‘I work hard. I work very hard’: a female voice describes herself using language that seems to conform to societal expectations of what a modern person – and a modern woman especially – ought to be. As the narration unfolds without context, her words use stock phrases you might read on a resume or hear aloud as self-affirmations. But the shakiness of her voice accompanied by the wry animated sequences that unfold alongside – a man scaling a house of cards; a porcupine surrounded by balloons – expose the sentiments as hollow and at odds with the narrator’s true experience of life. Based on graphic novels exploring anxiety by the Canadian artist Catherine Lepage, The Great Malaise finds poignance, dark humour and perhaps a good deal of catharsis in mining the gaps between who we think we should be be and who we actually are.
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The volunteers who offer a last line of care for migrants at a contentious border
30 minutes
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How an artist learned to ‘co-live’ with the distressing voice in her head
6 minutes
videoLove and friendship
What does it mean to say goodbye to a creature that doesn’t know you’re leaving?
13 minutes
videoLife stages
Grief, healing and laughter coexist at a unique retreat for widows and widowers
15 minutes
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What do screens depicting serene natural scenes mean to those living in lock-up?
12 minutes
videoFamily life
A mother and child bond in an unusual prison visitation space in this poignant portrait
11 minutes
videoWellbeing
Children of the Rwandan genocide face a unique stigma 30 years later
20 minutes
videoWar and peace
A frontline soldier’s moving account of the fabled ‘Christmas truce’ of 1914
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videoTechnology and the self
A haunting scene from ‘Minority Report’ inspires a voyage into time and memory
7 minutes