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Can you look inside the living brain and tell what someone is feeling? For the first time in history we have fMRI – a technology that promises to show the neurochemical traces of joy, rage, love and hate, as they cascade through the brain. Filmmaker Brent Hoff enlisted the Stanford Center for Cognitive Neurobiological Imaging to hold the world’s first ever ‘love competition’. Seven contestants had five minutes in an fMRI machine to love someone ‘as hard as they can’. The idea that love can be measured may seem deeply unromantic: the results were anything but.
Director: Brent Hoff
Producer: Malcolm Pullinger
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Personality
A ‘dumpster archeologist’ reconstructs strangers’ stories via what they’ve discarded
14 minutes
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Ageing and death
We’re not the only animals that appear to grieve. What are the implications?
6 minutes
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Love and friendship
For two brothers who rely on one another, love is a daily act of devotion
11 minutes
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Meaning and the good life
A Japanese religious community makes an unlikely home in the mountains of Colorado
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Sex and sexuality
From secret crushes to self-acceptance – a joyful chronicle of ‘old lesbian’ stories
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Education
Scenes from a school year paint a refreshingly nuanced portrait of rural America
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Pleasure and pain
The volunteer musicians who perform in the aftermath of violence and tragedy
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Food and drink
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Technology and the self
A filmmaker finds a tactile beauty in the creation of her prosthetic leg
11 minutes