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In early 2020, the Kichwa people of Sarayaku in the Ecuadorian Amazon were contending with two centuries-old threats: attempted exploitation of their lands by oil interests, and deadly diseases brought by outsiders. Directed by the Sarayaku Kichwa filmmaker Eriberto Gualinga, The Return follows a family that, amid Ecuador’s devastating COVID-19 crisis, chooses to uproot from their home and journey further into the jungle for protection. Encompassing roughly a year, the short film captures how Indigenous communities in Ecuador are constantly forced to assert their rights to protect their culture and lives. But, resisting familiar ‘Indigenous-peoples-in-peril’ narratives, which often portray such communities as powerless and their cultures as dying, Gualinga’s film celebrates Kichwa resilience, tracking how the family reconnects with ancestral knowledge and reaffirms their spiritual connection to the land – a narrative of perseverance and rebirth that’s underscored by Gualinga’s distinctive perspective as an Indigenous filmmaker.

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The ancient world
What wine vessels reveal about politics and luxury in ancient Athens and Persia
16 minutes

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Art
David Goldblatt captured the contradictions of apartheid in stark black and white
15 minutes

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Space exploration
In the search for life, might alien ocean worlds be a better bet than Earth-like planets?
5 minutes

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Love and friendship
When drawing your muse hundreds of times becomes an exercise in love
7 minutes

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Thinkers and theories
Is simulation theory a way to shirk responsibility for the world we’ve created?
13 minutes

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Biology
A dazzling slice-by-slice exploration of wood exposes hidden patterns and hues
2 minutes

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Family life
In Rwanda, Sébastien finds traces of personal history in the wake of national tragedy
21 minutes

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Dance and theatre
Leaf through Shakespeare’s First Folio for a riveting journey into theatre history
13 minutes

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Architecture
Modern architecture should embrace – not ignore or repel – the nonhuman world
8 minutes