How can we build more humane zoos? Will it ever be ethical to build them at all? And what drives us to create zoos and natural history museums in the first place? Is it a curiosity about the world around us and our place in it, or a need to dominate and give order to a realm that we’d otherwise find chaotic and threatening? An engrossing chronicle of zoos and natural history museums from Charles Darwin to the early 21st century, the documentary Curiosity and Control (2018) contemplates how humanity’s relationship with the natural world has evolved over the past two centuries, as well as where it might be headed in the future. The Swedish director Albin Biblom enlists an impressive array of writers, professors, zoo directors, taxidermists and artists to explore these intricate, interconnected questions of science, history and ethics. In doing so, he builds a complex, thought-provoking portrait of our ever-evolving view of the animal world, including our place in it.
For another powerful reflection on humanity’s relationship with the nonhuman animal world, watch Biblom’s film The Conquest of Space, which tells the story of the fruit flies, primates, canines and other creatures that we’ve launched into Earth’s orbit.
Director: Albin Biblom
Producers: Adam Marko-Nord, Sara Waldestam
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Animals and humans
Join seabirds as they migrate, encountering human communities along the way
13 minutes
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Stories and literature
Two variants of a Hindu myth come alive in an animated ode to Indian storytelling
14 minutes
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Technology and the self
The commodified childhood – scenes from two sisters’ lives in the creator economy
14 minutes
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Fairness and equality
There’s a dirty side to clean energy in the metal-rich mountains of South Africa
10 minutes
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Food and drink
The passage of time is a peculiar thing in a 24-hour diner
14 minutes
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Art
Background music was the radical invention of a trailblazing composer
17 minutes
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Anthropology
For an Amazonian female shaman, ayahuasca ceremonies are a rite and a business
30 minutes
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Metaphysics
What do past, present and future mean to a philosopher of time?
55 minutes
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Gender
A filmmaker responds to Lars von Trier’s call for a new muse with a unique application
16 minutes