Last night I watched two episodes in a documentary series about a brief history of cars. In the first documentary we see a discussion about the history of cars from the 19th century to modern day with the use of archive footage. In the second we see how the car helped with consumerism. In the third I think they discuss the mental health consequences of cars.
What makes this documentaries series interesting is that it goes into a lot of depth, without any sensationalism. It uses interesting archive footage to see how cars have gone from a village curiousity that appeared every so often, to cities that were built for, and around cars.
Relevant
Such documentaries are interesting, especially today. As cities, towns, and entire countries, move away from cars, back to bikes, public transport and more, so understanding the social context of how cars came to takeover, and then decline again is interesting.
Valencia Wrecks
When I drove through Valencia on my way to the Costa Blanca I saw cars on shelves. These were the cars that were damaged by the flashflood from a few weeks ago. Cars are integral to many towns, villages and more.
At first I watched the first episode on YouTube before switching to the Arte app on tv. I will watch the final episode this evening.
Time Limited
I find it interesting that these ARTE documentaries are available for a limited time for streaming. This documentary series is available until mid February and then it will be archived. I would have expected it to be available “forever” but ARTE prefers to limit what can be watched at once. This makes choosing easier, but it also pushes us to watch, while things are available. If it had been available forever I would have stopped watching last night, and watched something else.
i do appreciate such content being made available on YouTube. It’s easy to find what I call “User Generated Crap” but not so easy to find well produced professional content. Too often the recommendations are “lowest common denominator rubbish” rather than good quality content.
ARTE Content is by language
Content is made available according to language. If you look at what is available in French you will get French contnent, and if you look in English you will find other content. It’s good to browse between languages to see which content is available and interesting to you.
And Finally
It is useful to keep diversity in what we watch. It is good to watch what German and French documentary makers produce to get a different, sometimes more global, or European perspective. It is also to watch a documentary that is not sensationalist.
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