Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
31	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	1	2	3	4

BBC - PBS: People's Century 1900 - 1997 [Emmy-Award Winning Series]

Date: 21 Jan 2010 17:49:18

The People's Century is a television documentary series examining the 20th century. It was a joint production of the BBC in the United Kingdom and PBS member station WGBH Boston in the United States. First shown on BBC in 1995, the 26 parts of one hour each deal with the socio-economic, political, and cultural movements that shaped the 20th century. The documentary won the International Emmy Award, the George Foster Peabody Award and several others.

As we enter the new millennium, People's Century pauses to look back, inviting the people who participated in the great events of our century to reflect on what we've accomplished, where we've failed, how things have – and haven't – changed, where we've been, how far we've come and how far we still have to go. From the front lines of war to the battle against racism, the fight for freedom to the struggle for equality: Those who where there tell the stories of our times as People's Century celebrates the human spirit – and history on a human scale.

The twentieth century has been one of unrivaled extremes – from the height of human accomplishment to the greatest depths of inhumanity. It is also a history defined equally by unencumbered intellectual achievement and astonishing ignorance, war and peace, democracy and dictatorship, by individual resolution and mass revolution. People's Century offers a powerful and personal new perspective on this past, making "history and television for citizens of the twentieth century," says Dor-Ner, "and for the children of the twenty-first."

A departure from other documentaries that observe history as the actions of great men, People's Century tells the story of the century through interviews with people from all walks. It documents significant times with archive footage of events, combined with personal photographs. One memorable aspect is its title clip and music, a depiction of moments from the century - It consists of a tracking shot of a miniature landscape which resembles the events pictured, for example ruins of wars, streets from the Jazz Age, palm trees from Vietnam and a model of the Berlin Wall partly wrecked. The piece was made in Prague, in the Czech Republic. The theme music was by composer Zbigniew Preisner. Panoramic Images from World War I, the Russian Revolution, the Great Depression, the Holocaust, World War II, the Space Age, the May 1968 student revolution, the Iranian Revolution, the Cold War, and the fall of the Berlin Wall are also featured in the title clip.

The British version was narrated by Sean Barrett and Veronika Hyks, the American version by actors John Forsythe and Alfre Woodard.

People's Century was coproduced by the BBC and WGBH with executive producers Peter Pagnamenta and Zvi Dor-Ner, respectively; along with producer David Espar.

Episode 1: Age of Hope (1900)
The start of the 20th Century, a stable, unequal yet optimistic era when people were slowly introduced to technologies and ideas.

Episode 2: Killing Fields (1916)
World War I. Marching to glory, soldiers face death on an industrial scale in a ghastly global war.

Episode 3: Red Flag (1917)
The Russian Revolution. Communism brings hope-and horrors-to Russia's millions.

Episode 4: Lost Peace (1919)
The emergence and failure of the League of Nations in the inter-war years. The hope for a new world order.

Episode 5: On the Line (1926)
Economic growth and the redivision of labour caused by mass production. Mass production forever alters the lives of workers and consumers.

Episode 6: Great Escape (1927)
The Magic of Cinema. The world forgets its troubles and falls in love with the movies.

Episode 7: Breadline (1929)
The Great Depression and its effects (and government counter-measures) in Britain, the United States, Sweden, Germany and Chile.

Episode 8: Sporting Fever (1930)
The rise of sport as mass entertainment. Fans root for the home team in a sports craze that pushes nationalism to new levels.

Episode 9: Master Race (1933)
Nazism overtakes German society. Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, from the election of Adolf Hitler to the 'Final Solution'.

Episode 10: Total War (1939)
World War II - Civilians become participants and victims of warfare at an unprecedented scale. Opening credits show extracts of Things to Come, the portentous 1936 film.

Episode 11: Fallout (1945)
Nuclear energy - The power of the atom offers cheap, clean and unlimited energy, but initiates an arms race between the superpowers. Opening credits shows the El Alamogordo test in 1945.

Episode 12: Brave New World (1945)
A "cold" war embroils the US and the Soviet Union in a contest of ideologies. The Berlin wall serves as a visible symbol.

Episode 13: Freedom Now (1947)
Colonial Rule is overthrown in India and Africa.

Episode 14: Boomtime (1948)
Post-war prosperity transforms lifestyles and cultural values in the United States and abroad, up till the Oil Shock.

Episode 15: Asia Rising (1951)
From the ashes of war, Japan and Korea rise to economic prominence.

Episode 16: Living Longer (1954)
The Growth in medicine, including the irradication of smallpox and polio, the third world population boom, AIDS and the return of tuberculosis.

Episode 17: Skin Deep (1957)
Racism and the civil rights movements in the United States and South Africa

Episode 18: Endangered Planet (1959)
Runaway growth brings prosperity at a terrible cost to the environment. Environmentalism, from the Minamata disaster and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring to the 1972 Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm.

Episode 19: Picture Power (1963)
Television, from its introduction in pre-war Britain to its use as a news medium in the Gulf War. Opening credits show news reports of the assassination of President Kennedy.

Episode 20: Great Leap (1965)
China, from the revolution in 1949 to the Cultural Revolution and the death of Mao Zedong. Opening credits show the Pingjin Campaign and the fall of the Republic of China.

Episode 21: New Release(UK)/Young Blood(US) (1968)
A new generation challenges the Establishment. The Baby Boomer generation, from the post-war baby boom to student radicalism in the West in the 1960s.

Episode 22: Half the People (1970)
The emancipation of women, from the suffragettes to the 1996 Beijing conference on the status of women. At home and at work, women fight for equal rights.

Episode 23: War of the Flea (UK)/Guerilla Wars(US) (1973)
Revolution succeeds through guerrilla warfare. The revolution in Cuba, Vietnam War and the Afghan War.

Episode 24: God Fights Back (1979)
Religious fundamentalism flourishes in the East and West as a counter-reaction to aggressive secularization. The emergence of Islamism from the 1970s in the previously secularised Middle East, marked by Islamic revolutions in Iran and Afghanistan; also the rise of Christian evangelism in the United States.

Episode 25: People Power (1989)
Communist rule crumbles in the Soviet Union. The end of socialism in Europe and the fall of the Soviet Union. (Viewer discretion is advised for "Episode 25: People Power", which features disturbing footage of the capture and execution of ex-Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife.)

Episode 26: Back to The Future(US)/Fast Forward(UK) 1997)
New technologies connect the world-while age-old rivalries threaten the New World Order . The spread of globalisation in the United States, Russia, China and India; also the Bosnian War.

SCREENSHOT:

Download full movie BBC - PBS: People's Century 1900 - 1997 [Emmy-Award Winning Series]

Subtitles (from opensubtitles.org)

1990 HDTV Documentary Historical DVD-Rip