documentaries 
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SOURCE: History.com
2/11/2021
New Documentary: Tuskegee Airmen: Legacy of Courage
TV journalist Robin Roberts produces a documentary on the famed Tuskegee Airmen – including her father – whose service in World War II supported the long movement for civil rights.
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SOURCE: Smithsonian
1/15/2021
A New Film Details the FBI’s Relentless Pursuit of Martin Luther King Jr.
The new film "MLK/FBI" addresses Americans' failure to remember that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was unpopular, labeled as divisive and subversive, and subject to harassment by federal law enforcement agencies during his life.
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SOURCE: Paste
12/15/2020
Paste Magazine's Best Documentaries of 2020
Documentaries on the memory of the Civil War and the beginnings of the disability movement are among Paste's best of the year.
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SOURCE: New York Times
12/6/2020
A Polarizing Documentary Spurs Debate Over a Violent Time in Quebec
Canadians are debating whether a documentary released at the fiftieth anniversary of a campaign of political violence by Quebecois separatists valorizes terrorism and ignores peaceful progress toward a bicultural Canada; the filmmaker is the son of one of the convicted conspirators.
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SOURCE: New York Times
12/3/2020
‘Billie’ Review: A Legend, in a Different Light
A new documentary examines the lives of both the great singer and the filmmaker who died suddenly while working on a documentary of Billie Holliday's life.
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SOURCE: LA Progressive
12/2/2020
"A Life on Our Planet" Provides Environmental Hope
by Walter G. Moss
Although the recent Netflix documentary on the global environment describes a grim present, it explains a path forward that is simple (if the political will can be found).
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SOURCE: Irish Times
11/30/2020
‘Bodies Left for Weeks. People Eaten by Dogs’: A New Documentary on the Irish Famine
“The British abandoned people to starvation,” says Prof Kevin Whelan of the University of Notre Dame. “At the highest level of government there was a sense that this ultimately wasn’t their problem”. A new Irish television documentary is narrated by Liam Neeson.
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SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
11/12/2020
‘The Reagans’ Review: Challenging a Leader’s Legacy
If the new Showtime documentary wishes to undermine the legacy of Ronald Reagan, one reviewer suggests it ultimately makes the 40th President more sympathetic and appealing.
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SOURCE: New York Times
11/11/2020
Was Reagan a Precursor to Trump? A New Documentary Says Yes
Reagan biographer Lou Cannon and historian Rick Perlstein contend the series misconstrues Reagan's politics by portraying him as a dog-whistling race baiter (Cannon says it's flat wrong, Perlstein says it's more complicated than that).
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SOURCE: New York Times
11/12/2020
‘The Reagans’ Review: Making America Great Again, Round 1
"The series provides a steady succession of parallels between Reagan and Donald J. Trump, none labeled as such but all difficult to miss."
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SOURCE: CBS News
11/8/2020
Ken Burns on America, Selling His First Film, PBS's Long Deadlines and More
"I have had the privilege of spending my entire life making films about the U.S., capital U, capital S. But I've also had the privilege of making films about 'us,' the two-letter, lowercase, plural pronoun, that has a kind of intimacy and warmth to it."
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SOURCE: PBS
10/20/2020
Frontline: Whose Vote Counts?
Jelani Cobb investigates the Wisconsin primary election as a lens onto the ongoing struggle to protect voting rights.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
9/26/2020
Re-Watching ‘The Civil War’ During the Breonna Taylor and George Floyd Protests
by Gillian Brockell
Ken Burns's Civil War documentary series sparked tremendous interest in history, but the series has a big Shelby Foote problem.
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SOURCE: Hyperallergic
9/16/2020
From MLK to Whistleblowers, the FBI’s Trouble with Dissidents
The films MLK/FBI and Enemies of the State offer contrasting looks at government oppression.
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SOURCE: The Metropole (Urban History Association)
9/10/2020
A Neoliberal Love Story, From Public Housing To Golf: A Review Of East Lake Meadows: A Public Housing Story
by Courtney Rawlings
Courtney Rawlings argues that a recent documentary on public housing has a blind spot for the politics that make decent housing precarious or even unavailable to millions.
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SOURCE: Broadway World
8/31/2020
PBS Will Air "Driving While Black" Documentary on October 13
PBS will air a historical documentary examining the issue of mobility and freedom to travel as aspects of American racism.
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8/2/2020
Who’s Our Roy Cohn?
by Andrew Feffer
Two documentaries on the notorious lawyer and fixer portray Roy Cohn as a figure of evil, but don't examine the social and political context of power in New York City.
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SOURCE: Reel Chicago
5/25/2020
A City At War: Chicago During WW II
The documentary, narrated by legendary journalist Bill Kurtis, is a comprehensive telling of nearly everything that happened in Chicagoland during World War II.
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SOURCE: Axios
5/25/2020
Ken Burns: Coronavirus Pandemic Is Crisis "On The Level" Of Civil War And Great Depression (Podcast)
On this podcast, the filmmaker and historian Geoffrey Ward discuss American leadership during moments of crisis.
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SOURCE: BET
5/19/2020
A New Documentary On Opera Singer Marian Anderson Is Coming To PBS
A new PBS documentary will commemorate singer Marian Anderson's voice and her activism.
News
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- Denied a Teaching Job for Being ‘Too Black,’ She Started Her Own School — And a Movement