1979: Big Bang of the Present

Dec 10, 2019

1h 29m

★ 7.5

Overview

Deng Xiaoping's economic and political opening in China. Margaret Thatcher's extreme economic measures in the United Kingdom. Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic Revolution in Iran. Pope John Paul II's visit to Poland. Saddam Hussein's rise to power in Iraq. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The nuclear accident at the Harrisburg power plant and the birth of ecological activism. The year 1979, the beginning of the future.

Genres

Documentary

History

TV Movie

Production Companies

K2 Productions

OutreMer Film

RBB

Telewizja Polska

ORF

INA

1979: Big Bang of the Present Trailers

Cast

Self - Literature Professor (1979)

Haideh Daragahi

Self - Biologist (1979)

Shahin Nawai

Self - Student (1979)

Chahla Chafiq

Self - Photojournalist (1979)

Chris Niedenthal

Self - Economist (1979)

Leszek Balcerowicz

Self - Politician (1979)

Stanisław Ciosek

Self - Student (1979)

Alfred Wierzbicki

Self - Jurist (1979)

Hanna Suchocka

Self - Diplomat (1979)

Roger Garside

Self - Political Dissident (1979)

Wei Jingsheng

Self - US DoS Official (1979)

Chas Freeman

Self - Political Journalist (1979)

Charles Moore

Edward Wilson, the only witness to his father's suicide and member of the Skull and Bones Society while a student at Yale, is a morally upright young man who values honor and discretion, qualities that help him to be recruited for a career in the newly founded OSS. His dedication to his work does not come without a price though, leading him to sacrifice his ideals and eventually his family.

7.0

Dogtown and Z-Boys

May 10, 2002

This award-winning, thrilling story is about a group of discarded kids who revolutionized skateboarding and shaped the attitude and culture of modern day extreme sports. Featuring old skool skating footage, exclusive interviews and a blistering rock soundtrack, DOGTOWN AND Z-BOYS captures the rise of the Zephyr skateboarding team from Venice's Dogtown, a tough "locals only" beach with a legacy of outlaw surfing.

7.1

David Bowie: The Last Five Years

Jan 7, 2017

In the last five years of his life, David Bowie ended nearly a decade of silence to engage in an extraordinary burst of activity, producing two groundbreaking albums and a musical. David Bowie: The Last Five Years explores this unexpected end to a remarkable career. Made with remarkable access, Francis Whately’s documentary is a revelatory follow-up to his acclaimed 2013 documentary David Bowie: Five Years, which chronicled Bowie’s golden ‘70s and early-‘80s period.

6.8

Salvador (Puig Antich)

May 23, 2006

The story of Salvador Puig Antich, one of the last political prisoners to be executed under Franco's Fascist State in 1974.

9.0

Intervision Song Contest - schlager i kalla krigets skugga

May 7, 2022

Documentary about the Intervision Song Contest in general and the 1980 edition in particular. Focuses on Finland's participation and the shipyard strikes in Gdansk at the time.

6.0

Fort Saganne

May 11, 1984

In 1911, a willful and determined man from peasant stock named Charles Saganne enlists in the military and is assigned to the Sahara Desert under the aristocratic Colonel Dubreuilh.

7.5

Hong Kong: Retrocession Generation

Jul 4, 2017

In 2017, twenty years after the British handed over Hong Kong to China in 1997, young people, more politicized than any previous generation and proud of their land, do not feel Chinese and actively fight against the oligarchs who want to subdue them to China's authoritarian power.

8.0

Tiananmen: The People Versus the Party

Jun 2, 2019

The true story of the seven weeks that changed China forever. On June 4, 1989, pro-democracy demonstrations were violently and bloodily repressed. Thousands of people died, but the basis for China's future was definitely planted.

6.0

The Trial of Lord Lucan

Nov 10, 1994

An imagined trial of a man who, in 1974 London, is thought to have killed a woman he mistook for his wife in order to regain custody of his children. He disappeared the day after the killing and was never found.

4.8

Race d'Ep!

Oct 24, 1979

"Race d’Ep!" (which literally translates to "Breed of Faggots") was made by the “father of queer theory,” Guy Hocquenghem, in collaboration with radical queer filmmaker and provocateur Lionel Soukaz. The film traces the history of modern homosexuality through the twentieth century, from early sexology and the nudes of Baron von Gloeden to gay liberation and cruising on the streets of Paris. Influenced by the groundbreaking work of Michel Foucault on the history of sexuality and reflecting the revolutionary queer activism of its day, "Race d’Ep!" is a shockingly frank, sex-filled experimental documentary about gay culture emerging from the shadows.

0.0

Ngā Tamatoa: 40 Years On

Sep 14, 2012

Actor Rawiri Paratene was 16 years old when he joined Māori activist group Ngā Tamatoa (Young Warriors) in the early 1970s. "Those years helped shape the rest of my life," says Paratene in this 2012 Māori TV documentary, directed by Kim Webby. The programme is richly woven with news archive from the 1970s, showing protests about land rights and the Treaty of Waitangi, and a campaign for te reo to be taught in schools. Several ex Ngā Tamatoa members — including Hone Harawira, Tame Iti and Larry Parr— are interviewed by Paratene, who also presents the documentary.

7.2

Gena Rowlands: A Life on Film

Jun 5, 2019

An intimate portrait of the superb actress Gena Rowlands, icon of independent cinema. Together with her husband, legendary director John Cassavetes (1929-89), she lived an unusual life beyond the dream factory, a life in which reality and fiction were so perfectly intertwined that it made possible films that still today seem incredibly real.

7.0

The Goldman Case

Jun 7, 2023

A second trial begins in November 1975 against French left-wing revolutionary Pierre Goldman, accused of several armed robberies and the death of two chemists.

6.7

Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing

Oct 27, 2006

Shut Up and Sing is a documentary about the country band from Texas called the Dixie Chicks and how one tiny comment against President Bush dropped their number one hit off the charts and caused fans to hate them, destroy their CD’s, and protest at their concerts. A film about freedom of speech gone out of control and the three girls lives that were forever changed by a small anti-Bush comment

7.3

Bloody Sunday

Jan 16, 2002

The dramatised story of the Irish civil rights protest march on January 30 1972 which ended in a massacre by British troops.

7.2

One to One: John & Yoko

Apr 9, 2025

An exploration of the seminal and transformative 18 months that one of music’s most famous couples — John Lennon and Yoko Ono — spent living in Greenwich Village, New York City, in the early 1970s.

5.4

Pan Tadeusz

Oct 18, 1999

A grand and patriotic tale of Poland's struggle for freedom just before Napoleon's war with Russia. Written in poetic style by Adam Mickiewicz, this story follows two feuding Polish families as they overcome their old conflicts and petty lives. However, they are able to unite as one with their patriotic and rebellious efforts to free the country they deeply love from Russian control.

5.8

There Is No Authority But Yourself

Jan 1, 2006

A Dutch documentary about the history of the anarchist punk band Crass. The film features archival footage of the band, and interviews with former members Steve Ignorant, Penny Rimbaud and Gee Vaucher.

7.4

First They Killed My Father

Feb 18, 2017

A 5-year-old girl embarks on a harrowing quest for survival amid the sudden rise and terrifying reign of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

6.5

Charlie Wilson's War

Dec 19, 2007

In the 1980s U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson, Texas socialite Joanne Herring and CIA agent Gust Avrakotos form an unlikely alliance to boost funding for Afghan freedom fighters in their war against invading Soviets. The trio's successful efforts to finance these covert operations contributes to the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.