Witness History Folgen

In 1993, film director Mathieu Kassovitz started work on what would become a cult cinema classic, La Haine. La Haine would follow three friends from a poor immigrant neighbourhood in the Paris suburbs 24 hours after a riot. The film was released in 1995 to huge critical acclaim and Mathieu won best director at the Cannes Film Festival. It was heavily critical of policing in France and it caught the attention of high profile politicians in the country, including then Prime Minister, Alain Juppé. Thirty years on, Mathieu has been sharing his memories of that time with Matt Pintus. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.(Photo: Vincent Cassel "Vinz" in La Haine. Credit: Studio Canal+)

In December 1948, a family of Hungarian refugees moved into the world's first home to be heated entirely by solar power.What made the Dover Sun House, in Massachusetts, United States, even more special was that it had been created by three women at a time when men dominated the fields of science and engineering.Heiress Amelia Peabody funded it, architect Eleanor Raymond designed it and biophysicist Maria Telkes created the heating system. Andrew Nemethy, who grew up in the house, tells Vicky Farncombe how it felt to live in an "elongated cheese wedge".This programme has been updated since its original broadcast. It was edited on 6 December 2023.(Photo: The Dover Sun House. Credit: Getty Images)

After Tanzania, then called Tanganyika, became independent from Britain in 1961, the country's leader, Julius Nyerere, made Swahili the national language to unite its people.Walter Bgoya tells Ben Henderson about his conversations with Nyerere and how the policy changed Tanzania.(Photo: Julius Nyerere. Credit: Keystone via Getty Images)