‘The Wicker Man,’ the classic horror film and pagan must-see, gets new life at 50

For a certain brand of pagan — oh, and horror fans — this year’s solstice… brings with it a much anticipated special theatrical rerelease of the 1973 classic British horror movie “The Wicker Man.” In anticipation of its 50th anniversary, the landmark film was reedited as a so-called director’s cut (its director, Robin Hardy, died in 2016) and given a high-quality 4K video face-lift.(Greene, Religion News Service)

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Church & Culture
The Titanic Truthers of TikTok

On the short-form video app, long-established facts about the crash are being newly litigated as musty rumors merge with fresh misinformation and manipulated content — a demonstration of TikTok’s potent ability to seed historical revisionism about even the most deeply studied cases. (Hsu & Maheshwari, The New York Times)

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Church & Culture
As ‘Shiny Happy People’ Achieves Prime Video’s Biggest Docuseries Debut Ever, Amazon TV Chief Vernon Sanders Talks Strategy

After premiering on Amazon Prime Video with all four episodes on June 2, “Shiny Happy People” reached more viewers in its first nine days than any Amazon docuseries, including high-profile titles like “LuLaRich,” the 2021 docuseries that examined the LuLaRoe pyramid scheme. (An exact tally of viewers for these series is unknown.) (Hailu, Variety)

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Church & Culture
First in the nation gender-affirming care ban struck down in Arkansas

The ruling by U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr. on Tuesday says the state of Arkansas violated several sections of the U.S. Constitution when it banned all gender-affirming treatments for people under 18. The 80-page ruling says depriving trans minors of treatments like hormone therapy would cause them irreparable harm, and that delaying care until adulthood would force teens to go through changes inconsistent with their gender identity. (Breen, NPR)

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Church & Culture
Hidden Beneath the Surface

T his summer, researchers will determine whether Crawford Lake should be named the official starting point for this geologic chapter, with pollution-laden sediments from the 1950s marking the transition from the dependable environment of the past to the uncertain new reality humans have created. (Kaplan et.al., The Washington Post)

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