Chris and Rifa's weekly review of our adventures in the arts, diversity and culture. This week we watch unsettling low key film The Assistant, starring Julia Garner, which shows the entertainment industry normalising abuse and suppressing dissent. We also watch Beyoncé's vivid and arresting semi-abstract musical Black Is King on Disney+ made in response to her involvement with The Lion King reboot. Finally, we venture on our first post-corona trip to a physical exhibition, donning masks for the Prince's Treasure exhibition at Brighton's Royal Pavilion, where priceless items originally bought for the Pavilion by George IV have been loaned back to the building by The Royal Collection. Rifa is reading Glennon Doyle's memoir Untamed, while Chris is reading Layla F Saad's anti-racism workbook Me And White Supremacy. Thank you so much for listening. Find us on Facebook and Insta.      

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Refigure Check-in E55 – The Assistant & The King

Chris and Rifa's bitesize arts and diversity review show. This week we watch Mrs America on the BBC iPlayer, starring Cate Blanchett and Rose Byrne, set in the 1970s USA, telling the story of the battle for the Equal Rights Amendment. We also bing-watch all three seasons of Sky dramedy Get Shorty, starring Chris O'Dowd as a gangster trying to break into Hollywood. In What You Reading For? Rifa is still ploughing through bell hooks' trilogy about love, while Chris is revisiting Aldous Huxley's classic Brave New World, ahead of its major new television adaptation. Thank you very much for listening. Find us on Facebook and Instagram, please leave a nice review and tell your friends.  

Refigure Check-in E54 – Mrs America & Get Shorty

Welcome to Chris and Rifa's bitesize arts, diversity and culture review show. This week we watch the third season of Norwegian viking comedy Norsemen on Netflix. Then Rifa has an unexpectedly strong reaction to new film How To Build A Girl, starring Beanie Feldstein, directed by Coky Giedroyc and based on Caitlin Moran's comic fictionalised memoir. In What You Reading For? Rifa has joined a book club and is reading Season Butler's novel Cygnet, while Chris is reading our old friend Kate Bulpitt's debut novel Purple People. Thank you very much for listening. Find us on Insta and Facebook – and please leave us a nice five star review and all that jazz.    

Refigure Check-in E53 – How Not To Build A Film About A Girl

Welcome to Refigure with Chris and Rifa, a weekly podcast about the arts, diversity and culture. This week we are both blown away by Michaela Coel's acclaimed new comedy-drama series I May Destroy You on BBC iPlayer. We also binge-watch the entire run of Danish/Swedish mystery thriller The Bridge, which we actually paid money for, as Rifa discovers her love for Nordic noir. In What You Reading For? Rifa is still reading bell hooks' trilogy on love, while Chris is still reading Priyamvada Gopal's Insurgent Empire. Thank you very much for listening. Find us on Facebook and Instagram.

Refigure Check-in E52 – I May Destroy You

Chris and Rifa's weekly bitesize review of the arts, diversity and culture. This week we watched Will Ferrell's new comedy Eurovision, which sent us down a rabbit hole of watching Icelandic films and documentaries. Then we watched the powerful new Netflix documentary Disclosure, about the history of how American TV and cinema has representated transgender people onscreen – and how that has impacted how culture sees trans people. Rifa is re-reading bell hooks' All About Love (which she may have recommended before on an earlier series of Refigure), while Chris is reading Priyamvada Gopal's history book Insurgent Empire: Anticolonial Resistance And British Dissent. Thank you very much for listening. Please 'like' and subscribe and leave a five star review and tell all your friends about us. You can find us on Instagram and Facebook. 

Refigure Check-in E51 – Iceland & Disclosure

Welcome to Refigure, Chris and Rifa's continuing home-based bitesize covid-avoiding adventures in the arts, diversity and culture. It's the fiftieth episode of Refigure but we're so hardcore we forgot to even mention it in the show. Yes please to cake, though, if you insist. This week we binge-watch brainmelting Netflix high concept game show The Floor Is Lava (or 'The Kwiksave Maze') then we dug into South Korean oddball drama series The Mystic Pop-up Bar. Rifa is playing with Louise Hay's 'Power Thought Cards', while Chris is re-reading Colin Ward's radical little social history book Cotters & Squatters. Thank you for listening. Please leave a five star review wherever you get your podcasts – and tell your friends about us. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter and Insta. Lots of love. xxx 

Refigure Check-in E50 – The Floor Is Lava & The Mystic Pop Up Bar

Chris and Rifa's continuing home-based adventures in culture, diversity and the arts. This week we wear masks to a Black Lives Matter protest in Brighton. Then we watch Steve Carrell's new Netflix comedy series Space Force with John Malkovich and Lisa Kudrow, about a Trump-style military run space initiative. Then we disagree about Spike Lee's new film Da 5 Bloods – also on Netflix – starring Clarke Peters and Delroy Lindo, following a group of African-American Vietnam veterans as they return to Ho Chi Minh City to search for the body of a fallen comrade. In What You Reading For? Rifa is just starting Ta Nehisi Coates' essay collection We Were Eight Years In Power and Chris is reading Bhanu Kapil's poetry book How To Wash A Heart. Thank you for listening, please leave us a nice review. Find us on Instagram and Facebook.    

Refigure Check-in E49 – BlackLivesMatter, Space Force & Da 5 Bloods

Chris and Rifa's continuing adventures in the arts, diversity and culture. This week we watch Mark Cousin's epic cinema history series Women Make Film, narrated by Tilda Swinton, Jane Fonda and others. We also binge-watch the fifth series of tearjerking Netflix makeover show Queer Eye. Then we fall into a difficult, not necessarily successful conversation about the removal of statues of slave traders. In What You Reading For? Rifa is deep into blogs and information site about supporting #BlackLivesMatter, while Chris is reading Robert Pinsky's writing guide The Sound Of Poetry. Thank you very much for listening. Find us online at Facebook and on Instagram. Please leave a 5* review and tell your friends about the podcast.  

Refigure Check-in E48 – Queer Eye & Statues

Chris and Rifa's weekly adventures in arts, diversity and culture. This week we binge-watched two drama series, doing each complete series in one late night, so we treated them more like a long film. First we watched Alex Garland's sci-fi drama Devs, made by FX but we saw it on BBC iPlayer. Then we did Netflix drama Unorthodox, a German production written primarily in Yiddish, directed by Maria Schraeder. Rifa is reading some Albert Camus essays, while Chris joined the Poetry Book Society and with his membership got sent Will Harris' debut collection Rendang. Thank you for listening. Find us on Facebook and Insta. 

Check-in E47 – Devs and Unorthodox

Chris and Rifa's weekly adventures in the arts, tech, diversity and culture. This week we watched Kenya Barris' new sitcom BlackAF co-starring Rashida Jones. Rifa also watched Ryan Murphy's Hollywood TV series, which Chris couldn't stand. We also talk a bit about watching ballet on the screen. Rifa is reading Jen Sincero's self-help book You Are A Badass At Making Money, while Chris is reading Colson Whitehead's novel The Underground Railroad. Thank you for listening! 

Check-in E46 – BlackAF, Hollywood and a bit of ballet

Chris and Rifa's weekly home-made adventures in the arts, tech and diversity. This week we're entranced by Midnight Gospel, Pendleton Ward's philosophical, psychedelic animation series on Netflix. We also dive into the work of Mindy Kaling, we were meant to be chatting about her new Indian-American teen coming-of-age comedy series Never Have I Ever, also on Netflix, though it got a bit hijacked by binge-watching Kaling's previous (and similarly good but problematic) show The Mindy Project. Rifa didn't read a book this week, instead she listened to the Dissect podcast series about Beyoncé's Lemonade, while Chris is re-reading David Eagleman's Sum. Thanks so much for listening! Please leave a five star review and 'like' and subscribe, etc. You can also find us on Facebook.com/Refigurepod and Instagram @refigureUK.

Check-in E45 – Midnight Gospel & Mindy Kaling

Rifa and Chris continue their bitesize adventures in culture, the arts, diversity and tech. We watch two seasons of brilliant Korean Netflix historical drama Kingdom, which turns a costume drama of 15th century feudal taboos into a horrifying march of the undead. We also watch the much discussed ITV three-parter Quiz, based on the real-life events around Charles Ingram's infamous attempt to cheat the TV show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, with Michael Sheen playing Chris Tarrant. Rifa is reading N.K. Jemisin's short story collection How Long Til A Black Future Month?, while Chris is reading Oliver Gray's latest travel memoir Polly In My Pocket. Thank-you so much for listening. Give us a 'like', subscribe and please leave a five star rating and a nice review. That stuff makes a huge difference for the show. Find us on Insta and Facebook. 

Refigure Check-in E44 – Quiz and Kingdom

Chris and Rifa's Refigure Check-in continues our locked down adventures in culture, tech and diversity. This week we chat about the plethora of livestream performances during the quarantine period. Then we binge-watch the whole of season four of Korean-Canadian sitcom Kim's Convenience. In What You Reading For? Rifa is enjoying Ben Okri's latest short story collection Prayer For The Living and Chris takes a break from Hilary Mantel to dip into Neil MacGregor's compendium for the British Museum and BBC's epic radio series, A History of The World In 100 Objects. Thank you for listening. Please 'like' and subscribe and leave us a nice five star review. Please tell your friends. We don't have a marketing budget. You can also find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. 

Refigure Check-in E43 – livestream gigs and Kim's Convenience

Refigure returns for series #4, the Check-in Season, several weeks early, as Rifa and Chris find ways to resume our tinkering in the arts, tech, culture and diversity, from the safety of our own house. This week we binge-watch The Great British Bake Off (the early years) and swap tips for fun apps and games to download and play, while you're quarantining. In What You Reading For? Rifa recommends Shonnetta's Divine Tarot on YouTube, while Chris is having a logistical problem with Hilary Mantel's barnstorming new historical novel The Mirror And The Light. We also loved J.B. Morrison's latest novel A God Awful Small Affair. Next week we'll talk about the explosion of music and theatre livestreams, plus something else. Thank you SO much for still listening to us, four series in. It would be lovely to hear from you, find us on Instagram (refigureUK), Twitter (@refigurepod) and Facebook (facebook.com/RefigurePod). Please 'like' and subscribe and leave us a nice five star review. Thankyou! Refigure is produced by Lo Fi Arts. @lofiarts  

Refigure Check-in E42 – Cake Off, Zoom and fun apps

Happy new year! Chris and Rifa take one last Prosecco-fuelled look back at 2019 in the arts and culture, chatting over takeout about our favourite books, TV, art and music. This is the final episode of Refigure Series 3. Thank you so much for sharing it with us. We'll be back in Spring 2020 (if the world is still turning) with a new podcast series for the new decade. Look out for us, wherever you get your pods. Keep up with our adventures on Refigure Facebook, Refigure Twitter and Refigure Insta. You can also find us individually: Rifa on Twitter, Chris on Twitter, Rifa's website, Chris on Instagram, Rifa on Instagram. All the very best to you for a joyful and successful 2020. XXX    

Refigure E10 – (A Bit Tipsy) Review Of The Year

Chris and Rifa sift through the detritus of the past week to pick out their favourite bits of the arts, culture, tech and diversity. Freshly ground in Brighton on the English south coast.

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Refigure

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