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As a young child, Gamal ‘G’ Turawa was brought up in a white foster family in Kent. He didn’t give much thought to being Black until he moved to London with his biological father, where a Metropolitan Police officer spewed a racist insult at him. Why then did he end up aspiring to become an officer with the same police force? Recounting his life’s story with riveting candour, Turawa explores how a deep-seeded desire ‘to be as white as possible’ led him to a career at the Metropolitan Police, the racism he experienced there and even perpetrated himself as an officer, and how coming out of the closet as a gay man ultimately led him down a path of self-acceptance and self-understanding. Intimately captured by the UK director Cherish Oteka, the documentary The Black Cop: A Villain, a Victim and a Hero is both a troubling account of institutional racism in the UK and, through Turawa, a deeply moving portrait of the complexities of identity.
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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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Architecture
A 3D rendering of the Colosseum captures its architectural genius and symbolic power
17 minutes
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Human rights and justice
Surreal, dazzling visuals form an Iranian expat’s tribute to defiance back home
10 minutes
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Language and linguistics
Do button-pushing dogs have something new to say about language?
9 minutes
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Art
When East met West in the images of an overlooked, original photographer
9 minutes
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Values and beliefs
Why a single tree, uprooted in a typhoon, means so much to one man in Hanoi
7 minutes
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Consciousness and altered states
‘I want me back’ – after a head injury, Nick struggles with his altered reality
7 minutes
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Making
On the Norwegian coast, a tree is transformed into a boat the old-fashioned way
6 minutes
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Animals and humans
One man’s quest to save an orphaned squirrel, as narrated by David Attenborough
14 minutes