Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
For over 50 years Baltazar Ushca has harvested the glacial ice of Ecuador’s Mount Chimborazo. His brothers, both raised as ice merchants, have long since retired from the mountain. They have chosen new vocations, as ice cream vendors and construction workers, but Baltazar forges on, making his weekly journey to the ‘ice mines’ that sit high on the mountain. Vividly shot, The Last Ice Merchant takes a commonplace story of technological change and gives it the simplicity and power of a fable.
Director: Sandy Patch
Producers: Jeremy Yaches, Rodrigo Donoso
video
Home
Life moves slowly in a Romanian mountain village, shaped by care and the seasons
13 minutes
video
Environmental history
In Kazakhstan, ‘atomic lakes’ still scar the landscape decades after Soviet nuclear tests
13 minutes
video
Nature and landscape
‘A culture is no better than its woods’ – what our trees reveal about us, by W H Auden
5 minutes
video
Gender
A catchy tune explains the world’s ‘isms’ – according to your mum doing the laundry
5 minutes
video
Architecture
A 3D rendering of the Colosseum captures its architectural genius and symbolic power
17 minutes
video
Making
On the Norwegian coast, a tree is transformed into a boat the old-fashioned way
6 minutes
video
History of technology
Curious singles and tech sceptics – what ‘computer dating’ looked like in 1966
6 minutes
video
Technology and the self
The commodified childhood – scenes from two sisters’ lives in the creator economy
14 minutes
video
Fairness and equality
There’s a dirty side to clean energy in the metal-rich mountains of South Africa
10 minutes