An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th

Apr 16, 2024

1h 47m

★ 6.4

Homegrown terrorism decades in the making.

Overview

This documentary looks at the surge in political violence through the story of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, showing the roots of anti-government sentiment and its reverberations today, along with the emotionally charged warnings of those who suffered tragic losses in the deadliest homegrown attack in U.S. history.

Genres

Documentary

Production Companies

HBO Documentary Films

Blowback Productions

An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th Trailers

Cast

Self

Kathy Sanders

Self

Nancy Shaw

Self

Marsha Kimble

Self

Bud Welch

Self

LaDonna Battle-Leverett

Self – Former Oklahoma Police Officer

Daniel Coss

Self – Investigative Reporter

Mike Boettcher

Self – Investigative Reporter, NBC

Bob Sands

Self – U.S. President (1993-2001)

Bill Clinton

Self – Former FBI Special Agent

Danny Coulson

Self – Former FBI Special Agent

Bob Ricks

Self – Co-Author, 'American Terrorist'

Dan Herbeck

On June 1st, 2019, around 11:30pm, the shoot which represents a turning point in the federal republic falls. In the hessian small town Wolfhagen-Istha, the district president of Kassel, Walter Lübcke, is murdered during this night, while, just a few meters away, the annual carnival is putting the locals into a festive mood. It is DNA-evidence on the clothes of Walter Lübcke which leads the investigators on June 15th, 2019, to his presumptive murderer: Stephan Ernst. The previously convicted right-wing extremist Ernst gets arrested by a SEK unit in Kassel. A first background check reveals: Stephan Ernst was known to the security authorities, but they did not have him on their radar for six years. Now he is back. And a person is dead. The docu-drama “Schuss in der Nacht” („Shoot in the dark“) tells emotionally, and simultaneously factually, how the deadly attack on Lübcke came to be. It tells about the first far-right motivated murder of a politician since the era of national socialism.

0.0

Dancing Before the Moon

May 20, 2023

Comprising new and archival footage, this film observes rituals performed by the South Asian, African, and Caribbean diaspora in Britain, demonstrating an appreciation of land, community values, and the universe we share with other species and planets.

6.5

Cerrone - Supernature

Jun 18, 2025

From Vitry-sur-Seine to the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics, a look back at the career of Cerrone, a pioneer of dance and disco music.

0.0

Synonymous With

Apr 12, 2021

A student's increasingly intimate line of questioning causes his interview with a local horror host to take a vulnerable turn.

No Image Available

0.0

Behind the Music: Michael Hutchence

Jan 9, 2000

In depth look at the life and death of INXS frontman Michael Hutchence (1960-1997), who took his own life at an Australian hotel room at the age of 37 on November 22, 1997. Featuring interviews with his family, bandmates and friends such as Bono.

7.2

Dark Days

Aug 30, 2000

A cinematic portrait of the homeless population who live permanently in the underground tunnels of New York City.

7.5

Why We Fight

Jan 20, 2005

Is American foreign policy dominated by the idea of military supremacy? Has the military become too important in American life? Jarecki's shrewd and intelligent polemic would seem to give an affirmative answer to each of these questions.

0.0

Bettina Rheims

Jul 4, 2025

Whether famous or anonymous, stars or prisoners, models or sex workers, women have always been at the center of Bettina Rheims' photographic work since her debut in 1978. Both subversive and glamorous, trashy and sophisticated, her photographs mark and bear witness to the upheavals of the era, which this leading photographer both anticipated and accompanied.

7.5

Bowling for Columbine

Oct 9, 2002

This is not a film about gun control. It is a film about the fearful heart and soul of the United States, and the 280 million Americans lucky enough to have the right to a constitutionally protected Uzi. From a look at the Columbine High School security camera tapes to the home of Oscar-winning NRA President Charlton Heston, from a young man who makes homemade napalm with The Anarchist's Cookbook to the murder of a six-year-old girl by another six-year-old. Bowling for Columbine is a journey through the US, through our past, hoping to discover why our pursuit of happiness is so riddled with violence.

7.7

TINA

Aug 20, 2021

Tina Turner overcame impossible odds to become one of the first female Black artists to reach a mainstream international audience. Her road to superstardom is an undeniable story of triumph over adversity. It’s the ultimate story of survival – and an inspirational story of our times.

9.0

Giscard, l'impossible retour

Jan 25, 2014

No overview available.

0.0

Loyal to My Image

Apr 10, 1992

Through one woman's experience as an adopted person and also as a mother who relinquished her child in 1971, this documentary highlights the many complex issues associated with adoption.

6.9

Nas: Time Is Illmatic

Apr 4, 2014

Time Is Illmatic is a feature length documentary film that delves deep into the making of Nas' 1994 debut album, Illmatic, and the social conditions that influenced its creation.

3.6

Trade Center

Mar 16, 2021

The voices of five gay men who cruised for sex at the World Trade Center in the 1980s and 1990s haunt the sanitized, commerce-driven landscape that is the newly rebuilt Freedom Tower campus.

0.0

7 Days in Kigali, the week when Rwanda changed

Mar 23, 2014

What happened in Rwanda in 1994 was not simply the spontaneous eruption of inter-ethnic hatred. It was planned genocide, on an industrial scale. Something that was prepared for at least a year in advance. Lists were made. Weapons were collected. RTLM radio spent months conditioning their audience to believe that one sector of their population represented a threat.

6.6

Ruby Ridge

Feb 14, 2017

Shortly before dawn on August 21, 1992, six heavily armed U.S. marshals made their way up to the isolated mountaintop home of Randy and Vicki Weaver and their children on Ruby Ridge in Northern Idaho. Charged with selling two illegal sawed-off shotguns to an undercover agent, Weaver had failed to appear in court and law enforcement was tasked with bringing him in. For months, the Weavers had been holed up on their property with a cache of firearms, including automatic weapons. When the federal agents surveilling the property crossed paths with members of the family, a firefight broke out. The standoff that mesmerized the nation would leave Weaver injured, his wife and son dead, and some convinced that the federal government was out of control. Drawing upon eyewitness accounts, including interviews with Weaver’s daughter, Sara, and federal agents involved in the confrontation, Ruby Ridge is a riveting account of the event that helped give rise to the modern American militia movement.

10.0

Algeria, Memoirs of Raï

Jan 2, 2001

In the 1980s, Algeria experienced a tumultuous social context which reached its peak during the riots of October 88. This wave of protest, with youth as its figurehead, echoed the texts of raï singers. Thirst for freedom, misery of life and the aspirations of youth are among the main themes of their works which will inspire an entire generation. More than music, raï celebrates the Arabic language and becomes a vector of Algerian culture, thus providing the cultural weapons of emerging Algerian nationalism With Cheb Khaled, Cheb Mami and Chaba Fadela as leaders of the movement, raï is also a way of telling and reflecting the essence of Algeria in these difficult times. While the threat weighs on artists in Algeria, their exile allows raï to be exported internationally and thus, to bring the colors of Algeria to life throughout the world.

0.0

Ikuska 2: Gernika

Jan 1, 1979

A memory to the victims and a tribute to the survivors of one of the most tragic episodes of the Spanish Civil War: the bombings suffered by the population of Gernika.

No Image Available

0.0

Vanilla Ice Archive

Jul 16, 2012

The life and career of American rapper Vanilla Ice, showcasing his start as a breakdancer in South Dallas to his mainstream international success and the hardships that followed through archive personal, TV, news and concert footage.

6.9

Oklahoma City

Jan 21, 2017

The bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in April 1995 is the worst act of domestic terrorism in American history. This documentary explores how a series of deadly encounters between American citizens and federal law enforcement—including the standoffs at Ruby Ridge and Waco—led to it.