Films — Affairs: Recent Episodes
Monocle
Our global network of film-makers delivers reports on the stories, ideas, cities and politicians shaping the world.
Athens is the hottest capital city in mainland Europe and temperatures continue to rise. That’s why Eleni Myrivili was appointed as the city’s – and continent’s – first chief heat officer last summer. We meet her on Philoppapou hill to hear about how urban design can help to build resilience against rising temperatures. Read more in the July/August issue of Monocle.
In this digital age, do we need more forgiveness and sacrifice in our lives? And where can we look for direction? Monocle Films sat down with Archbishop Elpidophoros of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America to find out how the church strives to address contemporary needs and remain relevant in the Greek society.
Technology is everywhere but that ubiquity can come at a cost to our health, wellbeing and the quality of our conversations. View our manifesto for a more dignified relationship with all things digital and learn to be a little kinder and more cautious online.
Norrbotten in Sweden is blessed with natural resources but more recently has been turning heads because of its growing roster of innovative start-ups. We bear witness to the region's effort to change heavy industries into clean businesses.
The first edition of a Georgian festival that’s bringing together musicians from the Caucasus to discuss their shared future.
From social media to mass surveillance, we know that we are losing the ability to be private, to have lives for us and our children that are off-grid. But we can regain some control. This is how.
We gathered together a peerless group of thinkers, entrepreneurs, reporters and makers for our fifth annual conference. It was a unique mix of debate, dinner and hospitality; we look back at some of the moments that made our sunny 2019 edition such a success.
From the revived Le Corbusier Pavilion to a slick airport extension, we take lessons in living better from this year’s winning city.
What makes cities tick: security, nightlife, infrastructure? Join us on a round-the-world trip of places that we’d like to call home.
Taking an interest and making connections have been at the heart of our unmissable annual gatherings. Tune in for a preview of the Monocle Quality of Life Conference programme, which is packed with thought-provoking ideas and inspiring speakers. This is where you need to be.
Book your ticket here.
Prompted by Brexit, among other things, we’ve embarked on a design update. We’ve changed up the paper stock and fired up presses just outside of Hamburg to keep Monocle at the top of the pile. Join us for a tour of the on-page innovations in the April issue of the magazine.
Many seamen see icebreaking as a career pinnacle. We peek into the snug cabins, well-kitted kitchen and memorabilia-filled gym to see what serving on icebreaker ‘Kontio’ is really like. You can also catch up with episode one here.
Finland has obvious natural advantages that have helped it become an icebreaking powerhouse but the country’s dominance in the field is startling. We travel to the Bay of Bothnia to bear witness to the beginning of the icebreaking season. You can also watch episode two here.
Throughout the long Finnish winter, the country’s ports are kept open by a small but determined fleet of icebreakers. Monocle Films hops on board to see how it’s done.
With its liberal and energetic approach to diplomacy, and a growing influence in art and sport, Belgium has plenty to offer on the world stage.
We join the conga of the top 25 nations that got it right (and wrong) in this most delicate of diplomatic skills.
From a thriving economy to potent soft-power credentials, we unpack what keeps Canada on the up.
Our conference has become a key gathering for people who want to create better cities, homes and lives. Bringing together a global audience who see the bigger picture, it's a unique mix of debates, dinner and hospitality. So how can you get involved? We look back at the moments that made the sunny 2018 edition in Zürich such a success.
Next stop: Madrid. Buy your ticket for the 2019 edition of the conference.
With a cosmopolitan capital, picturesque countryside and improving – albeit fluctuating – security, Lebanon is on the up.
Celebrations have been erupting in Ethiopia and Eritrea as their 20-year conflict comes to an end. We board the first flight between Addis Ababa and Asmara since 1998 to capture the mood as friends and families are finally reunited.
Monocle Films travels to Paris to bear witness to the French capital’s efforts to mitigate terrorism through smart design and architecture.
Our annual ranking is back as we take a fresh look at the best cities to call home. From open-minded mayors and improved transport links to fresh retail openings and investment in public space, find out who’s doing it best.
We take lessons in liveability from the winner of 2018’s Monocle Quality of Life survey. Join us for a tour of the Bavarian capital, where we cover everything from improved infrastructure to new clubs.
This east African anchor boasts world-famous writers and athletes but corruption and flawed infrastructure hold it back.
Monocle editor in chief Tyler Brûlé takes a look at how nations are using the world stage of the Venice Architecture Biennale to reflect their identity and build their brand.
Monocle Films travels to Copenhagen and Mexico City with Audi to see how cities and their citizens are facing the challenge of building sustainable mobility in urban settings.
In our animated series we assess how the Dutch are performing on the world stage as well as at home.
Monocle Films visits Poland's land-forces academy, which is nurturing the next generation of officers to fuel its expanding defence forces.
The soft power of the world’s largest country has taken a hit of late. We look at Russia’s ups and downs in our animated nation survey.
This June we're discovering all this Swiss city has to offer from dips in the lakeside pools to post-event escapes in the mountains. Prepare to be challenged and inspired by a host of thinkers who will be reimagining urban living and exploring our key theme: ‘made in the city’.
Who's in and who's out in 2017? We survey the top 25 nations who got it right (and wrong) in this most delicate of diplomatic skills.
To celebrate this year's soft power survey winner, we visit an emerging roster of budding businesses in Montreal. Canada's innovations minister Navdeep Bains reveals how the country is capitalising on the US's restrictive visa policies.
We travel to the Aegean Coast in Turkey, where tourism may be falling but its beach clubs are buoyed by a homegrown crowd escaping city life and political upheaval.
Our new venture 'Monocle – The Summer Weekly' will hit newsstands on 10 August. We talk to editor in chief Tyler Brûlé and editor Andrew Tuck about the concept, design and power of print.
Available to order now at The Monocle Shop.
The German capital has become home to numerous new businesses and start-ups, attracting people from around the globe. And despite its complex past, it is an outpost of liberalism, possibility and ambition. How can other cities learn from Berlin’s successes – and the challenges it’s faced?
Across an enthralling weekend in Berlin, Monocle’s third annual conference saw us mull over a subject that has preoccupied us since launch: Quality of Life. From urban planning to the health of the media industry, the future of entrepreneurship, hospitality, property and more, we brought together more than 30 expert speakers and 150 delegates for a fresh perspective on the world we live in.
Next stop: Madrid. Buy your ticket for the 2019 edition of the conference.
From Amsterdam to Zürich, find out who's up and who's down in our global ranking of the best cities in the world to live in.
Hotel? Tick. Sun lounger? Tick. Reading material? For four weeks this August our brand-new sunny newspaper will be hitting newsstands in cities and resorts around the world. Kick back with 48 pages of global affairs, comment and reportage, alongside arts, business and design coverage. Tick.
Available to order now at The Monocle Shop.
The flare-up in the Baltic region has seen tensions rising in Sweden. We visit Gotland to see what action the government is taking to fortify the island.
Monocle Films meets the little-known International Ice Patrol that is keeping ships safe as they navigate Atlantic waters.
In this year's Soft Power Survey we look at the hard truths of politics and how a tumultuous year has affected the softer sides of nations. Find out who’s in and who’s out as we count down to the winner.
With its intriguing mix of grand colonial boulevards, art deco façades and buzzing plazas, Uruguay’s capital is emerging as a beacon of creativity and democracy in Latin America. Monocle’s Tomos Lewis and photographer Ana Cuba travelled to Montevideo to find out more about Latam’s most liveable, lovable and liberal capital.
The Czech Republic’s second city was central to European design before falling into a troubled 20th-century sleep. Revival came thanks to research investment but its future may lie in its design heritage.
We pull up a bar stool in Amsterdam at the inaugural Night Mayor Summit to hear from pioneering night watchmen and urban provocateurs in cities around the world.
This city of 13 million nurtures a balance of hi-tech efficiency and traditional neighbourhood values – and it’s a combination that wins the Japanese capital the top spot for a second year running. Our film focuses on its nocturnal delights, from sunset sports to the public-transport system, restaurants to late-night shopping. (You can also buy our Tokyo travel guide, available now at the Monocle Shop.)
The ups and downs of our annual global ranking covering the world's most liveable cities – who's in and who's out?
From diplomacy to government, business to media, how do we create a vibrant nation? To coincide with the publication of “How to Make a Nation: A Monocle Guide”, Steve Bloomfield posed this question to panellists and delegates at our Quality of Life Conference in Vienna.
Monocle's Steve Bloomfield and photographer Zed Nelson travel to São Tomé to report on the corruption and misguided ambition that have been a blight on the fortunes of this tropical African island.
The republic of Nagorno-Karabakh in the Caucasus lies in purgatory. Despite its violent history, peace and PR is seen as the fastest route to normality; we visited just before the flare-up in 2016 to see if it can succeed.
Can good design cut through the babble? Who are the media players that still engage us in print and beyond? How can technology become less demanding and more friendly? And what happens when we stop meeting face to face? This film set up the digital-versus-analogue debate at Monocle’s Quality of Life Conference in Vienna.
Monocle’s second Quality of Life Conference kicked off in Vienna with a set of urban provocations. Here are Monocle’s top 10 city fixes.
How to Make a Nation: A Monocle Guide reveals all you need to make a happy, vibrant and successful nation. It’s a book that delivers inspiration whether you are a new citizen or a freshly elected PM. Monocle films goes behind the scenes to talk to the editors of the book and look inside the covers. Available to order now at The Monocle Shop.
Monocle’s new book, “How to Make a Nation: A Monocle Guide”, explores all the elements you need to make a happy, vibrant and successful country. From designing a better parliament to choosing a flag, creating social capital to taking care of our young and old, this is a book about the small – and big – things that can make our nations work better for everyone who calls them home. Buy now at The Monocle Shop.
As Perth attempts to shed its reputation for being nothing more than a mining city we explore the architecture, art and hospitality initiatives that are shaping this outpost.
Like many sovereign states, the Holy See pursues an active foreign policy. We visit the Vatican's foreign ministry, where world peace is always on the agenda.
To find out more about the Vatican’s foreign ministry, read our article.
While flexing military and economic muscle can yield the most dramatic changes, a nation’s soft power can achieve more worthwhile outcomes. Our sixth annual survey puts the spotlight on the nations that use their gentler sides to gain influence.
Once a byword for all that ailed African nations, Ethiopia is again playing to its strengths – and its booming capital, Addis Ababa, is at the centre of the resurgence.
Warsaw’s dour-from-afar image is dispelling as a new generation of makers, restaurateurs and start-ups help to redefine Poland’s capital.
With its drip-filter coffee, myriad craft shops and quality fishing scene, Hokkaido’s capital reels you in with a laidback lifestyle and a strong stroke of creativity.
What’s it like being a second city? On duty for The Escapist, Robert Bound found Chiang Mai to be an ancient town with a contemporary buzz of bars, bands and boxers, wonderful food and beautiful girls on scooters. It doesn’t feel like it’s in a race with Bangkok, or anywhere else for that matter.
Monocle films visits Porto to discover how one city leader is determined to stop gentrification destroying his city.
Marking the biggest shake-up in the survey’s nine-year history, Monocle’s 2015 Quality of Life survey awards Tokyo the number one city to call home. Rising from second place in 2014, the Japanese capital’s defining paradox – its heart-stopping size and concurrent feeling of peace and quiet – helped it claim the crown.
This year sees the biggest shake-up of our annual Quality of Life list since it launched in 2007. We’ve added 22 new metrics and the new additions have led to some dramatic changes in the order of the top 25 cities. Old favourites have slipped down the list, while we also welcome back one entry. And we have a new number one. We hope, as in previous years, the list provokes a stimulating and lively debate.
Monocle Films visits the national pavilions at the Universal Exposition – hosted this year by the city of Milan – to see how countries use this global stage to grow their businesses and brands.
As the diplomatic wrangle over the Arctic continues, Monocle's Toronto bureau chief Tomos Lewis travelled to the Arctic Council's meeting in Iqaluit in northern Canada to assess the path ahead for this strategically important area.
To draw Monocle's Quality of Life Conference to a close, our editor Andrew Tuck took an in-depth look at how metropolises are changing around the world and poses some fundamental questions to get city planners thinking.
How do we create cities that deliver quality of life for everyone? That can pull in global talent but also take care of locals? Places that are good for a fun night out and also running a new enterprise; that have culture and architecture on the right scale? These were the challenges at the heart of Monocle's Quality of Life Conference in Lisbon. This film shares the questions that we all need to answer.
The people of Trabzon in Turkey are tough, patriotic and proud of their culture, be it guns or folk dancing. We look at the region's tourism industry and find out what's holding it back.
Burma's national broadcaster, MRTV, was once a government mouthpiece. As the country slowly turns to democracy, Monocle films goes behind the scenes to see if it can change with the times.
For many older people in Japan work isn’t just a way to keep busy but also a source of happiness and wellbeing. From a 71-year-old barber to a 100-year-old café owner, Monocle visits Japan’s elderly who are showing little sign of letting up.
With an exhibition of his artwork of war-torn Afghanistan opening at the Imperial War Museum North, artist and illustrator George Butler received a visit from Monocle films. His ink-and watercolour scenes bring a new depth to reportage more often the preserve of combat photographers.
In a war zone, even the hotels are targets. Monocle visits three high-risk hotels, including the Corinthia in Tripoli where nine people were killed in an attack last year.
Monocle travelled to northern Norway for an exclusive insight into Cold Response, Nato's gruelling cold-weather military training exercise.
Serbia's recovery from the disasters of nationalism has been slow but sporting success offers a new vision of what it means to be a Serb. Monocle films travels to Belgrade to meet the future stars of tennis and football.
Military action tends to have a more visceral impact when it comes to forcing through change but it is the subtle influence of soft power that drives the most meaningful resolutions. In our fifth annual survey we gauge the soft-power strengths of our top-ranking nations.
The UN Security Council is the iconic roundtable heart of diplomacy that decides when to act on some of the globe’s most pressing issues. But is the historic body still fit for purpose? We paid a visit to its HQ to find out.
Take a look inside Toronto's iconic City Hall and discover how its creation almost 50 years ago signalled the start of a modern metropolis.
A nation defining its identity - or architectural vandalism? We head to the capital of North Macedonia to investigate the controversial building project.
Finding the measure of a city is as much about the intangibles that light up a community as the infrastructure keeping it going. We've sized up where the balance is best with our annual top 25.
Monocle takes a cinematic look at the top cities in our 2014 Quality of Life Survey. We spotlight Copenhagen at number one, Tokyo as our top Asian city and Vancouver leading the way in North America.
There are few scheduled flights that make more than one stop these days (let alone three) but African Express is making a business and a brand operating one of the last milk runs in civil aviation. Our man in Africa straps into the jump seat for a jaunt around the horn.
We visit the members’ clubs where foreign journalists find a home away from home (and a good supper) in Tokyo, Bangkok and Hong Kong.
Puerto Rico is struggling with a faltering economy and an ongoing argument over its status as a US territory. Monocle meets the residents attempting to rethink the island’s future.
If you’re in the diplomatic game you could do worse than a posting in Rome, where you’ll probably be put up in a palazzo fit for a pope. Monocle pays a visit to the ambassadors of Brazil and France.
They make the news mainly for the number of would-be emigrants attempting to leave their troubled shores. We visit the volatile islands off East Africa to find out how they became a hotbed of political intrigue.
The Swiss are infatuated with their tunnels and underground shelters - and have more of them than any other country in the world. Monocle's David Michon and photographer Beat Schweizer explored their hidden appeal.
Kashgar may look like just another Chinese boomtown but the city is riven with ethnic tensions. Monocle visits a frontier where tradition is clashing with change.
The results are in for Monocle's annual Soft Power Survey. We have once again collaborated with the Institute for Government to come up with 30 countries who best attract favour from other nations through culture, sport, cuisine, design, diplomacy and beyond. Here are the top 10 for 2013.
Monocle climbs aboard Alaska’s 50-year-old state-run ferry system. It's more than just a mode of transport for its users: it acts as a vital link to the rest of the world and an icon of the state’s beautiful solitude.
Somalia is a failed state but its airport, once a no-go zone, could offer a glimmer of hope. Writer Tristan McConnell and photographer Pete Muller illustrate the change.
From Mali to Martinique, every four years the best athletes from the French-speaking world gather for the Francophone Games. Monocle’s Steve Bloomfield reports from Nice on the event, which to France is about more than simply sport.
Smart new architecture and public transport infrastructure have turned Medellín into a success story. Monocle's video journalist Gabriel Leigh meets the people charting its course.
Monocle joins Norway's peace and reconciliation unit as they bring the Colombian government and FARC rebels to the negotiating table.
Since the Arab Spring gathered pace two years ago, Morocco has avoided the violent upheaval of its neighbours. Andrew Mueller and photographer Yoann Stoeckel travelled to Rabat to discover why.
They might not be slick or smart, they might be a bit dusty in the corners or a nightmare to navigate, and they won't be making our top 25 most liveable cities list any time soon. But who cares? One thing they are not, is boring. This is our list of this year's five most loveable cities.
In 2013, Copenhagen was the number one city in Monocle's annual Quality of Life Survey – Gabriel Leigh filmed this report last year.
Now, in 2014, Copenhagen has once again been crowned the winning city. To watch Monocle's 2014 Quality of Life film, click here
This June saw the second annual New Cities Summit, this year held in São Paulo. From mayors to tech entrepreneurs, city-lovers gathered in Brazil’s business capital to take on some of our greatest urban challenges. Monocle was there to broadcast live from the Summit at the Oca Pavilion at Ibirapuera Park.
Our foreign editor, Steve Bloomfield, and photographer Sebastian Meyer visit Sulaymaniyah, the cultural capital of Iraqi Kurdistan to meet the artists, journalists and musicians putting the city on the map.
With the city’s bid to host the 2020 Olympics in full swing, the fabric of Istanbul is shaping up. We meet the cultural and commercial players flexing their muscles.
Hong Kong’s east side is a former industrial neighbourhood undergoing a renaissance. We explore the warehouses that are now home to stores, galleries and innovative start-ups moving away from downtown.
The West Bengali city is at a crossroads. On the one hand Kolkata wants to re-establish the look and feel of its Raj glory days. On the other, it wants to brand itself as a contemporary culture and business gate-way open to the east.
The new Sami parliament building in Finland is a proud symbol of how far the indigenous people of Europe's north have come over the past century, from being a culture struggling for survival to a thriving community.