documentary

The US Response to the Holocaust Was Part of a Longer Pattern of Appeasing Fascism

by Roger Peace

The Roosevelt administration's refusal to accept large numbers of Jewish refugees was of a piece with a pattern of diplomatic and economic solicitousness toward Nazi Germany. 

New Documentary Examines the Controversial San Francisco School Mural

Artists and scholars debate the value of confronting historical discomfort against claims that images of violence are traumatizing. Historian Amna Khalid weighs in. 

The Holocaust Documentary Disappointingly Skirts Big Questions of FDR's Responsibility

by Martin Ostrow

In another documentarian's view, the series unduly frames Roosevelt as a captive to global politics and antisemitism, not a leader with the power to change them.

A Holocaust Mystery: Ken Burns Gets Lost in a Bermuda Triangle

by Rafael Medoff and Monty N. Penkower

At the 1943 Bermuda Conference, British and American diplomats offered a symbolic show of concern for Jewish refugees, but made no substantial commitment to help. Ken Burns's recent holocaust documentary passes over this event. 

Documentary Shows the Women of Route 66

Katrina Parks examines the lives of women who came to work and build lives along the "Mother Road" of the west. 

Ken Burns Got "Prohibition" Wrong

by Mark Lawrence Schrad

Burns largely accepts an individualistic and libertarian narrative of prohibition as a misbegotten campaign of moral scolds, missing the reformist, egalitarian, and humane demands of the movement and the exploitative nature of the "liquor traffic" it sought to disrupt. 

Burns Revisits American Holocaust Role

The new documentary examines the nation's response to Jewish refugees in the context of Southern Jim Crow policies and global racism and antisemitism. 

The Unbearable Whiteness of Ken Burns

by Timothy Messer-Kruse

In the context of today's battles over teaching the history of racism in America, the new Franklin documentary unfortunately uses its subject to spin a narrative of national self-correction that ignores historians' attention to conflict and struggle. 

New Documentary: Historical Roots of Racial Disparities in American Health Care

"Racism operates in really any environment, and shows up in the hospital. Health care is not immune from the injustices that pervade society more broadly, including racism."

New Documentary Highlights Unsolved Civil Rights-Era Murder

Black citizens in Natchez, Mississippi secretly organized for community self-defense in 1965, risking certain reprisals from local whites. Wharlest Jackson was killed by a car bomb in an act of intimidation that was never solved. 

Jeans: The History of the People's Pants Coming to American Experience

Denim touches the history of American slavery, immigration, industrialization and counterculture. An upcoming "American Experience" feature tells the story. 

New Documentary on 1996 De La Hoya vs. Chavez Fight Digs Into Complexity of Mexican Ethnicity Across the Border

Director Eva Longoria Bastón's documentary on the 1996 match between Mexican champion Julio César Chávez and LA-born Oscar De La Hoya examines how the fight revealed tensions between Mexican and Mexican-American communities expressed in citizenship, language and sports allegiance.

A Film Captures Jewish Life in a Polish Town Before the Nazis Arrived

Glenn Kurtz's discovery of a short reel of film made by his grandfather in 1938 has led to a documentary film exploring the depth of understanding of Jewish life in Poland that can be gleaned from the brief footage.

Stanley George on Putting Viewers in the Middle of the Nation's Bloodiest Prison Rebellion

"It’s like the window has been cracked a little bit, so that people who might never have thought to doubt law enforcement are doubting law enforcement now, and they’re thinking about their cruelty and racism in a way they might not have thought about it five years ago."

Pioneering Chicano Movement TV Show Reemerges after 50 Years in Garage

On a recent August day, Frank Cruz, now 82, thought to himself as he had dozens of times before: “Pendejo, you better do something about those films. It might be too late.”

When the Young Lords Took Over a Hospital and Changed Public Health Care

by Emma Francis-Snyder

"The dramatic takeover of Lincoln Hospital produced one of the first Patient’s Bill of Rights, changing patients’ relationship with hospitals and doctors nationwide."

Ken Burns's Documentary Shows We Can't Quit Ali

by Jay Caspian Kang

"The odd thing about American sainthood is that we seem to prefer those who, like Ali and Jackie Robinson, did not engage directly in the dirty world of politics, but rather stood as trailblazers or icons in sports or Hollywood."

Filmmaker Greg Mitchell on the Government's Suppression of Scientists' Film about A-Bombs

"I’ve always wanted to promote an honest debate about what happened. I want all of the facts out there. I want Americans to have conversations and examine moral issues."

Ken Burns Argues He's not "Taking Up Too Much Space"

The documentarian joins Kara Swisher's "Sway" podcast, focusing on how digital technology is changing the practice of reconstructing the past and whether Burns's films are taking too much airtime as PBS seeks to diversify its stable of producers. 

The Hidden History Of “Guerrilla Television”: UChicago Scholars Preserve Decades-Old Videos

Technological innovation in the 1960s allowed more people to shoot video and push for community-based television. University of Chicago scholars are working to digitize and preserve "guerrilla television."