The New York Times

The internet is made up of hundreds of cables crossing the floors and the canyons of the earth’s oceans. So what happens when the cables snap? James Glanz, an investigative reporter for The New York Times, explains what could go wrong with subsea internet cables and how these cables get fixed.

Video by James Glanz, Christina Shaman, James Surdam and Alexandra Ostasiewicz/ The New York Times

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Whether it's reporting on conflicts abroad and political divisions at home, or covering the latest style trends and scientific developments, New York Times video journalists provide a revealing and unforgettable view of the world. It's all the news that's fit to watch.

Film and text by Faye Tsakas (https://fayetsakas.com/): Whenever I browse social media, I see advice and products for self-improvement — a deluge of elusive promises tethered to consumer goods. How to look more angular or more toned, feel more energized, age backward. Capitalism and modern technology have mixed to create an internet world where users are transformed into brands. As a filmmaker, I’m drawn to document this culture.

I first came across Peyton and Lyla, two preteen sisters and influencers on Instagram two years ago. (Since they are minors, their last names are withheld to protect their privacy.) From their rural Alabama home under their mother’s watchful gaze, they hawk fashion and beauty products to tens of thousands of online fans around the world. Every day, packages arrive at their doorstep for them to unbox and try out — deluxe makeup sets, floral dresses, exercise bikes — all free, as if delivered by a shopping mall Santa.

With their parents’ permission, I began filming the sisters’ daily lives as influencers; in this short documentary, “Christmas, Every Day,” they shift between performance and reality. Peyton and Lyla, who were 11 and 12 at the time of filming, see themselves as instilling confidence, positivity and a girl-power attitude for other girls — ideas that I wanted to explore within the broader context of modern consumerism.

Whether as creators or viewers or consumers, children are spending more time online at younger and younger ages. What kid wouldn’t want a stream of likes and gifts, waking up to the feeling of, as Peyton and Lyla’s parents put it, “Christmas, every day”? What does it mean to be participants in a larger social media system that encourages and even demands certain behaviors from its users, especially women and girls?

In a time of immense wealth disparity, influencer culture has created a more fantastical kind of American dream. (Perhaps that’s why nearly one-third of preteens say becoming an influencer is a career goal.) Seeing the field’s potential for a steady income — not to mention the prestige of an ever-growing follower count — some parents encourage it. I sought to go behind the scenes of this new creator economy with curiosity and a focus on the girls’ experiences, aiming to allow viewers to come to their own conclusions.

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Op-Docs is a forum for short, opinionated documentaries by independent filmmakers. Learn more about Op-Docs and how to submit to the series. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (@NYTopinion).

Every year, millions of Americans bounce around the country like electrons, moving from one state to another. But there are patterns in this chaos, and one of the clearest in recent decades is that Americans are moving from blue states to red states. As the Opinion video above explains, that has some big political implications for the Democrats.

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Whether it's reporting on conflicts abroad and political divisions at home, or covering the latest style trends and scientific developments, New York Times video journalists provide a revealing and unforgettable view of the world. It's all the news that's fit to watch.

The suspect who was charged with murder in the fatal shooting of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, is a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland family. Maria Cramer, a New York Times reporter covering crime, describes what else we know.

Video by Maria Cramer, Karen Hanley and Rebecca Suner

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Whether it's reporting on conflicts abroad and political divisions at home, or covering the latest style trends and scientific developments, New York Times video journalists provide a revealing and unforgettable view of the world. It's all the news that's fit to watch.

In a matter of days, Syria’s capital — once the stronghold of Bashar al-Assad’s government — became the epicenter of a new chapter in the country’s history after opposition forces overran the city. Christina Goldbaum, a New York Times correspondent, traveled to Damascus to find out how people were reacting to the sudden breakthrough in the 13-year civil war as more than five decades of brutal rule by the Assad dynasty came to an end.

Video by Christina Goldbaum, Nikolay Nikolov, Christina Shaman and Daniel Berehulak/The New York Times

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Whether it's reporting on conflicts abroad and political divisions at home, or covering the latest style trends and scientific developments, New York Times video journalists provide a revealing and unforgettable view of the world. It's all the news that's fit to watch.

This video contains spoilers for the movie “The Piano Lesson.”

In the August Wilson play “The Piano Lesson,” its characters must wrestle, metaphorically, with a ghost from their past. In the film adaptation, directed by Malcolm Washington and streaming on Netflix, that confrontation becomes more literal.

In this scene, the climax, Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler) takes a seat at the piano that she has been avoiding playing for the entire film, a piano that has deep historical meaning in her family. She plays it in an effort to conjure up her ancestors and exorcise the ghost that her brother, Boy Willie (John David Washington), is fighting upstairs.

“We have all of our themes converge here,” the director Malcolm Washington said in his narration of the sequence, “the idea of shadow and light, of truth and secrets, and confronting the deepest parts of ourself to get through and transcend.”

Washington said that he had “wanted to tell a story of Black spiritual practice in America.” He used iconography from Black Southern Christian tradition and West African spiritual tradition: “The idea that you can call on your ancestors,” he said, “and that there’s a boundaryless relationship between the living and the dead.”

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Whether it's reporting on conflicts abroad and political divisions at home, or covering the latest style trends and scientific developments, New York Times video journalists provide a revealing and unforgettable view of the world. It's all the news that's fit to watch.

Check in or carry on? Amy Virshup, the Travel editor at The New York Times, and Christine Chung, a Times reporter covering consumer travel, have a debate.

Video by Amy Virshup, Christine Chung, Gabriel Blanco, Karen Hanley, Laura Salaberry and Farah Otero-Amad

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Whether it's reporting on conflicts abroad and political divisions at home, or covering the latest style trends and scientific developments, New York Times video journalists provide a revealing and unforgettable view of the world. It's all the news that's fit to watch.

As you scroll through the internet, you’ve probably noticed the same problem Kirby Ferguson has: “Everything looks the same, sounds the same, is the same.” In the Opinion Video above, the filmmaker argues that our culture often appears to be plagued by a dearth of creativity. But what if, beneath the surface of mainstream culture, there was a world of wild imagination waiting to be discovered — if only a powerful force would stop suppressing it?

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Whether it's reporting on conflicts abroad and political divisions at home, or covering the latest style trends and scientific developments, New York Times video journalists provide a revealing and unforgettable view of the world. It's all the news that's fit to watch.

The song “Popular” from “Wicked” has secured a firm place in pop culture in the 21 years since the show opened on Broadway. So how to make the song fresh for the film adaptation?

This was one of the major challenges for the film’s director, Jon M. Chu. His formula was a little practical effects, a little razzmatazz and a whole lot of Ariana Grande.

The scene has Glinda (Grande) working to improve the image and perception of her roommate, Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo). In the process, Glinda’s suitcases almost come to life as pop-up closets that she raids for her task.

“In each of these devices,” Chu said in his narration, “even though they seem simple, there’s grown men in small spaces pulling it open and shutting it. And the engineering in each took months and months to design right.”

The other element involves the timing of Grande’s singing, and the way she works the pink peignoir she’s wearing (designed by Paul Tazewell). She swings on a chandelier in it and slides across the wood floor in it as well, singing live on set throughout.

“Ari is just a master of comedy,” Chu said. “You can see it in all her moves, and how she interacts when she acts with Cynthia Erivo. When you actually listen to it, too, her beats and her pauses are just masterful.”

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Whether it's reporting on conflicts abroad and political divisions at home, or covering the latest style trends and scientific developments, New York Times video journalists provide a revealing and unforgettable view of the world. It's all the news that's fit to watch.

Hundreds of brush fires and wildfires have sparked all over the New York City region. Hilary Howard, who covers climate change and the environment, explains why recent rainfall will not be enough to lift the region from its drought.

Video by Hilary Howard, Farah Otero-Amad, Karen Hanley, David Jouppi and James Surdam

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Whether it's reporting on conflicts abroad and political divisions at home, or covering the latest style trends and scientific developments, New York Times video journalists provide a revealing and unforgettable view of the world. It's all the news that's fit to watch.

President-elect Donald Trump is making key Cabinet choices with controversial picks at a breakneck speed with an emphasis on loyalty. Jonathan Swan, our senior political correspondent, explains why these choices are significant — even if they don’t pass Senate confirmation.

Video by Jonathan Swan, Alexandra Ostasiewicz, James Surdam and Whitney Shefte

We are tracking Trump’s Cabinet and staff nominations here: https://nyti.ms/3Z8EYmm
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Whether it's reporting on conflicts abroad and political divisions at home, or covering the latest style trends and scientific developments, New York Times video journalists provide a revealing and unforgettable view of the world. It's all the news that's fit to watch.

Film and text by Ema Ryan Yamazaki (https://www.emaexplorations.com/en/): What makes Japanese people distinctively Japanese? For me, the key lies in what we are taught during our elementary school years.

Children as young as 6 are given the responsibility to clean their own classrooms and serve one another lunch. Schools are structured like mini societies, where everyone has a role and is expected to contribute to the community. There’s a strong focus on nonacademic education intended to teach teamwork, work ethic and a sense of accomplishment.

Growing up in Japan as the child of a Japanese mother and a British father, I struggled with my identity. It was only years later when I was living abroad that I came to appreciate the values and work ethic instilled in me by my elementary school education; they are so normalized in Japan that their worth is underappreciated. These traits also contribute to why Japanese society works the way it does: Our trains run on time because we are taught to prioritize harmony and consideration for others; on the other hand, we live under a collective pressure to conform and not bring shame upon our community.

In the short documentary above, “Instruments of a Beating Heart,” filmed in 2022, first graders at a Tokyo public school are presented with a challenge for their final semester: to form an orchestra and perform at a school ceremony. As the children are taught to “make your hearts as one” and rigorously rehearse, we see both the pressures and the wonders of being held responsible to a group. The character-building traditions in Japanese education are experienced through Ayame, who, in the face of newfound challenges, learns to be resilient. I believe the experience of overcoming obstacles, as Ayame does, is crucial to education. But where should the balance lie between discipline and freedom?

What is happening in our schools will shape what our future society will look like. While the Japanese system has its strengths and weaknesses, I hope this film provides the opportunity for other societies around the world to hold a mirror to their educational systems and to reflect on how they want to raise the next generation.

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Op-Docs is a forum for short, opinionated documentaries by independent filmmakers. Learn more about Op-Docs and how to submit to the series. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (@NYTopinion).