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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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Social psychology
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18 minutes
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History of technology
Curious singles and tech sceptics – what ‘computer dating’ looked like in 1966
6 minutes
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Cognition and intelligence
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4 minutes
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Technology and the self
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Technology and the self
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Childhood and adolescence
The police camp where tween girls enter a sisterhood of law and order
28 minutes
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Technology and the self
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7 minutes
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Information and communication
Coverage of the ‘balloon boy’ hoax forms a withering indictment of for-profit news
17 minutes
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Ageing and death
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6 minutes