Nestled between a cemetery and the sea, on the edge of the city of Navotas in the Philippines, Bagong Silang is a sprawling urban slum, a place where life flourishes amid death. For decades, the residents of Bagong Silang (which means ‘new born’) have worked and lived in the cemetery, building their tarpaulin and bamboo homes among the cement-block graves. Though death surrounds them and eviction looms, people here are optimistic about the future, and they work hard to ensure a better life for their children.
In death, there is life: a unique community that lives in a Philippines cemetery
Director: Zena Merton
Producer: Giselle Santos

videoEthics
A deathbed scenario raises the question: how much power should a promise hold?
5 minutes

videoTravel
Retracing Mark Twain’s path, a filmmaker sets out to understand the mighty Mississippi
28 minutes

videoChildhood and adolescence
A neglected Dominican sugar town, as seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old local
11 minutes

videoThinkers and theories
The prison abolitionist who dares to envision a world without ‘unfreedoms’
16 minutes

videoDemography and migration
In California’s farmlands, immigrant workers share their stories of toil and hope
17 minutes

videoEconomics
A tour of New York’s gaudiest neighbourhood with the Marxist geographer David Harvey
13 minutes

videoSocial psychology
What happened when a crypto scam swept over a sleepy town in the Caucasus
18 minutes

videoFairness and equality
There’s a dirty side to clean energy in the metal-rich mountains of South Africa
10 minutes

videoBiology
An elegy for a dying microbe explores what we really mean by ‘death’
9 minutes