Based on Actual Events
by adeepblucey | created - 22 Sep 2015 | updated - 04 Jun 2019 | PublicMust see documentaries or film based on actual events.
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1. Baraka (1992)
Not Rated | 96 min | Documentary
A collection of expertly photographed scenes of human life and religion.
Director: Ron Fricke | Star: Patrick Disanto
Votes: 40,955 | Gross: $1.33M
2. 4 Little Girls (1997)
TV-14 | 102 min | Documentary, History
A documentary of the notorious racial terrorist bombing of an African American church during the Civil Rights Movement.
Director: Spike Lee | Stars: Maxine McNair, Walter Cronkite, Chris McNair, Fred Lee Shuttlesworth
Votes: 3,575 | Gross: $0.13M
3. When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006–2007)
TV-MA | 51 min | Documentary
An examination of the U.S. government's response to Hurricane Katrina.
Stars: Darleen Asevedo, Jay Asevedo, Shelton Shakespear Alexander, Lee Arnold
Votes: 4,821
4. Hidden Colors (2011)
Documentary
Hidden Colors is a documentary about the real and untold history of people of color around the globe. This film discusses some of the reasons the contributions of African and aboriginal ... See full summary »
Director: Tariq Nasheed | Stars: Sabir Bey, Booker T. Coleman, Umar Johnson, Tariq Nasheed
Votes: 909
5. Hidden Colors 2: The Triumph of Melanin (2012)
152 min | Documentary
"Hidden Colors 2" is the follow-up to the critically acclaimed 2011 documentary about the untold history of people of African and aboriginal descent. This installment of goes into topics ... See full summary »
Director: Tariq Nasheed | Stars: Michelle Alexander, Claud Anderson, Tony Browder, Booker T. Coleman
Votes: 501
6. Hidden Colors 3: The Rules of Racism (2014)
144 min | Documentary
Hidden Colors 3: The Rules Of Racism is the third installment of the critically acclaimed documentary series Hidden Colors 1 and 2. This installment of Hidden Colors tackles the taboo ... See full summary »
Director: Tariq Nasheed | Stars: Shahrazad Ali, Carol Anderson, David Banner, Joy Degruy
Votes: 414
7. Apocalypto (2006)
R | 139 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
As the Mayan kingdom faces its decline, a young man is taken on a perilous journey to a world ruled by fear and oppression.
Director: Mel Gibson | Stars: Gerardo Taracena, Raoul Max Trujillo, Dalia Hernández, Rudy Youngblood
Votes: 330,948 | Gross: $50.87M
8. JFK (1991)
R | 189 min | Drama, History, Thriller
New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison discovers there's more to the Kennedy assassination than the official story.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau
Votes: 169,794 | Gross: $70.41M
9. The Birth of a Nation (1915)
TV-PG | 195 min | Drama, History, War
The Stoneman family finds its friendship with the Camerons affected by the Civil War, both fighting in opposite armies. The development of the war in their lives plays through to Lincoln's assassination and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan.
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall, Miriam Cooper
Votes: 26,321 | Gross: $10.00M
10. Ali (2001)
R | 157 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
A biography of sports legend Muhammad Ali, focusing on his triumphs and controversies between 1964 and 1974.
Director: Michael Mann | Stars: Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Jon Voight, Mario Van Peebles
Votes: 105,505 | Gross: $58.20M
11. Malcolm X (1992)
PG-13 | 202 min | Biography, Drama, History
Biographical epic of the controversial and influential Black Nationalist leader, from his early life and career as a small-time gangster, to his ministry as a member of the Nation of Islam and his eventual assassination.
Director: Spike Lee | Stars: Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, Delroy Lindo, Spike Lee
Votes: 101,956 | Gross: $48.17M
12. The Tuskegee Airmen (2002 TV Movie)
60 min | Documentary
A documentary filmed at Moton Field in Tuskegee Alabama, home to the airmen of the 99th Fighter Squadron. They were the first African American fighter pilots trained to fly in the U.S. Army... See full summary »
Directors: W. Drew Perkins, Bill Reifenberger | Stars: Xzavier Kristoff, Ossie Davis
Votes: 67
13. The Tuskegee Airmen (1995 TV Movie)
PG-13 | 106 min | Drama, History, War
The true story of how a group of African-American pilots overcame racist opposition to become one of the finest United States fighter groups in World War II.
Director: Robert Markowitz | Stars: Laurence Fishburne, Allen Payne, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Courtney B. Vance
Votes: 7,074
14. Something the Lord Made (2004 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 110 min | Biography, Drama
A dramatization of the relationship between heart surgery pioneers Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas.
Director: Joseph Sargent | Stars: Cliff McMullen, Yasiin Bey, Luray Cooper, Alan Rickman
Votes: 15,328
15. The Passion of the Christ (2004)
R | 127 min | Drama
Depicts the final twelve hours in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, on the day of his crucifixion in Jerusalem.
Director: Mel Gibson | Stars: Jim Caviezel, Monica Bellucci, Maia Morgenstern, Christo Jivkov
Votes: 250,874 | Gross: $370.78M
16. Ray (I) (2004)
PG-13 | 152 min | Biography, Drama, Music
The story of the life and career of the legendary rhythm and blues musician Ray Charles, from his humble beginnings in the South, where he went blind at age seven, to his meteoric rise to stardom during the 1950s and 1960s.
Director: Taylor Hackford | Stars: Jamie Foxx, Regina King, Kerry Washington, Clifton Powell
Votes: 157,313 | Gross: $75.33M
17. Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986)
R | 97 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
After severely burning himself in a drug incident, a comedian has a near death experience in which he reviews his life.
Director: Richard Pryor | Stars: Richard Pryor, Debbie Allen, Art Evans, Fay Hauser
Votes: 1,994 | Gross: $18.03M
18. Inside Man (2006)
R | 129 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A police detective, a bank robber, and a high-power broker enter high-stakes negotiations after the criminal's brilliant heist spirals into a hostage situation.
Director: Spike Lee | Stars: Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer
Votes: 397,409 | Gross: $88.51M
19. Amistad (1997)
R | 155 min | Biography, Drama, History
In 1839, the revolt of Mende captives aboard a Spanish owned ship causes a major controversy in the United States when the ship is captured off the coast of Long Island. The courts must decide whether the Mende are slaves or legally free.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Djimon Hounsou, Matthew McConaughey, Anthony Hopkins, Morgan Freeman
Votes: 82,702 | Gross: $44.18M
20.
Borgia (2011–2014)
Episode:
1492
(2011)
TV-MA | 58 min | Biography, Drama, History
After a heated argument with della Rovere, Rodrigo convinces Pope Innocent to name King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, "Most Catholic Majesty". The Medici give a bankrupted Pope ... See full summary »
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel | Stars: John Doman, Mark Ryder, Stanley Weber, Isolda Dychauk
Votes: 240
21. America Before Columbus (2009 TV Movie)
90 min | Documentary, Adventure, Fantasy
The Old and New World in 1491, and the biological conquest after their collision.
Director: Cristina Trebbi | Stars: Nathan English, Victor Garber, Andrew C. Isenberg, K.J. Linhein
Votes: 233
22. 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992)
PG-13 | 154 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
Christopher Columbus' discovery of the Americas and the effect this has on the indigenous people.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Gérard Depardieu, Armand Assante, Sigourney Weaver, Loren Dean
Votes: 32,780 | Gross: $7.19M
23. Alien Origins by Lloyd Pye (2009)
Not Rated | 140 min | Documentary
Lloyd Pye is at the forefront of research into human origins from alien sources. His Intervention Theory proposes that human DNA is not of this world.
Director: O.H. Krill | Star: Lloyd Pye
Votes: 14
24. Roots (1977)
TV-14 | 74 min | Biography, Drama, History
A dramatization of author Alex Haley's family line from ancestor Kunta Kinte's enslavement to his descendants' liberation.
Stars: LeVar Burton, Robert Reed, John Amos, Louis Gossett Jr.
Votes: 18,845
25. Miss Evers' Boys (1997 TV Movie)
PG | 118 min | Drama, War
The true story of the U.S. Government's 1932 Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, in which a group of black test subjects were allowed to die, despite a cure having been developed.
Director: Joseph Sargent | Stars: Alfre Woodard, Laurence Fishburne, Craig Sheffer, Joe Morton
Votes: 1,409
26. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 110 min | Drama, History
Story of a black woman in the South who was born into slavery in the 1850s and lives to become a part of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
Director: John Korty | Stars: Cicely Tyson, Eric Brown, Richard Dysart, Joel Fluellen
Votes: 2,492
27. Pride (2007)
PG | 104 min | Drama, Sport
The determined Jim Ellis starts a swim team for troubled teens at the Philadelphia Department of Recreation.
Director: Sunu Gonera | Stars: Terrence Howard, Bernie Mac, Kimberly Elise, Tom Arnold
Votes: 6,894 | Gross: $7.04M
28. Captain Phillips (2013)
PG-13 | 134 min | Action, Biography, Crime
The true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the U.S.-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years.
Director: Paul Greengrass | Stars: Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman, Catherine Keener
Votes: 492,130 | Gross: $107.10M
29. 12 Years a Slave (2013)
R | 134 min | Biography, Drama, History
In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free Black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.
Director: Steve McQueen | Stars: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Kenneth Williams, Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt
Votes: 740,674 | Gross: $56.67M
30. Iverson (2014)
Not Rated | 106 min | Documentary, Biography, Sport
Iverson is the ultimate legacy of NBA legend Allen Iverson, who rose from a childhood of crushing poverty in Hampton, Virginia, to become an 11-time NBA All-Star and universally recognized ... See full summary »
Director: Zatella Beatty | Stars: Allen Iverson, Tom Brokaw, Larry Brown, Dwyane Wade
Votes: 4,094
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