A documentary short has nowhere to hide. There is no plot to fall back on and no ending to invent. Someone lets a camera in, and what comes out has to be true and has to be worth your time. These are the ones our editors keep coming back to.

It opens with El Batán, Small and Pretty, a Mexican town holding on to what it is, and Tanagokoro, the Japanese chef who changed how Britain handles fish. From there it runs through the myths and markings of prison gangs in The Number, a man who finds messages in bottles and goes looking for the people who wrote them in The Tides That Bind, and a gardener filmed up close in Plantman.

Some run a few minutes, some closer to half an hour. Every one is a finished film, free to watch, with no subscription and no sign-up.