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The Smartphone

   2019    Technology
Dial in to the fascinating history of the smartphone, from its roots in Morse Code to the latest models. Discover how the next generation of Smartphones will allow us to communicate through them just by thinking.
For most of history, we were isolated from the rest of humankind, but the urge to communicate with one another was so powerful that it changed how we interact and gave us a new interface with the world. The story of how we got here is full of the most astonishing twists and unlikely turns to create a device that put the whole world in our hands, the smartphone.
Series: Breakthrough: The Ideas That Changed the World

The Sound and the Fury: A Century of Modern Music. Wrecking Ball

   2013    Art
It begins by examining the shift in the language and sound of music from the melodies and harmonies of giants such as Mozart, Haydn and Brahms into the fragmented, abstract, discordant sound of the most radical composers of the new century - Schoenberg, Webern, Stravinsky and beyond. It examines how this new music was a response to the huge upheaval in the world at the start of the 20th century, with its developments in technology, science, modern art and the tumult of the First World War. Featuring performances of some of the key works of the period, performed by the London Sinfonietta, members of the Aurora Orchestra and composer and pianist Timothy Andres, the story of this episode in music history is brought to life through the contributions of the biggest names in modern classical music, among them Steve Reich, John Adams, Michael Tilson Thomas, Pierre Boulez, George Benjamin and Alex Ross, music critic of the New Yorker.
Series: The Sound and the Fury

The Spark of Life

       Science
The final part reveals how our knowledge of cells has brought us to the brink of one of the most important moments in history. Scientists are close to repeating what has happened only once in four billion years - the creation of a new life form.
Series: The Cell

The Spirit of forty five

       Culture
The film is focused on and celebrating the radical changes in postwar Britain under the Labour government of Clement Attlee, which came to power in 1945. Relying primarily on archive footage and interviews, and without a narrative voiceover, the documentary recounts the endemic poverty in prewar Britain, the sense of optimism that followed victory in World War II and the subsequent expansion of the welfare state, founding of the National Health Service and nationalisation of significant parts of the UK's economy.
The film documents the extent to which these achievements, as the filmmaker Ken Loach sees them, have since been subject to attack in the decades that followed, particularly under the Conservative governments of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s

The Spoils

       History
Rejected by Vorenus and Eirene and racked by guilt for the killing of Eirene's fiancé out of a jealous rage, Pullo has sunk to working as an assassin for the gangster Erastes. When Pullo gets arrested for killing one of Caesar's popular opponents, he condemns himself by refusing to name who hired him, despite Octavian's attempts to defend him.
Meanwhile, Vorenus finds his new official duties as magistrate tedious, especially when he gets caught between Caesar and the demands made by veterans' spokesman Mascias.
Series: Rome

The Square (Al Midan)

   2013    History
A group of Egyptian revolutionaries battle leaders and regimes, risking their lives to build a new society. The Egyptian Revolution has been an ongoing rollercoaster over the past two and a half years. Through the news, we only get a glimpse of the bloodiest battle, an election, or a million man march. At the beginning of July 2013, we witnessed the second president deposed within the space of three years. The Square is an immersive experience, transporting the viewer deeply into the intense emotional drama and personal stories behind the news. It is the inspirational story of young people claiming their rights, struggling through multiple forces: from a brutal army dictatorship willing to crush protesters with military tanks, to a corrupt Muslim Brotherhood using mosques to manipulate voters. Directed by Jehane Noujaim, the film was nominated for the Academy Award and also won three Emmy Awards.