Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
Detroit’s Packard Automotive Plant was once considered to be the finest in the world, and an emblem of the city’s economic and industrial might. But more than 60 years after manufacturing its last luxury car, the long-abandoned facility has transformed into a symbol for Detroit’s decades-long economic slide. The US filmmaker Brian Kaufman brings us into the plant at a unique moment in time: long after its life as an automotive powerhouse, but before its demolition and rehabilitation, which began in late 2014. With the building’s fate uncertain, it becomes something of a Rorschach test for locals, who view it by turns as a danger, a venue for public art, an eyesore, and the damaged spirit of a city desperately in need of revitalisation. Packard: The Last Shift – which is split between a poem from the Detroit-based Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Philip Levine and interviews with residents of the city – is excerpted from an eponymous 2014 feature-length documentary on the plant.
Director: Brian Kaufman
Producer: Kathy Kieliszewski
video
Biology
Journey deep into the Philippine forest in search of the world’s largest, rarest eagle
95 minutes
video
Art
What does an AI make of what it sees in a contemporary art museum?
15 minutes
video
Fairness and equality
How the first woman of colour to be elected to the US Congress remade education
21 minutes
video
History of ideas
Tantra is, and was, a subversive philosophy of feminine power
19 minutes
video
Rituals and celebrations
From roaring fire and molten glass an artist creates a healing ritual
13 minutes
video
Ecology and environmental sciences
Producing food while restoring the planet – a glimpse of farming in the future
7 minutes
video
Archaeology
Ancient Greek sculptures were colourful. Why does the white marble ideal persist?
6 minutes
video
Economics
We all play by economic rules set by men. What could a feminist economics look like?
30 minutes
video
Ecology and environmental sciences
Yo-Yo Ma performs a work for cello in the woods, accompanied by a birdsong chorus
4 minutes