Saint Etienne

The Berlin International Film Festival is one of the most influential showcases in the world and part of Germany’s rich cinema tradition. Join Monocle for a look at the city’s relationship with filmmaking.

Political revolutions and their aftermath are fertile conditions for filmmakers. Monocle took a front-row seat at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival, to witness the cinema of change emerging in the Arab region.

The prestigious Prix Pictet is an annual prize for photography focusing on the environment. Following themes that have included water, earth and growth, the message for 2012 is power.

Take your seats, sit back and enjoy a sample of the music and film highlights in the June issue of Monocle.

The summer festival season is in full swing, and the Paleo Festival, held outside Geneva in the sleepy town of Nyon, offers an alternative to some of its grubbier European siblings. With the mountains on one side and the lake on the other, a wide selection of international cuisines, and an eclectic musical line-up, this is festival-going Swiss-style. Robert Bound dons his Wellies to see what it's all about.

Monocle reports on how Korea's pop music industry is the country's most potent weapon in the global soft power stakes.

Monocle attends the Sundance Film Festival to ask whether you still need a screening to break the box office.

With a mission to track down, restore and share images of day-to-day life in the region, a valuable social history of the Arab world is being chronicled by the Beirut-based Arab Image Foundation. Monocle travels to Lebanon to visit a photographic archive and memory bank.

The Montreux Jazz festival is a celebration of music in beautiful mountain surroundings with eclectic acts, good food and an atmosphere more focused on bonhomie than going bananas. Monocle's culture editor Robert Bound reports from the festival where people come for the music as much as for a good time.

A wave of Arab tourism is washing over Istanbul - and it's all because of racy Turkish soap operas. Last season Noor, the most popular, was watched by 85 million people across the Arab world. Monocle sets off to the Bosphorous to join the guided tour for avid viewers wishing to live the dream.

Sounds Like Teen Spirit, Jamie Jay Johnson's warm and witty documentary following four contestants in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, is a sure contender as one of the strongest factual films of 2009. Monocle's Robert Bound met Johnson in London to talk tunes, childhood and bloc-voting.

From the art of travel to the architecture of happiness, author Alain de Botton's writings filter everyday life through a philosophical lens. Monocle Editor-in-Chief Tyler Brûlé met with Alain de Botton at his London home to talk about his latest book, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, a lucid and detailed exploration of the workplace - from office to factory, fishing boat to call centre.

In The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, Alain de Botton reveals why we need an art that can proclaim the intelligence, peculiarity, beauty and horror of the workplace and, not least, its extraordinary claim to be able to provide us, alongside love, with the principal source of life's meaning.

Despite years of turbulence between Taiwan and China, this island's pop culture leaves the mainland standing. From idols to protest singers via television talent shows, Taipei pop is the country's new heavy industry.

Make your winter merry and bright with festive chat and musical guests, premiering December 24-28 during The Monocle Daily. Or, catch the repeats from 31 December to 4 January.

Monocle invited chef Jonathan Conroy into our Midori House kitchen to cook the perfect summer meal. He demonstrated the art of making a traditional Turkish starter, Mediterranean main course and a quintessential British classic – trifle – on film.

They raced, performed amazing feats and made us all proud – we’re talking about Monocle 24’s Olympic team. For two weeks Monocle 24 delivered action-packed Midori House shows from the national pavilions set up in London by visiting nations. Our film team was on hand to capture golden moments but don’t forget you can listen again to any of our shows via the Timeshift player on monocle.com or downloading them from iTunes.

“How museums became soft power ambassadors”. Monocle and the V&A hosted a discussion exploring how culture nations. Moderated by Monocle’s editor in chief Tyler Brûle speakers on the panel were:

• Simon Anholt, independent policy adviser
• Laurence des Cars, scientific director, Agence France-Museums
• The Right Honourable Lord Howell of Guildford, minister of state at the foreign and commonwealth office
• Martin Roth, director, V&A

From cutting edge upstarts to blue-chip stalwarts, London's art galleries are ever innovating with new spaces and new ideas. Monocle visits four that each in their own way show the art scene to be as bold as ever.

Monocle friends Kylie Minogue and Verbal teamed up for this exclusive music video to mark the launch of Monocle 24, live on air twenty-four hours a day from our studios in Midori House.

Editor-in-chief Tyler Brûlé welcomes Gildo Zegna, CEO of supreme Italian menswear brand Ermenegildo Zegna, to the Monocle HQ in London to discuss the brand's centenary in 2010 and its longer-term future.

A curious new shop has appeared in central London. Billed as a cultural apothecary for the mind, The School of Life sells ideas and inspiration, from evening courses to curated holidays, secular sermons to psychotherapy. Saul Taylor reports from the heart of Bloomsbury on the enterprise that gives new meaning to the phrase 'retail therapy'.

In the first of a regular monthly series of international street profiles, we popped down to Lamb’s Conduit Street for a stroll and a little retail reconnaissance. Monocle’s Saul Taylor reports.

In our July/August issue author Alain de Botton comments on one of the worst examples of urban development currently going up in West London. He joined editor-in-chief Tyler Brûlé at Monocle's offices in London to discuss who's got it right and wrong in the city.

Months of good-natured, frequently late-night and jetlagged debate have produced Monocle's definitive (and just a little subjective) guide to the world's most liveable cities. Correspondents were dispatched worldwide to assess the cities. The entire issue is devoted to the concerns, forces, people and policies that make our cities work. Highlights include essays by thinkers such as Jonathan Raban and Alain de Botton - who both take a swipe at questionable new developments in their respective cities, Seattle and London. And after the perfect city has been found, Monocle provides a special separate design directory on how to build the ideal house, as well as offering advice on how to create the perfect neighbourhood.

Albam, a British fashion start-up, is keeping costs down without turning to factories in China for help. Founded by entrepreneurial fashion outsiders James Shaw and Alastair Rae, the duo's first shop is a breezy, airy space that shows their collection of menswear and accessories.

Depending on who you ask, the importance of Frieze in the art world's calendar is second only to Art Basel - and often not even that. This year 68,000 people visited Frieze over 5 days to shop and window shop at 151 of the world's best galleries. Monocle's culture editor Robert Bound looks at the work of Deutsche Bank and Phillips de Pury in the context of this hot house atmosphere.