Liverpool & Ghana: Echoes of The Past

Band of Angels

1957 · ★ 6.3

Living in Kentucky prior to the Civil War, Amantha Starr is a privileged young woman. Her widowed father, a wealthy plantation owner, dotes on her and sends her to the best schools. When he dies suddenly Amantha's world is turned upside down. She learns that her father had been living on borrowed money and that her mother was actually a slave and her father's mistress.

Don't Call It "Ghost Town"

2025

Two unique perspectives on the city of Liverpool come from interviews with the director's parents.

Hitlers Menschenhändler: Juden als Austauschware

2011 · ★ 8

The SS chief Heinrich Himmler wanted to exchange Jews against so-called German Reich abroad, against arms sales or for cash - with the express approval of Hitler.

Amistad

1997 · ★ 7

In 1839, the slave ship Amistad set sail from Cuba to America. During the long trip, Cinque leads the slaves in an unprecedented uprising. They are then held prisoner in Connecticut, and their release becomes the subject of heated debate. Freed slave Theodore Joadson wants Cinque and the others exonerated and recruits property lawyer Roger Baldwin to help his case. Eventually, John Quincy Adams also becomes an ally.

Equiano in Africa

An investigation into the kidnapping of Olaudah Equiano and the British slave trade. Olaudah Equiano, also known as Gustavas Vassa, earned his place in history by writing what is considered the first Slave Narrative. Equiano’s book, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavas Vassa, the African, has been analyzed from dozens of angles by countless historians and scholars. It is considered both a window into the life of a slave and freedman in the mid-eighteenth century, and into life in Africa at that time. The Interesting Narrative may also be a window into the mid-eighteenth century experience of a gay or bisexual African man.

King Leopold's Ghost

2006 · ★ 8

The modern history of the Congo, the heart of Africa, is a terrifying tale of appalling brutality: how the greedy and incredibly ruthless King Leopold II of Belgium (1935-1909) turned a vast country into his private estate (1885-1908) and how he plundered the land and raped the bodies and souls of its defenceless inhabitants, causing countless victims; and what exactly is the true impact of this often forgotten story of crime and horror today.

Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North

2008

A descendant of the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history, filmmaker Katrina Browne explores the contemporary legacy of slavery by traveling with fellow descendents from Rhode Island to Ghana and Cuba, retracing the Triangle Trade route. Along the way, Browne and her companions meet with similarly interested travelers and discover the considerable importance slavery once had for Northern commerce.

Maybrick

The story of Florence and James Maybrick

Nefarious: Merchant of Souls

2011 · ★ 5.7

Travel across four continents, through 19 countries, and into dingy Cambodian karaoke bars, Amsterdam’s infamous red-light district, Moldovan orphanages, legal Nevada brothels, and the street corners and alleyways of metropolises worldwide for more than a glance at the fastest-growing organized crime industry in the world with the groundbreaking, tell-all Nefarious: Merchant of Souls.

The Woman King

2022 · ★ 7.6

The story of the Agojie, the all-female unit of warriors who protected the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s with skills and a fierceness unlike anything the world has ever seen, and General Nanisca as she trains the next generation of recruits and readies them for battle against an enemy determined to destroy their way of life.

Buried: how we choose to remember the transatlantic slave trade

The remote island of St Helena, a British overseas territory, is best known for Napoleon's tomb – the island's biggest tourist attraction. However, while overseeing the construction of a long-awaited airport on the island, Annina van Neel learns that the remains of thousands of formerly enslaved Africans have been uncovered, unearthing one of the most significant physical remaining traces of the transatlantic slave trade in the world. Annina decides to advocate for this legacy, initiating a debate among the islanders – many of whom have shared ancestry with the enslaved – about how to create an appropriate memorial. Along the way, she enlists the help of African American preservationist and veteran activist Peggy King Jorde, who makes important connections in their shared history.

Tiharu

2013

It is quickly becoming the most populated country in the world, but India holds a dark secret. Men and women who make their homes in the poor villages throughout the central region of the country are forced to make decisions that no parents should ever have to make. Sell a child into slavery or watch your children starve to death.