Culture / Cultural Comment Archives | Animation Short Films

Pandemics Go Hand in Hand with Conspiracy Theories

In 1793, yellow fever descended upon Philadelphia, and President George Washington fled the disease-ridden capital with the rest of the new national government in tow. About ten per cent of the city’s population died. The following year, an outbreak of the same pestilence hit New Haven, followed by reports of several hundred fever deaths...

Demystifying the Golden State Warriors

One revelation of life without sports is that I miss the games less than I thought I would—there are only so many ways for a team to win or lose. What I actually miss is all the ambient, extracurricular stuff that fills the rest of the calendar: the wheeling and dealing, the rumors and...

Reading Derek Jarman Is Strangely Consoling

Earlier this month, a bit of good news from the U.K.: Prospect Cottage, once the seaside retreat of the late Derek Jarman, has been acquired by the Art Fund, an arts charity. Jarman, the filmmaker and artist, bought the cottage, in Dungeness, Kent, in 1986, the same year in which he tested H.I.V.-positive. He...