Short Cuts

By BBC Radio 4Society & Culture Documentary

Short Cuts episodes

January 30, 2024 Roots
Josie Long presents short documentaries that go back to the start. The musician Lucinda Chua traces the journey of a rose, a connection is forged between a young woman now and a trapeze artist on New Year's Eve 1942, and a touching personal archive illuminates the journey of a word.
Muscles and Mysteries
Produced by Teresa Kristoffersson
First Words
Produced by Kalli Anderson
Featuring the voices of Kalli's parents, Kathy Hunt and Lance Anderson, as well as Kalli's husband, Zack Finkelstein, and their two children, aged 12 and 8.
Reclaiming The Rose
Produced, narrated and music by Lucinda Chua
Chinese Narration by XiaoQiao
Poetry in English and Chinese by He Sun
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
30 min
January 23, 2024 In Dreams
A couple looks for each other in their dreams, a research facility delves into the otherworldly, and a philosopher imagines a flow of time set to the rhythm of our rivers - Josie Long presents short documentaries that emerge from the dreams of others.
River Time
Featuring Jonathon Keats
Produced by Nadia Mehdi
Haunted
Featuring Linda Fleishman
Produced by Elizabeth Friend
Darling, Are You Dreaming?
Featuring Jules and Vital
Produced by Eloise Stevens
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
30 min
January 16, 2024 Instructions
A pamphlet from the 1980s illuminates the world we live in now, a musical invitation for your domestic space, and some dazzling canine choreography for your ears. Josie Long presents short documentaries based around instructions.
How to Listen... including How Not To, How You Ought To, and How You Won't (Extract)
Written by Stephen Potter and Joyce Grenfell
Produced by Stephen Potter
Originally broadcast on BBC Third Programme in 1946
Hot Dogs!
Presented by Alan Smith
Produced by Steve Urquhart
Originally broadcast on Alan Smith's Mid Morning Show, BBC Radio Cumbria in 1999
Hell Rubs and Sobs
Produced by Sami El-Enany
How To Look 30 When You're 30
Produced by Jesse Lawson
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
29 min
January 09, 2024 Minis
The moment of time before a camera shutter closes, a symphony of ums reveals a partner's untruths, and two women linked by a phantom thread reflect on their changing bodies. Josie Long presents even shorter short documentaries.
Is This An Image?
Produced by Jon Tjhia
Death from Above
Written and read by Joe Dunthorne
Body of Work
Featuring the voices of writer Marleen Kruithof and cinematographer Babette Mangolte
Music by Nicola Mecca
Produced by Georgia Walker
What's in an Um?
Produced by Talia Augustidis
Charon
Composed, produced and performed by Jamie Payne
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
30 min
November 14, 2023 Archival Imaginings
Liminal prose and cryptic hotlines. Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures navigating our relationship and imaginations to history collecting.
The Flight of Sankofa
Produced by Weyland Mckenzie-Witter
Featuring Lisa Anderson, the Director of the Black Cultural Archives, Dr Etienne Jospeh of Decolonising the Archive and Christopher West the inaugural curator for the Black diaspora, John Hay Library, Brown University, who recently curated an exhibition using Brown University’s Mumia Abu-Jamal collection.
Xenoglossia
Produced by Kamikaze Jones
Fish & Chips
(best listened to with headphones)
Produced by Abira Hussein and Olani Ewunnet
Recorded with Sue Bowerman
Featuring the voices of Somali Aunties from London
Special thanks to Alan Archer-Boyd, and Whose Knowledge?
Produced by Axel Kacoutié
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
30 min
November 07, 2023 Heart's Desire
Getting lost in childhood longings, the search for the home we carry inside ourselves and exploring true sexual desire in a world shaped by media and societal pressures. Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures that explore our desires.
American Glove Cafe
Featuring Conor O’Toole and Fán
Written and produced by Conor O’Toole
Are We There Yet?
Featuring Angeliki Androutsopoulos, Garth Davis, Amira and Danita, plus recordings by Mary Hufford for The Library of Congress.
Produced by Jaye Kranz
Original commissioned and produced for Constellations podcast
Desire Shapes
Featuring Poppy
Produced by Phoebe McIndoe
Produced by Andrea Rangecroft
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
29 min
October 31, 2023 Creature Features
From a creature that leaps in the darkness of your basement to a fish that drains the life force of its partner - Josie Long presents creature features and creepy crawly short documentaries for Halloween.
In Spirit
Featuring James Maclaine, Senior Curator of Fish, at the Natural History Museum, London
Produced and sound designed by Meera Kumar
The Seventh Sense
Thanks to Emma Rathbone, Gaye Williams, Ben Pagac, Mary Jane Epps, and everybody who shared a camel cricket story
Music by Cue Shop, Big Lazy, and Blue Dot Sessions
Produced by Jesse Dukes
For the Pigeons
Produced by John Luke Roberts
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
30 min
October 24, 2023 The Soil
A remnant from the Cold War becomes an accidental haven for wildlife, a poet and a tree surgeon search for the roots of a metaphor, and a musician searches for an anchor to home. Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures about the ground beneath your feet.
Always Moving
Cello performed by Joe Reynolds
Engineered by Yuri Shibuichi
Composed and produced by Tendertwin (Bilge Nur Yilmaz)
Memorial Landscape
Featuring Kai Frobel
Translator Jana Kosok
Produced by Tom Phillips
Poet / Tree
A conversation between Matthew Reid and Raymond Antrobus
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
30 min
October 17, 2023 Into the World
Visions and out of body experiences during birth and a name that stretches back through time - Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures about the experience of coming into the world.
Transition
Produced by Kalli Anderson and apè Aliermo
Featuring excerpts from SIMULA, an 8.2-channel sound installation by apè Aliermo and mixed and mastered by Rose Bolton.
This composition includes sound recorded during three anonymous births and electromagnetic sound recorded in a hospital during one of the births.
The voices you hear are Redzi Bernard, Becky Kenna, Amy Macfarlane and Andrea Gummo.
Hope is the thing with feathers
Produced by Nanna Hauge Kristensen
Originally broadcast, in a different version, on BBC Radio 3's Between the Ears
Loweza Ayazi
Featuring Nomkhubulwane Mnisi
Produced by Kagiso Mnisi
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
29 min
October 10, 2023 Meeting Myself Coming Back
Notes to Self and Sonic Symmetry. Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures exploring what it looks like coming back to yourself.
The News
Produced by Jess Shane
Featuring Jennifer Mills
Drawn Onward
Produced by Alan Goffinski and Sarita Bhatt
Music, Mix and Sound Design by Alan Goffinski
Man to Boy
Produced by Christina Hardinge and Jack Miguel
Featuring Jacob Kelly
Music by Samuel Mumford
Produced by Axel Kacoutié
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
30 min