The Man in the Silk Hat

This documentary recounts the life and work of one of most famous, and yet reviled, German film directors in history, Leni Riefenstahl. The film recounts the rise of her career from a dancer, to a movie actor to the most important film director in Nazi Germany who directed such famous propaganda films as Triumph of the Will and Olympiad. The film also explores her later activities after Nazi Germany's defeat in 1945 and her disgrace for being so associated with it which includes her amazingly active life over the age of 90.

The true history of a collection of some 500 films dating from 1910s to 1920s, which were lost for over 50 years until being discovered buried in a sub-arctic swimming pool deep in the Yukon Territory, in Dawson City, located about 350 miles south of the Arctic Circle.

Actor Ned Beatty hosts a look at the genre known as "exploitation" films. Interviews with some of the producers and directors of these films are shown, along with scenes from and trailers for some of these films.

This film is a compilation, with narration by Steve Allen, of comedies from the old Mack Sennett silent studio. Sennett, himself, appears in a cameo at the end of the film.

Pioneering comedy legend Max Linder wrote, produced, directed and starred in Seven Years Bad Luck. Hilarious misadventures begin when Max' butler, chasing a maid, breaks an expensive full-length mirror. The butler persuades the cook, who somewhat resembles Max, to stand behind the frame and be Max's reflection. This gag, developed by Max, has become a classic of film and even television borrowed by everyone from the Marx Brothers to Abbott and Costello to Red Skeleton.

A documentary about the life of Carl Laemmle, early cinema pioneer and founder of Universal Studios, documenting his life in Hollywood and his efforts in the 1930s to save Jewish families in Nazi Germany.

The comedy pioneer behind the Goon Show, Dr Strangelove and the Pink Panther series is explored in depth in this film, surveying his meteoric rise to fame and troubled personal life.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Peter Fonda host an examination of the history of decency standards for movies from the early 1920s onwards.

This documentary traces the history of the B-Western from it's silent movie origins to its demise in the early 1950s. The film contains a large number of scenes from early silents and seldom seen films, as well as old photographs of the stars and one-sheet advertisements for lost films.

An intimate portrait and saga of four film pioneers--Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack who rose from immigrant poverty through personal tragedies persevering to create a major studio with a social conscience.

A documentary that details the process of restoring 270 of the 520 lost films of pioneering director Georges Méliès, all orchestrated by a Franco-American collaboration between Lobster Films, the National Film Center, and the Library of Congress.

A compilation of early-day silent films that serves as a glimpse back to the formative days of the movie industry as a salute to Hollywood's Golden Year, so proclaimed by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce as 1953.

A look back at Charlie Chaplin's early life and career, from his rough childhood and music hall success in England to his early Hollywood days and the development of his enormously popular character, the Little Tramp, also called Charlot.

This documentary celebrates the 100th anniversary of the cinema birth. It is an historic running through the technical and artistic evolution of the 7th art. We move from mute to sound, from B&W to color, trough all the genders (musical, Lyric, politic...). Beside it we have a kind of resume of the historic contest in which cinema lived till now, events and movements (neo-realism, classical etc.). All the aspects are taken in consideration: fashion, star system till the end, the sad end, of cinema in the theaters.

The first ever comprehensive history of animation worldwide. Animated with hosts created by Bill Plympton, this films includes over 160 films from 26 countries.

A chronicle of the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants in the post-Edwardian era—with great events in history having an effect on their lives and on the British social hierarchy.

George raises daughter Carmen and dyslexic son Max with his wife Angie, after surviving a miserable, dysfunctional childhood at the hands of his neglectful alcoholic mother Benny.

Upstairs: the wealthy, aristocratic Bellamys. Downstairs: their loyal and lively servants. For nearly 30 years, they share a fashionable townhouse at 165 Eaton Place in London’s posh Belgravia neighborhood, surviving social change, political upheaval, scandals, and the horrors of the First World War.

Jack Black, Channel 101, and VH1 want to introduce you to their new interactive sketch comedy show: Acceptable.tv. Each week you'll see five mini TV shows made by the Acceptable.tv team.

Featuring true cases, characters and events taken from the London Hospital records, nurse's ward diaries and intimate memoirs, these gritty medical series show the lives – and forbidden romances – of pioneering doctors and nurses a hundred years ago.

A 1980 documentary series exploring the establishment and development of the Hollywood studios and its impact on 1920s culture.

A series about the life, career and works of the movie comedy genius.

Ed Asner tells the story of RKO Pictures from the 1920s to the 1960s.

This ten-part docuseries tells the comprehensive story of the First World War, featuring excerpts written by Winston Churchill, Karen Blixen, Georges Clémenceau, David Lloyd George, Siegfried Sassoon and Rudolf Hess.

A condensed version of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee , including outtakes and excerpts from previous episodes and centered around a particular theme.

Nanalan' is a Canadian television show broadcast by CBC Television in Canada and by PBS in the US, created by The Grogs. Its target audience is preschool kids and Nanalan' is "designed to foster children's curiosity and love of learning, with the hope they will carry it with them as they grow". Excerpts from the show also air on Fox Kids UK. Nanalan also aired on Nick Jr. as short episodes in between shows. Nanalan' began airing in 1999. In 2004, it was nominated for the following three Gemini Awards: Best Performance in a Pre-School Program or Series; Best Writing in a Children's or Youth Program or Series; and Best Pre-School Program or Series. Nanalan' won Best writing and Best performance, an award shared by Jamie Shannon, Jason Hopley, Marty Stelnick, Todd Doldersum, and Ali Eisner. Several compilation DVDs of the show and a CD of musical highlights are also available.

Explore the evolution of sci-fi from its origins as a small genre with a cult following to the blockbuster pop-cultural phenomenon we know today. In each episode, James Cameron introduces one of the “Big Questions” that humankind has contemplated throughout the ages and reaches back into sci-fi’s past to better understand how our favorite films, TV shows, books, and video games were born.

Harry Hill takes the lid off a different genre of TV each week.

The story of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, from early youth to his election as President of the United States, as told from Eleanor's point of view.

Victory at Sea is a documentary television series about naval warfare during World War II that was originally broadcast by NBC in the USA in 1952–1953. It was condensed into a film in 1954. Excerpts from the music soundtrack, by Richard Rodgers and Robert Russell Bennett, were re-recorded and sold as record albums. The original TV broadcasts comprised 26 half-hour segments—Sunday afternoons at 3pm in most markets—starting October 26, 1952 and ending May 3, 1953. The series, which won an Emmy award in 1954 as "best public affairs program", played an important part in establishing historic "compilation" documentaries as a viable television genre. Over 13,000 hours of footage gathered from US, British, German and Japanese navies during World War II were perused in the making of these compelling episodes.