Inside this conventionally structured biopic resides an extraordinary story of an extraordinary man. William Wilberforce was the parliamentary spokesman for a group of radicalised young Evangelists (and Quakers), who despised the money politics and corruption of late 18th Century UK politics and who fought for many reformist policies, the most notable of which was the one this film annotates, the abolition of slavery, a process that took years of political skulduggery and the slow passage of find out more...

We follow the life of renowned Cuban author Reinaldo Arenas from his childhood to his torture and eventual exile from Castro's Cuba. A man persecuted not just for the power of his writing but also for his homosexuality. Before Night Falls is an immensely affecting film with a quite simply blinding performance from Javier Bardem as the writer. find out more...

Mexican sisters Maya and Rosa work as cleaners in an LA office block and, after meeting with an impassioned activist, they realise the abuse of the corporate system. They organise a series of protests against their employers and before long are leading a campaign that has caught the city's attention. "Bread and Roses" is based on the real life 'Justice for Janitors' battle and, as you would expect from director Ken Loach, is a powerful and affecting story about the angered voice of the underdog, find out more...

A monumental history of the Cuban Revolution; from the initial meeting in Mexico between Che and Fidel Castro, through the landing by boat of a few desperadoes, the years of the guerrilla campaign, the gradual build-up from a rag-tag band to a fully fledged revolutionary army, the political alliances and decisions to be made, and the eventual victorious battles over the demotivated Batista led government army. find out more...

The second part of Steven Soderbergh's epic tale is about the efforts of the iconic revoluionary to repeat the success of the Cuban liberation struggle in the impoverished state of Bolivia. find out more...

The story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, a group of 1830s Dorset farm labourers who had the effrontery to form a Trade Union to fight against their wages being lowered and who got transported to Australia for their pains. find out more...

A powerful epic from master director Sir Dickie, with stunning lead performances and a cast of seething thousands. This is the story of Steve Biko, murdered by the police, and his white liberal friend's precarious escape. If you still drink Del Monte fruit juice after this you must have cold blood! find out more...

In 1996 the Workers' Educational Association set up classes for sacked Liverpool dock workers in order to help them set down the history of their battle. Channel 4 decided to commission a work on the event and so began a three year process, involving both Jimmy McGovern and Irvine Welsh, in a labour of love by the Dockers that saw their work becoming a film in the summer of 1999. Dockers is a fascinating story, in both the history it tells and its realisation. find out more...

Goodnight And Good Luck takes place during the early days of broadcast journalism in 1950s America, chronicling the real-life conflict between television newsman Edward R Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy, head of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Murrow, his news team and, indeed, CBS itself made a defiant and impassioned stand against McCarthy's increasingly delusional, corrupt and fear-fueled rants and this, George Clooney's second turn in the director's chair, is a beautifully suc find out more...

Brookside mines employ most of the non-unionized population of Harlan County under poor conditions and for little pay. After the death of two workers a union rep arrives and organizes a strike that lasts almost a year and degenerates into extreme violence. From the chaos a woman emerges, miner's wife Ruby Kincaid, who is determined to bring the abusive corporation and its immoral practises to its knees. Based on true events, Harlan County War is a powerful and affecting drama, with an intense c find out more...