(2) This is Indian Relay, North America's original extreme sport. A World-Famous Pastry Chef's Heartbreaking Regret. The impulse to strive for excellence is something that was instilled in Milton Abel II from childhood.
Growing up in Kansas City, the famed jazz musician Milton Abel Sr. immersed his son in the vibrant world of live music, where he was exposed to dedicated artists like his father. When the younger Abel moved to New York and embarked on his dream of working in the culinary arts, it only followed that he would pursue that path with fervor. “My dad was the best at what he did,” says Milton Abel II in Ben Proudfoot’s short documentary That’s My Jazz. “So it was important for me to carry on that legacy, and try to be a part of an elite few in whatever profession I chose.” In the film, premiering on The Atlantic today, Abel reflects upon his ascension to the upper echelons of the restaurant world. “I was totally enamored with how his story inextricably tied music and cuisine together,” Proudfoot told me. When Abel Sr. passed away, Abel II was forced to reevaluate his priorities. What Happens When Your Town Dries Up? California’s Central Valley is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the United States—it yields a third of the produce grown in the country and is the world’s largest supplier of canned tomatoes.
But a seven-year drought has threatened the viability of the valley’s farmland, and many rural communities have suffered greatly as a result. Joris Debeij’s short documentary When a Town Runs Dry offers a window into the front lines of the water crisis. In the film, which is based on Diana Marcum’s Pulitzer Prize–winning reporting, we hear from several residents of Stratford, a farming community in which much of the land was decimated by the drought. “Being able to work with the ground and with nature has been very satisfying,” says one farmer, “but of late, when the water becomes scarce, we don’t get a lot of help from the people who want the food that we grow.” The ‘Most Dangerous and Volatile’ Place in the World. “It is a paradise that has been set ablaze.”
That is how Masood Hussain, a renowned Kashmiri artist, describes his homeland. The transmogrification is reflected in his paintings. While Hussain once painted the idyllic rural landscapes of his childhood, his artwork now depicts the reality of Kashmir—a place of perpetual conflict, where normal life has been upended by death, forced disappearances, and the omnipresence of armed forces. The decades-long struggle between India and separatist militants has transformed Kashmir into the most militarized zone in the world. Gone are the flowing rivers and Himalayan mountains of Hussain’s early art; a recent piece portrays a child with no eyes, invoking the victims of the Indian army’s pellet-gun attacks last year. Hussain is one of four artists profiled in Niyantha Shekar and Mukti Krishan’s short documentary, Art in the Time of Conflict. Shekar and Krishan would not be able to make a film like Art in the Time of Conflict today. 'The Arrest': An Account of 5 Days in Jail.
Chasity Hunter was on a Tinder date when she was pulled over for a routine traffic stop.
The police ran her ID and found an outstanding warrant. “I didn’t know at the time that there were warrants out for me—I just had school tomorrow,” Hunter says. Later, she discovered that her aunt had falsely accused her of stealing a laptop. In Kira Akerman’s powerful short documentary The Arrest, Hunter recounts, in harrowing detail, what happened next. For five days, she was held in the Plaquemines Parish jail in New Orleans, where she was systematically dehumanized. After four days in jail, Hunter describes experiencing an overwhelming loss of control over her life, which led her to attempt to take extreme measures.
Eventually, a hastily-formed coalition of Hunter’s teachers and mentors raised Chasity’s bail and came to support her at court. (1) Social-Media Companies Threaten Democracy. (1) Mass Incarceration, Visualized. (1) Housing Through the Centuries. (1) The 'Most Elusive' Man in North America. The World's Happiest Animal. The Neuroscience of Depression in the Brain: An Animated Short Film. This Muslim Family Would Have Been Separated by the Travel Ban click 2x. All Cats Go to Heaven. Will Tangier Island Residents Become Some of the First U.S. Climate Refugees? Easter Island/Rapa Nui Documentary Film. Dark Matter, Explained by Janna Levin - The Atlantic. Joan Baez Performs 'The President Sang Amazing Grace' in New Animated Video - The Atlantic. 'The Road Not Taken' Poem By Robert Frost is Widely Misread - The Atlantic.
The Myth of the 99% and the New American Class Divide - The Atlantic. The Best 71-Second Animation You'll Watch Today. How Russia Hacked America—And Why It Will Happen Again - The Atlantic.