Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
All What Is Somehow Useful rhythmically arranges pictures from a series of early 20th-century animal experiments to a decidedly disturbing effect, evoking something of an eerie children’s story or lullaby, filled with friendly barnyard creatures whose fates are rather less cheerful. The sequences seem to reveal something both impressive and sinister about human nature, illustrating how adept we’ve become at using animals to serve our own ends. The short film features glass-plate photographs from a collection at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg’s Institute of Agricultural and Nutrition Sciences in Germany.
Director: Pim Zwier
video
Nature and landscape
‘A culture is no better than its woods’ – what our trees reveal about us, by W H Auden
5 minutes
video
Meaning and the good life
Why Orwell urged his readers to celebrate the spring, cynics be damned
11 minutes
video
Earth science and climate
Images carved into film form a haunting elegy for a disappearing slice of Earth
3 minutes
video
Animals and humans
Join seabirds as they migrate, encountering human communities along the way
13 minutes
video
Fairness and equality
There’s a dirty side to clean energy in the metal-rich mountains of South Africa
10 minutes
video
Biology
‘Save the parasites’ may not be a popular rallying cry – but it could be a vital one
11 minutes
video
Evolution
The many ways a lizard tongue sticks, grasps, pinches and plops – in slo-mo
6 minutes
video
Animals and humans
Villagers struggle to keep their beloved, endangered ape population afloat
19 minutes
video
Biology
Starlings swoosh like brushstrokes across the sky in this dazzling short
3 minutes