“In The Absence”, Award-Winning Film About The Sinking Of A South Korean Ferry
When the passenger ferry MV Sewol sank off the coast of South Korea in 2014, over three hundred people lost their lives, most of them schoolchildren. Years later, the victims’ families and survivors are still demanding justice from national authorities.
“Glacier Exit”, A Portrait Of Rapid Environmental Change
Filmmaker Raphael Rogers stood on the ice dunes of the glaciers of Alaska in the midst of a snowy winter. The silence and majesty of the mountains surrounding us, the bluest ice we had ever seen and the steady rush of ice turned to water.
The Italian Village That Celebrates Ugliness
Celebrating “ugliness” for the past 140 years, Piobbico has become renowned for being the world capital of ugly people. Now, its utopian idea has blossomed into a worldwide movement. Today, the so-called “World Association of Ugly People” counts more than 30,000 members across 25 global chapters.
“Whiteout”, Single Take Thriller Short Film by Lance Edmands
Whiteout from writer/director Lance Edmands is a tense, well-crafted single-take short film. When a young couple encounters a strange old man wandering in a snowstorm, they must decide if he needs help, or if he has more sinister intentions.
How To Optimize Your Life
You’ve only got — on average — 78.53 years on this planet, total. And you’re likely already spending a precious 5 hours each day on email, not to mention the time spent waiting in line or stuck in transit. But what if there were ways to make more time out of time?
Hotel Chevalier: A Short Film By Wes Anderson
Natalie Portman and Jason Schwartzman are lovers who reunite in a Paris hotel room, in Wes Anderson’s 2007 prelude to The Darjeeling Limited. All cunningly soundtracked by Peter Sarstedt’s 1969 hit, “Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?”
How Do Airlines Price Tickets?
To the average buyer, airline ticket prices appear to fluctuate without reason. But behind the process is actually the science of dynamic pricing, which has less to do with cost and more to do with artificial intelligence.
“Black”, A Sci-Fi Short Film By Tomek Popakul
A pair of astronauts trapped on an orbital space station because of nuclear war that ran very fast on the earth below. They lost contact with earth, all attempts to make a connection with base or with anybody failed without answer.
The Oldest Tattooing Family In The World
Wasim Razzouk is a tattoo artist in Jerusalem’s Old City. Ink runs deep in his family. The Razzouks have been tattooing visitors to the Holy Land for 500 years (and in Egypt for 200 years before that). Christian pilgrims flock to Razzouk Tattoo to get a cross tattoo based on one of the designs on wooden stamps that have been in the Razzouk family for generations.
The Spider’s Web: Britain’s Second Empire
Michael Oswald’s film The Spider’s Web reveals how at the demise of empire, City of London financial interests created a web of secrecy jurisdictions that captured wealth from across the globe and hid it in a web of offshore islands. Today, up to half of global offshore wealth is hidden in British jurisdictions.
Ramzan Kadyrov: Brutal Tyrant, Instagram Star
Ramzan Kadyrov is the leader of Chechnya. He is a Putin proxy that has been in charge of the Russian republic since 2007. Despite revelations about kidnapping, torturing and killing gay people, Kadyrov has continued to maintain an upbeat profile on Instagram, where he is a prolific user.
Toyota To Build Prototype City Of The Future
Toyota revealed plans to build a prototype “city” of the future on a 175-acre site at the base of Mt. Fuji in Japan. Called the Woven City, it will be a fully connected ecosystem powered by hydrogen fuel cells.
War Propaganda: How To Get A Country To Go To War
The war propaganda function in the United States is finely tuned. It’s sophisticated and most of all it blends into the media terrain. While the names of the countries changed, and of course each circumstance was different, there were some parallels that cried out for examination.
What It’s Like To Grow Up In An Israeli Settlement
A self-described liberal from cosmopolitan Tel Aviv, Iris Zaki wanted to get behind the politics of Israel’s controversial settlements in the occupied territories — so she moved there, temporarily, setting up an improvised cafe where she could chat with settlers from her own generation.
The Story Of A German Conman
It was one of the biggest white-collar scams in German history. In the 1990s, Manfred Schmider and his company FlowTex took investors for more than two billion euros. Today, the conman himself can’t believe how easy it was to get away with a major fraud.
A Dictator’s Birthday Present To Himself
In 1968, Albanian Communist dictator Enver Hoxha did what any leader espousing equality among all people would naturally do. He demanded his name be written into a mountain. It was a birthday present that he was giving himself.
Human Population Through Time
It took 200,000 years for our human population to reach 1 billion—and only 200 years to reach 7 billion. But growth has begun slowing, as women have fewer babies on average. When will our global population peak? And how can we minimize our impact on Earth’s resources, even as we approach 11 billion?
Drought And Floods — The Climate Exodus
More people around the world are fleeing from climate change than from war. If human-induced climate change continues at the current rate, the World Bank warns that by 2050 there could be as many as 180 million climate refugees.
The Rise Of Shopify, $68 Billion In Size. How Did It Get So Big?
Shopify is the leading E-commerce platform in the United States with 23% market share and has become the second-largest platform in terms of total merchandise volume, surpassing eBay in September 2019 and just behind Amazon. The company’s stock is up more than 20 times its IPO price.
How And Why The Great Wall Of China Was Really Built
The Great Wall of China was built 2,200 years ago out of military necessity: to combat the Mongolian ancestors of Genghis Khan. Its construction was a marvel of military engineering.
How Governments Shut Down The Internet
Governments around the world are shutting down the internet, saying it’s needed to prevent protests or cheating on exams. But critics say blocking expression and access to information violates human rights. Here’s how internet shutdowns work.