History backdrop

History movies

Period pieces that transport you back in time, recreating the events and figures that shaped our past.

Subgenres include: Historical Event, Biographical History, Political History.

Pressure

31. Pressure

Thriller History War
Upcoming

20261h 30min

Director: Anthony Maras

In the tense 72 hours before D-Day, and the fate of the free world hanging in the balance, General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Captain James Stagg face an impossible choice—launch the largest and most dangerous seaborne invasion in history or risk losing the war altogether.


W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel With a Cause

32. W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel With a Cause

Documentary History
Upcoming

2026

Director: Rita Coburn Whack

Explore the life and legacy of notable Black scholar and civil rights pioneer W.E.B. Du Bois. From his birth, just five years after the Emancipation Proclamation; to his death, on the eve of the March on Washington in 1963, his legacy as an activist continues to resonate today.


As 2026 heralds the start of technopop group Perfume's 'cold sleep' hiatus, this documentary traces the first 25 years of their career, and is expected to go behind the scenes of their latest album, Nebula Romance, and their latest tours.


Suffs

34. Suffs

Music History
Upcoming

2026

Director: Leigh Silverman

Created by Tony Award winner Shaina Taub, this musical recorded from Broadway tells the story of the American suffragist movement and the remarkable friendships, heartbreak, and action that brought women together—or, in some cases, tore them apart. The ensemble cast features Taub as Alice Paul, Tony winner Nikki M. James as Ida B. Wells, Tony nominee Jenn Colella as Carrie Chapman Catt, and Grace McLean as President Woodrow Wilson.


Chicago Stories: The Birth of Gospel

35. Chicago Stories: The Birth of Gospel

Documentary History
Upcoming

202657min

Director: Stacy Robinson

This episode of Chicago Stories traces the birth and growth of gospel music in Chicago in the 1930s. The story follows "The Father of Gospel", Thomas A. Dorsey, who wrote one of gospel’s early hits while coping with his grief over the death of his wife and child. It explores the roots of gospel from southern spirituals during slavery, through gospel’s early years.


Artemis: A Horizon Special

36. Artemis: A Horizon Special

Documentary History
Upcoming

202652min

Director: Tim Lambert

### Because of technical problems, the original broadcast date, intended as a companion program to the current mission, was postponed until at least April 2026. ### NASA’s Artemis II will mark the first crewed Moon mission since Apollo 17, set for early 2026. Four astronauts—Reid Wiseman, Victor J. Glover, Jeremy Hansen, and Christina Hammock Koch—will embark on a ten-day journey beyond Earth orbit, circling the Moon before returning home, reaching farther into space than humans have in over 50 years. Using the Space Launch System and Orion capsule, the mission tests every system for future lunar landings and a lasting human presence. This documentary provides exclusive, behind-the-scenes access—from astronaut training in Texas to rocket assembly in Florida—revealing the people, technology, and challenges behind this historic endeavor. Artemis II is a first step toward Artemis III and humanity’s next frontier: Mars.


The First Gokturk: Prologue

37. The First Gokturk: Prologue

Action Adventure Drama History War
Upcoming

20261h 40min

Director: Alper Çağlar

This rebellion, which began with Bumin, Istemi, and his mentor Alagar, will write the epic of a people who broke their chains and re-emerged on the stage of history.


Global Project

38. Global Project

Drama History
Upcoming

20262h 21min

Director: Ivo M. Ferreira

Lisbon, 1980s, Rosa, a woman joins a group of young people disappointed at the post-Revolutionary Portugal. Part of a far-left clandestine armed organization, they share political views and a daily life that makes them grow closer. But their idealism collides head-on with a changing country and a large-scale police operation targeting them. Fleeing on a road with no return and no way forward, their existence is made up of bank robberies, bombs, friendships, prison, love and death. Trapped, their only choice is to keep on the run until they get arrested or killed.


Into the Blue

39. Into the Blue

Drama History Comedy
Upcoming

2026

Director: Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar

Philippe Croizon, a 26-year-old metal worker at Fonderies du Poitou, had no idea that his life would be turned upside down on March 5, 1994. On that day, the young father received three 20,000 V shocks while trying to dismantle the TV antenna hanging from the chimney of his house in Saint-Rémy-sur-Creuse. After two months in a coma, he woke up with all four limbs amputated. Thus began what he calls his "second life", which has enabled him to overcome his disability, meet his partner, Suzanna Sabino, and achieve some incredible sporting feats, including a swim across the English Channel in less than 24 hours.


In the 14th-century, as the Silk Road crumbles and rival factions tear the land apart, fearless warrior Timur emerges from exile. Stripped of everything, he fights to unite the fractured kingdoms, using strategy and sheer will to carve an empire from chaos. Undefeated in battle and widely regarded as one of history’s greatest military leaders and tacticians, not to mention one of its most brutal, Timur would found the Timurid Empire, which ruled over modern-day Afghanistan, Iran and Central Asia.