Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
‘I have belief in God. But not all of the time,’ Megumi Ueno admits as she ascends steps on the Kumano Kodo, a sacred pilgrimage route in Japan’s Kii Mountains that’s been travelled by Shintos and Buddhists for more than a millennium. While Ueno considers herself a Buddhist, she has a complex relationship with religious devotion, believing that, when adopted absolutely, it can lead to violence and destruction. Still, Ueno feels connected to fellow spiritual pilgrims who have felt called to leave behind the conveniences and comforts of home in search of something more – whatever that might be. The US filmmaker Bajir Cannon’s short documentary I Have a Small Heart follows Ueno as she hikes the Kumano Kodo through wooded mountains, along pebbled beaches and across gentle streams on a contemplative journey of self-discovery. Ultimately, her travels culminate at a rare ceremony of prayer between Buddhist monks and Shinto priests at a Shinto temple, where the two religions would have once prayed alongside one another before being forcibly split by the Japanese government following the Meiji Restoration of 1868.
Director: Bajir Cannon
Producer: Maki Itami
video
Food and drink
Local tensions simmer amid a potato salad contest at the Czech-Polish border
14 minutes
video
Technology and the self
A filmmaker finds a tactile beauty in the creation of her prosthetic leg
11 minutes
video
Knowledge
An Indigenous myth and a geological survey elicit two ways of knowing one place
4 minutes
video
War and peace
A war meteorologist’s riveting account of how the Allies averted a D-Day disaster
6 minutes
video
Technology and the self
How the magic of photography brought Victorian England closer to the spirit realm
16 minutes
video
Neuroscience
Dog vision is a trendy topic, but what can we really know about how they see?
11 minutes
video
Home
An artist endeavours to bring the Moon down to Earth in a ritual of yearning
5 minutes
video
Information and communication
An animation built from road signs is a whirlwind study of flash communication
2 minutes
video
Art
Creating art that was aware of itself – and the viewer – made Manet the first modernist
15 minutes