Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
Michael is disabled and uses a wheelchair to go about his daily life in California. But it’s on the ocean atop his custom surfboard that he feels most free and lucid – a sensation he describes as his ‘birthright’. Sean Mullens’s modest yet moving film chronicles his friend Michael as he goes about his everyday surfing ritual, and explores the essential human desire to transcend limitations.
Director: Sean Mullens
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Ageing and death
Demystifying death – a palliative care specialist’s practical guide to life’s end
4 minutes
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Future of technology
Is this the future of space travel? Take a luxury ‘cruise’ across the solar system
6 minutes
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Stories and literature
A French Creole folktale nearly lost to time is given new, gorgeously animated life
6 minutes
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Food and drink
Is a ‘gastronomic society’ dinner the height of decadence, or an act of artistry?
11 minutes
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Computing and artificial intelligence
Struggling to learn how to do a backflip, Nikita takes on an unusual training regimen
12 minutes
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Personality
Why cleaning up crime scenes requires a rare mix of grit and empathy
9 minutes
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Ecology and environmental sciences
From helicopter flybys to trail cameras, there’s no one way to count a wolf
8 minutes
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Mood and emotion
An Oceanic lullaby, ‘Gimme Shelter’ and more elucidate how music taps into our emotions
58 minutes
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Art
Why a forcefully phallic portrait of Henry VIII is a masterful work of propaganda
6 minutes