The Fight for Yemen (2015) — Yemen

This one-hour documentary by PBS Frontline premiered on television in April 2015, which means that it's now almost a year old.  That's an eternity in Middle East politics, but it's still worth watching as an overview of the civil war in that country.  For many years the Sunni government of Abd Hadi, with support from the United States and Saudi Arabia, waged wars against the Shia Houthis in the north of the country, who are rabidly anti-American and anti-Israel, loyal to the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and supported by Iran.  In March 2015, Houthis gained control of the capital of Aden and ousted Hadi, who fled the country to Saudi Arabia.  Also fighting against the Houthis and the government are both Al Qaedea and ISIS, independent Sunni tribal militias, and even southern secessionists.  In an important footnote that may or may not count for much, long after this film, in October 2015, the exiled Yemeni government agreed to peace talks with the Houthi rebels.  Watching this documentary film makes you appreciate just how complex and violent Middle East politics are.