Free World History Documentaries

As Nelson Mandela prepares to step down as president of South Africa, FRONTLINE presents a deeply personal biography of one of the great figures of the 20th century.

End of Empire chronicles the last days of British rule around the globe, through the remarkably candid reminiscences of both colonisers and the colonised. The series, a Granada Television production, uses old newsreel film and interviews with former British and colonial officials.

Chernobyl Heart is a 2003 documentary film by Maryann DeLeo. The film won the Best Documentary Short Subject award at the 2004 Academy Awards.

The eminent art historian Sir Kenneth Clark was commissioned to write and present an epic examination of Western European culture, defining what he considered to be the crucial phases of its development. Civilisation: A Personal View by Lord Clark would be more than two years in the making, with filming in over 100 locations across 13 countries.

In The Ascent of Money, Niall Ferguson seeks to explain the financial history of the world, exploring how our complex system of global finance evolved, how money has shaped the course of human affairs and how the mechanics of this economic system work to create seemingly unlimited wealth or catastrophic loss.

One Day in September is a 1999 documentary film directed by Kevin Macdonald examining the 5 September 1972 murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. Michael Douglas provides the sparse narration throughout the film.

Despite overwhelming obstacles, life on Earth has evolved from the most humble of beginnings to a level of diversity that challenges human comprehension.

China: The Roots of Madness is a 1967 Cold War era, made-for-TV documentary film produced by David L. Wolper, written by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Theodore H. White with production cost funded by a donation from John and Paige Curran.

Historian and author Michael Wood traces the birth of modern society, in the obscurity of ancient history, in this spectacular documentary shot on locations around the world.

Promised Lands is famed writer and critic Susan Sontag's sole documentary project (and her third directorial effort), shot in Israel on the fly in the final days and immediate aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.