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The Julia Tutwiler Prison is the only correctional facility for women in Alabama, and it has a reputation for overcrowding, understaffing and egregious inmate mistreatment. In 2014, a US Department of Justice investigation found conditions in the prison to be unconstitutional due to rampant staff-on-prisoner sexual abuse. As part of an effort at reform, in 2016 Tutwiler helped to initiate the Alabama Prison Birth Project – an endeavour to prepare its pregnant prisoners (some 45 to 50 women each year) for motherhood, and ensure that their babies are healthy and looked after. But can a system that separates newborns from their mothers just 24 hours after birth ever be humane? Constructed with care and nuance by the Academy Award-nominated US filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon, this documentary traces both the promise and the moral complexities of a programme that seeks to break the intergenerational prison chain from inside.
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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
A father forgets his child’s name for the first time in this poetic reflection on memory
4 minutes
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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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Anthropology
For an Amazonian female shaman, ayahuasca ceremonies are a rite and a business
30 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