A "festive season" should be inspiring, extend our empathy, make abundance political. Some videos to get there

As you may be winding down (and we don’t want to wind you up), here’s an especial edition of our audio-visual curation of the cornucopia of the web. At Xmas time, it should be as our blog title suggests.

First up is the unpromising sounding “Violator”. But read Aeon’s blurb:

From violent criminal to loving parent – a son’s story of his father’s transformation

In Violator, the Los Angeles-based filmmaker Edward Robles chronicles the turbulent life of his father, Christopher Robles, building a generation-spanning family portrait that blurs the boundary between biography and autobiography. Edward, who was raised with love and care by Christopher, details his father’s much more tumultuous upbringing – one that included severe childhood abuse, violent criminality, rehabilitation and, ultimately, a path to love through helping others, art and fatherhood.

And, as Edward eventually reveals, it’s a life that is nearing its end due to the painful, fatal degenerative disease ataxia, which Edward has also inherited. Probing the events that shaped Christopher’s past, Edwards conveys the trauma and transformation that characterise his father’s life. In so doing, he grapples with how to best approach the rest of his own time on earth.

Yes, we’re including a video about polar bears at Xmas…but this is a starling film (from The New Yorker) of their relationship with humans in a Canadian town, Churchill, Manitoba, and their complex interrelationship [Link to film website]

If you didn’t get to see the show in London - closing this Saturday - we invite you to explore the digital artworks in Universal Everything’s Lifeforms show - many videos available here. Out of such a conjoined imagination between the digital and the biological, we hope wonders may be inspired, generous of spirit… Above is their demonstration of the “Primordial” exhibit.

Very well then, we contain multitudes… the best of the season to you all.