hometowns

There’s something shameful I must admit about myself: I’m a native of Miami, Florida. It’s where I spent the first 18 years of my life growing up, and even after leaving, I look back on my time a lot. South Florida was my home, and feeling its vibe is rare unless I visit family. That is, until I saw the long-anticipated trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI. I’ve watched it more than a few times now, and my only thought is, “Yeah, that’s Florida.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdBZY2fkU-0 Does it capture absolutely…

Home is clearly where the art is for Bacurau director Kleber Mendonça Filho, whose childhood apartment is the locus of the first part of this poetic but somewhat bemused memoir-essay about place, cinema and time. Twice renovated by his historian mother, the apartment was the site of his first early imaginative forays behind the camera, and appeared in his first two features, Neighbouring Sounds from 2012 and, four years later, Aquarius. Filho’s native city of Recife has also been subject to similar remodellings, as shown…

America's tech giants are taking a modern-day crash course in India's ancient caste system, with Apple emerging as an early leader in policies to rid Silicon Valley of a rigid hierarchy that's segregated Indians for generations. Apple, the world's biggest listed company, updated its general employee conduct policy about two years ago to explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of caste, which it added alongside existing categories such as race, religion, gender, age and ancestry. The inclusion of the new category,…