Okinawa is known to many as a postcard perfect paradise. In 2019, before the pandemic stopped travel, the island welcomed 10 million tourists. But despite mass tourism, Okinawa is also the poorest prefecture in Japan.
Tag Archives: cultural
Split: A Divided America
Split: A Divided America is a powerful and provocative documentary that journeys across the country to confront one of the most pressing issues of our time: the growing political and cultural divide in the United States. Directed by emmy-nominated filmmaker Kelly Nyks’, the film blends emotional, street-level interviews with sharp insights from influential figures such as Noam Chomsky, Tucker Carlson, Jesse Jackson, Al Franken, Amy Goodman, Nicholas Kristof, and Robert Putnam, offering a panoramic view of the forces fueling polarization. Rather than delivering partisan answers, Split presents a bold, unfiltered look at how we got here—and what it might take to heal. The New York Times calls it “a sobering, clear-eyed look at the forces pulling America apart,” while The Washington Post praises it as “a vital conversation-starter in an age of echo chambers.” PocketReviews raves: “Minutes in, I was hooked… any documentary that gets you talking… is a documentary that is doing its job… FOUR STARS!” Urgent, engaging, and deeply human, Split is essential viewing for anyone seeking to understand the soul of a divided nation.
The Pretendians
In Canada, a number of public figures have made the front pages for one reason: each has been alleged to be a ´Pretend Indian´. In other words, someone who claims distant indigenous identity but upon deeper scrutiny has been accused of stealing jobs and opportunities from real natives.
But why would someone fake an indigenous identity?
That question is the premise of The Pretendians, as we cross Canada revealing what really lies behind this explosive issue. We go on the hunt for knock-off west coast indigenous art, witness an explosion of dubious Status Indian Claims to get cheap fuel, and unpack where the claims of blood-quantum come from (that idea that one drop of Indian blood is enough to claim indigeneity). We meet people truly seeking, and asking, if they are indigenous – or not – and meets a university teacher fighting Pretendian persecution.
Propaganda
Controversial to its core, this hard-hitting anti-Western propaganda film, which looks at the influence of American visual and consumption culture on the rest of the world from a North Korean perspective, has been described as ‘either a damning indictment of 21st Century culture or the best piece of propaganda in a generation.’
Propaganda signals the birth of a new genre-bending generation of film maker. Using the ‘fake North Korean propaganda’ found-footage device, Slavko Martinov first parodies its language and stylings, before targeting the mountain of hypocrisies and contradictions that make up the modern Western narrative. In doing so, Propaganda delivers a devastating blow to those who might be quick to laugh at ‘backward’ ideologies before considering how 21st century political and cultural trends have weakened any claims to the moral high ground.
India’s Sex Toy Revolution
Sex Toys – are they legal? Should you be playing with them? Would your doctor recommend them? We visit a roadside sex toy stall, take part in a focus-group for an online sex toy company, and meet experts who give us the lowdown on everything you would need to know as a (first time) sex toy owner or even as a connoisseur of sexual aids.
We meet people at the centre of India’s sex positive revolution through its most intimate obsessions and explicit moments. Host Rytasha Rathore dives into sexuality of modern India probing at uncomfortable conversations that continue only behind closed doors.
The Psychedelic Boom
The UK is experiencing a psychedelic renaissance. Young people in England and Wales are taking three times more LSD than they did five years ago, scientists at top universities are claiming hallucinogens can revolutionise how we treat mental illness and the use of magic mushrooms has been increasing by around 40 percent year on year.
Music festivals are awash with recreational trippers, but we also see how psychedelics have become a new health craze by attending a shamanic magic mushroom ceremony in which 50 people trip out in a London warehouse. Despite studies showing that psychedelics are some of the safest drugs you can take, we meet one person who spilled a bottle of acid on himself and never stopped hallucinating.
What is making this new generation of drug takers so interested in self-transformation? And as the self-help trend grows, what happens when thousands of people start trying to solve their mental health problems themselves by taking powerful hallucinogens in unregulated settings?