Deep Blues (1991), Paragraph 175 (2000), Shoah (1985), Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary (2002), They Shall Not Grow Old (2018), Secret Lives: Hidden Children & Their Rescuers During WWII (2002), Latcho Drom (1994), Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives (1993) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Oral History movies.
Storyline: While some successful blues acts sell out arenas and tour around the world, many of the best blues artists remain relatively unknown, playing in small clubs or, in some cases, just in their own yards. Filmmaker Robert Mugge and music scholar Robert Palmer take an enthusiastic look at these lesser-known blues artists, showcasing incredible music from talented players who have never been signed to major labels and generally have not received the recognition they have deserved.
Plot Keywords: music documentary, american south, oral history, social margins, music history, music interviews, music exploration ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman chronicle the persecution of homosexuals under the Third Reich. Narrated by Rupert Everett.
Plot Keywords: history, documentary, nazi, holocaust, homosexuality, persecution, world war ii ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Claude Lanzmann directed this 9 1/2 hour documentary of the Holocaust without using a single frame of archive footage. He interviews survivors, witnesses, and ex-Nazis (whom he had to film secretly since they only agreed to be interviewed by audio). His style of interviewing by asking for the most minute details is effective at adding up these details to give a horrifying portrait of the events of Nazi genocide. He also shows, or rather lets some of his subjects themselves show, that the anti-Semitism that caused 6 million Jews to die in the Holocaust is still alive and well in many people who still live in Germany, Poland, and elsewhere.—Gene Volovich <volovich@netcom.com>
Plot Keywords: documentary, holocaust, world war ii, history, testimony, jewish, nazi ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Filmmakers André Heller and Othmar Schmiderer interview Traudl Junge, a secretary to Adolf Hitler in 1942.
Plot Keywords: documentary, world war ii, history, nazi, biography, germany, holocaust ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Through ground breaking computer restoration technology, filmmaker Peter Jackson's team creates a moving real-to-life depiction of the WWI, as never seen before in restored, vivid colorizing & retiming of the film frames, in order to honor those who fought and more accurately depict this historical moment in world history.—Curtis Medina
Plot Keywords: war, documentary, world war i, history, veterans, peter jackson, united kingdom ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Before the Second World War, more than one and a half million Jewish children were living in Europe. By the war's end, fewer than one out of ten had survived. This is the story of the non-Jewish families who put their own lives at risk to save these children.—Anonymous
Plot Keywords: world war ii, holocaust, survivors, jews, documentary, history, war crimes ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The film takes the viewer on a journey west, from India to Spain, with stops along the way, to dramatize Romany's nomadic culture. This journey takes place over a year's time, from summer through fall and winter to spring. Gatlif holds his camera on the elemental essentials of this life: water, the wheel, fire, beasts of burden and of sustenance, colorful clothes, jewelry, musical instruments, song, and dance. Throughout, via song and dance, young and old celebrate, embody, and teach the cultural values of family, journey, love, separateness, and persecution.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
Plot Keywords: cultural heritage, no dialogue, visual poetry, dance, oral history, cross-cultural, musical journey ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: This documentary about lesbians in Canada alternates between fiction and non-fiction. Along with interviews of real women who discuss coming to terms with their sexuality during the '40s, '50s and '60s, there are dramatized scenes based on the "Beebo Brinker Chronicles," a series of hard-boiled lesbian pulp novels by Ann Bannon published during the '50s. Meanwhile, the interviewed women talk about Vancouver and Toronto's gay scenes of the time, which were their own pulp-worthy underworlds.
Plot Keywords: documentary, lesbian, history, canada, oral history, social movement, female director ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: 'We Were Here' is the first film to take a deep and reflective look back at the arrival and impact of AIDS in San Francisco, and how the City's inhabitants dealt with that unprecedented calamity. It explores what was not so easy to discern in the midst of it all - the parallel histories of suffering and loss, and of community coalescence and empowerment. Though this is a San Francisco based story, the issues it addresses extend not only beyond San Francisco but also beyond AIDS itself. 'We Were Here' speaks to our societal relationship to death and illness, our capacity as individuals to rise to the occasion, and the importance of community in addressing unimaginable crises.—Anonymous
Plot Keywords: documentary, lgbt, san francisco, history, epidemic, community, survival ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The life and times of Muhammed Ali are shown through the lens of his numerous appearances on "The Dick Cavett Show."
Plot Keywords: documentary, interview, boxing, sports legend, historical footage, social issues, racial equality ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In 1959, Berry Gordy Jr. gathered the best musicians from Detroit's thriving jazz and blues scene to begin cutting songs for his new record company. Over a fourteen year period they were the heartbeat on every hit from Motown's Detroit era. By the end of their phenomenal run, this unheralded group of musicians had played on more number ones hits than the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, Elvis and the Beatles combined - which makes them the greatest hit machine in the history of popular music. They called themselves the Funk Brothers. Forty-one years after they played their first note on a Motown record and three decades since they were all together, the Funk Brothers reunited back in Detroit to play their music and tell their unforgettable story, with the help of archival footage, still photos, narration, interviews, re-creation scenes, 20 Motown master tracks, and twelve new live performances of Motown classics with the Brothers backing up contemporary performers.—Anonymous
Plot Keywords: music documentary, music history, oral history, music legends, music influence, music interviews, classic songs ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: For nine months prior to World War II, in an act of mercy unequalled anywhere else before the war, Britain conducted an extraordinary rescue mission, opening its doors to over 10,000 Jewish and other children from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. These children, or Kinder (sing. Kind), as they came to be known, were taken into foster homes and hostels in Britain, expecting eventually to be reunited with their parents. The majority of them never saw their families again.—Jwelch5742
Plot Keywords: history, documentary, world war ii, holocaust, refugees, united kingdom, germany ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Centuries ago, in what would become the Canadian Arctic, Atuat is promised to the malevolent Oki, son of the leader of their tribe. But Atuat loves the good-natured Atanarjuat, who ultimately finds a way to marry her. Oki's sister, Puja also fancies Atanarjuat, and when she causes strife between him and his brother Amaqjuaq, Oki seizes the opportunity to wreak a terrible revenge on Atanarjuat.—Shannon Patrick Sullivan <shannon@mun.ca>
Plot Keywords: epic, folklore, survival, betrayal, revenge, tradition, arctic ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Martin Scorsese interviews his mother and father about their life in New York City and the family history back in Sicily. These are two people who have lived together for a long time and know each other very well. They have retained individual identities and differing opinions, yet have found a way to live with each other, and both are fascinating story-tellers.—alfiehitchie
Plot Keywords: documentary, family, oral history, culture, immigration, new york, interview ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A historical account of military policy regarding homosexuals during World War II. The documentary includes interviews with several gay WWII veterans.—Travis <mtharris@erols.com>
Plot Keywords: documentary, history, war, lgbtq+, homosexuality, world war ii, discrimination ...
Movie Details Click Here !