Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
The US filmmaker Conner Griffith is known for experimental works that offer perspective-shifting explorations of everyday scenes and objects. For Still Life, he compiled and choreographed a dizzying dance of more than 1,000 engravings from the 19th century – from flowers to teapots to amphibians. The resulting short explores the philosophical notion that, as Griffith puts it, ‘we live in a world of objects and a world of objects lives within us’. Meticulously crafted in both sound and imagery, the resulting short forms an impressive and enigmatic meditation on consciousness.
Director: Conner Griffith
video
Animals and humans
Are zoos and natural history museums born of a desire to understand, or to control?
57 minutes
video
Archaeology
What’s an ancient Greek brick doing in a Sumerian city? An archeological investigation
16 minutes
video
Family life
The migrants missing in Mexico, and the mothers who won’t stop searching for them
21 minutes
video
Virtues and vices
Why Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith were divided on the virtues of vanity
5 minutes
video
Ecology and environmental sciences
The tree frog die-off that sparked a global mystery – and revealed a dark truth
15 minutes
video
Beauty and aesthetics
In art, the sublime is a feedback loop, evolving with whatever’s next to threaten us
9 minutes
video
History
From Afghanistan to Virginia – the Muslims who fought in the American Civil War
22 minutes
video
Family life
One family’s harrowing escape from postwar Vietnam, told in a poignant metaphor
10 minutes
video
Fairness and equality
Visit the small Texas community that lives in the shadow of SpaceX launches
14 minutes