Punishment Park (1971) Director: Peter Watkins Actors: Patrick Boland, Kent Foreman, Carmen Argenziano Runtime: 88 min Punishment Park is a dystopia (reverse utopia) in which US President Richard Nixon declares a state of emergency, suspends all civil rights, the police arrests thousands of people and deliverers them to military tribunals which are adjudicating with no …
Conspiracy (2001) Director: Frank Pierson Actors: Kenneth Branagh, Stanley Tucci Runtime: 96 min In late January of 1942, in Wannsee near Berlin Nazi bureaucrats held a meeting which brought together 15 representatives of different branches of the German state, the army, the SS, the Nazi party and so on. The sole topic of the meeting …
Szegénylegények (1966) Director: Miklós Jancsó Actors: János Görbe, Zoltán Latinovits, Tibor Molnár Runtime: 90 min The year is 1869 in Hungary – the government has decided to deal with uncontrolled elements in order to stabilize the system. In an improvised prison which has elements of a concentration camp a large group of people is detained. …
Shoah (1985) Director: Claude Lanzmann Runtime: 566 min Shoah is the Hebrew term for the Holocaust, the genocide of approximately six million of European Jews conducted by Nazis (and their collaborators) during World War II. It is very difficult to find the words to express or think about the Nazi industry of death. I will …
Le chagrin et la pitié (1969) Director: Marcel Ophüls Runtime: 251 min This two-part documentary analyzes the occupation of France in World War II through the example of a city with a population of approximately 100,000 people. The spirit of the time is quite well conveyed with the use of archive materials, as well as …
La noche de los lápices (1986) Director: Héctor Olivera Actors: Alejo García Pintos, Vita Escardó, Pablo Novak Runtime: 105 min During the reign of the military junta in Argentina (1976-1983, a period now known as “The Dirty War“), between 17,000 and 30,000 people “disappeared”. In fact they were kidnapped by the military and the secret …
The Victors (1963) Director: Carl Foreman Actors: Vince Edwards, Albert Finney, George Hamilton Runtime: 150 min (175?) This movie follows a group of American soldiers through different European battlefields in World War II: Italy, France, Belgium, Germany. It is composed of several short stories that share the same theme and characters, divided by sequences of …
The Shock Doctrine (2009) Directors: Mat Whitecross, Michael Winterbottom Runtime: 82 min The economic doctrine that glorifies the free market and deregulation, widely known as the ideology of neoliberalism, is so devastating for the population that it is generally impossible to be carried out except in extraordinary situations. It was implemented for the first time …
Nazi Concentration Camps (1945) Director: George Stevens Runtime: 59 min The official documentary, made from footage that was recorded by U.S. troops during the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. It was used as evidence at the Nuremberg trials. The camps are shown one after the other, and include footage from Dachau, Buchenwald, Mauthausen and many others. …
Nuit et brouillard (1955) Director: Alain Resnais Runtime: 30 min Short and analytical documentary about Nazi concentration camps, primarily Auschwitz. It covers many aspects: the construction and setting up of the camps, hierarchy and the role of Kapos (inmates who become supervisors of other inmates), the exploitation of slave labor and prostitution, starvation, torture and …
