The Last Emperor

This excellent movie tells the story of China's last emperor, Pu Yi, from his own fascinating and rarely told point of view. This is the only place that I've found the story told from inside the Forbidden City.
We see Pu Yi as he grows up with the idea that he is god on earth, and how he must adapt to the responsibilities that also come with being a ruler.
The movie heats up when his whole world, indeed all of China, is thrown into revolution. Pu Yi finally learns of life outside of the palace in the hardest way. He is forced to abdicate.
Quite apart from his decadent lifestyle in the first have of the movie, we now watch his decline, from being exploited by the invading Japanese into a puppet ruler, to a Chinese jail where he is forced to prove his allegiance to the new rule. Finally he is reduced to what could only be acceptable to red China, an ordinary peasant, obscure and silent about his past.
The film is more entertaining that historical, and rightly so. It would be remiss not to focus on the emotions involved in such an exciting, and sometimes jarring, life journey like that of Pu Yi's.

Philo. T. Farnsworth

Before watching the documentary I'd never thought much about Philo T. Farnsworth. I had known that he was the inventor of television, but I figured the only use for that nugget would be in case I ever get on Jeopardy. I was really surprised by what i learned watching the show.
Philo was a smalltown guy who happened to be a genius. He realized his dream rather early and bent all his energy toward making it a reality. The show did a good job of showing how this project was really his entire life - there was a good story of him leaving his wife on his wedding night just to go and mess with his television. It made what happened next all the more tragic.
After scrounging for investors and working himself into the ground trying to complete it on time...Philo finally got the machine to work. And then came the patent wars. The large company he was working with, RCA, decided it would be much easier on their bottom line to not have to pay this smalltown tinkerer for his great invention. It didn't much matter whether he was white or educated or not so long as money was involved. They tried to take control of the idea from Farnsworth and it wasn't until a great legal battle and most of his resources were spent that he was able to gain a patent.
Finally, commercial television was banned. It was decided that the technology should only be used for military purposes, and soon Farnsworth's patent was up. In the end, he had turned to alcohol to ebb the stress and finally died, a much changed man. This film was a great testament to the struggle of the little guy, and the hard truth of just how much power the gatekeepers have.