Issues and ideas

AS YOU WERE: CULTURE AFTER 9/11

Lee Siegel — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 15:06:04 +0000

A decade ago, critics predicted that September 11th would change how America thinks and feels. Lee Siegel argues that it's as restless as ever ... read more »

THE Q&A: JAMES MARSH, FILM DIRECTOR

Simon Willis — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 15:55:23 +0000

James Marsh is a British film-maker drawn to stories of radical experiments. His 2008 documentary “Man on Wire”, for example, told the story of Philippe Petit's notorious tightrope walk on a wire strung between the towers of the World Trade Centre in 1974. “It was out of the human scale," says Petit when he sees the towers for the first time. “Impossible.” The film ended up winning the Academy Award for best documentary.

“Project Nim”, Marsh’s new film, follows the fortunes of another attempt at transcendance. In 1973 Herbert Terrace, a psychologist from New York’s Columbia University, set out to teach a young chimpanzee named Nim how to speak using sign-language. The film, built from archival footage of Nim’s education and interviews with the oddball humans who raised him, is a moving portrait of the life and times of a young chimpanzee fostered and then abandoned by a series of masters. It also manages to be a powerfully unsettling study of our own animal instincts, a narrative driven by lust and ambition as well as a scientific quest. More Intelligent Life spoke to James Marsh at London’s Bloomsbury Hotel.

Why did you want to make “Project Nim”? read more »

THE CUBAN GRAPEVINE

James Scudamore — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 21:47:28 +0000

James Scudamore, a regular visitor, goes back to see how Havana is changing ... read more »

WOMEN IN CHINA: A SOCIAL REVOLUTION

Hilary Spurling — Tue, 31 May 2011 11:31:55 +0000

Women in China have long been silenced or sidelined—if they weren’t smothered at birth. But now a booming economy has transformed their lives. Hilary Spurling sees the changes for herself ... read more »

SHOULD WE TEACH NATIONAL HISTORY?

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 23:32:01 +0000

In an age of global communications, does it still make sense to talk about our national past? Patrick Dillon sorts out a knotty issue ... read more »

APPLE V GOOGLE

Robert Lane Greene — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 17:04:29 +0000

One is a gadget-maker, the other a search engine—but now they are at odds. Robert Lane Greene on a clash of cultures ... read more »

SONO UN VENEZIANO

Robert Butler — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 05:19:26 +0000

Venice is in peril and so are we. Maybe some pizza will help, writes Robert Butler in his latest Going Green column ... read more »

THE PERIPATETIC PARENT

Emma Williams — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 18:31:48 +0000

Along with her husband and their four children, Emma Williams has lived in New York, Jerusalem, Senegal and now Belgrade. Their travels have had some unexpected repercussions for family life ... read more »

WORKING STIFFS

Natasha Lennard — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 20:36:09 +0000

Funerals for medical cadavers have become increasingly common of late. Natasha Lennard investigates the practice ... read more »

BOLIVIA'S FAITHFUL MOTORISTS

Simon Wroe — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:27:08 +0000

Over a thousand people die on Bolivia's roads every year, largely because the drivers are a little crazy. Simon Wroe heads to the country to investigate ... read more »