A Lesson in History

Jan 1, 1989

0h 10m

★ 0.0

An allegorical story seen through the lens of a black school girl and her search for a history she can identify with.

Overview

Lesson in History was produced when Peters was a student at the West Surrey School of Art and Design. Having read The People Could Fly by Virginia Hamilton, she was inspired to make what she describes as 'the stories of black achievement and how stories had not been told.' The animated film was subsequently screened on the BBC as part of the series 10X10. It was shot on 16mm using cutouts, photography and masks.

Genres

Animation

History

Production Companies

BBC 2

West Surrey College of Art & Design

A Lesson in History Trailers

No Trailers found.

Cast

Narrator

Maybelle Peters

Narrator

Gerry White

In the fifties, when the future Democratic Republic of Congo was still a Belgian colony, an entire generation of musicians fused traditional African tunes with Afro-Cuban music to create the electrifying Congolese rumba, a style that conquered the entire continent thanks to an infectious rhythm, captivating guitar sounds and smooth vocals.

7.4

Palm Trees in the Snow

Dec 25, 2015

Spain, 2003. An accidental discovery leads Clarence to travel from the snowy mountains of Huesca to Equatorial Guinea, to visit the land where her father Jacobo and her uncle Kilian spent most of their youth, the island of Fernando Poo.

7.0

Amistad

Dec 10, 1997

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.

7.0

Animal Farm

Dec 28, 1954

Animals on a farm lead a revolution against the farmers to put their destiny in their own hands. However this revolution eats their own children and they cannot avoid corruption.

6.4

The Writer from a Country Without Bookstores

Dec 13, 2019

The ruthless dictator Teodoro Obiang has ruled Equatorial Guinea with an iron hand since 1979. Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel is the most translated Equatoguinean writer, but he had to flee the country in 2011, after starting a hunger strike denouncing the crimes of the dictatorship. Since then, he has lived in Spain, feeling that, despite the risks, he must return and fight the monster with words.

4.8

October Days

Jan 1, 1958

Historical drama depicting the events leading up to the 1917 October Revolution produced to celebrate the 40th anniversary.

No Image Available

0.0

The American Revolution

Jan 1, 2016

Everyone knows the story of Paul Revere and his famous midnight ride to warn colonial forces of the British approach. But history books don't tell of the man who sent Revere on his mission: Joseph Warren, America's least remembered founding father. Uncover the forgotten history of Warren and stories of other unsung heroes in our fight for independence in The American Revolution.

6.3

The Russian Revolution

Jun 15, 2017

Starting in 1881 this film shows the personal battle between Lenin's Ulyanov family and the royal Romanovs that eventually led to the Russian revolution.

6.8

The Red Sea Diving Resort

Jul 28, 2019

Sudan, East Africa, 1980. A team of Israeli Mossad agents plans to rescue and transfer thousands of Ethiopian Jews to Israel. To do so, and to avoid raising suspicions from the inquisitive and ruthless authorities, they establish as a cover a fake diving resort by the Red Sea.

0.0

When a Woman Saddles a Horse

Jan 1, 1974

Biographical film about Eyne Kuliyeva, who was the first woman to be the head of a local governance in 1920s Soviet Turkmenistan.

6.3

Huckleberry Finn

Jan 2, 1976

Huck Finn is a homeless boy because he was abandoned by his father, who left the village for over a year. Although he lives in a barrel and the mother of his little friend Tom Sawyer does not want children to play with him, he is always surrounded by many friends. And it is during one of these games, while he is exploring a cave in search of "pirate treasure" that Huck discovers two robbers who had just looted the village.

6.2

Lenin: The Train

Apr 30, 1990

March/April 1917. The first world war is already a couple year to pace. A sealed train with Russian emigrants keeps on driving from Zürich Germany and Sweden to Sint-Petersburg. The outlaws stand under the guidance of Vladimir J. Lenin. Two senior officers support the revolutionary bomb "to ensure that everything runs smoothly. Yet there are some unpleasant clashes between Socialists and enthusiastic workers who are worried about the war. During train travel there comes an end to Lenin's affair with the gracious Inessa, and his wife Nadja is prepared take back him. The triumphant entrance in St. Petersburg will exceed all expectations....

6.2

Solomon Northup's Odyssey

Dec 10, 1984

This is based on a true story. Solomon Northrop is a black man in the mid 19th century before slavery was abolished. He's a born free man who works as a carpenter and is also a part time musician. One day he is approached by some men who want him to play for them. However, that is not their intention; they have kidnapped him and sold him into slavery. Now he has to endure the hardships that he has been spared because of his status as a free man. And his family who don't know what happened to him is searching for him but where do they go? And Solomon also wishes to let them know where he is so that they could get him but unfortunately no one believes his story or is willing to help him.

3.8

Lenin in Paris

Nov 1, 1981

1911. Lenin organizes the first Bolshevik party school near Paris, in the small town of Longjumeau. Through a chain of historical parallels and associations, this time is intertwined with the events of the Paris Commune, the October Revolution and the political struggles of the post-revolutionary years.

0.0

The Spring Night

May 1, 1976

A spring night is a poetic film which is based on the motives of the poem by V. Lugovsky. The film is devoted to the theme of fidelity to the battle traditions of revolutionary past, to the theme of human happiness the sense of it in the battle for high ideals.

7.0

The Warrior

Sep 7, 2001

In 1375, China was in chaos between Yuan Dynasty and Ming Dynasty. Coryo (an ancient kingdom of Korea then) sent a delegation of many diplomats, soldiers and a silent slave to make peace with the new Chinese government. However, this delegation got charged as spies and sent in exile to a remote desert.

7.6

Apocalypto

Dec 7, 2006

Set in the Mayan civilization, when a man's idyllic presence is brutally disrupted by a violent invading force, he is taken on a perilous journey to a world ruled by fear and oppression where a harrowing end awaits him. Through a twist of fate and spurred by the power of his love for his woman and his family he will make a desperate break to return home and to ultimately save his way of life.

7.5

Spartacus

Oct 13, 1960

The rebellious Thracian Spartacus, born and raised a slave, is sold to Gladiator trainer Batiatus. After weeks of being trained to kill for the arena, Spartacus turns on his owners and leads the other slaves in rebellion. As the rebels move from town to town, their numbers swell as escaped slaves join their ranks. Under the leadership of Spartacus, they make their way to southern Italy, where they will cross the sea and return to their homes.

7.6

The Last Emperor

Oct 4, 1987

A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.

A Lesson in History

Overview

Genres

Production Companies

A Lesson in History Trailers