Movies: The Smithsonian Network

Herman Melville's epic ocean adventure "Moby Dick" is an American masterpiece. But was this stirring tale of violence and revenge simply an allegory, or were there real giants of the deep deliberately attacking whaling ships? With the help of centuri...

We go behind the scenes and into the minds of artists as they capture, commemorate, and, at times, condemn our presidents....

20 years after the TV Mini-Series "Tales of the Serengeti", our crew reunites to truly explore the Serengeti, with no fiction. We almost didn't survive it....

Brazil's massive Pantanal is a land of extreme contrasts, ruled by dramatic cycles of torrential rain and arid heat. At the peak of the dry season, the floodplains bake and a searing struggle for life begins. However, there is an oasis that stubbornl...

This is the story of a cheetah born into the Linyanti cheetah coalition. He is the runt of the litter and will have to fight hard for every scrap of food and attention to survive....

In China's Valley of the Kings, there stands a tall, carved stone. It honors the resting place of a woman named Wu Zetian, who rose from concubine to become China's only female emperor. For more than a millennia, history claimed she killed her own ch...

Roughly 20 miles off the coast of west Africa, sits a volcanic relic now completely blanketed in equatorial rainforest: the island of Bioko. It's home to some very rare species, including the drill -- one of the most endangered primates in the world....

In the far reaches of the North, wolf and bear come head to head. Winter has been long. The melting ice reveal scattered carcasses in the Swamp: a feast worth fighting for. The bears must fatten up before Winter comes again, the wolves must strengthe...

It lasted only one day on a small piece of land, but the impact the Battle of Waterloo had on history is massive and far-reaching. This is the definitive account of the fight that ended Napoleon's rule as emperor and altered the destinies of France, ...

The drama documentary tells the real life story of Samurai woman Takeko Nakano who in 1868 fights for her clans' independence in a final battle that marks the end of the Samurai era....

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Honeybees are in crisis – but there is hope. Biologists are studying the estimated 20.000 bee species in the world to look for viable pollinators of our crops. In their quest they discover the marvellous world of bees: bees that live in flowers, inva...

Documentary which follows crocodile expert Brad Bestelink on a quest to dive with crocodiles without a cage or any other protection....

A documentary which follows two lion brothers as they become rulers of a pride in Botswana after a battle for dominance....

China, as we know it today, would not exist without the Han Dynasty. About two millenniums ago, its emperors ruled for over 400 years, and yet, few visible remains of this period exist above ground. Underground, however, it's a different story. Join ...

When Mount Vesuvius obliterated the city of Pompeii in 79 A.D., it preserved the bodies of about 2,000 victims, freezing them in their final moments. But who were these fated ancient Romans? To find out, forensic scientists will take CT scans and dig...

A high-tech autopsy on a Nile crocodile unlocks secrets behind its hunting prowess....

Enter the harsh and unforgiving Kalahari and follow a lion pride attempt to save their threatened bloodline....

In Austria, he was known as an art collector and idealist. In Mexico, he was a colonialist aggressor responsible for thousands of deaths. And in France, he lost an empire. But who was the real Archduke Maximilian? Join us as we examine the brief and ...

In 1960, a lone assassin planned a deadly attempt on the life of President-Elect John F Kennedy. With a Buick packed with dynamite, nothing was going to stop Kennedy's Suicide Bomber....