VE Day: The Lost Films

A Veterans Day event with historian John Monsky, the Boston Pops and Broadway stars.

Tony Robinson’s VE Day: Minute By Minute will take a unique look at a pivotal day in the history of the modern world, delving into the key events that made VE Day such a momentous twenty-four hours. This is the story of what happened on that most celebrated and important day, including original interviews with historians and veterans who tell their stories and share their first-hand experiences. Using unseen archive footage and stills, plus never told accounts from veterans who were there, this one-off special will chart the moment the clock struck midnight, to 24 hours later, when fighting officially stopped across Europe. Up and down the country it was dawning on people that they were waking up not with fear or anxiety, but with relief and excitement. This was a Great Britain no one had experienced for six years. A Britain at peace. At almost no notice street celebrations were being prepared and tens of thousands were flocking to London and other city centres.

"Friday 8 May 2020 will mark the 75th anniversary of the formal end of the Second World War in Europe. “V-E Day – Forever in their Debt” tells the stories of those who experienced the end of the war in all its many forms. It features a wide range of interviews from children who remember the street parties, to the servicemen who remember not having to buy a single drink that day, then there are the POWs for whom a hot bath was all they wanted after years of captivity. The programme is richly illustrated with archive including a colour film showing the celebrations in London. Other archive films show a grumpy Montgomery taking the surrender of German land forces in northern Germany on May 4."

The re-imagining of VE Day in 1945, when Princess Elizabeth and her sister, Margaret were allowed out from Buckingham Palace for the night to join in the celebrations, and encounter romance and danger.

We’ll Meet Again for VE Day 75 with Katherine Jenkins

Everything (and much more) happened to Roxette in the years 1986 and 1995. Hundreds of hours of footage were recorded during the magical years to capture "everything". Follow them into the studio, backstage, at rehearsals and concerts. These are the private videos of one of the greatest bands of all time - directed by Jonas Åkerlund.

The true story of a white South African racist whose life was profoundly altered by the black prisoner he guarded for twenty years. The prisoner's name was Nelson Mandela.

It is the dawn of World War III. In mid-western America, a group of teenagers band together to defend their town—and their country—from invading Soviet forces.

This documentary follows the French soccer team on their way to victory in the 1998 World Cup in France. Stéphane Meunier spent the whole time filming the players, the coach and some other important characters of this victory, giving us a very intimate and nice view of them, as if we were with them.

A tribute to the controversial black activist and leader of the struggle for black liberation. He hit bottom during his imprisonment in the '50s, he became a Black Muslim and then a leader in the Nation of Islam. His assassination in 1965 left a legacy of self-determination and racial pride.

The story of Salvador Puig Antich, one of the last political prisoners to be executed under Franco's Fascist State in 1974.

A retelling of the story of France’s iconic but ill-fated queen, Marie Antoinette - from her betrothal and marriage to Louis XVI at fifteen to her reign as queen at nineteen and ultimately the fall of Versailles.

A Muslim ambassador exiled from his homeland joins a group of Vikings, initially offended by their behavior but growing to respect them. As they travel together, they learn of a legendary evil closing in and must unite to confront this formidable force.

This feature film in two parts is an exploration of the women's suffrage movement. Spearheaded by women like Emmeline Pankhurst, founder of the Women's Social and Political Union, the Suffragettes realized they would have to become radical and militant if the movement was going to be effective. There followed many demonstrations and imprisonments until the women's vote was finally granted in 1918 (Britain) and 1919 (Canada, except Quebec.)

The story of one of the most important women in science in the world How did Fabiola Gianotti become one of the most important women in science in the world? Through the life example of the director of CERN in Geneva — the world's largest particle physics laboratory — the documentary shows how curiosity can change the world. Fabiola Gianotti recalls the stages from childhood to adulthood, the interests and doubts that led her to CERN.

Based on Dexter Filkins’ resonant New Yorker article of the same name, about Marine Lu Lobello, haunted by memories of a deadly incident in Baghdad, whose journey of guilt and remorse leads him to reach out to Nora, the sole surviving member of the family he believes he may have harmed.

During Lebanon’s 2019 economic collapse, a young woman in Beirut, unable to withdraw her life’s savings—which she needs to pay for her sister’s uterus cancer surgery, recruits a truck driver and an ex-militia fighter to hatch a daring all-night plan to take what’s rightfully theirs from the corrupt banking system. But as their scheme escalates, so does the danger, forcing them to confront the true cost of survival, justice, and sisterhood in a city on the brink.

A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man being mistreated by his "owner" as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of great intelligence and sensitivity. Based on the true story of Joseph Merrick (called John Merrick in the film), a severely deformed man in 19th century London.

Beavers intercuts scenes of traffic in Bern with details from the 15th-century altarpiece The Martyrdom of St. Hippolytus. In its revised form, the film gains a psychodramatic intensity, juxtaposing Markopoulos in shafts of light with a torn self-portrait and recurring shots of a shattered windowpane.