Aeon Video has a monthly newsletter!
Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
If, as Shakespeare suggested, all the world’s a stage, do we have a ‘true self’?
The 20th-century Canadian-American sociologist Erving Goffman believed that we adapt to roles – lover, customer, worker – based on circumstance, and are constantly concerned with how we’re appearing to others. This short animation explains why Goffman’s view of humanity left no room for a ‘true self’ – an actor behind all the roles we play.
video
Love and friendship
For two brothers who rely on one another, love is a daily act of devotion
11 minutes
video
Meaning and the good life
A Japanese religious community makes an unlikely home in the mountains of Colorado
9 minutes
video
Sex and sexuality
From secret crushes to self-acceptance – a joyful chronicle of ‘old lesbian’ stories
29 minutes
video
Education
Scenes from a school year paint a refreshingly nuanced portrait of rural America
25 minutes
video
Bioethics
Is it ethical to have a second child so that your first might live?
10 minutes
video
Meaning and the good life
‘Everydayness is the enemy’ – excerpts from the existentialist novel ‘The Moviegoer’
2 minutes
video
Pleasure and pain
The volunteer musicians who perform in the aftermath of violence and tragedy
12 minutes
video
Food and drink
Local tensions simmer amid a potato salad contest at the Czech-Polish border
14 minutes
video
Technology and the self
A filmmaker finds a tactile beauty in the creation of her prosthetic leg
11 minutes