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As a teacher for mostly disadvantaged teens in Harlem, Zee Pacifici coaxed poetry from her students in the form of rap lyrics. Now retired at age 86, she takes comfort in mementos from her time in education, including photos from her classroom and books of her students’ writings. The Guatemala-born, US-based filmmaker Vivian Rivas’s short film Ebb Tide follows Zee as she attempts to track down one of her favourite students, Melvin Coleman – an enthusiastic pupil, who, despite struggling to read, possessed a knack for words and music. Refreshingly earnest in story and in form, the film summons the persistent trickle of time as it captures Zee and Melvin’s first encounter in decades.
Director: Vivian Rivas
Producer: Magali Capi
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Human rights and justice
Surreal, dazzling visuals form an Iranian expat’s tribute to defiance back home
10 minutes
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Language and linguistics
Do button-pushing dogs have something new to say about language?
9 minutes
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Values and beliefs
Why a single tree, uprooted in a typhoon, means so much to one man in Hanoi
7 minutes
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Consciousness and altered states
‘I want me back’ – after a head injury, Nick struggles with his altered reality
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Wellbeing
Children of the Rwandan genocide face a unique stigma 30 years later
20 minutes
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War and peace
Two Ukrainian boys’ summer unfolds just miles from the frontlines
22 minutes
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Love and friendship
Never marry a man you love too much, and other views on romance in Sierra Leone
5 minutes
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Virtues and vices
Why Bennie tried to disappear, and what happened when he was found decades later
16 minutes
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History of technology
Curious singles and tech sceptics – what ‘computer dating’ looked like in 1966
6 minutes