Movies: The Smithsonian Network

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

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

Even 2,000 years after his death, General Hannibal's battle strategies are still studied today. But of all his military feats, perhaps his greatest was leading his massive Carthaginian army of men and three-dozen elephants across the Alps and into th...

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...

Smithsonian Institution scientists race against time to save endangered frogs from a deadly fungus that is ravaging amphibians worldwide....

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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....

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

Ascension Island, a remote Mid-Atlantic outpost famous for its big game fishing, is under siege. Tiger sharks, hammerheads, even great whites, lured here every year by the bountiful reefs, are displaying aggressive behavior, culminating in the island...

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...

The uncommon sight of polar bears wandering a colorful landscape during an iceless summer in Hudson Bay, Canada....

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....

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 ...

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...

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...

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....

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....

The history of the people and the planes that first broke the speed barrier in 1947 and the impact it has had on aviation and how we fly today....

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

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...