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Captured by the Los Angeles-based filmmakers Liv Layhee and Caydon LiRocchi during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Beautiful! (2020) follows the young couple as they face a potential unplanned pregnancy. Shot on VHS, the grainy home video aesthetic adds an intimate layer to the proceedings as the two take turns filming while they await life-altering news. The resulting short is distinctive in style and endearing in its honesty, capturing the drama that inherently accompanies such a pivotal moment, as well as the mix of humour, creativity and numerous cats that makes their relationship idiosyncratic.
Directors: Liv Layhee, Caydon LiRocchi
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Human rights and justice
Surreal, dazzling visuals form an Iranian expat’s tribute to defiance back home
10 minutes
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Wellbeing
Children of the Rwandan genocide face a unique stigma 30 years later
20 minutes
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Love and friendship
Never marry a man you love too much, and other views on romance in Sierra Leone
5 minutes
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History of technology
Curious singles and tech sceptics – what ‘computer dating’ looked like in 1966
6 minutes
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Family life
The migrants missing in Mexico, and the mothers who won’t stop searching for them
21 minutes
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Family life
One family’s harrowing escape from postwar Vietnam, told in a poignant metaphor
10 minutes
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War and peace
A frontline soldier’s moving account of the fabled ‘Christmas truce’ of 1914
12 minutes
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Technology and the self
Why single Chinese women are freezing their eggs in California
24 minutes
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Technology and the self
A haunting scene from ‘Minority Report’ inspires a voyage into time and memory
7 minutes