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A droll, whirlwind history of the US National Parks system, in just four minutes
Do you crave the enriching history of Ken Burns’s celebrated documentary series The National Parks: America’s Best Idea (2009) but don’t have 12 hours to spare? The US filmmaker Ryan Maxey has a droll and delightful short film that will give you the broad strokes in just four diligently researched minutes. With a collage style and a muzak soundtrack, (Unofficial) History of the National Parks aims to entertain, but ultimately arrives at a deeper question about humanity’s potential for curbing its most self-destructive impulses.
Director: Ryan Maxey
Website: Parks Project
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History
Hags, seductresses, feminist icons – how gender dynamics manifest in witches
13 minutes
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Nature and landscape
California’s landscapes provide endless inspiration for a woodcut printmaker
10 minutes
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Animals and humans
Join seabirds as they migrate, encountering human communities along the way
13 minutes
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Fairness and equality
There’s a dirty side to clean energy in the metal-rich mountains of South Africa
10 minutes
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Fairness and equality
‘To my old master’ – a freed slave answers the request to return to his old plantation
7 minutes
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Animals and humans
Villagers struggle to keep their beloved, endangered ape population afloat
19 minutes
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Information and communication
‘Astonished and somewhat terrified’ – Victorians’ reactions to the phonograph
36 minutes
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History
From Afghanistan to Virginia – the Muslims who fought in the American Civil War
22 minutes
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Fairness and equality
Visit the small Texas community that lives in the shadow of SpaceX launches
14 minutes