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Like many picturesque islands in New England, Block Island in the state of Rhode Island was once powered by fishing, but has come to be known as a venue for vast wealth and summer tourism. However, as the short film Small Hours (2022) captures, it’s still the working class that keeps life there afloat. The US director Charlie Weber’s film is akin to flipping through a photo-book focused on the experience of the hotel employees, restaurant servers and trail guides who make the island their seasonal home. Drifting between scenes featuring mostly young or foreign-born workers, and interspersed with images of old postcards, Weber’s free-flowing film draws out the motivations, pastimes and personalities of the people who make the laid-back island experience possible.
Via NoBudge
Director: Charlie Weber
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Nature and landscape
Take a serene hike through an ancient forest, inspired by a Miyazaki masterpiece
6 minutes
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Design and fashion
The mundane becomes mesmerising in this deep dive into segmented displays
14 minutes
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Physics
A song of ice, fire and jelly – exploring the physics and history of the trumpet
9 minutes
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Architecture
Tour the European architecture that dreamed of a wondrous, fictitious China
16 minutes
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Spirituality
Trek alongside spiritual pilgrims on a treacherous journey across Pakistan
6 minutes
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Thinkers and theories
Photographs offer a colonialist window to the past – one that must be challenged
14 minutes
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Animals and humans
An artist and ants collaborate on an exhibit of ‘tiny Abstract Expressionist paintings’
5 minutes
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Mathematics
How a curious question about colouring maps changed mathematics forever
9 minutes
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Meaning and the good life
The world turns vivid, strange and philosophical for one plane crash survivor
16 minutes