Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
In her short film The Lost Sound, the Australian filmmaker Steffie Yee playfully interrogates how language evolves, causing words – and even sounds – to disappear within cultures between generations. Featuring the contemporary Japanese poet Hiromi Itō reading from her own poem ‘On Ç’, Yee’s brief animation features an unseen woman struggling to bequeath a fictional lost sound to an animated character – to no avail. A second-generation immigrant herself, Yee’s resonance with the source material permeates the short, which brings Itō’s words to life via an idiosyncratic blend of percussive, hypnotic music and an eclectic visual style.
Director: Steffie Yee
video
Stories and literature
Robert Frost’s poetic reflection on youth, as read in his unforgettable baritone
5 minutes
video
Sex and sexuality
After a sextortion scam, Eugene conducts an unblushing survey of masturbation
14 minutes
video
Film and visual culture
‘Bags here are rarely innocent’ – how filmmakers work around censorship in Iran
8 minutes
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