Artists, academics, and critics discuss the historical origins, original reception, and slow climb to critical acclaim for Eugene Delacroix's painting commemorating the Revolution of 1830, 'Liberty Leading the People.' A woman of the people with a phrygian cap personifying the concept of Liberty leads the people forward over a barricade and the bodies of the fallen, holding the flag of the French Revolution – the tricolour, which again became France's national flag after these events – in one hand and brandishing a bayonetted musket with the other. The figure of Liberty is also viewed as a symbol of France and the French Republic known as Marianne.
In the fall of 2016, an army of over 100,000 Iraqi soldiers and militiamen mobilize to liberate Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, from the clutches of the Islamic State. Ali Mula, an Iraqi journalist, joins this army of uneasy allies--including Sunnis, Shiites, Christians and Kurds--to find out if they can put aside their sectarian differences and finally free their country from the scourge of ISIS. Along the way to Mosul, Ali encounters an unforgettable group of characters including a Sunni tribal leader who calls himself 'the Crocodile', a female militia leader avenging the death of her husband, a canny, Iranian-backed militia leader, a lawyer-turned-warrior, an elite band of ISIS killers, and refugees who survived the brutality of ISIS occupation. As he nears the end of his journey, Ali meets face-to-face with a die-hard ISIS prisoner who reveals the truth behind his nefarious organization.
Drazen Petrovic and Vlade Divac were two friends who grew up together sharing the common bond of basketball. Together, they lifted the Yugoslavian National team to unimaginable heights. After conquering Europe, they both went to America where they became the first two foreign players to attain NBA stardom. But with the fall of the Soviet Union on Christmas Day 1991, Yugoslavia split up. A war broke out between Petrovic's Croatia and Divac's Serbia. Long buried ethnic tensions surfaced. And these two men, once brothers, were now on opposite sides of a deadly civil war. As Petrovic and Divac continued to face each other on the basketball courts of the NBA, no words passed between the two. Then, on the fateful night of June 7, 1993, Drazen Petrovic was killed in an auto accident. "Once Brothers" will tell the gripping tale of these two men, how circumstances beyond their control tore apart their friendship, and whether Divac has ever come to terms with the death of a friend before they had a chance to reconcile.
Bob Clewell's helicopter crew comes under intense fire in one of the final operations of the war. Joe Galloway returns to Vietnam and in Washington, D.C., Barry Romo throws down his medals in protest. The last American troops return home and POW wife Anne Purcell awaits word of her husband's fate. The fall of Saigon brings the unification of Vietnam.
Master filmmaker Martin Scorsese captures the troubled spirit of America in 1975 along with the joyous music that Bob Dylan performed during the fall of that year. Part documentary, part concert film, part fever dream, 'Rolling Thunder Revue' is a one of a kind experience.
Michael Wood tells the tale of China's first great international age under the Tang Dynasty (618-907). From the picturesque old city of Luoyang, he travels along the Silk Road to the bazaars of central Asia and into India on the track of the Chinese monk who brought Buddhism back to China. This tale is still loved by the Chinese today and is brought to life by storytellers, films and shadow puppet plays. Then in the backstreets and markets of Xi'an, Michael meets descendants of the traders from central Asia and Persia who came into China on the Silk Road. He talks to Chinese Muslims in the Great Mosque and across town hears the amazing story of the first reception of Christianity in 635. Moving south, Michael sees the beginnings of China as an economic giant. On the Grand Canal, a lock built in 605 still handles 800 barges every day! The film tracks the rise of the silk industry and the world's favourite drink - tea. Michael looks too at the spread of Chinese script, language and culture across east Asia. 'China's influence on the East was as profound as Rome on the Latin West', he says, 'and still is today'. Finally, the film tells the intense drama of the fall of the Tang. Among the eyewitnesses were China's greatest poets. In a secondary school in a dusty village, where the Chinese Shakespeare - Du Fu - is buried in the grounds, the pupils take Michael through one famous poem about loss and longing as the dynasty falls. And in that ordinary classroom, there is a sense of the amazing drama and the deep-rooted continuities of Chinese culture.
A woman of the people with a phrygian cap personifying the concept of Liberty leads the people forward over a barricade and the bodies of the fallen, holding the flag of the French Revolution – the tricolour, which again became France's national flag after these events – in one hand and brandishing a bayonetted musket with the other. The figure of Liberty is also viewed as a symbol of France and the French Republic known as Marianne.