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When I was younger the days were like candy
now I’m older and the days are like wine
I used to sing songs of the young happy freedom
I knew as a child, no feeling for time
After losing part of his leg in a motorcycle accident in the early 1960, Richard Atkins took to playing guitar and writing songs, quickly landing a coveted deal for his debut album Richard Twice (1968) with Mercury Records. But what appeared to be a fast track to folk-rock stardom came to a sudden halt when a make-or-break performance brought his dreams crashing down. Traumatised, he stopped listening to the radio and playing on stage for 40 years, deciding instead to dedicate his life to woodworking. Using expressive, psychedelic animations and featuring Atkins’s original music, the US director Matthew Salton’s film is a bittersweet reminder that many dreams go unfulfilled, and while past failures are always with us, they needn’t define us.
Director: Matthew Salton
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Nature and landscape
Take a serene hike through an ancient forest, inspired by a Miyazaki masterpiece
6 minutes
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Design and fashion
The mundane becomes mesmerising in this deep dive into segmented displays
14 minutes
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Physics
A song of ice, fire and jelly – exploring the physics and history of the trumpet
9 minutes
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Architecture
Tour the European architecture that dreamed of a wondrous, fictitious China
16 minutes
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Spirituality
Trek alongside spiritual pilgrims on a treacherous journey across Pakistan
6 minutes
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Animals and humans
An artist and ants collaborate on an exhibit of ‘tiny Abstract Expressionist paintings’
5 minutes
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Meaning and the good life
The world turns vivid, strange and philosophical for one plane crash survivor
16 minutes
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Cities
The rise and fall of Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong’s infamous urban monolith
18 minutes
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Art
Inside the unique creative space where ‘outsider’ artists find their form
14 minutes