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Historical

This genre is one of the largest non-fiction genres, and consists primarily of documentaries about one or more historical events or time periods. In general, the title will not be of a contemporary nature (that is, it will be made about a subject that actually occurred in the past). Some historical subjects include ancient civilizations & archaeology, famous crimes, popular culture and trends of the past, and other major world events.

The Act of Killing (2012)

8.2/10
Director: Joshua Oppenheimer

This chilling and inventive documentary tells the stories of members of the Indonesian death squads who tortured and killed over 500,000 people throug... Read more

The Knights Templar (2000)

5.6/10
Director: Anon

The mysterious, powerful, warrior knights were founded after the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 and within 200 years controlled lands from Scotland acr... Read more

Civilisation (1966)

8.8/10
Director: Ann Turner, Michael Gill, Peter Montagnon
Starring: Lord Kenneth Clark

In 1966 BBC Television embarked on its most ambitious documentary series to date. The eminent art historian Lord Clark was commissioned to write and p... Read more

In Search of Shakespeare (2004)

8.2/10
Director: David Wallace
Starring: Michael Wood

He is the most famous of Englishmen, and yet our biographical knowledge of William Shakespeare has always been scant. Now Michael Wood - with the help... Read more

The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (2013)

6.8/10
Director: Dayna Goldfine, Daniel Geller

Darwin meets Hitchcock in this true-crime tale of paradise found and lost, a fascinating documentary portrait of a 1930s murder mystery as strange and... Read more

Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)

7.4/10
Director: Werner Herzog

From the incomparable Werner Herzog ("Encounters at the End of the World", "Grizzly Man"), "Cave Of Forgotten Dreams" provides a breathtaking cinemati... Read more

1421: The Year China Discovered the World (2004)

6.5/10
Director: David Wallace

Based on Gavin Menzies' controversial book and his '1421 theory' that Chinese mariners had explored and charted the world, long before Europeans. Fol... Read more

Paris - An Insider's Guide (2007)

Starring: Sandrine Voillet

Join Sandrine Voillet as she takes you on a journey, experiencing life in the real Paris; a ground view of the city that's seldom seen by tourists. Fr... Read more

Journey of Man (2003)

7.9/10
Director: Clive Maltby
Starring: Dr Spencer Wells

How did the human race populate the world? A group of geneticists have worked on the question for a decade, arriving at a startling conclusion: the "g... Read more

The Civil War (1990)

9.1/10
Director: Ken Burns
Starring: Narrated by, David McCullough

Director Ken Burns' ('Jazz', 'Frank Lloyd Wright') most acclaimed documentary series is a comprehensive chronicle of the American Civil War. Over elev... Read more