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A hugely satisfying portrait of production, this short documentary observes workers in Spain’s La Mancha region as they harvest cork from a quercus suber (commonly known as a cork oak). The process requires immense patience: each tree must be 25 years old before its uniquely light and durable bark can be harvested, and even after the tree has reached maturity, it can only be stripped again roughly every nine years thereafter. At harvest time, teams skilfully remove the bark with small axes, making sure not to harm the tree and risk damaging the renewable resource. Part of a series of short films about life in rural Spain, Cork shows harvesters in a delicate dance of force and care, simultaneously exploiting and stewarding the land.
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Environmental history
In Kazakhstan, ‘atomic lakes’ still scar the landscape decades after Soviet nuclear tests
13 minutes
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Nature and landscape
‘A culture is no better than its woods’ – what our trees reveal about us, by W H Auden
5 minutes
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Gender
A catchy tune explains the world’s ‘isms’ – according to your mum doing the laundry
5 minutes
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Meaning and the good life
Why Orwell urged his readers to celebrate the spring, cynics be damned
11 minutes
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Earth science and climate
Images carved into film form a haunting elegy for a disappearing slice of Earth
3 minutes
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Animals and humans
Join seabirds as they migrate, encountering human communities along the way
13 minutes
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Technology and the self
The commodified childhood – scenes from two sisters’ lives in the creator economy
14 minutes
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Fairness and equality
There’s a dirty side to clean energy in the metal-rich mountains of South Africa
10 minutes
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Food and drink
The passage of time is a peculiar thing in a 24-hour diner
14 minutes