Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
Lynzy Billing’s sister and mother were killed in 1992 when, amid the Afghan civil war, her home was raided by soldiers in the night. Orphaned when her father also died in the war, Billing was adopted, eventually settled in Britain and later returned to Afghanistan as an investigative journalist. Based on a 2019 article by Billing, this animated short documents how nighttime raids proliferated in Afghanistan following the US invasion of the country in 2001, even as the tactic became controversial for killing hundreds of Afghan civilians. The result of more than three years of investigations by Billing, the film profiles both local perpetrators and victims of these US-backed raids, and finds a still-flowing river of tragedy and trauma in their wake.
video
Language and linguistics
Closed captions suck. Here’s one artist’s inventive project to make them better
8 minutes
video
Thinkers and theories
A rare female scholar of the Roman Empire, Hypatia lived and died as a secular voice
5 minutes
video
Anthropology
Why are witchcraft accusations so common across human societies?
4 minutes
video
Subcultures
Drop into London’s eclectic skate scene, where newbies and old-timers find community
5 minutes
video
Technology and the self
A deepfake porn victim confronts the pain of having her likeness stolen and vandalised
19 minutes
video
Wellbeing
Born in China, Zee seeks a gender-affirming life in the American Midwest
11 minutes
video
Rituals and celebrations
A whale hunt is an act of prayer for an Inuit community north of the Arctic Circle
8 minutes
video
Rituals and celebrations
A beginner’s guide to a joyful Persian tradition of spring renewal and rebirth
3 minutes
video
Politics and government
How it looked to Afghan women to see the Taliban return to power
33 minutes