Colditz - The Legend

Three decades after German-American pilot Dieter Dengler was shot down over Laos, he returns to the places where he was held prisoner during the early years of the Vietnam War. Accompanied by director Werner Herzog, Dengler describes in unusually candid detail his captivity, the friendships he made, and his daring escape. Not willing to stop there, Herzog even persuades his subject to re-enact certain tortures, with the help of some willing local villagers.

A tale of human connection, hope and resilience in the face of great tragedy, Under a Bamboo Sky uses new technology to bring to life an untold story of Australian soldiers held prisoner by the Japanese in WWII. Using their own words, their own voices, the film weaves the recollections of more than 60 former POWs with newly colourised archival material and new location footage to deliver a moving and revelatory first-hand account of their experience. Captured during the Japanese offensive and imprisoned in Singapore’s Changi Barracks, the film follows the years long journey of these soldiers through four countries. After bearing witness to some of WWII’s most history-defining events, they tell of returning home to families, wives and sweethearts, and of the price they paid for the trauma they endured. Shining through the horrors of war is the spirit of these men and an inspiring human capacity to find beauty in their surroundings and hold onto hope in the worst of circumstances.

A year ago, on 29 December 2019, prisoners were exchanged with the self-proclaimed ‘LPR’ and ‘DPR’. Among the Ukrainians who returned home were journalist Stanislav Aseyev, tanker Bohdan Pantiushenko, and human rights activist Andriy Yarovoi. Four months earlier, on 7 September, Crimeans Oleg Sentsov and Oleksandr Kolchenko were released from Russian colonies. We spoke to the former prisoners about their first year of freedom.

A U.S. Navy Commander Jeremiah Denton leading a plane sortie into North Vietnam was shot down and captured as a POW. For 8 years of his life, he was a prisoner at Hanoi Hilton where he and other POWs were tortured. In a press conference, being forced by the North Vietnamese to say he was being treated well he blinked out the letters TORTURE in Morse code.

In 1944 Poland, a Jewish shop keeper named Jakob is summoned to ghetto headquarters after being caught out after curfew. While waiting for the German Kommondant, Jakob overhears a German radio broadcast about Russian troop movements. Returned to the ghetto, the shopkeeper shares his information with a friend and then rumors fly that there is a secret radio within the ghetto.

In Burma during the closing days of WWII, a Japanese soldier separated from his unit disguises himself as a Buddhist monk to escape imprisonment as a POW.

French soldiers surrender to lying Nazis and are herded into a barbaric prison of war camp. From there they plan an uprising.

In the Pacific, 1944, a Japanese soldier and a British prisoner of war are stranded on a deserted island, hunted by a deadly creature. Two mortal enemies must come together to survive the unknown.

A California commercial pilot sees a telecast in London of an interview with Sir Mark Lodden at his home. The Canadian is convinced that the baronet is a fraud, and he is actually a look-alike actor named Frank Welney.

A Korean man, forced into service in the Japanese army during WWII, marries his Japanese girlfriend despite everyone's objections. Later, he becomes the sole survivor when the Americans attack.

Army Captain Edward Hall returns to the U.S. after two years in a prison camp in the Korean War. In the camp, he was brainwashed and helped the Chinese convince the other prisoners that they were fighting an unjust war. When he comes back he is charged for collaboration with the enemy. Where does loyalty end in a prison camp, when the camp is a living hell?

A downed American bomber crew quickly falls prey to the clever interrogation techniques of the Germans in this dramatic WW2 training film.

Tortured into a false confession while a POW in Korea, Major Lincoln Bond returns to active service as a test pilot. Determined to clear his name, Bond battles a hard-nosed base commander, prejudiced officers and his own insecurities.

Documentary film focusing on the American rock band Aerosmith, featuring live material, music videos, and interview segments.

Several characters realize their personal way to build their own identity from the choice of genre. Transsexual, transgender, crossdressing – the defining of terminologies different ways of looking at yourself are constantly rising, portraying a universe of possibilities, expanding the boundaries of the possible and permitted.

Commissioned by the COI, Peter Greenaway made a biographical short film about fashion designer Zandra Rhodes.

Pop Goes the Easel was Ken Russell’s first full-length documentary for the BBC’s arts series Monitor. It focused on 4 British Pop Artists - Peter Blake, Peter Philips, Pauline Boty and Derek Boshier.

Life in a Kyrgyz aul (village) in the mountains connected to the rest of the world by a cable bridge, and the teenage boys who are constructing the rope of the bridge. A rope bridge which the locals call “The devil’s bridge” forms part of each and every event which takes place in a small village lost in the mountains of the Kyrgyz Republic. A platform driven by a huge winch which they have to pull with their own strength to cross the torrent is their only link with the outside world. But the director of the documentary wondered something else: “Does this bridge unite or does it actually separate?” Through the mist and over the thrashing waters, the inhabitants of the area glide along their ropes. A film, in the director’s own words, about ordinary people who live in an extraordinary place.

US federal investigators are called in to determine the cause of a mysterious jetliner crash in Panama. Nothing about the accident makes sense, until a key clue emerges.

A tropical fish shop in the East End of London, the last of what used to be many. Tiny, watery dramas inside fish tanks accompany the thoughts of local fish-keepers, while father and son Big Tel and Little Tel work to keep the shop alive.