On the small Scottish island of Erraid, members of an off-the-grid community seek to live as close to nature as possible, pursuing a sustainable alternative to the consumerism of the outside world. This means days spent working the land and relying on one another. Against the Tide follows a woman named Gill who decided to upend her life after a relationship breakup, and ‘risk the unknown’ by moving to the island. Capturing the contemplative pace of life on Erraid, the Scotland-based filmmaker Giulia Candussi follows Gill as her six-month trial stay comes to a close, and she and her fellow community members decide if she’ll become a permanent resident.
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Beauty and aesthetics
In art, the sublime is a feedback loop, evolving with whatever’s next to threaten us
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Family life
One family’s harrowing escape from postwar Vietnam, told in a poignant metaphor
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Film and visual culture
Our world has very different contours when a millimetre is blown up to a full screen
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History of technology
Replicating Shakespearean-era printing brings its own dramas and comedy
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Animals and humans
The wild tale of a young animal keeper, an angry tiger and a torn circle net
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Beauty and aesthetics
Can you see music in this painting? How synaesthesia fuelled Kandinsky’s art
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Knowledge
Why it takes more than a lifetime to truly understand a single meadow
11 minutes
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War and peace
‘She is living on in many hearts’ – Otto Frank on the legacy of his daughter’s diary
12 minutes
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Art
Why Diego Velázquez needed a lifetime to paint his enigmatic masterpiece
31 minutes