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A nearly inescapable fact of modern life is that most of us spend more time in just a few rooms in our homes than the sum of time spent anywhere else on Earth – and perhaps doubly so over the past year of pandemic-related lockdowns. And so, unsurprisingly, our spaces also tend to occupy a rather prominent place in our minds. Do they need a clean? A redecoration? To be ditched for a new arrangement altogether? And what – good, bad and ugly – do they reveal about us to visitors? Featuring clever animated sequences in which talking, shifting shapes transform along to the reflective words of interviewees, Rooms explores how the mental and physical spaces of our rooms intersect and overlap.
Director: Rohan Patrick McDonald
Website: Shelf Shelf

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The ancient world
What wine vessels reveal about politics and luxury in ancient Athens and Persia
16 minutes

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Art
David Goldblatt captured the contradictions of apartheid in stark black and white
15 minutes

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Philosophy of mind
Do we have good reasons to believe in beliefs? A radical philosophy of mind says no
5 minutes

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Love and friendship
When drawing your muse hundreds of times becomes an exercise in love
7 minutes

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Biology
A dazzling slice-by-slice exploration of wood exposes hidden patterns and hues
2 minutes

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Family life
In Rwanda, Sébastien finds traces of personal history in the wake of national tragedy
21 minutes

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Dance and theatre
Leaf through Shakespeare’s First Folio for a riveting journey into theatre history
13 minutes

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Love and friendship
A decade after his wife was swept away in a tsunami, Yasuo still searches the sea
9 minutes

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Architecture
Modern architecture should embrace – not ignore or repel – the nonhuman world
8 minutes