S4.E1 ∙ Smacking Children

Director Olga Spatova's documentary Far Beyond the Sun, produced by HBO Europe, maps the life of paramedic Ales Barta, who decided to found a hospital in one of the poorest parts of Africa. He found a place in the small town Itibo in an out-of-reach part of Kenya called Nyamira where people were unable to receive the medical help they needed and many patients were dying needlessly of illnesses and injuries which are commonly curable. Years ago, the locals gave Ales the African name Makori, which means the Path Ales chose when he decided to heal people in their town. When someone receives an African name, it means they became part of the community. Ales doesn't feel like a foreigner anymore. He's at home.

My Heart Is An Idiot is a documentary about love that spans two years and over a hundred cities. The film captures Davy Rothbart's manic road-tripping lifestyle as he tours North America in a van promoting his magazine FOUND, an annual collection of discarded and recovered notes, letters, photographs, and ephemera. Along the way, Davy seeks advice on his tortured love life from a motley crew of characters (including Zooey Deschanel, Ira Glass, Newt Gingrich, and Davy's mom), and attempts to follow that advice, with alternately comical and tragic results. Like Sherman's March doused in Maker's Mark, My Heart Is An Idiot is a cautionary kiss on the lips of Generation Irony. When everyone has a strategy, love is unbelievable.