In 1986, the United Way of Cleveland hatched a plan to raise money and set a world record by releasing 1.5 million balloons into the sky. Publicised as an event to redeem Cleveland from bad press and pejorative labels such as ‘The Mistake on the Lake’ following economic struggles and environmental degradation, the event backfired in ways both utterly predictable and entirely unexpected. In this short documentary, the US director Nathan Truesdell uses archival footage to reconstruct the unfolding of the ill-fated ‘Balloonfest 86’, to wry – but not entirely unsympathetic – effect, while hinting at a greater point about the limits of grandiose symbolic gestures.
videoHistory
In Stalin’s home city in Georgia, generations clash over his legacy
20 minutes
videoHistory
In the face of denial, this film uncovers the hidden scars of Indonesia’s 1998 riots
21 minutes
videoEconomics
A tour of New York’s gaudiest neighbourhood with the Marxist geographer David Harvey
13 minutes
videoSocial psychology
What happened when a crypto scam swept over a sleepy town in the Caucasus
18 minutes
videoHistory
Hags, seductresses, feminist icons – how gender dynamics manifest in witches
13 minutes
videoFairness and equality
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7 minutes
videoInformation and communication
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36 minutes
videoVirtues and vices
Why Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith were divided on the virtues of vanity
5 minutes
videoHistory
From Afghanistan to Virginia – the Muslims who fought in the American Civil War
22 minutes