Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
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
video
Music
‘Dun dun dun duuun!’ Why Beethoven’s Fifth sticks in the head and stirs the heart
5 minutes
video
Ageing and death
Demystifying death – a palliative care specialist’s practical guide to life’s end
4 minutes
video
Stories and literature
A French Creole folktale nearly lost to time is given new, gorgeously animated life
6 minutes
video
Computing and artificial intelligence
Struggling to learn how to do a backflip, Nikita takes on an unusual training regimen
12 minutes
video
Personality
Why cleaning up crime scenes requires a rare mix of grit and empathy
9 minutes
video
Mood and emotion
An Oceanic lullaby, ‘Gimme Shelter’ and more elucidate how music taps into our emotions
58 minutes
video
Family life
Against her father’s warnings, Debra resolves to learn about his time in Auschwitz
4 minutes
video
Mood and emotion
Moments of poetry pierce through the mundane at a small-town grocery
13 minutes
video
Personality
Why one man spent 15 years in ‘self-imposed’ island exile
7 minutes