The Selma to Montgomery march was a turning point of the Civil Rights campaign for equal justice in American. The march was part of a series of protests occurring throughout the South in 1965. The 54-mile route from Selma to the state Capitol took three attempts and early efforts were marred by violence before eventual federal government intervention allowed the march to proceed. The story is told through re-enactments and previously unseen film taken by undercover Alabama State police. John Lewis, James Farmer, James Orange, CT Vivian and Nicholas Katzenbach look back on the events leading up to Bloody Sunday and describe how President Lyndon B. Johnson responded.
Twenty months into the Iraq War, Fallujah was an insurgent sanctuary. The overwhelming presence of Al-Qaeda and foreign fighters had the city on the brink of destruction. The film captures the reality of war from the perspective of the Marines who fought the battle of Fallujah. The story is told by those who were there and family members left behind. Among those who share their experiences is a Navy doctor who ran a clinic in the middle of the fight; a Navy Cross recipient struggling with the horrors of PTSD; the Commanding General for the campaign, and the wife of a second lieutenant who didn’t come home.
President Lyndon Johnson used the Gulf of Tonkin incident to make his case to Congress for escalating the conflict with North Vietnam. The film examines newly released evidence used to justify attacking North Vietnam on August 4th 1964. NSA intercepts, White House recordings and first hand witnesses conclude Johnson lied to the country and fabricated the case for war. Members of the USS Maddox crew, pilots from the US Constellation, Secretary of State Alexander Haig, foreign affairs advisor William Bundy, NSA and CIA analysts all review the newly released evidence and conclude the North Vietnamese attack never happened.
At Fort Hunt a clandestine organization linked US Army intelligence to prisoners inside 32 German prisoner of war camps. Hidden messages smuggled inside humanitarian packages, cameras to create false ID’s and cribbage boards with hidden shortwave radios that picked up the BBC were all sent into the camps. The broadcaster relayed top secret messages in its 1am bulletin. This is the unknown story behind the Great Escape.
The documentary special examined Kennedy’s presidency based on newly released medical records that illustrate the extent of his physical frailty. The documents showed that last rites had been administered to Kennedy three times in the 1950’s. His chronic back pain drove him to seek relief through amphetamines administered by Max Jabobson as “Dr. Feelgood.” The film shows how Kennedy’s medical condition impacted his presidency. From needing back injections to sit up to deliver his national broadcast in the middle of the Cuban missile crisis, to experiencing excruciating pain during the second day of his summit with Nikita Khruschev. Tragically his death was in part a result of wearing a back brace in Dallas that prevented him from falling forward after the first non-lethal shot.
Within three days of taking over the White House, President Lyndon B. Johnson had a Dictaphone installed in his office to record phone calls for historical record. In 1994, the Johnson library released the first batch of tapes recorded by LBJ during his presidency. They offer a unique insight into the way the president coped with the aftermath of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Johnson wanted future generations to understand his presidency with the “bark off.” From Vietnam to Civil Rights Hello Mr. President captures the drama in real time and offers unparalleled perspective on this pivotal moment in American History.Â
Graham Greene was a writer and journalist, who is widely regarded as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Having served a time in Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), he would frequently weave the contacts he met in real life into his books and feature films. Sir Derek Jacobi is the narrator and Bill Nighy is the voice of Greene.
This series, commissioned by the BBC’s former Director General Lord Tony Hall, traces Sir Charles Wheeler’s reporting from America that began at the height of the Vietnam war and extended well into the Reagan presidency. The five-part, Grierson nominated series examines Nixon’s treason that resulted in a stolen election in 1968, Johnson’s failed efforts to create a “Great Society”, the Vietnam War, America’s defeat in its war on drugs, and Reagan’s reliance on the advice of a San Francisco astrologer.Â
In 2015 US Border Patrol seized 1.5 million pounds of illegal substances attempting to cross at the US southern border. That accounts for 99.4% of seized drugs by the agency that year. The Texas Rangers are at war with the Mexican cartels and multinational gangs who operate these smuggling activities across the Rio Grande. For six months the production team was granted exclusive access to the Texas Rangers’ reconnaissance teams conducting interdiction efforts along the river. From Department of Public Safety helicopters, drones, water patrols, and hidden teams of heavily armed Rangers, the documentary follows the department’s confrontations with the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas.