Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
The Indian-born, US-based filmmaker Natasha Nair’s short documentary In the Wake brings viewers inside the colourful and tactile world of a weaving community in Kerala, the state on India’s southwest coast still recovering from the wreckage of flooding in 2018. The skilled weavers produce textiles for sarees, the traditional South Asian women’s garments, and must fully engage their bodies and minds in their work, the craft of which has been passed down through generations. In addition to natural disasters, the mostly female workers must also contend with competition from power-loom machines producing sarees that can be sold at half the price of their own hand-loomed products. Nair skilfully captures the vivid hues and kinetic sounds of the work, while her brief portrait of craft ponders if the rich tradition of the Kerala weavers can ultimately survive the rising tides of modernity.
video
Architecture
A 3D rendering of the Colosseum captures its architectural genius and symbolic power
17 minutes
video
Human rights and justice
Surreal, dazzling visuals form an Iranian expat’s tribute to defiance back home
10 minutes
video
Language and linguistics
Do button-pushing dogs have something new to say about language?
9 minutes
video
Art
When East met West in the images of an overlooked, original photographer
9 minutes
video
Values and beliefs
Why a single tree, uprooted in a typhoon, means so much to one man in Hanoi
7 minutes
video
Making
On the Norwegian coast, a tree is transformed into a boat the old-fashioned way
6 minutes
video
Animals and humans
One man’s quest to save an orphaned squirrel, as narrated by David Attenborough
14 minutes
video
Computing and artificial intelligence
A future in which ‘artificial scientists’ make discoveries may not be far away
9 minutes
video
History
Hags, seductresses, feminist icons – how gender dynamics manifest in witches
13 minutes