A poem by Charles Bukowski inspires a sensuous, but fleeting Californian reverie
A sensuous, impressionist take on California, Cooper and Canepari’s small but finely formed Bluebird takes its name and narrative lead from Charles Bukowski’s poem. Bukowski made California his home, and often paid tribute to its strange glamour, and its constant cycling between utopian dreamscape and dystopian asylum. ‘There’s a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out, but I’m too tough for him’ he says here, ‘I pour whiskey on him and inhale cigarette smoke, and the whores and the bartenders, and the grocery clerks, never know that he’s in there.’
Directors: Drea Cooper, Zackary Canepari
videoDemography and migration
The volunteers who offer a last line of care for migrants at a contentious border
30 minutes
videoLove and friendship
What does it mean to say goodbye to a creature that doesn’t know you’re leaving?
13 minutes
videoLife stages
Grief, healing and laughter coexist at a unique retreat for widows and widowers
15 minutes
videoConsciousness and altered states
What do screens depicting serene natural scenes mean to those living in lock-up?
12 minutes
videoFamily life
A mother and child bond in an unusual prison visitation space in this poignant portrait
11 minutes
videoConsciousness and altered states
‘I want me back’ – after a head injury, Nick struggles with his altered reality
7 minutes
videoVirtues and vices
Why Bennie tried to disappear, and what happened when he was found decades later
16 minutes
videoStories and literature
Two variants of a Hindu myth come alive in an animated ode to Indian storytelling
14 minutes
videoLanguage and linguistics
Why Susan listens to recordings of herself speaking a language she no longer remembers
5 minutes