Movies like Afrique : Sur la piste des premiers hommes (2024)

Secrets of the Neanderthals (2024)

This documentary delves into the mysteries surrounding the Neanderthals and what their fossil record tells us about their lives and disappearance.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & history

The Revelation of the Pyramids (2010)

For centuries, the Great Pyramids have fascinated Mankind. Patrice Pooyard's The Revelation Of The Pyramids reveals what lies behind the greatest of archaeological mysteries: a message of paramount importance for humanity. From China to Peru, from Egypt to Mexico, through the world's most enigmatic and most beautiful sites, the director has spent 6 years meeting eminent scientific specialists and verifying his discoveries. The result will shake the teaching of history to its very core, and revolutionize Egyptology entirely. A great odyssey along a breathtaking route climaxes in a revelation as unexpected as it is staggering.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & history

Apollo: Missions to the Moon (2019)

National Geographic's riveting effort recounts all 12 crewed missions using only archival footage, photos and audio.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & history

The Untold History Of The United States (2012)

Oliver Stone charts the history of the United States from the Second World War to the present.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & history

9/11: Inside the President's War Room (2021)

Experience the events of September 11, 2001 through the eyes of President Bush and his closest advisors as they personally detail the crucial hours and key decisions from that historic day.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & history

Red Army (2015)

A documentary highlighting the Soviet Union's legendary and enigmatic hockey training culture and world-dominating team through the eyes of the team's Captain Slava Fetisov, following his shift from hockey star and celebrated national hero to political enemy.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & history

Shoah (1985)

Director Claude Lanzmann spent 11 years on this sprawling documentary about the Holocaust, conducting his own interviews and refusing to use a single frame of archival footage. Dividing Holocaust witnesses into three categories – survivors, bystanders, and perpetrators – Lanzmann presents testimonies from survivors of the Chelmno concentration camp, an Auschwitz escapee, and witnesses of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, as well as a chilling report of gas chambers from an SS officer at Treblinka.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & history

In the Shadow of the Moon (2007)

Archival material from the original NASA film footage – much of it seen for the first time – plus interviews with the surviving astronauts, including Jim Lovell, Dave Scott, John Young, Gene Cernan, Mike Collins, Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean, Edgar Mitchell, Charlie Duke and Harrison Schmitt.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & history

Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound (2019)

The history of cinematic sound, told by legendary sound designers and visionary filmmakers.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & history

Titanic: 20 Years Later with James Cameron (2017)

For the 20th anniversary of "Titanic," James Cameron reopens the file on the disaster.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & history

Alone in the Wilderness (2004)

Dick Proenneke retired at age 50 in 1967 and decided to build his own cabin in the wilderness at the base of the Aleutian Peninsula, in what is now Lake Clark National Park. Using color footage he shot himself, Proenneke traces how he came to this remote area, selected a homestead site and built his log cabin completely by himself. The documentary covers his first year in-country, showing his day-to-day activities and the passing of the seasons as he sought to scratch out a living alone in the wilderness.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & history

The Extraordinary Voyage (2011)

An account of the extraordinary life of film pioneer Georges Méliès (1861-1938) and the amazing story of the copy in color of his masterpiece A Trip to the Moon (1902), unexpectedly found in Spain and restored thanks to the heroic efforts of a group of true cinema lovers.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & history

Unknown: Cave of Bones (2023)

Scientists examine underground clues from over 250,000 years ago that raise questions about our early relatives — and what it truly means to be human.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)

Werner Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France, capturing the oldest known pictorial creations of humankind in their astonishing natural setting.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

Pompeii: Secrets of the Dead (2019)

Forensic experts scan Pompeii’s victims to investigate why they didn’t escape the eruption.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

Unknown: The Lost Pyramid (2023)

Egyptian archaeologists dig into history, discovering tombs and artifacts over 4,000 years old as they search for a buried pyramid in this documentary.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

Sidney (2022)

This revealing documentary honors the legendary Sidney Poitier—iconic actor, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. Featuring interviews with Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Halle Berry, and more.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

Titanic: The Digital Resurrection (2025)

Using cutting-edge scanning technology and state-of-the-art CGI, a team of experts creates the first high-resolution 3D digital twin of the Titanic wreck. Through a groundbreaking immersive investigation, they uncover the ship’s final moments, shedding light on the acts of heroism and cowardice aboard—and revealing the true story behind the sinking of the “unsinkable” ship.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

Looking for Richard (1996)

Al Pacino's deeply-felt rumination on Shakespeare's significance and relevance to the modern world through interviews and an in-depth analysis of "Richard III."

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

The Captains (2011)

The Captains is a feature-length documentary film written and directed by William Shatner. The film follows Shatner as he interviews the other actors who have portrayed starship captains in the Star Trek franchise.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

Les Derniers Secrets de l'humanité (2023)

This series incorporates the latest animated 3D films to explore recent discoveries about human history, especially in Asia.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary & history

Préhistoire en Asie : L'Aventure humaine (2024)

In the docudrama "Les Derniers Secrets de l'humanité" (The Last Secrets of Humanity), author and director Jacques Malaterre and paleoanthropologist and professor at the Collège de France Yves Coppens reveal the incredible adventure of Asian prehistory. How does science help to reconstruct these bygone times in images? Thanks to discoveries made at excavation sites and in analysis and genetics laboratories, researchers are now revealing this distant, vanished past.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary & history

Ice Age America (2023)

From the far north of Canada to the southern tip of Chile, through the southern United States, central Mexico and the Brazilian Mato Grosso, new concordant but still controversial archaeological discoveries have brought a new paradigm to the archaeology of American prehistory: the appearance of the first humans on the continent could date back to nearly 30,000 years before our era, that is to say, about 15,000 years earlier than the commonly accepted and taught thesis. Although there were a few mavericks in the past who disputed the scenario according to which the first ancestors of Americans arrived on foot through the Bering Strait 16,000 years ago, they were long kept out of the scientific community.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary & history

The Mystery of Chaco Canyon (1999)

Chaco Canyon, located in northwest New Mexico, is perhaps the only site in the world constructed in an elaborate pattern that mirrors the yearly cycle of the sun and the 19-year cycle of the moon. How did an ancient civilization, with no known written language, arrange its buildings into a virtual celestial calendar, spanning an area roughly the size of Ireland?

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary & history

Treasures of the Anglo-Saxons (2010)

In this hour-long documentary, Oxford academic Janina Ramirez tours the country in search of Anglo-Saxon art treasures. Her basic thesis - and it is a plausible one - is that we should not look upon their era as a "dark age" as compared, for example, to Roman times, but rather celebrate it as an age in which creativity flowered, especially in terms of artistic design as well as symbolism. She shows plenty of good examples, ranging from the Franks Casket to the Staffordshire Hoard, and the Lindisfarne Gospels.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary & history

Druids: The Mystery of Celtic Priests (2021)

Druids have existed far longer than hitherto assumed, since the 4th century BC. Their traces are found all over middle Europe: from the northern Balkans to Ireland. Their cultural achievements were equal in almost every way to those of the Romans and Greeks: They could read and write and spoke Greek and Latin - for centuries, they were the powerful elite of their culture. Only one single Druid is known by name to history: Diviciacos - an aristocrat of the Aedui and personal friend of Julius Caesar. Diviciacos was a politician, a judge and a diplomat, but he lived at a time when the Celtic lands of Gaul were conquered by the Romans. Greek and Roman contemporaries distrusted the actions of this forbear of the famous comic book druid Getafix: They imagined him in bloody rituals in somber woods.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary & history

Sapiens ou la naissance de l’art (2022)

We immerse ourselves in a quest for the origins of Art, among the very first modern humans. The prehistoric works, of incredible richness and diversity, tell a story of beauty and the species. Researchers, including archaeologists, but also art historians, philosophers and contemporary artists, enrich our view of prehistoric art with their different, but also complementary, points of view on the subject.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary & history

Le monde de Khéops (2018)

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary & history

Narbonne: The Second Rome (2021)

More than 2.000 years ago, Narbonne in today's Département Aude was the capital of a huge Roman province in Southern Gaul - Gallia Narbonensis. It was the second most important Roman port in the western Mediterranean and the town was one of the most important commercial hubs between the colonies and the Roman Empire, thus the town could boast a size rivaling that of the city that had established it: Rome itself. Paradoxically, the town that distinguished itself for its impressive architecture, today shows no more signs of it: neither temples, arenas, nor theaters. Far less significant Roman towns like Nîmes or Arles are full of ancient sites. Narbonne today is a tranquil town in Occitania

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary & history

Braddock's Road: A Legacy Unearthed (2022)

Built in 1755 at the height of the French and Indian War, Braddock's Road was one of the nation's most infamous military roads. Traces of this historic route, in western Maryland, still remain, buried beneath soil and brush, and a team of archaeologists is on the hunt.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary