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Each summer, Leif Haugen travels to the Flathead National Forest in northwestern Montana to look for fires. Living atop a mountain three miles from the Canadian border, he spends his days alone, with only a remote radio for company. In The Lookout, Leif explains the joys of solitude, and the wonder of independent living, in one of the most breathtaking natural landscapes in the US. A quiet portrait of a quiet place, the film is an introduction to an increasingly uncommon job, and a reminder why the forests and vast skies of the American West matter.
Director: Brian Bolster
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Art
When East met West in the images of an overlooked, original photographer
9 minutes
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History of science
Ideas ‘of pure genius’ – how astronomers have measured the Universe across history
29 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
7 minutes
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Meaning and the good life
Why Orwell urged his readers to celebrate the spring, cynics be damned
11 minutes
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Making
On the Norwegian coast, a tree is transformed into a boat the old-fashioned way
6 minutes
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Animals and humans
One man’s quest to save an orphaned squirrel, as narrated by David Attenborough
14 minutes
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Computing and artificial intelligence
A future in which ‘artificial scientists’ make discoveries may not be far away
9 minutes
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History
Hags, seductresses, feminist icons – how gender dynamics manifest in witches
13 minutes