turns the tide and Paris is liberated, Berlin falls and Hitler suicides. America drops the first atom bombs on Japan, and the war ends.
This documentary will shed light on the clandestine wars fought between the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Rarely seen footage will show East Germany's secret police searching a citizen's home for evidence of contact with the west. In the United States, "McCarthyism" had begun to escalate.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, a spy provided the US with important information on Soviet nuclear missile placement. The Soviet Union would later discover that this spy was Oleg Penkovsky, a colonel in Soviet military intelligence.
We turn our lens to the stormy 1960's. In this decade of youth uprisings, Che Guevara and Mao Zedong are 2 revolutionary heroes who urge them on. In 1967, the first live global satellite broadcast sends images of a newborn baby in Japan, and the filming of Romeo and Juliet in Italy, around the world. TV is also bringing the horror of the Vietnam War into people's living rooms on a daily basis, igniting antiwar protests worldwide. Che Guevara was a major inspiration for the leader of Germany's huge antiwar movement, a young Rudi Dutschke.
In 1968, British university students clash with mounted police. There in support of their anti-war protest are scientist Stephen Hawking, and rock star, Mick Jagger. Socialist Czechoslovakia's fledgling democracy movement is suppressed by Soviet forces. Later at the Mexico Olympics a Czech medal-winner pointedly averts her eyes from the Soviet flag on the podium. The world is rocked again 20 years later. In 1987, David Bowie holds a concert on the west side of the Berlin Wall. We see young East Berliners ignore injunctions against public assembly to hear Bowie sing "Heroes".
Now in the 21st century, images trace the "war on terror". In 2001, 2 planes plunge in to destroy New York's twin towers and become a lightning rod for hatred. After the Iraq War, images of torture by US soldiers in Abu Ghraib prison stir equally strong anti-American feeling, and spawn a group that will kill in revenge and show the world; the so-called "Islamic State". In 2015, images capture a movement by French Muslims to sever the chain of violence and hate in the wake of the November terrorist attacks on Paris.
Image-makers in the 21st century are no longer the professional media, but every citizen with internet access. Personal footage of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami tells its tragic story to the world. Young Americans inspired to start a free video sharing site then launch a new era in image distribution. The U.S. recognizes same-sex marriage after supporters mobilize with the help of online videos. Shared images of Tunisian struggle embolden others and help give rise to the Arab Spring.
The 20th century was the first to be preserved in moving images. Drawing on new and rare footage from archives around the world, A Century on Film is a vivid portrait of humanity in the 20th century. In 1895, an audience of 30 watches Louis Lumiere's "Exiting the Factory" in a screening of short films at a Paris cafe. This short film was the first commercial film screening. A camera captures men dueling with sabers on the back streets of Paris. This episode traces the dawn of the film era from Queen Victoria's funeral and the end of China's Qing dynasty.
Less than a generation after the invention of moving pictures, everyone is seeking ever-more exotic, exciting images. Cameras capture a man diving from the Eiffel Tower in a cape he invented as a parachute. The show ends in sudden death. In this episode, moving images record literary giant, Leo Tolstoy, The Russo-Japanese War, modern dance pioneer, Isadora Duncan, Russia's Bloody Sunday, the private life of the Romanovs, America's immigrant influx, the last czar of Russia, Nicholas II, and the event in Sarajevo that triggered World War I.
In 1914, Paris is only 50 kilometers from the fighting on the Marne River. The French army commandeers 600 Renault taxis to ferry reinforcements to the front. Moving images capture the birth of weapons of mass destruction such as poison gas, aerial bombing, and the first armored tanks inspired by tractors, as well as the carnage they caused. Winston Churchill and Charlie Chaplin also appear, as we trace the arc of war. After the armistice, we see an American Red Cross prosthesis workshop in Paris where the many disfigured by war come seeking masks to conceal their scars.
By the 1920's, Manhattan is a warren of skyscrapers. It pumps out huge volumes of information, and feeds the burgeoning desires of the masses. Everyone is on the make for wealth and pleasure. Manhattan is forging a new mass society. In this episode, we turn our lens to American society in the 1920's, a world of light and shadow, of celebration and despair. We also see Duke Ellington, Babe Ruth, Charles Lindbergh and Japan's imperial succession.
In this episode, A Century on Film draws on rare archival footage to examine World War II. We see a nighttime bombing raid by the German Luftwaffe, and a plucky British eatery continuing to serve customers amid the rubble. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacks the US naval base at Pearl Harbor. Men of all ages, including Clark Gable and Joe DiMaggio, rush to volunteer for military service. In 1942, Germany's program to exterminate the Jews enters a new phase. Footage showing Jews being transported was taken covertly. The World War II was unprecedented in the scale of its attacks on unarmed civilians.
This episode traces the difficult path traveled by Asian nations toward independence. In 1915, Mahatma Gandhi returns to his homeland from South Africa. India celebrates Gandhi's struggle for human rights and independence. Footage depicting Gandhi's philosophy in action shows unarmed men taking on a wall of British constables. In China in 1924, Sun Yat-sen seeks support from the Communist International, and starts a military academy to nurture a revolutionary army, with Chiang Kai-shek as commandant. Images convey 50 years of Western colonial imperialism, and the independence movements it inspired.
In this episode, A Century on Film continues its focus on the struggles for Asian independence and their remarkable leaders. In the late 1930's, Mao gains supreme power over party affairs. He is first captured on film in Yan'an. In 1941, after 30 years leading from behind the scenes abroad, Ho Chi Minh returns to his homeland. Footage of him from this period is mainly shot by Soviet cameramen. In 1946, Ho proclaims Vietnamese independence, and travels to Paris to negotiate terms. In January 1948, the world hears the news of Gandhi's assassination. Mao claims victory over the Nationalists in China in 1949.
This episode traces the transformation of Europe and Asia from the Yalta Conference to the dawn of the Cold War. Most of Eastern Europe is dominated by the Soviet Union, and Berlin is split into eastern and western zones. Movie theaters are built along both sides of the city and show propaganda films arguing the merits of communism and capitalism. In 1948, the Soviets mount a total blockade of West Berlin. Women perm their hair with heat from wood-fired stoves and printing presses run on muscle power. War in Korea breaks out in June 1950 and grim US soldiers leave home to join the fighting.
In this and the next episode, we explore a superpower shaken to its foundations as the war in Vietnam drags on. Through the 1960's, South Vietnam receives massive American support to prop it up against the communist north. In Saigon, a Buddhist monk immolates himself to protest the South's dictatorial regime. In 1963, African-Americans launch large-scale demonstrations against segregation under their leader, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. "We Shall Overcome" is their anthem. After the assassination of President Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson embarks on a major expansion of the war in Vietnam.
This episode continues our look at the fissures opened in American society over US involvement in the Vietnam War and the treatment of African-Americans. On January 31, 1968, South Vietnamese commandos allied with the communist north enter the grounds of the US embassy in Saigon. Images of the fighting are relayed via satellite to American living rooms for the first time in history. On February 3, an insurgent commander is hauled before the national police chief. Footage of his roadside execution shocks the world. On April 3, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his last speech.
In this and the next episode of A Century on Film, we explore the dimensions of a global tragedy that reverberates today. Our first images of refugees date from late in World War I. Armenians flee the Ottoman Empire as it teeters on the brink of collapse. We look back at Russian refugees in 1921, displaced Poles in 1941, and the conflict between Croats and Serbs in World War II, including footage of Croats rounding up Serb civilians after their leader meets Hitler. We also trace the fate of Jews in Europe and Palestine from the 1920's to 1930's.
We continue our exploration of how war and oppression made the 20th century a century of refugees. After World War II, 200,000 Jews attempt to reach Palestine. But Arab nations are opposed, and clashes break out across Palestine. In 1947, Britain abandons efforts to resolve the Palestinian question, and the United Nations passes a resolution to divide Palestine. At last the Jews have a homeland. Arab opposition is fierce, and sparks the first Arab-Israeli war. 700,000 Arabs are expelled from their homes. We also cover Hungary's uprising in 1956, the collapse of South Vietnam, and the genocide in Cambodia.
In this and the next episode, we explore Japan as seen from abroad, from the late Meiji era to postwar reconstruction. One of the oldest moving images shot in Tokyo shows a bustling road and the two-wheeled carriage called a rickshaw. It was shot in 1897, just 2 years after the Lumière's premiered their first movie. In the same year, cameras cover a lively area in Kyoto and star of the Kabuki theater, Sadanji Ichikawa. We also look at modern Japan's turning points; Japan's victory over Russia at Port Arthur, the assassination of Japanese statesman Hirobumi Ito, and the enthronement of Emperor Showa.
Friction between Japan and America over the fighting in China continues to grow. On December 7, 1941, Japan launches a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Japan occupies Indonesia and local sentiment begins to turn against the Japanese. During the war, Hollywood film director, Frank Capra is engaged to direct a movie to educate American servicemen about Japan. In August 1945, America drops nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Prefecture, and Japan accepts the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. The war is over. Emperor Showa embarks on a tour of his war-ravaged nation, and is welcomed by 50,000 people in Hiroshima.
WW1 was the first war in which the movie camera was used on a wide scale.an attack on the Balkan peninsula triggered a war, stewing seeds of misery that still plagues the world today.
At the end of world war 1, the united states replaced the European nations as a super power. The countries driving force was the giant family run conglomerates
WWII was the deadliest military conflict in history killing more than 50 million people. But the world was not driven into the tragedy of invasion by a single dictator
The USA and the Soviet Union fought an intelligence war during the cold war, defined by lies and secrets. Twenty-five years after the cold war, disclosure of information gives a clearer picture.
In the late 1960’s, the world faced a rebellion from its youth. The US baby boomers’ protests against the Vietnam war spread to other countries including japan.
With apps for sharing videos on our smart phones and more than 300 hours of video content being uploaded every minute on YouTube, this may indeed be a century on film.
