Films: Popular Culture
Browse the entire American Experience series featuring over 250 films. Watch full films online, download teacher’s guides, go behind the scenes, and learn more about your favorite films.
The Great Famine : 1 hr
The American effort to relieve starvation in Soviet Russia in 1921 during the worst natural disaster in Europe in 500 years.
The Greely Expedition : 1 hr
A daunting story of shipwreck, starvation, mutiny and cannibalism amongst a group left abandoned in the high Arctic.
Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst
The bizarre saga of the Symbionese Liberation Army and Patty Hearst's kidnapping and conversion to her captors' cause.
Henry Ford : 2 hrs
The story of a farm boy who rose from obscurity to become the most influential American innovator of the 20th century.
Jesse James : 1 hr
America's Robin Hood who robbed not only the rich but the poor and defenseless as well, always saving the treasure for himself. Part of the Wild West collection.
Jesse Owens : 1 hr
His stunning triumph at the 1936 Olympic Games captivated the world even as it infuriated the Nazis. Premiering May 1.
Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life
A star in baseball's golden age, Joe DiMaggio's celebrity status and tumultuous marriage to Marilyn Monroe brought him pain.
Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple : 90 mins
In 1978 over 900 people led by Rev. Jim Jones died in the largest mass murder-suicide in history, at Jonestown, Guyana.
Journey to America : 1 hr
Between 1890 and 1920, 12 million people emigrated from Europe arriving in New York Harbor and Ellis Island.
Jubilee Singers: Sacrifice and Glory
In the decade after the Civil War, former slaves sing their way into a nation's heart with spirituals, the religious anthems of slavery.
Kinsey
With data compiled from tens of thousands of sex questionnaires, Alfred Kinsey changed America's views about sex with the Kinsey Reports.
Las Vegas: An Unconventional History
Originally settled as a mail stop, Las Vegas changed from an Old West vacation town, to a mafia haven, to the "Atomic City" and "Sin City."
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men - Revisited : 1 hr
An updated look at the Alabama tenant farmer families that Walker Evans and James Agee documented in their 1936 Pulitzer Prize-winning book.
The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter : 1 hr
A look at five real-life "Rosies," the reality of working in defense plants during World War II and then having to give up those jobs for returning GIs.
Lindbergh
The first man to fly across the Atlantic, Charles Lindbergh was unprepared for the attention, particularly after his son was kidnapped.
Mary Pickford
Silent film actress Mary Pickford played a pivotal role in bringing Hollywood into the center of the motion picture industry.
The Massie Affair
in 1931, Grace Hubbard Fortescue received a one-hour sentence for murdering a local Hawaiian accused of raping her daughter.
Midnight Ramble : 1 hr
The little-known story of a black independent film industry that produced nearly 500 feature films for African American audiences.
Miss America
The country's oldest beauty contest has become a battleground and a barometer for the position of women in society.
Monkey Trial
John Scopes' free speech trial pitted science against religion after the teacher presented Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in a Tennessee school.
The Mormons : 2 hrs
From Joseph Smith's discovery of gold tablets to persecution, migration, and settlement in Utah, the film explores the history of the most American of religions.
Murder at Harvard
Accused by a janitor, a respected Harvard professor was hanged for the murder of Dr. George Parkman, one of Boston's richest citizens, in 1849.
Murder of the Century
A sensational story of power, class, and revenge in New York City when Harry Thaw murdered Stanford White over showgirl Evelyn Nesbit.
New Orleans
From Reconstruction to the 1960s, this film offers a portrait of New Orleans that reflects the best and the worst in America.
New York: A Documentary Film
The history of New York City and the people and forces that have shaped it over the past 400 years is told in a seven-part 14.5-hour series.
New York: The Center of the World
Postwar New York City and the global economic order told through the story of the World Trade Center.
The Orphan Trains
Between 1854 and 1929 more than 100,000 abused or orphaned children were sent by train to the Midwest to begin new lives in foster families.
Panama Canal : 90 mins
The most daring and innovative accomplishment at the turn of the 20th century.
