Shakespeare Documentaries

Michael Wood tours the English locations important to William Shakespeare as he explores the playwright and poet's life and work.

RWANDA & JULIET is a feature-length documentary that follows ivy league professor emeritus Andrew Garrod to Kigali, Rwanda, where he mounts Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet with Rwandan college students from both Hutu and Tutsi backgrounds. Twenty years have passed since the 1994 Genocide that left 1,000,000 Tutsis dead. Predominantly orphans, the cast of young Rwandans, led by a stunning, strong headed Juliet, tackle their country's past and their own future as hopes, expectations, pasts, personalities and cultures collide as opening night approaches.

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."

Obsessed by Hamlet's tragic character since adolescence, writer-producer Stanislav Semerdjiev ventures to write and stage a new post-modern monological version of the famous plot at the peak (8000 feet) of the most mysterious Bulgarian mountain. For the implementation of his crazy dream he gathers a multinational team of 70 and secures the rights for music from the cult composer Mark Snow (X-Files, Millenium, Smallville). After nine years of ordeals the desperate bunch surprisedly finds out that the "mission impossible" has actually lead them to a new understanding of the meaning of life, both similar and opposite to that of Hamlet.

An inspiring documentary that follows a diverse group of California high school students as they compete in a Shakespeare Festival unlike any you have ever seen. This unique program counts many of Hollywood's biggest stars among its alumni and alumnae.

Twenty male inmates in a Kentucky prison form an unlikely Shakespearean acting troupe.

Claire Bloom has performed leading and important supporting roles in numerous plays by William Shakespeare, starting while she was still in her teens. In this documentary, she discusses her experiences and performs monologues and soliloquies from 'Romeo and Juliet,' 'The Merchant of Venice,' 'As You Like It,' 'Richard III,' 'Hamlet,' and 'King Henry the Eighth,' among others. Film and television footage from her earlier performances is also featured, as is a brief clip of Sarah Bernhardt as Hamlet in a 1900 silent film version of that play.

A unique, behind-the-scenes look at Shakespeare's great play. In 1988, rising star Kenneth Branagh played the Prince of Denmark for the first time. His guide through four weeks of rehearsals at England's Birmingham Repertory Theatre: famed actor Derek Jacobi, "the best Hamlet of his generation" (New York Times). Watch what happens from the first dress rehearsal to the tension-filled opening night. Narrated by Patrick Stewart.

Experimental feature on the subject of the director's mental illness struggle in High School -- mixing animation, still photos, and childhood MiniDV home movies.. All inter-cut to a surrealist rendition of Shakespeare's "Titus Andronicus"

The story behind the translation and performance of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" in Klingon.

Documentary focuses on investigating mysteries of burial grounds of William Shakespeare led by noted historian Dr. Helen Castor.