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In this brief, whimsical documentary, the UK director Eleanor Mortimer turns her camera’s gaze on urban birdwatchers as they wait for, observe and marvel at the peregrine falcons hovering above Sheffield in the north of England. The result is a beguiling look at a uniquely human condition: envy of flying. Or maybe it’s something else that turns these city-dwellers’ eyes skywards. The pleasures of birdwatching are many; the words to describe them are perhaps best left to the poets among us.
Director: Eleanor Mortimer
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Art
A prisoner in Guantánamo finds some escape in building intricate model ships
6 minutes
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Meaning and the good life
A Japanese religious community makes an unlikely home in the mountains of Colorado
9 minutes
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Sex and sexuality
From secret crushes to self-acceptance – a joyful chronicle of ‘old lesbian’ stories
29 minutes
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Making
Forging a cello from pieces of wood demands its own form of virtuosity
27 minutes
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Education
Scenes from a school year paint a refreshingly nuanced portrait of rural America
25 minutes
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Physics
The rhythms of a star system inspire a pianist’s transfixing performance
5 minutes
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Art
Watch as Japan’s surplus trees are transformed into forest-tinted crayons
4 minutes
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Meaning and the good life
‘Everydayness is the enemy’ – excerpts from the existentialist novel ‘The Moviegoer’
2 minutes
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Pleasure and pain
The volunteer musicians who perform in the aftermath of violence and tragedy
12 minutes