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Eleven-year-old Maria Alejandra is a force to be reckoned with. Strong-willed, articulate and wise beyond her years, she knows what she wants, and sometimes that’s to stay home from school. Because she suffers from epidermolysis bullosa, a rare disease that causes her fragile skin to blister and tear, it’s easy to sympathise when even the most mundane tasks are a painful struggle. It’s also easy to sympathise with her mother who worries that, if Maria doesn’t continue doing everyday things with her peers, she could end up always indoors and isolated.
Deeply honest and compassionate, In Crystal Skin is imbued with the hope and hardship that characterise the daily routines of Maria and her family. This short version is part of a larger feature film that chronicles the lives of Maria and three other people in Colombia’s capital Bogotá who are living with epidermolysis bullosa, a disease for which there is currently no treatment or cure.
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Personality
Wesley wants to solve the rooftop mystery – but does he have what it takes?
14 minutes
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Ecology and environmental sciences
Producing food while restoring the planet – a glimpse of farming in the future
7 minutes
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Astronomy
From zero to 5,000 – music and visuals express 30 years of exoplanet discoveries
1 minute
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Ecology and environmental sciences
Yo-Yo Ma performs a work for cello in the woods, accompanied by a birdsong chorus
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Love and friendship
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Art
A massive art installation attempts to put the COVID-19 deaths in perspective
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Music
Nick ponders the life of the mysterious girl whose used CDs shaped his teenage years
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Mood and emotion
A century of letters captures the emotions of life in a new city, far from home
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Ageing and death
Death is a trip – how new research links near-death and DMT experiences
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