Historical Documentary Movies

A century after Shackleton's Endurance sank beneath the ice, explorers uncover the legendary shipwreck and an amazing tale of survival.

A depiction of the last living generation of German participants in Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich.

In 1968, art students Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey “Po” Powell made a trippy photo collage for their musician friends Syd, David and...

Working from the text of James Baldwin’s unfinished final novel, director Raoul Peck creates a meditation on what it means to be Black in the...

The ancients hid the secrets of their incredible knowledge of astronomy in their temples and palaces, built to align with the sun, on the same day,...

Using original footage and interviews, this documentary tells the nail-biting story of Apollo 13 and the struggle to bring its astronauts safely home.

Former corporate whiz kid Robert McNamara was the controversial Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, during the height of...

This documentary delves into the mysteries surrounding the Neanderthals and what their fossil record tells us about their lives and disappearance.

In 1975, as America faced social and political upheaval, filmmakers turned chaos into art.

Thirty years after the release of his film JFK (1991), filmmaker Oliver Stone reviews recently declassified evidence related to the assassination of...

Director Claude Lanzmann spent 11 years on this sprawling documentary about the Holocaust, conducting his own interviews and refusing to use a single...

What happened after Einstein fled Nazi Germany? Using archival footage and his own words, this docudrama dives into the mind of a tortured genius.

Egyptian archaeologists dig into history, discovering tombs and artifacts over 4,000 years old as they search for a buried pyramid in this...

In one of those wonderful coincidences of history, lumière, the French word for “light,” was also the last name of brothers...

This comedic retrospective mixes archival footage and scripted sketches as it revisits all the dread — and occasional delight — that 2021...

Tells the story of the greatest natural disaster of the ancient world, an event that experts believe inspired the legend of Atlantis.

The world's greatest pin-up model and cult icon, Bettie Page, recounts the true story of how her free expression overcame government witch-hunts to...

Marijuana is the most controversial drug of the 20th century. Smoked by generations to little discernible ill effect, it continues to be reviled by...

Sir John Franklin set off from England in 1845 with two ships and 129 men to be the first to navigate the Northwest Passage, a new trade route over...

Jahangir Baghirov: Conqueror of the Skies ("Səmanın Cahangiri") is a 2026 Azerbaijani documentary film about Guards Senior Lieutenant and...