Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
Harassed by police, stepped over by tourists, and in constant fear of deportation – such is the daily grind for the Senegalese migrants who scrape by selling trinkets at the Eiffel Tower. Their lives, so often overlooked or treated with contempt, are chronicled by the UK director Tal Amiran in his powerful, confronting short documentary Dafa Metti (Difficult). Amiran gives voice to these men to tell their own stories, revealing how conditions back home pushed them to make dangerous journeys to France, and how, even after arriving in one of the world’s wealthiest cities, their lives often become more precarious still. Amiran’s artful and humane portrait of life on the margins of Paris was celebrated on the film festival circuit in 2020, playing at the BFI London Film Festival and the AFI Docs documentary film festival, among others.
Director: Tal Amiran
video
Gender
A catchy tune explains the world’s ‘isms’ – according to your mum doing the laundry
5 minutes
video
Engineering
Can monumental ‘ice stupas’ help remote Himalayan villages survive?
15 minutes
video
Technology and the self
The commodified childhood – scenes from two sisters’ lives in the creator economy
14 minutes
video
Fairness and equality
There’s a dirty side to clean energy in the metal-rich mountains of South Africa
10 minutes
video
Food and drink
The passage of time is a peculiar thing in a 24-hour diner
14 minutes
video
Fairness and equality
‘To my old master’ – a freed slave answers the request to return to his old plantation
7 minutes
video
Language and linguistics
Why Susan listens to recordings of herself speaking a language she no longer remembers
5 minutes
video
Family life
The migrants missing in Mexico, and the mothers who won’t stop searching for them
21 minutes
video
Fairness and equality
Visit the small Texas community that lives in the shadow of SpaceX launches
14 minutes