Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President from 1976 to 2008. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist and Cuban nationalist, he also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1961 until 2011. Under his administration, Cuba became a one-party communist state; industry and business were nationalized, and state socialist reforms were implemented throughout society. Born in Birán, Oriente, the son of a wealthy Spanish farmer, Castro adopted leftist and anti-imperialist ideas while studying law at the University of Havana. After participating in rebellions against right-wing governments in the Dominican Republic and Colombia, he planned the overthrow of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista, launching a failed attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953. After a year's imprisonment, Castro traveled to Mexico where he formed a revolutionary group, the 26th of July Movement, with his brother Raúl Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Returning to Cuba, Castro took a key role in the Cuban Revolution by leading the Movement in a guerrilla war against Batista's forces from the Sierra Maestra. After Batista's overthrow in 1959, Castro assumed military and political power as Cuba's Prime Minister. The United States came to oppose Castro's government and unsuccessfully attempted to remove him by assassination, economic blockade, and counter-revolution, including the Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961. Countering these threats, Castro aligned with the Soviet Union and allowed the Soviets to place nuclear weapons in Cuba, resulting in the Cuban Missile Crisis – a defining incident of the Cold War – in 1962. Adopting a Marxist–Leninist model of development, Castro converted Cuba into a one-party, socialist state under Communist Party rule, the first in the Western Hemisphere. Policies introducing central economic planning and expanding healthcare and education were accompanied by state control of the press and the suppression of internal dissent. Abroad, Castro supported anti-imperialist revolutionary groups, backing the establishment of Marxist governments in Chile, Nicaragua, and Grenada, as well as sending troops to aid allies in the Yom Kippur, Ogaden, and Angolan Civil War. These actions, coupled with Castro's leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1979 to 1983 and Cuba's medical internationalism, increased Cuba's profile on the world stage. Following the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, Castro led Cuba through the economic downturn of the "Special Period", embracing environmentalist and anti-globalization ideas. In the 2000s, Castro forged alliances in the Latin American "pink tide" – namely with Hugo Chávez's Venezuela – and formed the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas. In 2006, Castro transferred his responsibilities to Vice President Raúl Castro, who was elected to the presidency by the National Assembly in 2008. Description above from the Wikipedia article Fidel Castro, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Follows the investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy led by New Orleans...
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Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
as Self (archive footage)During the same summer as Woodstock, over 300,000 people attended the Harlem Cultural Festival,...
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Topaz
as Self (archive footage)Copenhagen, Denmark, 1962. When a high-ranking Soviet official decides to change sides, a French...
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Wasp Network
as Self (archive footage)Havana, Cuba, 1990. René González, an airplane pilot, unexpectedly flees the country, leaving...
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The Fog of War
as Self (archive footage)Using archival footage, cabinet conversation recordings, and an interview of the 85-year-old...
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Naqoyqatsi
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)A visual montage portrait of our contemporary world dominated by globalized technology and violence.
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7 Days in Havana
as Self (segment "Diary of a Beginner") (archive footage)A lesbian, an aspiring actor, an aspiring singer, a low-class marriage, a neighborhood community...
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Becoming Cousteau
as Self (archive footage)Adventurer, filmmaker, inventor, author, unlikely celebrity and conservationist: For over four...
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Another Day of Life
as Himself (archive footage)In 1975, Ryszard Kapuściński, a veteran Polish journalist, embarked on a seemingly suicidal road...
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Cuba and the Cameraman
as SelfThis revealing portrait of Cuba follows the lives of Fidel Castro and three Cuban families...
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537 Votes
as Self (archive footage)Documentary chronicling the political machinations that led to the unprecedented, contested...
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The Society of the Spectacle
as Self (archive footage)Guy Debord's analysis of a consumer society.
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Hello Cubans
as Self (uncredited)A photo montage of Cubans filmed by Agnès Varda during her visit to Cuba in 1963, four years...
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A Grin Without a Cat
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)French essay film focusing on global political turmoil in the 1960s and '70s, particularly the...
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General Idi Amin Dada
as Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)Filmmaker Barbet Schroeder shows the Ugandan dictator meeting his Cabinet, reviewing his troops,...
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Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist
as Self (archive footage)A lyrical and spiritual cinematic essay on The Exorcist, the last film of Alexandre O. Philippe...
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Laboratory Greece
as Self (archive footage)A journey through Greece and Europe’s past and recent history: from the Second World War to the...
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The Hour of the Furnaces
as Himself (archive footage)An impassioned three-part documentary of the liberation struggle waged throughout Latin America,...
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The War on Democracy
as Self (archive footage)Set both in Latin America and the United States, the film explores the historic and current...
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Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy
as Self (archive footage)This spellbinding documentary re-examines the issues raised by Oliver Stone's JFK, and explores...
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The Boys from Brazil: Rise of the Bolsonaros
as Self (archive footage)This documentary tells of the extraordinary rise of Jair Bolsonaro, from relative obscurity to...
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The Man Who Saved the World
as Self (archive footage)During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, Soviet Navy officer Vasily Arkhipov refused to launch a...
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South of the Border
as Self (archive footage)A road trip across five countries to explore the social and political movements as well as the...
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Far from Vietnam
as Self (segment "Fidel Castro")In seven different parts, Godard, Ivens, Klein, Lelouch, Marker, Resnais, and Varda show their...
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Surplus: Terrorized Into Being Consumers
as SelfSwedish documentary film on consumerism and globalization, created by director Erik Gandini and...
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Rat Pack
as Self (archive footage)In the 1950s, a small group of artists monopolized the attention of the cameras and the public....
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Tasmanian Devil: The Fast and Furious Life of Errol Flynn
as Himself (Archive Footage)The story of Tasmanian-born actor Errol Flynn whose short & flamboyant life, full of scandals,...
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Cuban Rebel Girls
as Himself (uncredited)Errol Flynn, playing himself as a war correspondent, reports the dangerous goings-on of a band...
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I Am Jackie O
as Self (archive footage)Jackie Kennedy Onassis was the most famous woman in the world, impossibly glamourous and...
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On Company Business
as Self - Prime Minister of Cuba (archive footage)A controversial three part critical documentary on the history of the CIA.
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Laissez-faire
as Self (archive footage)A historical perspective to understand Neoliberalism and to understand why this ideology today...
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ReMastered: Massacre at the Stadium
as Self (archive footage)For years, the murder of Chilean protest singer Victor Jara was blamed on an official in...
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The Secret KGB JFK Assassination Files
as Self (archive footage)On Nov. 22, 1963 the world was shocked by the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The mystery...
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Comandante
as SelfOliver Stone spends three days filming with Fidel Castro in Cuba, discussing an array of...
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The Kennedy Detail
as Self (archive footage)Based on the book by Gerald S. Blaine With Lisa McCubbin "The Kennedy Detail", this documentary...
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I Am Cuba, the Siberian Mammoth
as uncreditedContemporary film critics regard the epic film I Am Cuba as a modern masterpiece. The 1964...
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The Day That Lasted 21 Years
as Self (archive footage)Stunning espionage documentary on the US conspiracy that led to the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état....
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The Padilla Affair
as Self (archive footage)Havana, spring 1971: The poet Heberto Padilla has just been set free and appears before the...
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Soundtrack to a Coup d'État
as Self (archive footage)In 1960, United Nations: the Global South ignites a political earthquake, musicians Abbey...
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Looking For Fidel
as SelfOliver Stone's second documentary on/interview with Fidel Castro specifically addresses his...
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Jack Paar: Smart Television
as SelfPBS documentary examining the work of Jack Paar.
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Chile: A Genral Record
as uncreditedIn 1985, Miguel Littin returned clandestinely to Chile and made this documentary divided in four...
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Salvador Allende
as Self (archive footage)A leftist revolutionary or a reformist democrat? A committed Marxist or a constitutionalist...
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And Heaven Was Taken by Storm
as selfA chronicle of Fidel Castro's two-month tour of ten East European and African nations in mid-1972.
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RFK Must Die: The Assassination of Bobby Kennedy
as Self (archive footage)A new investigative documentary exploring the controversies surrounding the assassination of...
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Mission Mind Control
as Self (archive footage)Uncovering government agencies (especially the CIA) that secretly tested the effects of LSD on...
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Cuban Rafters
as Himself (archive footage)The story of Cuban refugees who risked their lives in homemade rafts to reach the United States,...
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American Expose: Who Murdered JFK?
as Self (archive footage)Investigative reporter Jack Anderson hosts a two-hour investigation of the Kennedy Assassination...
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Fidel Castro: America's Nemesis
as Himself (Archive Footage)Fidel Castro, the former President of Cuba and one of the most controversial figures of the 20th...
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638 Ways to Kill Castro
as Self (archive footage)Dollan Cannell's documentary on the hundreds of alleged plots to assassinate Fidel Castro, and a...
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La Rabbia di Pasolini
as Self (archive footage)An attempt to reconstruct the complete version of Pier Paolo Pasolini's segment of La rabbia.
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Soviet Union: The Rise and Fall - Part 2
as Self (archive footage)Historic Russian battles to repel invaders serve as prelude to the story of events that redrew...
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Santiago Files
as Self (archive footage)President Salvador Allende's topple from Chile's unstable government and the CIA's involvement...
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Elián
as himselfThe story of Elián Gonzalez, a five-year-old Cuban boy plucked from the Florida Straits, and how...
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Castro: The World's Most Watched Man
as Himself (archive footage)Fidel Castro employed a vast spy network that helped him remain in power.
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A History of an Assignment
as Self (archive footage)1962 year. Cuban Missile Crisis. The world is on the brink of nuclear disaster. Khrushchev has...
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The Adventures of Errol Flynn
as Self (archive footage)A documentary about the life of Errol Flynn, with recollections from friends and family.
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Oswald's Ghost
as Self (archive footage)For the Baby Boomers, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy took on the same sense of...
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Ethel
as Self (archive footage)Filmmaker Rory Kennedy interviews her mother, Ethel Kennedy, who discusses family, marriage and...
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El Che
as Self (archive footage)Ernesto "Che" Guevara's controversial story told by the Mexican writer Paco Ignacio Taibo II. He...
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Chavismo: The Plague of the 21st Century
as Self (archive footage)An analysis of the causes, social, political, and economic that caused the rise of Hugo Chávez...
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Island Ablazed
as HimselfDocumentary recounting the story of the Cuban Revolution and its impact on the young people of Cuba.
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Cuba, un aller et un retour
as Himself (archive footage)According to the official Cuban version, Fidel Castro died on his bed on November 25, 2016....
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¡Cuba Sí!
as Self - Cuban Politician (uncredited)A chronicle of the evolution of the Cuban Revolution, ending with the Bay of Pigs incident and...
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Muerte al invasor
as Himself (archive footage)Short documentary about Cuba's resistance to American invasion.
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Andança: Os Encontros e as Memórias de Beth Carvalho
as uncreditedA documentary on the career of Beth Carvalho, the Brazilian singer who became a well known samba...
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Improper Conduct
as Self - Politician (archive footage)The story of the persecution of homosexuals and intellectuals in Cuba under Fidel Castro's...
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I Am a Son of America
as Él mismoRecollections of Fidel Castro's visit to Chile on November, 1971, and of the historical...
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The Necessary War
as HimselfAlvarez' longest documentary examination of the Cuban Revolution, this contains exceptional...
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My Brother, Fidel
as SelfFollows the Cuban leader into the home of a 93 year old acquaintance of Jose Marti, who is now...
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Anxiety. Thoughts of an Old Man
as Self (archive footage)The director's reflections on the modern politics of the Reagan administration.
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Cuba: Battle of the 10,000,000
as uncreditedDocumentary about economic development in Cuba, particularly the effort to boost output of sugar...
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Fidel
as SelfThis film provides a unique view of Cuba's leader, containing fascinating archive footage of the...
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Amérique latine, l'année de tous les dangers
as Self (archive footage)
Did the Mob Kill JFK?
as Self (archive footage)Did the Mafia order the killing of JFK? The compelling evidence includes a never before seen...
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The CIA's War Against Cuba
as uncredited"The CIA's War Against Cuba" - a briefing of the past ten years of CIA activities in Cuba, and...
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The Inconclusive Independence
as Self (archive footage)Documentary about the independence and history of Latin America.
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8A
as SelfThe Kafkaesque world of Cuba under Castro's rule is brought to light in this reconstruction of...
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Memória Cubana
as Self (archive footage)Through the files of Cuban cinema news program Noticieros ICAIC Latinoamericanos, the...
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The Mayor
as uncreditedThe film tells the story of Mauricio Fernandez, mayor of the wealthiest municipality in Latin...
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Waiting for Fidel
as SelfThis feature-length documentary from 1974 takes viewers inside Fidel Castro's Cuba. A...
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Memories of Overdevelopment
as Self (archive footage)An intellectual leaves the Cuban revolution and 'underdevelopment' behind only to find himself...
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Angola: The War
as Himself - President of Cuba (archive footage)For twenty-three years, five western nations, members of the Soviet bloc and two superpowers...
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Chile, el gran desafío
as HimselfAfter providing a pictorial vision of Chile, from north to south, President Salvador Allende's...
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Compromiso con Chile
as uncreditedMade by Fernando Balmaceda in 1972, it is a documentary that shows the presence of the State...
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Chop Chop Chang: Operation C.H.I.M.P
as HimselfThe incredible story of Chop Chop Chang, a world famous circus chimpanzee who is secretly...
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Fidel Castro: Life for the Revolution
as SelfCastro has outlived generations of US Presidents, Soviet General Secretaries, CIA Directors and...
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Venceremos, solidaridad
as Material de archivoAnonymous short documentary released immediately after the Chilean military coup of 1973. It...
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Celia - la más hermosa flor
as uncreditedCelia Sánchez Manduley (1920 - 1980) was a Cuban revolutionary, politician, researcher and...
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Assassinating Franco
as SelfDocumentary about the attempts to assassinate Franco
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Looking for Fidel
as HimselfA man living in the USA is nauseated by the media power and Consumerism, decides to go to Cuba...
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CUBA: Defending Socialism, Resisting Imperialism
as HimselfCuba: Defending Socialism, Resisting Imperialism brings you voices from Cuba, a country fighting...
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Franco and Fidel: A Strange Friendship
as HimselfThe Spanish dictator Francisco Franco was a rabid anti-Communist and a staunch ally of the...
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Yanki No!
as HimselfAfter the US forces Cuba out of the OAS, demonstrations erupt in Venezuela. In Cuba Castro...
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Cuba, el valor de una utopía
as HimselfEyewitnesses, including Castro himself, look back on the period of resistance and the toppling...
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El Diálogo de América
as Él mismoIn November 1971, Salvador Allende and Fidel Castro chat to each other about revolution,...
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The Exploitation of Man by Man
as SelfHow long will workers be subjected to exploitation? This is the question posed by this...
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Mentiras verdaderas
as Self (archive footage)Daily interviews discussing the guest's personal lives and national contingency.
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Explained
as Self (archive footage)This documentary series, made in partnership with Vox, explain some of the world's current...
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How to Become a Tyrant
as Self (archive footage)The documentary series explores different political figures throughout history.
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La Case du siècle
as Self (archive footage)A French current affairs show.
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Spycraft
as SelfThe spy game is a serious business, and throughout history, the tools and technologies developed...
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Informe especial
as Self (archive footage)Investigative news magazine on Chile's social and political contingency.
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Faith of the Century: A History of Communism
as Self (archive footage)Communism spread to all of the continents of the word, lasting through four generations and over...
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Bobby Kennedy for President
as Self (archive footage)Historic footage and leading voices of the era examine the "Bobby Phenomenon" of the 1960s and...
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Minnesota Experience
as Self (archive footage)For decades, Twin Cities PBS (TPT) has dived into the whitewater of bygone eras and emerged with...
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Guerilleros
as Self (archive footage)Exclusive testimonies of the actions taken by Chilean guerilla organization FPMR. The stories...
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