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While filming the full-length documentary Solitary Nation (2014) on the practice of solitary confinement in the US, the film crew for the PBS series Frontline captured the unnerving combination of banging, howling and screaming that accompany life in Maine State Prison’s solitary confinement unit. The resulting short film, Solitary Confinement Is Crazy Loud, is a brief, visceral blast of the intense psychological stress that solitary confinement places, both on inmates and on prison guards.
Director: Dan Edge
Website: Frontline
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Technology and the self
Greetings from Green Bank – the small town where modern technology is banned
10 minutes
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Human evolution
Far from frivolous, cuteness is a powerful – and still mysterious – force of nature
6 minutes
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Dance and theatre
How a Noh mask-maker summons a lifelike face from a single block of wood
16 minutes
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Family life
On a whirlwind morning, a couple learns if they’re facing an unplanned pregnancy
7 minutes
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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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Thinkers and theories
Is simulation theory a way to shirk responsibility for the world we’ve created?
13 minutes