Best movies like Life Begins Anew

Originally broadcast by KCET (PBS) on their dramatic showcase series, "Visions," this sweet, quiet film is set during World War I. It is the story of Amy, a proper, but lonely housewife whose husband is away at war. She finds solace in a friendship with a more worldly female photographer, only to have her entire world turned upside down when the friendship becomes genuine love and she is forced to choose. Groundbreaking for its powerful yet non-prurient portrayal of lesbian first love.

Based on the book by anthropologist Barbara Myerhoff, this Academy Award-winning short documentary offers a tender portrait of a community of elderly yet resilient Jews living, loving, and at times struggling, in Venice, California. From everyday trials to traditional celebrations, this compassionate portrayal of Eastern European survivors cuts straight to the heart of every viewer and reminds us of the joys and realities of long life.

Raising Bertie is a longitudinal documentary feature following three young African American boys over the course of six years as they grow into adulthood in Bertie County, a rural African American-led community in Eastern North Carolina. Through the intimate portrayal of these boys, this powerful vérité film offers a rare in-depth look at the issues facing America's rural youth and the complex relationships between generational poverty, educational equity, and race. The evocative result is an experience that encourages us to recognize the value and complexity in lives all too often ignored.

After having a fight with his girl friend, Marc follows her to Rome to try and win her back. On the train he meets a girl who is on her way to stay with her uncle. He gives her a lift to her uncle's, but they discover he has gone to South America. So as she has nowhere else to go, she stays with Marc and his cousin, which inevitably leads to romance.

Beginning just before his debut as Frankenstein’s creation, this documentary compellingly explores the life and legacy of a cinema legend, presenting a perceptive history of the genre he personified. Karloff's films were long derided as hokum and attacked by censors, but his phenomenal popularity and pervasive influence endures, inspiring some of our greatest actors and directors into the 21st Century – among them Guillermo Del Toro, Ron Perlman, Roger Corman, and John Landis, all of whom and many more contribute their personal insights and anecdotes.

A fantastic yarn about a plot to conquer the world with an army of zombies!

Marching down the Italian peninsula to sack ancient Rome, Etruscan warrior Drusco instead offers to hold back his onslaught if the Romans hand over hostages, including Clelia, the sexy leader of a clan of woman warriors. But before long, intrigue and betrayal unravel the fragile peace. Directors Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia and Vittorio Cottafavi helm this vintage sword-and-sandal epic.

AKA: Brennus, Enemy of Rome, AKA: Battle of the Valiant A 1963 film about the sack of Rome in 387 BC

Set in a near-future Sweden, where jobs are scarce, margins are tight and corporate profit trumps all, this timely hybrid film reveals a frighteningly all-too-recognisable economic dystopia. Sköld highlights the effects of the ruthless system on families, friendships and communities. All but a hair’s breadth away from homelessness, zero-hours contract workers squabble over shifts at the discount supermarket while store manager Eleni, a new mother forced to return to work too soon, frantically pumps breast milk in the staff toilets. Poignant and compellingly performed, the film’s vignettes are punctuated with animated sequences, inventively exposing the dehumanising and absurdly wasteful effects of capitalism. And yet, beyond the store, an ever-growing ‘underclass’ offers a sense of hope through sustainability and true community.

Rossellini’s biopic of the postwar Christian Democrat leader, Alcide De Gaspari, who was responsible for keeping the Communists out of power in the years that followed the fall of fascism.

A film portrayal of a pioneering aviator and best-selling author whose extraordinary public life had a deep impact on her inner world.

The Legend, on Nina’s life and music, was made in France by Frank Lords and it is told in large part by Nina Simone herself. It is an honest portrayal based on her autobiography “I Put A Spell On You,” that shows Nina at her mightiest and at her most vulnerable.

A three-part feature by Brian Jordan Alvarez An honest portrayal of a young man figuring out how he wants to live out his romantic and sexual life.

Jill, a young and beautiful girl Australian party for a vacation in Italy. In Rome Pierluigi meets the young, a boy sympathetic and fascinating. The two begin to frequentarsi and what began as a simple friendship soon turns into a much stronger feeling. Everything seems to wonder proceed between the two, as in a beautiful tale with a happy ending, as long as it abides Pierluigi victim of a bad car accident.

Three girls are on a hitchhiking trip through northern Italy, the riviera, Venice, Pisa and Rome.

March on Rome (Italian: La marcia su Roma) is a 1962 comedy film by Dino Risi with Vittorio Gassman and Ugo Tognazzi, aimed at describing the March on Rome of Benito Mussolini's black shirts from the point of view of two newly recruited, naïve black shirts

A lovely, incisive portrait of adolescents in the crowded San Giovanni quarter of Rome during the last years of WWII.

In postwar London a young graduate and his girlfriend decide to marry. Her well-to-do parents are not convinced, but they agree once he has got a £5.10.0 job and a 30/- a week single-room flat. The newly-weds find money fearfully tight, the flat cramped, the neighbours a trial, and her parents always hovering. Can faith conquer all? Is there some way of getting rid of tea-leaves except down the sink?

Aging local standup comic Sweeney, "The Character King", gets an opportunity to do a national cable show out of Los Angeles. The only caveat is that Sweeney must drop the locally referenced material from his act, the biggest pieces being the portrayal of his colorful Boston "characters," that have become a staple of his home field success. Sweeney makes the hard decision to stop doing the characters. But, to his dismay, the characters "come-to-life" and seek their revenge; they try to kill Sweeney.

The second of Castellani's trilogy dealing with the less-than-smooth course of young love in postwar Italy (it was filmed just after Sotto il sole di Roma and just before Two Cents Worth of Hope). Leading man Mario Angelotti, loving not wisely but too well, quickly discovers that the penalty for bigamy is two wives. Between his tempestuous Sicilian bride, played by Elena Varzi and his sedate Milanese missus (Irene Gemma), the poor man barely has time to take a breath.

In a post-war Rome (1946) a cat burglar inadvertently saves the life of a would-be suicide man who returns from the war to find that he has been betrayed by his fiancée while fighting in the war. From that moment the thief takes the ex-soldier under his wing. They leave house together for a night full of misadventures. In a streets of Rome they meet the struggling typist who can’t pay her rent and opts to street life; a wandering amnesiac who lost his memory and keeps asking everyone “Do you recognize me?”. Thieves, gamblers, hookers, policemen, soldiers and endless chain of cigarette-smoking and alcohol/espresso-drinking.

Dennis O'Keefe plays a GI who falls in love with Mara Lane in postwar Rome. Lane kills her boss, forcing her to flee the law. O'Keefe goes along for the ride so that he won't be knocked off by Lane's husband. Just when it looks as though O'Keefe is willing to go to any lengths to protect the woman he loves, he discovers that she frankly isn't worth it.

Michael Delucca, a Vietnam veteran broken by his struggle with post-traumatic stress, recollects his violent postwar life in a raw and touching memoir for the son he never knew.

A Final Goodbye is an intimate look into the life and times of Amy Winehouse. This in-depth program chronicles her rise to pop superstardom and also offers a sensitive portrayal of a transformative star and the inner demons that inspired her work and eventually caused her untimely death. Her battle with addiction and her courtship with self destruction were well documented through the press. Even her troubled relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil was played out in front of British Media. But despite this backdrop, Amy Winehouse will be remembered for her unique song writing style fusing R & B, soul and jazz influences sang through a deep contralto vocal. The 'Back to Black' album symbolised her huge success at this time which led to an astonishing 5 Grammy awards- 'the most wins by a female artist in a single night'. This insightful programme is a definitive testimonial to an incredible music icon covering the start of her career up until her death.

With the help of a team of experts and the latest in 3-D scanning technology, Alexander Armstrong, along with Dr Michael Scott, explores the hidden underground treasures that made Rome the powerhouse of the ancient world.

A documentary about Hannibal Barca - the general and ruler of New Carthage, who crossed the Alps in the fight with Rome. It covers the period from before the Punic Wars to the defeat of Carthage.

Alex Norton discovers how showbusiness has handled the portrayal of the Scottish accent. For over 100 years audiences have struggled to understand our braw brogue: silent Harry Lauder films attempted an accent in the captions, and in Hollywood's golden era , everyone wanted to paint their tonsils tartan- but as examples from Katharine Hepburn, Orson Welles and Richard Chamberlain show, they couldnae. Then Disney made Brave and proved that it disnae have to be all bad!

Few musicals can claim to capture the mood of a historical period as well as the 1972 classic Cabaret. Liza Minnelli's unforgettable portrayal of singer Sally Bowles and the film's stylish recreation of the era have become defining images of Weimar Berlin. In this documentary, actor Alan Cumming explores the truths behind the fiction. He meets many of those closely involved with the original film, including Liza Minnelli, and talks to cabaret artists, among them acclaimed performer Ute Lemper. Alan explores the origins of the Cabaret story in the writings of Christopher Isherwood and uncovers the story of the real life Sally Bowles, a woman very different from her fictional counterpart. He talks to the composer of Cabaret about the inspiration for the film's most famous songs and discovers the stories of the original composers and performers, among them Marlene Dietrich. Finally, Alan reveals the tragic fate of many of the cabaret artists at the hands of the Nazis.

A documentary about portrayals of winter in art

David Reynolds re-examines the war leadership of American president Franklin Roosevelt, who inspired millions with stirring visions of a new and better postwar world.

At the time of Nero, the Empire is at the height of its power, but Rome, where a million inhabitants live, is afraid of its enemies, of foreigners, of barbarians. Rome is afraid of the Tyrant and of its own power. And all these fears seem to crystallize in that of fire, more than anything else feared in this megalopolis that so often catches fire. In 64 A.D. the most terrible fire that the city has ever known broke out. It is said that it was set on the orders of Nero, in order to overwhelm the Christians who were accused of it. The watchmen, Celer and Theseus, intervene at the risk of their lives. This fictional documentary tells the story of the adventures of these two "firemen" in Rome during the Empire. An astonishing journey through time, the story of the life of men: customs, family, lifestyle, politics, education, leisure.

Raj goes to Rome looking for his missing sister Reena. Through the search he discovers the real Reena, things that he never knew about her. He also meets a few magical characters who make him realize who Raj actually is as well.

It is set in 1905 with Buffalo Bill as the main character.

An opera singer hides an American soldier in his house in Nazi-occupied Rome.

Two narratives clash violently in this meditative portrayal of disaffected youth set in a graveyard of abandoned mobile homes known as Sunset Edge. We follow a group of four aimless, suburban teenagers - they skateboard the park, sleep in the sun, and rummage through the decaying remains completely unaware that this is where a lonesome teen is confronting a horrific past. Day turns to night, people disappear, and the secrets of Sunset Edge are revealed in a paralyzing finale.