Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
In the United States, GPS-enabled electronic ankle bracelets are used to monitor accused and convicted criminals as a condition of bail, house arrest and parole. Some of these devices can even detect a wearer’s alcohol consumption. According to a recent study by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the number of people in the US wearing electronic tracking devices more than doubled, from 53,000 to 125,000, between 2005 and 2015. (Almost) Freedom tracks the lives of four people wearing ankle monitors, existing, as the title suggests, in a sort of limbo between state custody and self-determination. Using a low angle that emphasises the individuals and the devices equally, the US director Puck Lo’s observational short documentary probes what it means to extend imprisonment beyond prison walls – for better or for worse.
Director: Puck Lo
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
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
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
video
Biotechnology
It’s our responsibility to engineer corals that can weather the world we’ve created
11 minutes
video
War and peace
A century later, can poetry help us make sense of the First World War’s horrors?
9 minutes