Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
You’ve probably heard that there are dozens of Inuit names for snow, but what do they each mean, and what purpose do they each serve? In this short documentary, the Inuk filmmaker Rebecca Thomassie from the remote village of Kangirsuk in the far north of Quebec in Canada learns many of these terms from a local elder, Tommy Kudlak, so that she might pass them along to her three-year-old daughter. As Thomassie and Kudlak travel by snowmobile through the pristine white landscape, he teaches teaches her words describing snow that’s ideal for building igloos or shelters, snow that’s good for drinking, and more. Produced by Wapikoni Mobile, a nonprofit organisation that helps Indigenous filmmakers craft films that reflect their cultures, issues and rights, Thomassie’s short makes for a charming and fascinating window into Inuit cultural knowledge.
Director: Rebecca Thomassie
Website: Wapikoni Mobile
video
Language and linguistics
Do button-pushing dogs have something new to say about language?
9 minutes
video
History of science
Ideas ‘of pure genius’ – how astronomers have measured the Universe across history
29 minutes
video
Values and beliefs
Why a single tree, uprooted in a typhoon, means so much to one man in Hanoi
7 minutes
video
Consciousness and altered states
‘I want me back’ – after a head injury, Nick struggles with his altered reality
7 minutes
video
Meaning and the good life
Why Orwell urged his readers to celebrate the spring, cynics be damned
11 minutes
video
Making
On the Norwegian coast, a tree is transformed into a boat the old-fashioned way
6 minutes
video
Animals and humans
One man’s quest to save an orphaned squirrel, as narrated by David Attenborough
14 minutes
video
Computing and artificial intelligence
A future in which ‘artificial scientists’ make discoveries may not be far away
9 minutes
video
History
Hags, seductresses, feminist icons – how gender dynamics manifest in witches
13 minutes