A Time There Was: Stories from the Last Days of Kenya Colony

A look at the Mau Mau Rebellion of the 1950s as experienced by filmmaker Donald McWilliams.

Cast

Achhroo Ram Kapila

as Self

Salome Kinyanjui

as Creation Myth Performer

Donald McWilliams

as Self / Narrator

Mwaria Njuma

as Self

John Nottingham

as Self

Reviews

Similar Movies

Saving Giraffes: The Long Journey Home

In Kenya's Rift Valley province, giraffes have been reintroduced as part of a project, but animal rights activists, veterinarians and community representatives have to help the small herd when problems arise.

⭐ 6.7🤍

The Body of Emmett Till

Emmett Till was brutally killed in the summer of 1955. At his funeral, his mother forced the world to reckon with the brutality of American racism. This short documentary was commissioned by "Time" magazine for their series "100 Photos" about the most influential photographs of all time.

⭐ 0.0🤍

Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989

Archival film maestro Göran Hugo Olsson has assembled—from a vast catalogue of footage in the vaults of Sweden’s national television service SVT—accounts of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as witnessed and represented by Swedish journalists. Stories of the beginning of the Israeli state interwoven with the Palestinian struggle for independence. News coverage with Yasser Arafat and interviews with Israeli foreign minister Abba Eban during a visit to Sweden unseen since first broadcast. From the tenth anniversary of Israel’s founding to the First Intifada, perspectives and encounters with statesmen, civilians, revolutionaries, and intellectuals tell the story from myriad angles of an evolving media landscape, revivifying a history of the ongoing conflict.

⭐ 9.0🤍

TINA

Tina Turner overcame impossible odds to become one of the first female Black artists to reach a mainstream international audience. Her road to superstardom is an undeniable story of triumph over adversity. It’s the ultimate story of survival – and an inspirational story of our times.

⭐ 7.7🤍

The Trials of Alger Hiss

Documentary by lifelong friend that supports the innocence of Alger Hiss (convicted in January 1950 on two counts of espionage-related perjury)

⭐ 2.7🤍

Hollywood Rated 'R'

A roller-coaster ride through the history of American exploitation films, ranging from Roger Corman's sci-fi and horror monster movies, 1960s beach movies, H.G. Lewis' gore-fests, William Castle's schlocky theatrical gimmicks, to 1970s blaxploitation, pre-"Deep Throat" sex tease films, Russ Meyer's bosom-heavy masterpieces, etc, etc. Over 25 interviews of the greatest purveyors of weird films of all kind from 1940 to 1975. Illustrated with dozens of films clips, trailers, extra footage, etc. This documentary as a shorter companion piece focusing on exploitation king David F. Friedman.

⭐ 4.8🤍

Elsa the Lioness

First transmitted in 1961, David Attenborough travels to Meru National Park in Kenya to visit Joy and George Adamson and meet Elsa the lioness and her cubs shortly before Elsa's death.

⭐ 0.0🤍

Marilyn Monroe

Born Norma Jean Baker, actress Marilyn Monroe would become one of the most iconic and desirable women in the world. From her humble beginnings, to her USO performances, to her now-famous pin-up photographs and award-winning acting roles, Marilyn made her mark as the most beautiful blonde bombshell of her day. However, behind her beauty, Marilyn suffered a tragic private life.

⭐ 10.0🤍

I Invite You to My Execution

As Russian writer Boris Pasternak (1890-1960) thinks it is impossible that his novel Doctor Zhivago is published in the Soviet Union, because it supposedly shows a critical view of the October Revolution, he decides to smuggle several copies of the manuscript out of the country. It is first published in 1957 in Italia and the author receives the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1958, which has consequences.

⭐ 7.0🤍

In the Lost City

The city of Madrid as it appears in the Spanish films of the 1950s. A small tribute to all those who filmed and portrayed Madrid despite the dictatorship, censorship and the critical situation of industry and society.

⭐ 4.0🤍

Gene Tierney: A Forgotten Star

Martin Scorsese is among those paying tribute to Gene Tierney, the Academy Award-nominated American actress who was a leading lady in Hollywood throughout the 1940s and '50s.

⭐ 6.4🤍

Lion: The Rise and Fall of the Marsh Pride

Documented in television documentaries for over 40 years by the BBC and other broadcasters around the world, the Marsh Pride is the most filmed pride of lions on Earth. In this film, the Marsh Pride battle for survival in Kenya's famous Maasai Mara Reserve, which has become a magnet for tourists, many of them keen to see the pride for themselves. A tale of shifting loyalties, bloody takeovers and sheer resilience, the lions’ story is told by those who filmed them, tried to protect them and lived alongside them, as well as some who ultimately wanted them dead.

⭐ 8.7🤍

Frères de la forêt, des résistants face à l'URSS

Between 1944 and 1953, 170,000 Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians put up fierce resistance to the Soviet invasion, hiding deep in the vast Baltic forests. Driven by a dream of freedom, they defied a ruthless empire with few resources but unwavering determination. Through previously unseen archives and the poignant accounts of the last survivors, this documentary reveals their clandestine struggle, their heroic sacrifices, and their legacy, timeless symbols of a desperate fight to escape the Soviet stranglehold and preserve the flame of independence.

⭐ 9.0🤍

Finding Hope Home

The story of Pastor Lucy and her husband Duncan Ndegwa, who began feeding and sheltering children from the streets of Nairobi, Kenya in 1996.

⭐ 5.3🤍

The Deal

Stop-motion animation on the arranging of marriages in 1950/60s set in the Eastern-Polish borderland. The script is based on a part of Mikołaj Smyk's diary, the director's grandfather. The biographical objects used in the animation, such as an authentic headscarf, Polish and Russian books, the copy of Mikołaj Smyk's diary and photographs help situate the story in its original environment.

⭐ 0.0🤍

La Rényon lontan

A documentary about 1950's Reunion island.

⭐ 0.0🤍

Ulricehamn, the town by Åsunden

A film about how people lived and worked in the Swedish town Ulricehamn in the late 1950s.

⭐ 0.0🤍

Coup 53

Tehran, Iran, August 19, 1953. A group of Iranian conspirators who, with the approval of the deposed tyrant Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, have conspired with agents of the British MI6 and the US CIA, manage to put an end to the democratic government led by Mohammad Mosaddegh, a dramatic event that will begin the tragic era of coups d'état that, orchestrated by the CIA, will take place, over the following decades, in dozens of countries around the world.

⭐ 8.0🤍