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Agent Orange was widely used as part of the United States’ herbicidal warfare programme in the Vietnam War, deployed as a means of exposing the positions of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers through defoliation and destroying their crops. These attacks became emblematic of US military recklessness in its interventions in Southeast Asia, leaving massive environmental and humanitarian catastrophes in their wake. Some five decades later, the lasting impact of Agent Orange still reverberates throughout the region, as the chemical dioxin is increasingly believed to be responsible for a wide range of health problems across generations – a claim that the US government largely denies. The short documentary Chau, Beyond the Lines spans eight years in the life of a Vietnamese teenager named Chau, born with deformed limbs believed to be the result of intergenerational Agent Orange exposure, as he chases his dream of becoming an artist despite little encouragement from his caretakers and family. Impressive in its scope and humanity, the film by the US director Courtney Marsh was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) in 2016.
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Childhood and adolescence
‘Do worms cry?’ – and other questions collected from the mind of a curious child
4 minutes
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Illness and disease
Humanity eradicated smallpox 45 years ago. It’s a story worth remembering
25 minutes
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War and peace
Two Ukrainian boys’ summer unfolds just miles from the frontlines
22 minutes
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Cognition and intelligence
A father forgets his child’s name for the first time in this poetic reflection on memory
4 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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Sports and games
Havana’s streets become racetracks in this exhilarating portrait of children at play
5 minutes
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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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Childhood and adolescence
Marmar is living through a devastating war – but she’d rather tell you about her new dress
8 minutes
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Meaning and the good life
Wander through the English countryside with two teens trying to make sense of the world
10 minutes