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The American artist Chris Burden thinks it’s time for an infrastructural revolution. For the past four years, he has worked to bring his vision to life, building an enormous model city of gleaming skyscrapers and futuristic highways. In Metropolis II, the filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost journey into Burden’s World of Tomorrow, exploring, up close, his vision of an automated urban landscape, and imagining a future full of endless possibilities.
Directors: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman
Producer: Sara Wolitzky
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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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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
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Nations and empires
The strange tale of how mangoes became hallowed objects in Maoist China
6 minutes