AllMovie

Homo Sapiens 1900 documents the birth and rise of the eugenics movement in the early 20th century, as well as its decline after World War II. When eugenics first came to prominence, its supporters encouraged better exercise, diet, and health care; some also embraced nudism as an alternative lifestyle, rejecting the restrictive women's clothing common to that era. However, eugenics had a darker side, and leaders in Nazi Germany (and Stalinist Russia) embraced eugenic theories to justify "weeding out" those whom they considered undesirable members of society; it thus gained an association with fascism that led to its doom in the scientific community. Director Peter Cohen also directed The Architecture of Doom, a documentary about architecture in Germany during the Nazi era.