Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
The audience for institutional training films is generally limited to those forced to endure them to collect a salary. However, as Everything You Wanted to Know About Sudden Birth (But Were Afraid to Ask) explores, there is a niche audience to whom the shoddy filmmaking, stiff acting and clinical dialogue of vintage training videos is a small thrill. The latest archival short from the US director Scott Calonico tells the story of a California police training video called Sudden Birth (1966), which has gone on to become something of a cult classic of the genre – in part due to its juxtaposition of clinical, amateurish production with the high human drama of an actual on-screen birth. Exploring the lives of the team behind Sudden Birth, Calonico untangles a web of personal stories that more than rivals the intrigue of the film at its centre, and in doing so builds a surprisingly heartfelt narrative to accompany the campy fun.
Director: Scott Calonico
Producers: Skip Elsheimer, Harmon Leon
video
Design and fashion
The mundane becomes mesmerising in this deep dive into segmented displays
14 minutes
video
Physics
A song of ice, fire and jelly – exploring the physics and history of the trumpet
9 minutes
video
Architecture
Tour the European architecture that dreamed of a wondrous, fictitious China
16 minutes
video
Spirituality
Trek alongside spiritual pilgrims on a treacherous journey across Pakistan
6 minutes
video
Thinkers and theories
Photographs offer a colonialist window to the past – one that must be challenged
14 minutes
video
Animals and humans
An artist and ants collaborate on an exhibit of ‘tiny Abstract Expressionist paintings’
5 minutes
video
Mathematics
How a curious question about colouring maps changed mathematics forever
9 minutes
video
Cities
The rise and fall of Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong’s infamous urban monolith
18 minutes
video
Art
Inside the unique creative space where ‘outsider’ artists find their form
14 minutes