Sherif M. Awad (CV+Resume)+Articles Samples) by Sherif M. Awad

Sherif M. Awad

Since1990

Egyptian,nowbasedinEcuador

Born in Cairo-Egypt, Sherif M. Awad is an art/film/video curator who worked as a programmer and Communications manager since 1990 in Cairo International Film Festival, Alexandria Film Festival for Mediterranean Countries and Luxor African Film Festival in Egypt.

+593984954319

sherifmawad@gmail.com

Between 1993 and 2000, Awad worked as Marketing Manager in the Egyptian regional offices of American Major Studios: UMP (Fox/Warner) and UIP(Universal/Paramount/MGM/UA).

In the last few years, he also curated Arab and foreign film/video programs in several European countries including Italy, Sweden and Ireland as well as in the Egyptian Contemporary Art Gallery Darb 1718. In addition to his contribution to several specialized publications.

Awad was also Chief Editor of both The Ticket Entertainment Magazine and the art journal Contemporary Practices.

He was also holding the position of the Film/Art Editor of Egypt Today Magazine, the leading English published monthly magazine in Egypt. Awad also contributed to Westchester Guardian in New York and Variety Arabia in Dubai.

In broadcast media, he was also writer/producer for film/art TV shows on satellite channels broadcasting in the Middle East region, including the weekly program CinemaScope that aired on Dream TV.

During his 34 years career, Awad has covered international festivals like Berlin, Cannes, Istanbul, Taormina, Rome, Dubai, Oran and Tribeca for both TV and printed media.

Awad is member of FEPRESCI and FEDEORA associations of film critics. He was a jury member in Pula-Croatia, OrenburgRussia, Cinedays-Macedonia film festivals only to name a few.

Awad's new works can be followed on his websites and YouTube channels via the links:

https://linktr.ee/sherifmawad

https://linktr.ee/sherifmawad1

Contact

+593984954319

sherifmawad@gmail.com

Skills

Translation

Interviews

FilmCriticism

Languages

Lycée Français-Cairo-Egypt

1988-1993

BACHELOR OF

Faculty of EngineeringCairo University

Work Experience

2019 - Present

Blogger-YouTuber

I started my websites and YouTube channels to interview artists worldwide in the six languages I practice.

1996- 2019

Head of Entertainment Section

Egypt Today Magazine

I wrote Articles and interviewed Arab and international artists worlwide for Egypt Today Magazine the leading English published magazine in Egypt.

Contact

+593984954319

sherifmawad@gmail.com

1996-2000

Marketing Manager UIP/Metro Goldwyn Mayer/Osman Group Cinemas/Egyptian Video Center EVC (Arab Contractors Video) for CIC & Columbia-Tristar Video and Theatrical Distribution, Egypt's Regional Office

Skills

Translation

Articles

Interviews FilmCriticism

Languages

1993- 1996

Marketing Manager

20th Century Fox/ Warner Bros.

Theatrical Distribution, Egypt's Regional Office

I handled the Publicity, Promotion, Advertising and Distribution of American Films in Egyptian theaters and on Videotapes During these periods. I worked on boosting the local release of several blockbuster films like Titanic and The World Is Not Enough

Contact

+593984954319

sherifmawad@gmail.com

Skills

Translation

Articles

Interviews

FilmCriticism

Languages

PART-TIME

- Member of The Egyptian Association of Cinema Critics (Alex Festival

- Publicity Manager in both Cairo and Alex Film Festival

- Member and Lecturer of the Cinema Committee of The Egyptian Ministry of Culture

- Co-Curator of Alexandria Art Biennial

- Regular TV interviewee in Cinema/Music programs.

Journalism:

- Contributing Writer to several magazines and newspapers including Egypt Today, Enigma, and Carnival Arabia (Monthly Entertainment Magazines, published in English language)

- Contributing Writer to Film Section on www.Yallabina.com and www.almasryalyoum.com/en entertainment websites

- Egyptian Correspondent to Faan Magazine in Kuwait

- Contributor to Variety in the US, International Film Guide in the UK, Printed Projects in Ireland, Variety Arabia in Dubai, Weekly article in Westchester Guardian in New York.

Articles’ and Writings’ descriptions:

- Film Reviews

- Music Reviews

- Film History

- Film Essays

- TV Reviews

- Interviews

- Film Festival Coverage including Berlin-Cannes-Venice-Rome-DubaiCairo-Alexandria

Contact

+593984954319

sherifmawad@gmail.com

Sherif M. Awad

Skills

Translation

Articles

Interviews

FilmCriticism

Languages

PART-TIME

Television:

- TV writer and executive producer of Entertainment Programs (Foreign & Local Cinema and Music) for several Egyptian Satellite Channels and for Showtime Middle East.

- TV Programs’ Biography:

- Studio 35 : Weekly Program about Filmmaking and Special Effects in foreign Cinema (Three seasons on Nile Variety Satellite Channel)

- Profile: Weekly Cinema Program about foreign stars biographies (Three seasons on Nile Variety Satellite Channel)

- Cinemascope: Weekly Film Program depicting news, reviews and special effects in foreign Cinema (Third Season currently on Dream TV Satellite Channel)

- Music Club: Weekly musical program about past and recent foreign music (Second season on Nile Variety Satellite Channel)

- Ishar Ma’ana! (Watch It!): Weekly Late Night talk show (On Nile Variety Satellite Channel)

- Top 5: Weekly foreign music charts (On Nile Variety Satellite Channel)

- Affiche: Weekly Film Program about cinema artwork and its relation to film production (On Egyptian Satellite Channel)

- Dardasha Ala-Shasha (Chitchat on Screen) : Weekly talk show On “Shasha” Channel-Showtime Middle East

Contact

+593984954319

sherifmawad@gmail.com

Sherif M. Awad

Skills

Translation

Articles

Interviews

FilmCriticism

Languages

- MTV Mashaweer: Weekly talk show On MTV -Showtime Middle East

- Silver Screen: Weekly Film Program depicting news, reviews and special effects in foreign & Arabian Cinema (First Season currently on ART Satellite Channel)

- Fun 7: Weekly Cinema Programs on Al-Rai Channel-Kuwait

- Angham Wee Asrar: Weekly Musical Program on Al- Rai Channel-Kuwait

- Screen: Weekly One Hour Program about foreign and Arab Cinema on Libra TV-Dubai

- Special programs about Film Festival Coverage including Berlin-Cannes-Venice-Rome-Dubai-Cairo-Alex

- Coverage of Karlovy Vary 2014, Arusha Film Festival 2014, ArfyKamera Film Festival 2015, Rotterdam Film Festival 2015 on Nile Cinema TV, Egypt

Jury Member in Film Festivals:

- Festival du Film Indépendent, Brussels, Belgium, 2010

- Pula Film Festival, Croatia, 2012

- Orenburg Film Festival, Russia, 2012

- Cinedays Film Festival, Macedonia, 2012

- Journées Cinématographiques, Algeria, 2012

- Durban Film Festival, South Africa, 2013

- Karlovy Vary Festival, Czech Republic, 2014

- AFRIFF 2014, Calabar, Nigeria

- AfryKamera, Poland, 2015

- FESTICAB, Jury President, Short Narratives, Burundi, 2015

- ZIFF 2015, Zanzibar, Tanzania

-Kazan, 2019, Russia

AFRIFF 2022, Lafos, Nigeria (Online)

-Durban Film Festival, South Africa, 2022 (Online)

Article Samples

PAST ARTICLES AND INTERVIEWS

Film Film

Representing the Region

Doha Tribeca Film Festival head Amanda Palmer on the rise of Arab cinema internationally

Palmer has paved the way for Arab cinema to flourish.

Courtesy Amanda Palmer

By Sherif Awad

Amanda Palmer is not a typical festival director. Before becoming the executive director of the Doha Film Institute (DFI), the Australian journalist was already a familiar face in the Arab world as a presenter for Al Jazeera English, the latest in a TV career that has covered news, current affairs and entertainment across three continents. Two years ago, Palmer signed on with DFI and spearheaded the launch of the Doha Tribeca Film Festival, of which she is also executive director. Under her watch, the DFI has been putting contemporary Arab films on the international map.

Palmer came to Qatar in 2005 to join Al Jazeera as the channel’s entertainment editor, also serving as the host of 48, a travel program that saw her and her crew explore a city in just 48 hours, and The Fabulous Picture Show, where she profiled filmmakers and stars such as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppolla, George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, among others. She got her start with Channel Seven Australia, rising to become the channel’s London-based foreign correspondent. In addition to a stint with the Associated Press Television Network, Palmer also worked with CNN on its business and music programs.

With more than half a decade living in Doha, Palmer has watched Qatar grow and start focusing on different aspects of art and culture with projects such as the Islamic Art Museum, the modern art museum Mathaf and Katara and the cultural village that hosts the DFI. Five years ago, Palmer traveled to the US to start a dialogue and create initiatives with Tribeca Enterprises, the global media company founded by actor Robert DeNiro. Tribeca has become famous for its Manhattanbased Tribeca Film Festival and a number of arts education initiatives.

“Such activities were aligned with the soul and values of the Arab world, particularly in Qatar. Tribeca was also providing a gateway for emerging filmmakers, American and international, to introduce their work to the whole world,” says Palmer who wanted to create a similar platform for independent film in Doha. “At that time, Qatar had no robust film culture except in regu-

lar moviegoing habits during weekdays to watch American and Arab films. But there was a clear long-term vision of what Qatar wants to achieve in art and culture, which also includes a platform for a rising regional film industry.”

Organized by the DFI in partnership with Tribeca Enterprises, the Doha Tribeca Festival (DTF) was launched in 2009 as a result of these discussions. Since then, the DTF has focused on discovering new talents and exporting Arab films to New York, helping to build an audience for Arab cinema while locally evolving to keep up with the incredibly fast changes in the Arab region. Since the DTF launched two years ago, Arab films have started to be picked up for other festivals based on their screenings at both the Doha Tribeca and Tribeca film festivals. This includes Hawi (The Magician, 2010), Egyptian filmmaker Ibrahim El Batout’s latest film, which won the Best Film Award at Doha Tribeca 2010 and was cofinanced by the DFI.

The DFI’s activities are bearing fruit; eight Qatari filmmakers debuted their films in the Fourth Gulf Film Festival. “Five of these filmmakers were trained students in DFI for eighteen months,” notes Palmer, who sees the importance of the rise of Qatari films to create a real film industry. “It is not only through importing and showing films.”

Now DFI finances films ranging from

Film Film

10-minute shorts to large-scale productions such as Black Gold, the new epic drama headed by an international cast including Antonio Banderas, Tahar Rahim (lead actor of the acclaimed 2009 French film A Prophet) and British-born actor Mark Strong. Budgeted at $55 million, the film was shot between Tunisia and Qatar under the direction of acclaimed French filmmaker JeanJacques Annaud, who directed Brad Pitt in Seven Years in Tibet (1997) and Sean Connery in The Name of the Rose (1986).

“I believe that working with a FrenchTunisian crew on Black Gold gave to a lot of Qataris a skilled knowledge about filmmaking,” explains Palmer, who was close to the production of the film. One of the lessons was how to deal with unexpected events:

“By the time I arrived on a plane to Tunisia during the final week of filming there, former president Ben Ali was gone. Because of the surrounding uncertainty, Tarak Ben Ammar, the Tunisian coproducer of the film, and director Annaud postponed some scenes and shot it a week later.”

Set in the 1930s when the Arab states were at the dawn of the oil boom, Black Gold centers on a young Arab prince (Rahim) torn between allegiance to his conservative father (Strong) and his modern, liberal father-in-law (Banderas). Black Gold will premiere in the third edition of Doha Tribeca Festival, running from October 26 to 30.

“Although it is based on the book The Black Thirst by Hans Reusch, the film mirrors what is going on now in Arab countries through the character of Rahim, who tries to convince his elders that they can reform and embrace modernity while keeping their Islamic roots,” adds Palmer. She recalls listening to Banderas recount his early youth in Spain and how he experienced the changes in his own home when General Francisco Franco died and Juan Carlos assumed the position of King of Spain.

Palmer was in Cairo last year where she met many rising Egyptian filmmakers who represent the new wave that is carrying the flag into the future. The talent and skills are there, she notes, now Egypt has to think globally, saying, “The know-how and the history of Egyptian cinema must drive Egyptian producers to venture into more [international] coproductions in a similar way like India.” et

The DFI has grown to fund largescale features such as the soon-tobe-released Black Gold

Courtesy Amanda Palmer

Arab Americans in Hollywood: The Long Journey

By Sherif Awad, Cairo

In many American films, we see the beautiful young lady or the handsome wannabe leave a small village and take the bus or a truck to go to New York or Los Angeles, just waiting for their dream to come true. But the road to Hollywood for Arab artists is longer, is more difficult, and might well take years to travel.

Arab American actors share with us their experience in Hollywood and what it took

for them to build a career in their land of dreams.

Sayed Badreya

You might (or might not) have noticed him in various Hollywood mega productions – Roland Emmerich’s science fiction adventures “Stargate”, David O. Russell’s “Three Kings”, Michael Mann’s “The Insider” – but Egyptian born, Americanbased Sayed Badreya had a long journey that has just started to pay off recently. Using Egyptian slang like ‘belasalama

ya alby!’ (so long dear) when he played the villain who kidnapped Robert Downey Jr. in the first “Iron Man”, and appearing in consecutive comic cameos in the Farrelly Brothers comedies and opposite Adam Sandler in “You Don't Mess with the Zohan”, Badreya has made a name for himself, but his career was full of challenges.

Badreya was born in 1957 into a poor family of ten children. The death of his father during the 1967 War was a tough blow to the nine-year-old, whose sole escape was a small cinema in his hometown

Port Said where he was astonished by the heroism of John Wayne’s westerns, and the slickness of Humphrey Bogart’s mysteries.

Growing up, Badreya struggled to complete high school, graduating with an industrial diploma in electricity. Money was tight, so his mother hid his college acceptance letter and Sayed ended up doing mandatory military service, but, he never let go of his dream of an acting career in America.

To do so, he started selling imported perfumes in downtown Cairo, just enough to make money for his ticket out of there. With some extra cash hidden in his socks, Badreya arrived in Boston in 1979.

He went on to study filmmaking in the Boston Film Institute, and later at NYU. He made his first appearance on the silver screen in 1986 at the Arab-independently produced “Hot Shot”.

His next milestone was as a assistant director to the late Anthony Perkins in “Lucky Stiff” (1988).

After playing the Arab villain in several Hollywood films, Badreya mocked his

own stereotypical casting in writerdirector Hesham Issawi’s short film “T for Terrorist” (2003).

Badreya again collaborated with director Issawi and actor Shalhoub in “AmericanEast” (2008).

Interestingly, last year, the Farrelly Brothers cast him in a segment they are directing in the comedy “Movie 43”. Besides getting the opportunity to play alongside the beautiful Halle Berry, Badreya is finally playing a new role, having moved on from being typecast as an Arab villain.

Sam Sako

Iraqi-born, Los Angeles based Sam Sako is one of few Arab cinéastes who made it big enough in Hollywood, so that Arab actors now call him Sheikh El Shabab, a nickname that fits his warm, welcoming and fatherly figure personality.

Actor, casting director, script consultant and dialect coach, Sako was a crew member in a number of major films that involved Arab characters like Michael

Mann’s “The Insider” with Al Pacino; Ridley Scott’s “Body of Lies” with Leonardo DiCaprio; “Hidalgo” with Omar Sharif; “The Man with One Red Shoe” and “Charlie Wilson's War” with Tom Hanks. Currently, Sako is working with Kiefer Sutherland in his new TV series “Touch” and with Robert Downey Jr. in “Iron Man 3” that is scheduled for release in the summer of 2013.

As actor in front of the camera, Sako can be spotted doing guest roles in films like “Beverly Hills Cop II” with Eddie Murphy and “Protocol” with Goldie Hawn.

Sam Sako’s journey to Hollywood and its A-list of big stars and famous filmmakers nearly began four decades ago.

Essam Gabriel Sako was born in TalAsqaf, a small village close to Mosul in north Iraq, and he always had a talent for fixing things, which first drove him to develop an interest in studying mechanical engineering as a young man.

During the 1970s, most members of his family started to emigrate from Iraq; half of them reallocated in Egypt and the rest moved to the United States.

In 1979, it was Sako’s turn to join his family in Detroit in order to study engineering at Wayne University, Michigan but after two years he dropped university and moved to California to study filmmaking.

At the beginning, it was a very difficult period for him as he didn’t know anybody there and he was spending his nights sleeping in his car.

“Eventually, I got my first break when I accidentally met some big-time producers who hired me to work in a Warner Bros’ documentary series called ‘Casablanca’ that was focusing on Arabs. My task was to do some research as well as casting Arabs from the LA community. With the fees I got, I started to study filmmaking in UCLA and to make a living at the same time”, he remembers.

Since day one in Hollywood, Sako was more interested in doing prep work behind the camera.

“To appear on celluloid, you should not only have an agent or a Screen Actors Guild membership, or a Social Security Number, but you must also have someone who recommends you, and he is better to be a family member”, explains Sako, who argues that the way things work in Hollywood, are the same as in most Arab countries.

“Hollywood also needs a little bit Wasta (recommendation) in addition to the real talents. However, since our graduation in 1988, my college mates who became filmmakers kept in touch with me in order to work in their new films because I knew my way around”, he explained.

Many young Arabs come to Hollywood with big dreams of breaking into stardom and wealth.

Sako always tries to help them out. “Most roles offered to Arab actors by major studios are stereotypical. They are either terrorists or oil workers; the middle class Arab does not exist in Hollywood”, says Sako, who notes that there were few changes in the portrayal of Iraq in Hollywood films throughout the years.

“During the 1980s, when Saddam Hussein went to war with Iran, Iraq was first-rate was portrayed as the best Arab country by Hollywood. Then, everything changed when George Bush became president, because US politics and Hollywood films walk in parallel,” he adds.

Recently, there was a change for the better in the way Hollywood sees the

Arab world. Films like “Rendition” with Jake Gyllenhaal, “Green Zone” with Matt Damon and “Fair Game” with Sean Penn were warmly welcomed in the Arab world because they showed both sides of the story. “The image is gradually changing and the portrayals are becoming more mature and three dimensional on the screen,” he says.

Michael Desante

Michael Desante might not be your typical Arab-American actor struggling to make it in Hollywood. He was part of the Oscar-winning “The Hurt Locker” and the Golden Globe-nominated TV miniseries “Sleeper Cell”.

The 49-year-old Palestinian-American actor, producer and writer, was born in Bethlehem before his family moved to Beirut and then London. When he turned 18, he left Londn to Los Angeles where he continued his education at UCLA and earned a Master of Business Administration while taking night courses in acting and drama.

In order for him to venture into Hollywood, Desante (whose birth name Hani Al-Naimi) needed to change his

name because filmmakers would have difficulties remembering his birth name, and they might also think that he didn’t speak English well.

For Desante, choosing a professional name was like reinventing himself. It was a small alteration on the name of a character actor he used to adore; Armand Assante who played the brother of Sylvester Stallone twice in the movies, first in “Paradise Alley” (1978) then “Judge Dredd” (1995). As for the first name Michael, it was the closest one to his heart.

Even with the new name, Desante had problems finding the right roles. “Good roles were rare compared to many others I rejected because they were Arab stereotypes; either a taxi driver or someone working at the supermarket, or even a terrorist,” he says.

He got some good roles, nevertheless, playing alongside the late actor Roy Scheider on the “SeaQuest” series and working for a couple of weeks on the action film “Cradle to the Grave” (2003) with martial arts star Jet Li.

But his breakthrough came with Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker”. “I have been acting for 20 years, but shooting ‘The Hurt Locker’ was the most difficult experience I’ve had. It was a very lowbudget film, shot in very tough conditions, with no real toilets or catering services,” Desante recalls.

In the film, he plays the role of the Iraqi translator used by the American forces to communicate with the local Iraqis. Most of his screen time he sported a mask, like the real translators who hide their faces out of fear of revenge from their own people because they helped the Americans.

“Towards the end of my scenes, there was an interrogation scene where my character gets desperate, which was an excuse to convince Bigelow to pull down my mask for a moment in front of the camera,” he recalls.

Desante, who’s married to French Palestinian actress Yasmine Al Massri, has finished shooting a political thriller called “The Lazarus Protocol” in Vienna, Austria with Peter Fonda.

RISING STARS

Christine Solomon

Canadian-Egyptian actress Christine Solomon became an actress by accident. She was visiting her aunt in the US when a casting director noticed her acting abilities purely by chance, giving her a first TV appearance in “Fakers”. “Fakers” is the shocking story of three ordinary teenagers from one of Canada’s most elite schools, who also happened to be the masterminds behind a major counterfeiting operation that took place under the very noses of their teachers and parents.

Born in Egypt, Solomon developed an interest in performing arts while growing up in Cairo, before her parents decided to emigrate to Canada when she was only seven. After graduating from school, she started to look for a career in acting and modelling in New York, Los Angeles and even Buffalo before she managed to land two bit roles in major American productions “The Score” (2001) starring Robert de Niro and “Head in the Clouds” (2004) starring Charlize Theron.

Solomon’s big break came from the Arab world though, when at the 2006 Cairo International Film Festival she was cast in two feature films: “Balad Al Banat” and “Basra”; both films were

screened at world festivals, winning many awards. Solomon later played the part of an obnoxious gothic girl who finds herself stuck in a Heliopolis hotel in Ahmad Abdalla’s “Heliopolis”; this role won her the Best Actress of Empowerment Award (2009) at The Madbakh Awards in Toronto.

Solomon is currently finishing a major role in the new intercultural drama “Betroit” that will premier 12-12-12 in three cities: Dubai at its film festival DIFF, as well as in Detroit and Beirut.

Written and directed by Adel Serhan, the movie addresses issues of domestic violence and relationships through three different couples. Solomon plays Rola, who is happily married in Detroit; tries to help her sister Leila, played by Lebanese actress Darine Hamze, to escape from her abusive husband in Beirut.

With all that success between Egypt and Canada, Christine’s next move is surely going to be to hit the big time in Hollywood.

Mona Hala

After a successful acting career in Egypt, the Austro-Egyptian actress Mona Hala is now looking to venture into Hollywood. In 2010, she landed a onescene role in the Canadian film “Cairo Time” that was shot entirely in Egypt with Patricia Clarkson and Alexander Siddig.

“It was the role of Jameelah, who meets Juliette, played by Clarkson, while they were taking a bus to Gaza. It was an opportunity to work with international stars, a dream I used to have a long time ago,” she says.

Born to an Austrian musician and an Egyptian mother, Hala started to perform on stage when she was just eleven, accompanying her younger sister and singing at the Cairo Opera House. After the twosome were spotted and cast in several TV commercials, Mona was chosen to present Yallabina (Let’s Go), a children’s show that was aired on Egypt’s Channel 2 network.

The popularity of the show got Hala her

first award, when she was named Best Kid’s TV Presenter when she was only 16. Her looks and free spirit caught the attention of veteran TV director Gamal Abdel-Hamid who cast her as Hussein Fahmy’s daughter in the 2002 series “The Emperor”.

When she was 18, Hala started to consider a serious acting career and began studying at the Egyptian Institute of Theatrical Arts. She studied German Literature whilst also shooting various TV and cinematic roles.

Although Hala proved herself as a talented actress, with her sarcastic show “Monatov” getting more than one million views on YouTube for each of its six episodes, Hala has been actively seeking an acting career outside of Egypt.

“I have my own reasons”, she says.

“Many key figures in the Egyptian entertainment industry have two faces and many colleagues are backstabbers. When it comes to stars, many of them don’t practise what they preach,” she claims.

Building on her experience on “Cairo Time”, Hala has recently landed a role in the new American film “10x10.”

“I can describe the film as a hybrid between a documentary and fiction,” Hala explains. “It brings stories of 10 real-life girls, from ten different countries, who are struggling to get an education in the face of obstacles. These girls present an incredible array of voices, each striving to make a better life for herself, her family, and her country.”

Berlin Telegram FILm

Partially set in Cairo, Leila Albayaty’s first feature film continues her cinematic and musical journey

By Sherif AwAd

Leila Albayaty is a woman of many cultures and an artist of many disciplines. Born in Bordeaux to an Iraqi father and a French mother, she first studied the violin, then architecture and finally moved to study cinema at the Institut des Arts de Diffusion (IAD) in Brussels. Albayaty, like the character she plays in her two latest films, is a traveler always on a quest for inspiration, always on a quest for real love. For the past three years, her travels have taken her across Europe and to Egypt on a project that has produced not only her first feature film Berlin Telegram, but also an album of the same name.

Albayaty splits her time between Brussels and Berlin, but I first met her two years ago in Cairo, when she was shooting the Egyptian scenes for Berlin Telegram. Sitting in a coffee shop overlooking the Nile, she was explaining how, with the help of her sister Hanaa and her Belgian producer Julien Sigalas, she succeeded in getting the shots she wanted without

going through the process of getting permits from the local authorities. The secret was the long shot: for example, Leila had to cross a Cairo street while the camera on the top of a building filmed her from far way.

The film-making bug bit Albayaty early: After only a few months at the IAD, she dropped out in 2007 to start shooting her first documentary Vacances (Holidays), a video log of a journey across Southern Europe in a motor home. Even before that,

Courtesy Leila Al Bayaty (4)

Albayaty, who is a songwriter and a performance artist, released her first record album Dans le Soleil (In the Sun, 2006), featuring mostly songs in French along with one in English called New York

After Vacances, Albayaty’s next film was a short narrative called Vu (Seen), which she wrote, directed and also starred in, alongside her real-life sister Hanaa. Screened to a warm welcome in the 2009 Berlin Film Festival, Vu defined the particular style of filmmaking that Albayaty is making her own.

Technically, she uses different types of cameras, including digital, cellphones and 35mm — a versatility that served her well in Cairo. On the narrative side, she fuses her personal experiences with real people in her daily life with fictitious characters and imagined scenes. Part drama and part documentary, Vu is about a young woman who partially lost her memory following a car accident, something that really happened to Leila a few years ago. The young woman (also called Leila and played by Albayaty herself) travels to meet her sister (Leila’s real-life sister Hanaa) in Rome during the summer break. However, Leila is still confused and haunted by painful memories of an ex-lover. Because Vu is seen through the weeping eyes of Leila, the film ends before we know if her dream lover is real or whether it was just her imagination. Vu was awarded a special mention by the jury of the Berlinale’s Shorts section for the quality of its music, which Leila also co-created.

Over the last three years, Albayaty has been moving between Paris, Brussels, Berlin and Cairo to shoot the followup to Vu, the feature-length Berlin Telegram. At the same time, she toured the music scene in each city, experimenting with local pop, rock, contemporary, electro and oriental musicians. Expected to be released this year, the resulting album, also called Berlin Telegram, contains songs from the film’s original soundtrack written by Albayaty, and others inspired by her experience while shooting the film.

Berlin Telegram seems to pick up where Vu ended. The opening scene has Leila, still a tortured soul, performing sad songs in front of live audience. We notice another young lady watching her in tears. It is her sister Hanaa. Cut to the next scene, the following morning, where Leila receives a telegram from her ex-boyfriend who has decided to leave her by sending this note instead of a final goodbye in person. Seeking an escape from the memories, Leila decides to leave Berlin on a quest for inspiration. Her voice-over carries us through most of the scenes of Berlin Telegram, which becomes a road trip movie with an assortment of characters, artists, actors and musicians she meets along the way. Leila tries to pick up the pieces of her life, become more creative as an artist and, most of all, forget her wounds.

“It is a continuation of Vu given the fact that the two films have autobiographical elements. I was trying to create something universal based on personal stuff. I think real love still exists, but it takes time to forget the past and find the future. As for the actors, some of them appeared in the film because we are friends. It is a kind of guest appearance,” says Albayaty, this time in a Berlin coffee shop.

Like the diverse settings and camera techniques, the dialogue is mostly in French but the songs are in English.

“Everything is still interconnected. The songs in the film interpret the scenes and vice versa. I wrote a lot of music and lyrics that figure into the film but people can discover more songs in my record or in my live shows,” she explains. “Although the scenes seem to be

improvised, there was a finished script and everything was prepared beforehand. However the two processes of writing films and songs are different for me. I write my film in solitude while I work on my music in circles with lot of composers and lyricists.”

Will she continue helming films in that style?

“my next film will be full of humor and less lyrical,” Albayaty says, “although I am attracted to making films with autobiographical elements.”

Berlin Telegram, the film and the album, will soon be released in Europe and hopefully here in Egypt. et

Albayaty and her reallife sister Hanaa in Vu.

The short Vu was acclaimed by the Berlinale jury.

Berlin Telegram picks up the storyline from Vu.

CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES

Croatian Kinorama

SHERIF AWAD

After the declaration of independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, Croatia fought a War of Independence for four years following that declaration. Croatian cinema by consequence suffered a difficult crisis as most of the theatres disappeared and none of the Croatian films could expect to be financially viable without even greater support from the state. But in the years to follow, Croatia became a country with an

and natural heritage and overseeing its development through many aspects. In 2007,the Croatian Parliament passed a new Film Act,underlining its commitment to boosting the country’s creative industries. As a result, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre opened in 2008 to support production and distribution of Croatian ﬁlms around the world. e

Croation Audiovisual Centre is notably present the festivals of such top markets as Berlin, Cannes, Toronto and Venice, which always have Croatian ﬁlms among their selections.

emerging economy,tourism and art.

Because of its geographic position, the Croatian culture is a blend of four diﬀerent spheres, and the crossroad of Western and Eastern inﬂuences. e Croatian state is preserving this cultural

Kinorama is among the rising production companies in Croatia. It was founded in 2003 by Ankica Jurić Tilić,Hrvoje Pervan,and Dragan Juric, three friends and ﬁlmmakers who have worked together for a long time in oth-

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2013

er Croatian production firms until they decided to open their own venture in the film industry.“After freelancing for fifteen years as a production manager in many Croatian films, I felt it was time for me to start my own company”,said Ankica in the Zagreb office of Kinorama. “Of course, I hesitated because I thought it could be risky and difficult given the fact that other Croatian filmmakers had established companies many years before me. Nevertheless, my two colleagues encouraged me and we started our company Kinorama in 2003. Since then, until now, we were keen to present films by directors and actors we believed in regardless the locale or international market requirements”.

Right now, there are 117 cinemas across Croatia with an attendance exceeding 3.5 million. Last year, for instance, Croatia presented more than ten long narratives in addition to several animation, shorts, and experimental ﬁlms.

Ankica had more insights: “To tell you the truth,the young Croatian moviegoers avoid European films and Croatian films alike because they prefer to see an American action or comedy.Statistically speaking,American films have 85% of the market share while European film reaches 12% of the market. e Croatian film share has increased in 2011 when KokoandtheGhosts,a family film we produced, was released to notable box office success although it was confined to small Croatian screens. e story,which was based on a best-selling book for children written by Ivan Kusan, revolves about Koko, a young boy who moves with his family from the countryside to a house in a major city. Once he settles down, Koko starts to hear stories about a ghost of an old man whose sudden death in the house was veiled in mystery. e success of Koko drove us to work on a sequel called e Mysterious Boy that will be released in the summer of 2013”.

erewith, Croatian ﬁlm production still faces many challenges although the system was improved. “Basically ﬁlm production is the same as many European countries, which means it is state funded through the Croatian Film Center that was established six years ago”, explains Ankica.

“Before its establishment, filmmakers used to apply to our Ministry of Culture because, without their support, it would be impossible to make films, regardless of the budget; big or small. As we know, films are always expensive to make. Right now, the system is better because it supports development of scripts and ideas with and among

producers and filmmakers, which wasn’t the case before. Other services provided by the center are crucial to the industry as they include the postproduction and promotion of Croatian films worldwide. However, there are also challenges related to the country’s profile. Our population is 4.5 million people, which means the local market is terribly small. All the films are produced in our native Croatian language and we rarely produce films with another language, which affects the worldwide sales despite the success of Croatian films in international festivals among viewers and critics”.

Practical Guide to Belgrade with Singing and Crying was one of the

French singer whom he drives to her concert; Melita the concert organizer is in love with a man who pretends to be an American diplomat; Jagoda, a hotel maid falls in love with a German-Turkish businessman; and finally, a Serbian policewoman confesses to her Croatian husband her troubled past right after their wedding. “A French-CroatianGerman-Hungarian-Serbian co-productionlikeAPracticalGuidetoBelgrade with an international ensemble cast was made easy through the new directives for tax reductions which was issued by the Croatian government to support non-Croatian producers to create projects and to encourage film makers to use Croatia as the film venue”, said Ankica. “Although Croatia is relatively a small country, a good location scout can easily find three different locations, and three different climates within a 100-mile circumference. Infrastructure related to tourism also helps production to move here.Tourism has become a significant source of revenue during the summer, with Croatia ranked the 18th most popular tourist destination around the world”.

Born in Cairo, Egypt, Sherif Awad is a ﬁlm / video critic and curator. He is the ﬁlm editor of Egypt Today Magazine (www.EgyptToday.com), and the artistic director for both the Alexandria Film Festival, in Egypt, and the Arab Rotterdam Festival, in e Netherlands. He

ﬁlms produced by Kinorama last year to narrow the intercultural gap between Croatia cinema and the rest of Europe. Taking place in Belgrade, the romantic comedy is a collection of four interconnected love stories lived by four couples coming from diﬀerent countries; Stefan falls in love with Silvie, the visiting

also contributes to Variety, in the United States,and is the ﬁlm critic of Variety Arabia (http://varietyarabia.com/), in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the AlMasry Al-Youm Website (http://www. almasryalyoum.com/en/node/198132) and e Westchester Guardian (www. WestchesterGuardian.com).

PracticalGuidetoBelgrade.

KokoandtheGhosts.

MarioSablic,DirectorofPhotograph,andAnkicaTiliconlocationofKokoandthe Ghosts.

AnkicaTilic.

Home / DurbanInternationalFilm Festival /Award-winners announcedat34thDurbanInternational Film Festival

Award-winnersannouncedat 34th Durban International Film Festival

NEWS INPICTURES

The 34th editionofthe DurbanInternationalFilm Festival, withprincipalfundingfrom the NationalLottery DistributionTrustFund, onSaturday, July272013announcedits award-winners, prior tothe screeningof the closingfilm Free Angela –AndAllPoliticalPrisoners atthe SuncoastCineCentre Cinema. Presentingthe awardfor BestFeature Film tothe film The LandofHope, the InternationalJurycommendedSionSonofor a film that“masterfullyandhumblydraws together anarrayofcinematicmeans ofexpressiontoengage us ina story”. The BestFeature Film awardcarries withita cashprize ofR50000.

The internationalJury, whichcomprisedofEgyptiancurator andfestivalprogrammer SherifAwad, renownedfestivalprogrammer PaoloBertolin, SouthAfricanfilmmaker SarahBlecher, film curator June GivanniandSouthAfricanactress HlubiMboya, alsoawardedBestSouthAfricanFeature Film toSouth Africanfilmmaker Andrew Worsdale for his film DurbanPoison. The BestSouthAfricanFeature Film award carries withita cashprize ofR30000.

InternationalJurymember, June Givannionbehalfofthe InternationalJuryalsogave reasonas towhythe film directedbyJahmilXT Qubeka couldnotbe consideredfor competitionbysaying“As a jury, we were privilegedtobe takenona globaljourneythroughcinema, andwe wouldlike tothankPeter Machenandthe Film Festivalprogrammers for this greathounor. However, we have toexpress our regretthatthis journey couldnotinclude the SouthAfricancompetitionentryOF GOODREPORT, whichthe Film andPublication Boarddidnotlicense for publicscreeningintime for us totake itintoconsideration. The juryis saddened andconcernedaboutthe limitations tofreedom ofexpressionthatare stillinforce onthe continentand beyond, butwe are gladthatonthis occasionthe decisionhas beenover-turned.

FestivalaccoladesforOfGoodReport

Followingthe refusaltoclassifythe OpeningNightFilm OfGoodReport, the Film andPublications Board reversedtheir decisionandgave the film anR-Ratingof16this afternoon(Saturday, July27). The film was notscreenedinanyofits allocatedslots as a resultofthe refusalfor classificationandsocouldnotbe in

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Posted by: SharleneVersfeld July 28,2013 0

Internationa Jurymembers renownedfestivalprogrammer PaoloBertolin, SouthAfricanfilmmaker Sarah Blecher, film curator June Givanni, Egyptiancurator andfestivalprogrammer SherifAwadandSouth Africanactress andDurbanInternationalFilm FestivalAmbassador HlubiMboya

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competition. The DurbanInternationalFilm Festivalacknowledgedthe film’s achievements instimulating worldwide debate andhighlightingimportantissues inSouthAfricansociety. Festivalmanager Peter Machen therefore announceda new annualawardfor ArtisticBravery, the firstofwhichwas giventoOfGood Reportdirector, JahmilXT Qubeka. OfGoodReportwillnow be screeneda preview onthe lastdayofthe festival(Sunday, July28)at12h00atSuncoastCineCentre.

Professor CherylPotgieter alsogave specialmentionanda prize toFestivalManager Peter Machenfor his outstandingworkduringthe festivalandacknowledginghis contributiontothe festivalas a whole. The DeputyVice Chancellor ofHumanities alsotouchedonthe currentlyvacantpostofthe Centre for Creative Arts Directorshipstatingthatthe positionis currentlybeingadvertisedandthatanappointmentwouldbe happeningsoon.

The fulllistofawards is:

· BestShortFilm –Mercy(dir. Eliza Subotowicz)

· BestSouthAfricanShortFilm –The Brave Unseen(dir. DuanMyburgh)

· BestDocumentaryFilm –Far outisn’tFar Enough: The TomiUngerer Story(dir. BradBernstein)

· SpecialMention: BestDocumentaryFilm –IAm Breathing(dir. Emma Davie andMoragMcKinonn)

· BestSouthAfricanDocumentaryFilm –Angel’s InExile (dir. BillyRaftery)

· SpecialMention: BestSouthAfricanDocumentaryFilm –Orania (dir. Tobias Lindner)

· AmnestyInternationalDurbanHumanRights Award–PussyRiot–A PunkPrayer (dir. Mike Lerner andMaxim Pozdorovkin)

· Audience Choice BestFilm –Felix(dir. Roberta Durrant)

· Audience Choice BestDocumentary–PussyRiot–A PunkPrayer (dir. Mike Lerner andMaxim Pozdorovkin)

· Audience Choice BestWavescapes Film –Stand(dir. AnthonyBonelloandNicolas Teichrob)

· Audience Choice BestWildTalkFilm –2Wings ManyPrayers (dir. LloydRoss)

· BestFeature Film –The LandofHope (dir. SionSono)

· BestFirstFeature Film –Wadjda (dir. Al-Mansour Haifaa)

· BestSouthAfricanFeature Film –DurbanPoison(dir. Andrew Worsdale)

· BestDirection–Xavier Dolanfor Laurence Anyways

· BestCinematography–MatÍas Penachinofor Halley

· BestScreenplay–Asghar Fahradifor The Past

· BestActor –DavidandEitanCuniofor Youth

· BestActress –Paulina Garcia for Gloria andSuzanne Clémentfor Laurence Anyways

· DurbanInternationalFilm FestivalAwardfor ArtisticBravery–JahmilXT Qubeka

Sundayis the lastdayofscreenings withfilm screenings atSuncoastCinema, Ster Kinekor Musgrave, Cinema NouveauGateway, ElizabethSneddonTheatre (UniversityofKwaZulu-Natal), Ekhaya Multi-Arts Centre (Kwa-Mashu), andthe Blue Waters Hotel.

The 34thDurbanInternationalFilm Festivalis organisedbythe Centre For Creative Arts (Universityof KwaZulu-Natal)withsupportbythe NationalLotteryDistributionTrustFund(principalfunder), NationalFilm andVideoFoundation, KwaZulu-NatalDepartmentofEconomicDevelopmentandTourism, HIVOS, Cityof Durban, GermanEmbassyinSouthAfrica, Goethe InstitutofSouthAfrica, FrenchSeasoninSouthAfrica, anda range ofother valuedpartners.

Award-winnersannouncedat34thDurban InternationalFilmFestival

News Home (/news/) / Award-winners announced at 34th Durban International Film Festival

Monday 29th July, 2013 on DurbanZone Online Magazine (http://newswall.co.za/newspaper/durbanzone-online-magazine/2133)

The 34th edition of the Durban International Film Festival, with principal funding from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, on Saturday, July 27 2013 announced its award-winners, prior to the screening of the closing film Free Angela – And All Political Prisoners at the Suncoast CineCentre Cinema. Presenting the award for Best Feature Film (/news/topix/southafrica/best-feature-film#js) to the film The Land of Hope, the International Jury (/news/topix/south-africa/international-jury#js) commended Sion Sono for a film that “masterfully and humbly draws together an array of cinematic means of expression to engage us in a story”. The Best Feature Film (/news/topix/south-africa/best-feature-film#js) award carries with it a cash prize of R50 000.

The international Jury, which comprised of Egyptian curator and festival programmer Sherif Awad, renowned festival programmer Paolo Bertolin, South African filmmaker Sarah Blecher, film curator June Givanni and South African actress Hlubi Mboya, also awarded Best South African Feature Film to South African filmmaker Andrew Worsdale for his film Durban Poison. The Best South African Feature Film award carries with it a cash prize of R30 000.

International Jury (/news/topix/south-africa/international-jury#js) member, June Givanni on behalf of the International Jury (/news/topix/south-africa/international-jury#js) also gave reason as to why the film directed by Jahmil XT Qubeka could not be considered for competition by saying “As a jury, we were privileged to be taken on a global journey through cinema, and we would like to thank Peter Machen and the Film Festival programmers for this great hounor. However, we have to express our regret that this journey could not include the South African competition entry OF GOOD REPORT, which the Film and Publication Board did not license for public screening in time for us to take it into consideration.

The jury is saddened and concerned about the limitations to freedom of expression that are still in force on the continent and beyond, but we are glad that on this occasion the decision has been over-turned. Following the refusal to classify the Opening Night Film Of Good Report, the Film and Publications Board (/news/topix/south-africa/film-and-publications-board#js) reversed their decision and gave the film an R-Rating of 16 this afternoon (Saturday, July 27).

The film was not screened in any of its allocated slots as a result of the refusal for classification and so could not be in competition.

... Read the comprehensive news article and discuss at DurbanZone Online Magazine (http://newswall.co.za/news/local/a2tf4)

Like Send You and 3 others like this.

Like Send You and 3 others like this.

Award-winnersannouncedat34thDurban InternationalFilmFestival

News Home (/news/) / Award-winners announced at 34th Durban International Film Festival

Monday 29th July, 2013 on DurbanZone Online Magazine (http://newswall.co.za/newspaper/durbanzone-online-magazine/2133)

The 34th edition of the Durban International Film Festival, with principal funding from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, on Saturday, July 27 2013 announced its award-winners, prior to the screening of the closing film Free Angela – And All Political Prisoners at the Suncoast CineCentre Cinema. Presenting the award for Best Feature Film (/news/topix/southafrica/best-feature-film#js) to the film The Land of Hope, the International Jury (/news/topix/south-africa/international-jury#js) commended Sion Sono for a film that “masterfully and humbly draws together an array of cinematic means of expression to engage us in a story”. The Best Feature Film (/news/topix/south-africa/best-feature-film#js) award carries with it a cash prize of R50 000.

The international Jury, which comprised of Egyptian curator and festival programmer Sherif Awad, renowned festival programmer Paolo Bertolin, South African filmmaker Sarah Blecher, film curator June Givanni and South African actress Hlubi Mboya, also awarded Best South African Feature Film to South African filmmaker Andrew Worsdale for his film Durban Poison. The Best South African Feature Film award carries with it a cash prize of R30 000.

The film was not screened in any of its allocated slots as a result of the refusal for classification and so could not be in competition.

... Read the comprehensive news article and discuss at DurbanZone Online Magazine (http://newswall.co.za/news/local/a2tf4)

Like Send You and 2 others like this.

Like Send You and 2 others like this.

Fortifying dialogue

AN INTERVIEW WITH EYGPTIAN CuRAToR, BRoAdCASTER, EdIToR ANd CRITIC SHERIF AWAd, WHo CoNTRIBuTEd To THE SoLuS CoLLECTIVE’S IRISH / ARABIAN AVANT-GARdE FILM TouR.

Jason Oakley: ow did your connection to the Solus Irish / Arabian Avant-Garde Film Tour (1) come about?

Sherif Awad: I was introduced to Alan Lambert of the Solus Collective through a mutual friend – Egyptian novelist Mahmoud Kassem. Mahmoud and myself were working in Alexandria Film Festival for Mediterranean Countries last year. I asked Alan to put us into contact with Irish film companies and to nominate Irish features for the festival. When Alan attended the festival, I showed him some of the other selections I was curating inside and outside of Egypt – film and video, experimental narratives and documentary shorts. We kept in contact; and he invited me to present a selection of works in Dublin, to complement Solus’s presentation of Irish films at Alexandria Bibliotheca.

JO: Could you talk me through some of the works you selected for this screening?

SA: They are short narrative films from Egypt and the Middle East, funded independently by the filmmakers themselves – who are either film or art students. They are shot in what might be described as an 'urban underground' style. The topics are those not tackled in mainstream theatrical releases. They reflect contemporary turmoil, generational conflict and other social issues. My criteria is to always select films with a strong visual texture, creative narratives and of a topical nature. I’m always conscious when touring with these films, that I have responsibility to present a realistic image of my society. I also like to shed some light on promising new filmmakers.

Call Centre, by Mohammed Hammad is a short narrative about a middleclass veiled Egyptian girl who works in a call centre in an urban neighbourhood. To overcome her sexual oppression, she starts to eavesdrop on the customers’ calls. It is a modern take on voyeurism, a new Peeping Tom, about hidden secrets and people who don’t practice what they preach. The oppression of a male character is explored in the award-winning Clean Hands, Dirty Soap by Karim Fanous – in which a young handsome musician has to accept to work as a toilet cleaner in a luxury nightclub, because his talents have not been recognized. Through his eyes we see the contrast between this reality and living at home with a sick mother, and the dream world he is part of at night. Dina Gamaleldeen’s The Body reflects on beauty and femininity in her short documentary debut, which explores the ups and downs of contemporary dancers in Cairo. It is really a departure from the urban noir-ish approach of the other films.

JO: How did the Irish audiences respond to the screenings?

SA: In European cities closer to Egypt, I usually get more of an audience from Arab origins. But in Dublin, they were mostly Dublin-based with only one journalist who used to based in Egypt and another young half Irish / half Egyptian artist whom I known in Cairo. And of course, because of the lack of coverage of Egyptian and Arab film and art in Ireland, the films prompted a lot of interesting questions from the audiences about Middle Eastern society, creativity and politics.

JO: Are you doing any other similar events elsewhere in Europe?

SA: Yes, I am travelling to Turin, Italy and Orebro, Sweden. I also hope set up an Arab video channel as part of the next Loop Video Art Festival in Barcelona. I am also coordinating the 25th edition of Alexandria Biennial for Mediterranean countries this December. I hope to return to Dublin, with not only with a film show but also an exhibition.

JO: Could you tell me a bit more about your background and involvement in Egyptian contemporary art and film?

SA: Since 1993 I’ve been the communications manager in Egypt for United International Pictures, Fox and Warner. Around that time I also started to work as a programmer for the Cairo and Alexandria Film Festivals. I’ve contributed to many magazines, and I am the art and film editor for Egypt Today Magazine – which is the leading English language monthly magazine in Egypt. I handle three other publications – The Ticket Entertainment Magazine, Scope CD Magazine and Contemporary Practices. I currently present film focuses in both the Cervantes and Italian Cultural Centres in Cairo. In addition I am the film and video curator of contemporary art gallery called Darb 1718, which opened in the middle of Fustat in old Cairo in 2008. I write teleplays for film / art TV shows on satellite channels that broadcasting in the Middle East. This includes the weekly program Cinemascope on Dream TV. In print and on TV I have covered international film festivals like Berlin, Cannes, Istanbul, Taormina, Rome, Dubai, Oran and Tribeca; and art events such as the Guangzhou Triennial, along with the Cairo and Sharjah Biennials.

JO: Could you briefly outline some key elements of the contemporary Egyptian Art Scene?

SA: The roots of the Egyptian contemporary art go back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the westerners who came and began teaching visual art in local schools and colleges. Most of the western movements including impressionism, realism and their evolutions were absorbed, until the ‘Egyptianization’ of creativity became an aim among artists and scholars alike. From the late 60s until the 80s, Egyptian artists started to take other directions, exploring themes of more personal self-discovery. By the 1980s and 1990s a new generations of artist practices began to reflect freer and more diverse paths –informed by information technology, globalization and mobility –along with an interest in collaborative projects, especially amongst younger artists. Practices like video art, performance, photography and installation also came to prominence. Younger artists also started to have more exposure to what is happening in the West, Also and also in Africa.

But the art scene is still in its inception. There is a lack of sponsors and only a relatively small number of professionally run contemporary private art galleries and spaces. Darb 1718 and The Townhouse Gallery are two such important venues – which offer artists residencies. The

support from public venues of contemporary art is quite limited. A multiplicity of art institutions and exhibition halls need to be established. It is a challenge for artists to devote themselves solely to their practice – there are very few teaching opportunities for example. And private funding often comes with strings attached – agendas and conditions, favouring certain mediums or themes specific prizes, contests and grants. On the other hand, the public spaces run by the minister of Culture are modernizing their management structures and are beginning to stage collaborative and curatorial exhibitions, examples including the recent editions of the Cairo and Alexandria Biennials.

And we still in need more art publications – as the current ones only cover certain events and certain artists in favour of others. And overall, we need stronger Arab language publishing. Bidoun for example is published in NYC; while Canvas and Contemporary Practices. Produced in Dubai, are written in English.

JO:Do you find the notion of Middle Eastern Art helpful or frustrating?

SO: It is a useful enough categorizing term – it can encourage curatorial work and the support of the art of coming from this vast, colourful and invigorating region. Of course, particular artists in particular areas and Diasporas all have their own preoccupations, themes and visual languages that need to be considered. It is important to note that ‘Middle Eastern Art’ also observes and reflects on the ‘European’ cultural scene and issues.

JO: Have you encountered stereotypes or preconceptions around notions of Middle Eastern Art in your travels?

SA: Throughout my experiences in Europe and the United States, stereotyping is eternal – not by the layman but also amongst curators and other art professionals. I try to challenge these rigid blocks of thought and ideas through my writings, screening and art shows. Ladies in veils, harems, bearded men with four wives, terrorists, and anti-feminism are few of the ideas that need to be thoroughly challenged.

JO: Have there been any recent European exhibitions of Middle Eastern Contemporary Art that you have thought were particularly good?

SO: Two come to mind. The first being 'The Present out of the Past Millennia – Contemporary Art from Egypt' held at Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany (2007), which featured thirteen Egyptian artists, who all took a very contemporary approach through a range of media exploring contrasting contexts of the occident and the orient. The second was 'Exile' at the Art Centre SilkeBorg Bad, Denmark (2009) where the theme was explored in philosophical and political terms were interpreted by 35 international artists including Egyptians and Arabs.

JO: Do you think it is a significant time for the visibility contemporary art and culture from the region?

SA: Particularly in Egypt there are positive changes in art management through the Sector of Fine Art – an initiative of the Minister of the Culture associated with the organization of the Cairo and Alexandria Biennials. The Sector of Fine Art comprises a project assigning artists to curate a range of public spaces. The large-scale exhibition 'Salon Elshabab' (Youth Salon) offers an important platform to art students and emerging artists. Palace of Art, a huge public venue, directed by the painter Mohamed Talaat is one of the most important spaces in Egypt. It has featured some key exhibitions considering contemporary issues such as, 'What Happens Now?' (2007) and the upcoming 'Why Not? 'Curated by Talaat. Recently some important new private spaces have been founded like Darb 1718; and the soon to be opened Bayan, set up by Alexandrian artist Wael Shawky in his home city. In United Arab Emirates, the art fairs in Dubai and Abu Dhabi are fast becoming important meeting points for curators and scholars. In terms of sales, we now must wait and see the fate of the economy in Dubai. Generally, since 9/11 the interest in Arab art and culture has been exponentially elevated. Westerners have started to open their hearts and minds in order to try understand more about the heritage of ‘the other side of the world’. I think the Arab image has started to change. Even in American action films we are seeing the moderate dramatization of Arab characters. Art and film offer platform for a dialogue between continents – it’s a great responsibility; artists and curator I hope will continue and fortify this dialogue into the future.

dina Gamaleldeen The Body

Mohammed Hammad Call Centre Video. 18 minutes. 2006, Arabic with English subtitles

Karim Fanous Clean Hands, Dirty Soap, 25 minutes. 2007

CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES

49th Karlovy Vary Festival

By SHERIF AWAD

Located 81 miles from Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, Karlovy Vary is a long established popular tourist and celebrity destination for its spa treatment for over two centuries. The beautiful city is also known for the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) whose 49th annual edition will take place this week, from the 4th through the 12th of July, 2014. KVIFF is ranked by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF) among the most prestigious world film festivals and is also considered the most important film event in Central and Eastern Europe. Being one of the oldest film festivals of all time (the first edition took place in 1946), KVIFF was inspired by the

Czech Republic’s advantageous geopolitical location, at the crossroads between Eastern and Western Europe. For more than five decades, the festival has been introducing film industry representatives and press from throughout the world to the newest local production while showing new quality films from the rest of the world to Central and Eastern Europe’s industry and press. KVIFF presents approximately 200 carefully selected international films, including up to 70 films presented as World, International, or European premieres. Along with two European colleagues, Natascha DrubekMeyer and Kirsten Liese, I will be a member of the FEDORA critics’ jury that is the Federation of Film Critics of Europe and the Mediterranean. We will be judging The East of the West Competition that is comprised of first and second feature films

from Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Turkey, and the countries of the former Soviet Union. The KVIFF program also includes another two competitive sections; each has its own jury: The Forum of Independents Competition and The Documentary Competition. In addition to the newest productions, KVIFF also brings hidden treasures and classic films through various tributes and retrospectives. At this year’s edition, the festival will receive William Friedkin, an outstanding figure of American filmmaking, who will be given The Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema. KVIFF will also present a restored version of one of the central films of his career, Sorcerer that was released in 1977 one month after the sci-fi epic Star Wars. The plot of Friedkin’s suspense thriller Sorcerer was adapted from the Georges Arnaud’s eponymous novel that inspired Henri-Georges Clouzot’s French classic Le salaire de la peur a/k/a The Wages of Fear (1953) starring Yves Montand. In

Fridedkin’s version, Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal, and Amidou play four men who, for various reasons, cannot return to their own countries. They end up in a dismal South American town where an American oil company sought out courageous drivers willing to haul nitroglycerin over 200 miles of treacherous terrain.

Unfortunately, while this film should have been a blockbuster given Friedkin’s preceding films, The French Connection and The Exorcist, its ultimate box office success was hampered by being released one month after Star Wars and arguably by the film title not sufficiently reflecting the settings nor the story.

The festival will also receive actor, director, and producer Mel Gibson who will be given the same tribute award for artistic engagement in international cinema. His latest directorial effort Apocalypto will also be screened. French actress Fanny Ardant will also present her third film as writer-director Cadences Obstinées (Obsessive Rhythms) in which Asia Argento stars as Margo, the cellist

who suffers after leaving her musical career to focus on her relationship with Furio, the hectic businessman. The drama about “love versus career opportunities” also co-stars two European icons, the Italian Franco Nero and the French Gérard Depardieu.

Leading, award-winning Hollywood actress Laura Dern will be a special guest of this edition. During her visit, the festival will show a special presentation, David Lynch’s cult film Wild at Heart, in which Dern and co-star Nicolas Cage played the central characters. The film won the Palme d´Or at the 1990 Cannes Festival.

This edition’s program also includes a few big-name films that were in the official selection of the recent Cannes International Film Festival: Naomi Kawase’s Still the Water, from Japan, Alice Rohrwacher’s The Wonder, from Italy, Andrei Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan, from Russia, Xavier Dolan’s Mommy, from Canada, ,Abderrahmane Sissako’s Timbuktu, from Mauritania, and Damián

Szifrón’s Wild Tales, from Argentina. More from Karlovy Vary next week…

Born in Cairo, Egypt, Sherif Awad is a film / video critic and curator. He is the film editor of Egypt Today Magazine (www.EgyptToday. com ), and the artistic director for both the Alexandria Film Festival, in Egypt, and the Arab Rotterdam Festival, in The Netherlands. He also contributes to Variety, in the United States, and is the film critic of Variety Arabia (http://varietyarabia.com/ ), in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Al-Masry Al-Youm Website (http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/ node/198132 ) and The Westchester Guardian (www.WestchesterGuardian.com ).

William Friedkin will be presented with The Crystal Globe for the depth of achievement throughout his illustrious career.

The late and great Roy Scheider in ‘Sorcerer’ to be rediscovered in KVIFF 2014.

Poster of the 49th edition of KVIFF.

Mel Gibson is a honored guest in attendance at Karlovy Vary.

Laura Dern, a special guest star of KVIFF.

French movie star Fanny Ardant will attend KVIFF as a writer-director.

‘Tour de Fraud’ ‘Getting

CONSERVATION

The New Ambassador Wolf Pup

Continued from page 5

first week in June, but will not really begin teaching people until he is living in an open enclosure.

What impressed me the most about his rearing was that he was taken from his mother and littermates to be raised by humans at the age of one month. Watching him play with the myriad of toys that were brought to him was like watching a human baby play. Ms. Howell commented while we watched him play, “He’s just a baby. Just like any child, he’s going to play and want to chew, discover, and explore. He really is an amazing little kiddo and we are just thrilled to have him as part of our family.” She went on to explain that the pup has been very comfortable so far meeting people as well as traveling. Right now, he travels in a kennel of sorts, similar to the type used for taking dogs to the airport in. He has one in his van where

he is at least once a day taken somewhere by Rebecca Bose, the WCC curator. For the first few weeks of his stay at the WCC, Nikai was taken care of solely by Ms. Bose and the WCC’s founder, Helene Grimaud. As of now, his care is open to a small group of approximately 8 volunteers and staff who rotate their time 24 hours a day. Nikai, at the time I visited, was always accompanied wherever he went by a human being and often by Ms. Bose’s German shepherd. Amongst the things I found captivating about Nikai’s living conditions were his sleeping arrangements. He sleeps in what is basically a room where there is a mattress on the floor. In the room, there are lots of toys, dog beds, and even one of those kennels that he travels in. Ms. Howell’s observation was that Nikai, for the most part, has either been sleeping in the kennel or on the bed with whoever his caretaker is at the time. She elucidated on this point saying, “We are socializing him by doing this. Wolves are very shy naturally, and by living with us,

CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES

History of Fear

By SHERIF AWAD

The Argentine film industry has historically been one of the three most evolved among Latin American cinemas, along with the film industries accomplishments of Mexico and Brazil. Throughout the 20th Century, film production in Argentina, supported by the State and by a long list of accomplished directors and actors, became one of the major industries in the Spanishspeaking world. However the national

production and distribution systems have in recent years been stymied by cumulative years of economic malaise and an encroachment of the domestic scene by the release

sleeping with us, and being with us 24/7, he is going to be more open to seeing us.”

Equally fascinating to me was Nikai’s future diet, which will be the same as the other ambassador wolves. At the time I visited, he was eating Bravo brand raw diet, which is actually a dog food, but he will graduate to eating steaks and other red meat obtained from none other than Whole Foods. Ms. Howell explained that the WCC

of legions of foreign titles. Circumstances became the catalyst for the Argentine government to create the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts (INCAA) in 1987. NCAA is a publicly subsidized

film underwriter that went on to produce approximately 130 full-length art house titles from its inception to the present. This new system enhanced the popularity of Argentine films within Argentina, and

has been very lucky to strike a wonderful relationship with Whole Foods. If they have any food where the packaging is just ripped or dented, not necessarily the plastic, but even just the cardboard part, the store can’t, or won’t, sell it, it goes to the WCC. At this point, she says jokingly, “So they [the ambassador wolves] eat better than the Wolf Center staff, for sure.”

Nikai, a Navajo name which means

enlarged its popularity throughout Latin America, Europe and the U.S.

In Spain, for example, Argentine films have won fourteen Goya Awards in the Best Foreign Film category. The Goya Awards are akin to the Oscars awarded in the U.S. The Argentine film industry is thereby the most awarded Spanishspeaking country winning this trophy. Likewise in the US, Argentina was also the only Latin American country that has won two Oscars (so far) for Best Foreign Film; the first time was in 1985 with The Official Story, and the second time was for The Secret in Their Eyes in 2009.

At the 49th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic this week, the opportunity to discover recent productions from throughout the world is palpable. The specially designated ‘Horizons’ category include award winning films from major festivals. ‘Horizons’ will showcase the new Argentine film Historia del Miedo (History of Fear) by rising

wanderer, will be on display at the WCC and museums in the South Salem area throughout the summer. To see Nikai and his ambassador wolves companions, call 914-763-2373 or visit the WCC website at nywolf.org

Helen Weisman is a freelance science journalist living in New York City. She has taught writing at The City University of New York.

writer-director Benjamin Naishtat who is making his feature debut. Premiered in the official competition of the Berlin Film Festival (Berlinale) last February, the thrilling drama will also be screened next September at the 62nd San Sebastian Film Festival, organized annually in Spain. At first glance, the film conjures images from three classic films: Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968), and David Cronenberg’s Shivers (1975), where each plot revolved around a group of people running or hiding from human mutants or aliens from the unknown. Becoming a mutant or a zombie in those classic monster films were considered dramatic or visual metaphors reflective of totalitarianism, social injustice, isolation, or social detachment. And these are the same principles to be found in Historia del Miedo; where unexplained occurrences, such as constant power blackouts and cars

Continued on page 7

Argentine writer-director Benjamin Naishtat

Pola and Tati enjoy a peaceful moment before paranoia overwhelms their calm.

Jonathan Da Rosa enacts the role of Pola, the terrorized son of a policeman investigating the blackouts.

Ad Edith, Claudia Cantero is attacked by a homeless man during a blackout scene.

CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES

History of Fear

malfunctions, tend to evoke paranoia and chaos among the rich residents of some of Buenos Aires’ luxurious mansions. Strange happenings begin along a parallel timeline for the families and individuals from the opening scenes onward. A police helicopter is circling overhead the gated community in the north of the Argentine capital to

alert the residents that they must evacuate to be relocated elsewhere because of power problems. Later, some kids ask an old police officer to see if their parents’ house, located in the same area, has been robbed. Meanwhile, Pola (Jonathan Da Rosa) begins to exhibit unusual behavior patterns, while accompanying his girlfriend Tati (Tatiana Giménez) to a picnic spot by the edge of a lake. Although the water seems to be filthy and black, the young man drags Tati to splash about in the water. Tensions rise between the two characters and the

Flutist Nobuko Miyazaki

By LEE DANIELS

At last year’s performance in the Brooklyn Botanical Garden’s annual Cherry Blossom Festival, I was lucky enough to find a viewing spot near the front of the space where New York-based Japanese performance group Taiko Masala was about to play.

Though not an easy feat to find a place near the stage among the large crowd that had gathered to see the Japanese drumming group, as well as acts by traditional dancers, and martial artists, I was rewarded by a unique and captivating experience.

viewer is left to interpret the hidden reason till the end of the film.

Benjamín Naishtat, the writer-director of the film, was born in Buenos Aires in 1986. After completing his studies in Argentina, he became a resident artist at Fresnoy-Studio National des Arts Contemporains in France. Before History of Fear, he directed two experimental short films Estamos Bien (2008) and El Juego (2010), hence the necessity to paying attention to decipher his directorial efforts in this feature debut. The twenty something

her egg-shaker and began to play rhythm, and I thought to myself, ‘this is where it’s at!,’” Miyazaki says.

Standing out in the performance like brightly colored chrysanthemum jutting out from a hedge of dark green leaves was flutist Nobuko Miyazaki, at stage right. Both complementing and juxtaposing the sonorous and vividly physical drumming by the rest of the group, Miyazaki’s compelling performance on the shinobue--a Japanese flute made from bamboo--and music were enchanting, and I stood on tiptoe for the entire act, enthralled.

Having the great fortune of catching up with Ms. Miyazaki recently, for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant, I was even more delighted to discover that the artist, a former teacher at renowned Music in Chappaqua music school, was as captivating in person as she is on stage.

Originally from Chigasaki, Japan, Ms. Miyazaki moved to California at age eight, and her first love of music was centered on the piano.

“I accompanied my brother to his piano lessons when I was about 4, and decided I wanted to become a piano teacher, so I began taking lessons,” Miyazaki explains.

“I did not like the flute at first, but my mother gently guided me into and through learning to play the flute, which I started at age 10,” she continues.

Miyazaki’s academic formation in music was grounded in undergraduate study at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN with a major in classical flute performance, followed by one year of graduate study at the University of London’s prestigious School of Oriental and African Studies at (SOAS).

Following her graduation from SOAS, Miyazaki left London for New York, where she has called home ever since.

“I remember riding the Q train shortly after I came to New York, and there was this musician who began playing his keyboard. Then, a young woman broke out

filmmaker succeeds in creating different characters caught in the like or same circumstances where they are dubious about the intentions of others. Echoes of the economic crisis that hit Argentina a few years ago, and how those times evoked a sense of insecurity, some argue those times are akin to feeling imprisoned or constrained in their daily lives are honestly reflected in his film.

Born in Cairo, Egypt, Sherif Awad is a film / video critic and curator. He is the film editor of

Egypt Today Magazine ( www.EgyptToday. com ), and the artistic director for both the Alexandria Film Festival, in Egypt, and the Arab Rotterdam Festival, in The Netherlands. He also contributes to Variety, in the United States, and is the film critic of Variety Arabia ( http://varietyarabia.com/ ), in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Al-Masry Al-Youm Website ( http://www.almasryalyoum. com/en/node/198132 ) and The Westchester Guardian (www.WestchesterGuardian.com ).

“A lot of Japanese come here, especially artists, because it is a place where they can be themselves. It is a city that just accepts everyone,” Miyazaki explains.

Dividing her time between teaching flute and performing around the area, including Manhattan, White Plains, upstate New York, and New Jersey, as well as overseas—including a 2-week tour in 12 cities in China last year, and one week performing in Beijing this year—Miyazaki also finds time to grow her passion by recording, with her first album expected to be released this year.

In part because of her strong interest in ethnic music, beginning with her studies

at SOAS, Miyazaki has been a devotee of Arabic music ever since, joining and performing with the New York Arabic Orchestra shortly after arriving here.

“I played flute with an Iraqi oud player (a pear-shaped Arabic string instrument) in London, and have continued my interest in Arabic music ever since,” Miyazaki says.

Ms. Miyazaki’s plans to visit Lebanon later this month are tribute to both her interest in ethnic music and culture, and her intrepidness and personal courage in broaching new frontiers and experiencing new cultures.

“Many newer musicians like to follow trends, but I like to go back in time,” Miyazaki explains, with a smile that lights up the restaurant’s mildly drab atmosphere.

###

Nobuko Miyazaki’s upcoming performances include:

Sunday, July 13, 3:00 p.m.: With Taiko Masala, at Widow Jane Mine, Rosedale, NY.

Wednesday, July 16, 7:00 p.m.: Atlantic City, NJ, Free Public Library’s International Night Series.

Wednesday, August 20, 6:00 p.m., “Spiral Music,” at the Rubin Museum of Art, New York.

A resident of Manhattan, when she is not performing, teaching, or composing, Ms. Miyazaki enjoys searching out good vegan restaurants.

Lee Daniels is Arts & Leisure writer for The Westchester Guardian and Yonkers Tribune.

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Flutist Nobuko Miyazaki.

Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?

ENERGY CONCERNS

Indian Point Evacuation Plan

Continued from page 4

of catastrophe along the lines of a Fukushima or Chernobyl only receives incremental attention in the hopeless expediency that will follow. “The ten mile radius is an arbitrary number. It’s all the same plan,” she says of the 300,000 people encompassed in a potential death race out of Dodge.

More importantly, past disasters show that radiation plumes moving in a southerly direction would easily cloud everything from

Peekskill to New York City. “That amounts to one eighth of the U.S. population,” she says, and the gases won’t hesitate to linger further onto Philadelphia.

A half-life later on a heavy metal mass scale, an exodus will be defined by financial survival capacity rather than radiation affects.

“The real estate value of property and homes will plummet, and we all will still owe our mortgage,” advises Dr. Rubin.

While public awareness was best summed up by a person who thought an underground tunnel could catapult him to

CULTURAL PERSPECTI v ES

“Bota” Means the World

By SHERIF AWAD

During the 1990’s, the change from the communist to democratic system led to a big break for Albanian cinema production. As the big conglomerate Kinostudio was dissolved

into several smaller studios, movie directors from the old and new generation began to make films within the new system. Some of the recently acclaimed Albanian movies include Kolonel Bunker, Slogans, Dasma e Sakos, Tirana Year Zero, Porta Eva, and the most successful Amnesty that was reviewed a year-and-half ago in this column.

safety, Ralph Nader is far from removed on the issue and voiced a simple solution in the film. “If 1% of the population contacted their representatives, politicians would follow through on Indian Point’s stalled license,” he stated.

Probably too tall an order. Indian Point now faces an additional external threat beyond terrorism and natural disaster. A 42-inch pipeline of highly pressurized fracked gas is currently on the docket to run past the plant. “The same type of pipeline in San Bruno, Caifornia exploded in 2010

Among the original Albanian films shown in the Karlovy Vary Festival this year is Bota by Iris Elezi and Thomas Logoreci, a real-life Albanian couple who also co-wrote the script. The story takes place in present day Albania with echoes of the communist past still surrounding the protagonists. In an isolated village, Juli (Flonja Kodheli), Nora (Fioralba Kryemadhi) and Ben (Artur Gorishti) work together in a small café called Bota. While Ben, who has connections with illegal business, juggles an affair with the younger and innocent Nora, Juli falls Mili, an engineer with the highway construction crew expanding the roadway near desertroadside café

The genesis of the film began with Iris Elezi, who was born during the last decade of the Marxist dictatorship, left her country to pursue film studies in the United States. Returning in 2001, Iris Elezi found her Balkan homeland battered by the recent war in neighboring Kosovo and a series of failed schemes that had driven Albania into near anarchy. Unlike the rest of the former East Bloc, Albania’s transition to something resembling normalcy was going to take considerably longer. The returning filmmaker found herself fascinated by numerous stories of Albanian families who survived the repressive years of the communist dictatorship. Anyone who was marked as ‘enemy of the people’ found himself and his family sent off to a network of labor camps that dotted the isolated countryside.

While working on her multi-part documentary exploration of the Balkans, Elezi began to collect numerous compelling stories about people held in labor camps in remote areas unknown to most Albanians. It was in 2007 when Iris Elezi wrote an early draft of this film Bota making use of reallife elements to create the story of Juli, who discovers that her mother was such a captive, and who was executed while Juli was a child. Raised by her grandmother, she started to work in the Bota Café without knowing that Ben stole the pension money assigned by the new system as reconciliation to the family for

killing eight people,” noted Rubin.

Nonetheless, the six-minute film demands a true evacuation test, and an actual plan that lives up to the possible consequences. But the stock footage of the old “duck and cover film from the 50s essentially sums up the chances that such a plan could be implemented.

In other words, put your head between your knees and kiss your ass goodbye.

As such, Dr. Rubin recommends that concerned citizens contact their county legislators and local town officials to begin the

its suffering. In the course of the story that unveils, the director shows the illegal activities practiced by Ben who use his language skills, especially Italian, to con the engineer who comes to reconstruct the highway. The idea of a highway bringing change to this remote community is quite similar to a railway system reaching a small town in the old west. It is an apt metaphor to the upheaval which smothered the new Albania.

process of closing Indian Point

Additionally, if the pipeline is a concern contact your Westchester County Legislator today at (914) 995-2800. Tell them to demand an independent and transparent risk analysis and public health impact assessment before federal and state agencies make their decisions about the Spectra AIM Pipeline Project. See The Plan? at: http:// vimeo.com/96615872

Rich Monetti has been a freelance writer since 2003. He lives in Westchester County.

While she was continuing to shape her story and was in search for financing Bota, Elezi met the Albanian-American filmmaker Thomas Logoreci who was himself the son of an émigré who fled from the communist dictatorship in the mid-1940’s. While engaged in revising and developing new drafts for the film script, they fell in love and got married in 2010, in San Francisco,

Continued on page 6

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Saturday, July 26 , 4:30 PM at the Community Unitarian Church, 468 Rosedale Avenue, White Plains

A Spiritual Humanistic Havdalah Ceremony

Q&A About the Meaning of Humanism in Judaism Enjoying Food and Beverages with Like-Minded People

A Chance to Explore Being a Part of a Non-Theistic Jewish Community

No Charge but donations always welcome For more Information visit wchj.org

Iris Elezi and Thomas Logoreci are the co-directors of Bota.

Flonja Kodheli, Fioralba Kryemadhi and Artur Gorishti are the three protagonists of Bota.

CULTURAL PERSPECTI v ES

“Bota”

California. Shortly thereafter, they both returned to Albania to shoot the film in an area built in the early 1980’s by political prisoners held in a communist youth camp. After the fall of the regime, the apartments were used to house the internal exiles that first constructed them. Over time, ocean and swamp water seeped into the ground, rendering the land in Sector C the nearest thing to a Balkan desert.

Iris and Thomas had always dreamed of casting leading man Artur Gorishti in the pivotal role of café owner Ben. After starring in many communist and post-communist Albanian roles, Gorishti had moved to Canada with his family. When Iris and Thomas finally managed to contact him, the enthusiastic Gorishti agreed to take the role, returning to Albania after an eight-year absence.

The storyline of the film is complemented with the classic music made during the Marxist isolation when Albanian musicians were briefly allowed to perform a local variation of the tango, that still survives in a handful of recordings treasured by vinyl collectors. In the mid-1960’s, when Albania fell under the influence of China’s Cultural Revolution, the tango was forbidden. Records featuring that music genre were smashed and many master tapes were lost. For the film, two masters of this music form, Rudolf Stambolla and Anita Take, were found to help identify the song titles from the exile tapes. Both Anita Take and Rudolf Stambolla were amazed to hear their music used in a film. Though Anita Take continued to perform during the communist era, Rudolf Stambolla’s career had been tragically cut short.

Website ( http://www.almasryalyoum. com/en/node/198132 ) and The Westchester Guardian (www.WestchesterGuardian. com ). Continued from page 5

Born in Cairo, Egypt, Sherif Awad is a film / video critic and curator. He is the film editor of

Egypt Today Magazine ( www.EgyptToday. com ), and the artistic director for both the Alexandria Film Festival, in Egypt, and the Arab Rotterdam Festival, in The Netherlands.

He also contributes to Variety, in the United States, and is the film critic of Variety Arabia ( http://varietyarabia.com/ ), in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Al-Masry Al-Youm

Greenburgh Residents Protest Ardsley Gun Range

By NANCY KING

Many residents living in the Town of Greenburgh have been shocked to learn the town has been keeping a shotgun secret from them; there is an outdoor shooting range in Ardsley. But wait… the range has been there for 57 years! Having been a resident of the town for nearly 16 years, I never knew it was there. Talk about hiding something in plain sight! This range has been tucked away within an abandoned quarry, in a wooded area of Ardsley, its imprint unknown to most of us until last month when a resident, in her backyard, was grazed in the leg by an errant bullet. So how come no one else has ever had a close encounter with a bullet until recently? Intuitively, it must be because there were no houses built adjacent to the shooting club.

The development that now abuts the shooting range is a 34-homes, luxury development called Ardsley Chase. The development was built by the well-known housing developer Toll Brothers. These aren’t just your average residential homes in a cute little cul-de-sac, these are homes that start selling at the $1.5 million price point.

The Toll Brothers also have contributed to Supervisor Feiner’s campaigns as far back as the early 2000’s. Feiner himself recused himself from the heated debate over the Westchester Police Revolver and Rifle League’s future after acknowledging that he did receive donations from Toll Brothers.

Residents questioned whether Feiner had taken those donations while the application to construct Ardsley Chase was under review by the town. Under a 2007 town ethic’s law ruling, the Supervisor cannot accept a

We’re Not Racists

By NANCY KING

Sometimes you just have to give credit where it is due.

This past week, Westchester County Government is credited for their handling of the never ending affordable housing lawsuit handed down by Washington. This lawsuit tends to rear its ugly head every few weeks with both sides taking swipes at one another. The chess match between Barack

Obama and Westchester County continues to play out because the Republican candidate for New York State governor is Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino. Affable, and with the ability to connect with all sorts of people, Rob Astorino is popular here in Westchester with left leaning Democrats who might also call themselves progressives. These liberal progressives know that we are far from being a racist county. They liked Astorino enough to put him in for a

campaign donation while the donor has an application pending.

The tangled web of the Westchester Police and Rifle League is so mired in confusion that it will be sure to cost residents a lot to untangle the timeline. The range, located near the Sprain Brook Parkway is run by active and retired police officers. The range receives no inspections because no licensing is required of a private club. Local zoning officials have never addressed the safety of the range because it was there long before there were local zoning ordinances. To top it all off, it’s within shooting distance from Ardsley Middle School’s playground. Adding to the layer of red tape is the fact that the range doesn’t even own the property it sits on; it’s owned by Con Edison who first leased it to the club back in 1957! So who is in actuality responsible for the future of the

second term, which says a lot. I certainly don’t think fighting to maintain home-rule zoning laws makes the County Executive a card-carrying racist. This just looks like your typical campaign slug out fest between the two parties.

By the time this story goes to print, Westchester County should have been recognized to be way ahead of schedule in constructing those affordable housing units. According to the Federal Lawsuit, 750 units must be constructed. As of July 2014, the county secured financing for 406 of those units and 25%(173) of those units are already

club? Who knows! You can bet I, along with other homeowners in town, will be paying for the investigation.

In the meantime, residents from Ardsley Chase and a few of the surrounding blocks have finally come forward to complain about bullet fragments in and on their properties and are not only concerned with those flying stray bullets, but also the possibility of years of lead contamination that may have leeched into the berm. The club itself has voluntarily ceased all operations and will continue to do so until the investigation is completed.

While the investigation is underway, Edgemont Community Council President and former candidate for Greenburgh Town Supervisor Bob Bernstein may shut the range down for good. He has explained to this reporter that he has drafted a proposal of an ordinance that would effectively bar a

filled with tenants. So, why all the posturing from the Feds? It might be because despite his incumbency and vast amounts of campaign cash on hand, Andrew Cuomo might actually have a little (no pun intended) problem on his hands with his opponent. Love him or hate him, Astorino has complied with the parameters of the federal lawsuit, and all the depositions requested to be presented with respect to the lawsuit indicate that to be factual. But the question that remains unanswered is the one that no one seems to have asked. The question: how do those being targeted to move into upscale

shooting range within a quarter mile radius of any residence, school, church, playground, park, or daycare facility. This ordinance would also require that a gun range would require the posting of $5 million in liability insurance. The introduction of the proposal will take place on Tuesday July 22nd and there will be a public hearing on the matter on August 27th

Toll Brothers LLC has remained quiet throughout this entire turn of events. One has to wonder why they would choose to develop and market such luxury homes without placing a bulletproof barrier between the development and the range. At issue is whether Toll Brothers informed prospective buyers of noise pollution, from guns being fired, and that there could be a possibility of a stray bullet flying onto a homeowner’s property. Toll Brothers’ silence is deafening. Nancy King is a freelance reporter residing in Westchester County.

white neighborhoods feel about living there? Unbelievably, the wealthy Village of Scarsdale, the Governor Cuomo’s New Castle address, and Sound Shore gem Rye, got a wink and a nod from independent analysis. Despite the vast amount of wealth in those communities, they have met the criteria for providing affordable housing. But the long arm of the Feds, and quite probably the White House, would like the County of Westchester to be the test case for social engineering by changing local zoning laws. The Feds even trotted out the Rev. Al Sharpton to stand on the corner of

Flonja Kodheli as Juli standing before her desert-roadside café.

CommunitySection

CALENDAR

News & Notes from Northern Westchester

By MARK JEFFERS

With all the heavy down pours we had last week, I felt much like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid singing “Raindrops are Falling on my Head,” so I grabbed one of our many broken umbrellas and wrote this week’s “wet & wild” edition of “News & Notes.”

A true touch of small town Americana takes place on Friday evening July 25th when the BVFD hosts the Annual Fireman’s Parade. Bring your picnic and your lawn chair to the Bedford Village Green and cheer on the local Volunteer Fire Departments from surrounding communities as they parade through Bedford Village showing off their shiny trucks and pressed uniforms. Let’s get a big crowd out to show support for these men, women, friends and neighbors who are willing to risk their lives to save our homes.

Enjoy some of Broadway’s favorite award winning show melodies with the Hager Trio at Wampus Brook Park in Armonk, Saturday evening, July 26th. Feel free to bring your lawn chairs,

picnic baskets, family and friends to this wonderful summer evening event.

Free rabies vaccinations will be available by appointment for dogs and cats owned by Westchester County residents on Saturday, July 26th, from 1 to 5pm at the Cortlandt Animal Hospital in Cortlandt Manor. For appointments, call the animal hospital at 914-737-3608. The clinic is sponsored by the Westchester County Health Department.

I could devote each and every “News and Notes” to the fantastic events at Caramoor that take place almost nightly all summer long; but I like to mix it up a little. That being said, …this event spoke to my Scottish roots and my sense of good clean fun. On Wednesday evening, August 6th, Caramoor continues “Dancing at Dusk” with a Scottish twist. For this evening, Friends Field will be transformed into the Highlands of Scotland where multi-instrumentalist Paul Woodiel will be joined by cellist and dance teacher Mairi Dorman Phaneuf and piper Chris Layer present an upbeat mix of traditional Airs, Reels, Jigs, and Strathspeys. This is a family friendly event where kids and picnics

A Masque of Madness

By SHERIF AWAD

Experimental cinema is an artistic form relieving both the visual arts and cinema. Its origins came from European avantgarde movements of the twenties and also from some US non-profit organizations like The Film-Makers’ Cooperative in New York, and similar cooperatives throughout nations of the world.

At the Karlovy Vary Festival that came to a close last week, we discovered the latest entries in experimental cinema coming from Austrian artist and filmmaker Norbert Pfaffenbichler who created this new film he called A Masque of Madness in which he follows

the career of Boris Karloff, the iconic actor who worked with Douglas Sirk and Peter Bogdanovich, but who also appeared in second-rate TV shows.

Pfaffenbichler ignores distinctions between high and low art, drawing Karloff’s movies into thematically related, yet entirely unexpected interactions that, in the final result, interpret film history more innovatively than period encyclopedias. Karloff’s career is more than simply the story of an individual. It also documents technological development and changing approaches to various topics and taboos. The picture makes no attempt to provide an exhaustive exegesis of the artist’s work, instead highlighting points of commonality

are encouraged.

I feel like Evel Knievel mentioning this event… join the Mount Kisco Lions Club for a scenic motorcycle ride around the Hudson Valley (approx. 70 miles), kickstands up at 10am, Bar-B-Que to follow at Boys and Girls Club in Mount Kisco. Non-riders are also welcome at the club, proceeds to Guiding Eyes for the Blind.

The 56th Annual Country Fair will be held on Saturday, July 26th, at Chase Meadows Farm in North Salem, with live music all day long; pony rides for kids, face painting, bouncy castle, and games. They will also have over 30 craft vendors, a White Elephant and Treasures Boutique, silent auction, and St. James Grill smokin’ all day.

Over in Valhalla there is an Open Day at the Native Plant Center at Westchester Community College. You can tour the Demonstration Gardens and learn about low-maintenance, wildlife-friendly plants.

My wife is always looking for a shortcut while driving; and she usually finds one, but last week she found a sweet preserve to hike through instead. The Pruyn Sanctuary at 275 Millwood

as it jumps haphazardly through time by editing between black & white and colored material, older and newer, English speaking and French dubbed versions, to create new scenes involving the characters played by Karloff interacting and attacking each others.

In A Messenger from the Shadows (starring Lon Chaney), Pfaffenbichler’s re-montage follows a similar path through five motion picture decades of Karloff—as supporting actor in silent films, a star in talking pictures, and as a television host. Karloff never managed to escape his most iconic creation, even when he sometimes played the good guy. Karloff was recognized as one of the true icons of horror cinema. He was born William Henry Pratt on November 23, 1887, in Camberwell, England. He was educated at London University in

Road in Chappaqua offers a butterfly garden and arboretum. Although, it is well worth the trip now, if you wait until Saturday, August 16th, Master Gardener Donna Lassiter from the Saw Mill River Audubon will lead a walk through the garden and let you know how to attract butterflies and hummingbirds to your yard. There will be over 80 species of flowers and shrubs to enjoy and a handout listing the best nectar and host plants.

The Bedford Village Library is holding story time at the Bedford Village Pool on Tuesday, July 29th Congratulations and three cheers to the Northern Star Quilters’ Guild

as they recently held their 35th annual quilt show in Somers and raised nearly $5,000 for Ability Beyond, a non-profit providing services and programs to people with disabilities in Westchester and Connecticut.

My cousin, the dermatologist, reminds us that it is very important to use sun screen, even on cloudy days, so enjoy these hot sunny summer days, but remember to stay protected every day… see you next week.

Mark Jeffers resides in Bedford Hills, New York, with his wife Sarah, and three daughters, Kate, Amanda, and Claire.

CUL t URAL PERSPEC t

IVES

A Masque of Madness

Continued from page 5

anticipation that he would pursue a diplomatic career. Instead, he immigrated to Canada in 1909 and joined a touring company based out of Ontario and

adopted the stage name “Boris Karloff.” He toured back and forth across the US for over ten years in a variety of lowbudget shows and eventually ended up in Hollywood with very little money to his name. Needing cash to support himself, Karloff secured occasional acting work in the fledgling silent film industry in such pictures as The Deadlier Sex (1920), Omar the Tentmaker (1922), Dynamite Dan (1924) and Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1927), in addition to a handful of serials (the majority of which sadly haven’t survived). Karloff supplemented his meager film income by working as a truck driver in Los Angeles, which allowed him enough time off to continue to pursue acting roles.

His big break came in 1931 when he was cast as “the monster” in the Universal production of Frankenstein (1931), directed by James Whale. The aura of mystery surrounding Karloff was highlighted in the opening credits, as he was listed as simply “?”. The film was a commercial and critical success for Universal, and Karloff was instantly established

as a hot property in Hollywood. He quickly appeared in several other sinister roles, including Scarface (1932) (filmed before Frankenstein), the blackhumored The Old Dark House (1932), as the namesake Oriental villain of the Sax Rohmer novels in The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), as undead Im-Ho-Tep in The Mummy (1932) and the misguided Prof. Morlant in The Ghoul (1933). All of these films and more are revisited in Norbert Pfaffenbichler’s experimental homage.

During the 1950s, Karloff was a regular guest on many high-profile TV shows including The Milton Berle Show (1948) and The Dinah Shore Chevy Show (1956), to name but a few. On Broadway, he appeared as the murderous Brewster brother in Arsenic and Old Lace. His career experienced something of a revival in the 1960s thanks to hosting the TV anthology series Thriller (1960) and indie director Roger Corman, with Karloff contributing wonderful performances in The Raven (1963), The Terror (1963), the ultra-eerie Black Sabbath (1963) and the H.P. Lovecraft-inspired Monster of Terror (1965). Karloff’s last great role was as an aging horror movie star confronting a modern-day sniper in the Peter Bogdanovich film Targets (1968) before passing away on February 2, 1969. As for our Austrian director Norbert Pfaffenbichler who revived Karloff for us, he was born 1967, in Steyr, Austria. He is now based in Vienna where he creates art and curates art shows using film, video, installations, sculptures, photographs, collages, and drawings. A Masque of Madness belongs to Pfaffenbichler series Notes on Film where he examines the motion picture world and recasts film history with respect to our fascination for power, iconic faces, and aesthetic violence. He has presented his works at all kinds of shows worldwide, including the Sónar Festival in Barcelona, the film festivals in Rotterdam and Toronto, and the Diagonale in Graz. His previous compilation, A Messenger from the Shadows,

in which he focuses on the work of actor Lon Chaney, was also screened at Kalovy Vary Festival 2013.

Born in Cairo, Egypt, Sherif Awad is a film / video critic and curator. He is the film editor of Egypt Today Magazine ( www.

EgyptToday.com ), and the artistic director for both the Alexandria Film Festival, in Egypt, and the Arab Rotterdam Festival, in The Netherlands. He also contributes to Variety, in the United States, and is the film critic of Variety Arabia ( http:// varietyarabia.com/ ), in the United Arab

Emirates (UAE), the Al-Masry Al-Youm Website ( http://www.almasryalyoum. com/en/node/198132 ) and The Westchester Guardian (www.WestchesterGuardian. com ).

The many faces of Boris Karloff as discovored in the film

Karloff getting ready as Frankenstein.

Austrian artist and filmmaker Norbert Pfaffenbichler.

Mayor spano Proficient in Doublespeak

CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES

Memories on Stone

years later, the two friends have grown up; Hussein has become a film director and Alan his apt assistant. They both decide to return from Europe where they grew up and studied cinema to current-day Iraqi Kurdistan in order to shoot a film called Anfal revolving around the Anfal Kurdish Genocide that took place from 1988-1999 under Saddam Hussein’s orders. But making a film in post-war Kurdistan becomes a serious challenge for the two filmmakers. Not only is it difficult to shoot a film in a region suffering inconsistent and unstable electric power, but the filmmakers had to struggle against inherited social habits about

cinema and acting. At the moment they believed they would not find an actress to play the lead role of Sinor, the actress who would play the lead role appeared. The role of Sinor is one of a beautiful teacher. Young and passionate about the film, the actress playing Sinor doesn’t reveal to the filmmakers that her father was one of the victims to the real genocide, and that the old prison where they will shoot the film was the place where he was detained and tortured until his demise. Once cast in the film, the character of Sinor is prevented from continuing her work by her cousin Hiwa, who wants to marry her, and his father Hamid who believes that the acting profession is the antithesis of his religious sensibilities. In a tragic twist, the director Hussein (actor Hussein Hassan) is shot during the filming of the climactic scene where he recreates the Anfal Genocide. He survives, but becomes a crippled man, with an obsession to continue the film whatever the price.

The writer-director of Memories on Stone is Shawkat Amin Korki who was born in 1973 in Zakho, Iraqi Kurdistan, but was forced to immigrate to Iran for

political reasons, where he stayed until 1999. Korki worked in theater, television, and film, making a number of short and medium length movies like Balloons Fly (1997), Trap Door (1998), When It Rains (2000), Passage (2002), and Threat (2005). His feature debut came with the road movie Crossing the Dust (2006) that screened at the Rotterdam International Film Festival. In KVIFF 2013, his 2009 second feature film Kick Off (2009) was screened in a Focus on Kurdish Film. Both Crossing the Dust and Kick Off where screened at the Cairo International Film Festival.

“I did not make a film about the Anfal

is one of the scenes showing how daily life looks like in this region”.

Although Kurds coming from Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria speak the Kurdish language that has different dialects like Kurmanji, Zaza–Gorani, Hewrami and Sorani, they can understand and communicate with each other, intending to achieve statehood to gather them under one nation one day. “Because Kurds are yet to have one home, they don’t have conflicts similar to the happenings across the Arab and Islamic world between Suni and Shia”, says Korki. “Most of the Kurds in Kurdistan are Suni while Shia and Yazidi are minorities. In

the castle as our production office.

Our main challenge was to raise the funds required to meet the budget for the film because it was relatively big but we were not fully funded. We sought additional funding from the Doha Film Institute, and Enjaaz Fund of Dubai Film International Festival, in addition to our main production house MîtosFilm Germany, and the Cultural Ministry of Kurdistan Regional Government… Another challenge was to find the lead actress Shima Molaei, but it was not as complicated for her as the character Sinor she plays in Anfal, the film within the film. Shima had already done television and

the lack of electric power and our relying on three generators to complete the work”.

Memories on Stone is also about the obsession of a filmmaker to complete his work no matter the consequences. “Let’s not forget that this movie was about filmmaking which is my profession”, says Korki. “I faced many obstacles shooting my previous films so I am sure other Kurdish directors have been through the same obstacles so what happens to the character of Hussein, the director, is not entirely a work of fiction... Because I had background in directing documentaries in Iran, I can say that even my narrative films are semi-documentaries where the actors are

Genocide in particular but on the difficulties faced by any filmmaker trying to shoot a film in Iraqi Kurdistan where the situation is quite hard and complicated”, explained Korki. “However, the film within a film is about Anfal Genocide. The film also shows how in some Islamic countris, arts are considered as forbidden or Haram (against religion). In Iraqi Kurdistan, it is not like in Egypt where cinema is more than a hundred years-old. In other words, cinema is something new for our people who had suffered, and still suffer, from serious endeavors. There is one scene where the director is trying to hire extras for his film so he goes with his assistants to a camp of Syrian Kurds where hundreds are living in refugee tents. This

Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan where I live, there are no problems related to religion”.

Shawkat Amin Korki faced similar challenges like those encountered by the director Hussein in his movie. “We shot in Dohuk, a city in Iraqi Kurdistan, close to the Turkish border and also at nearby villages and the surrounding mountainous landscape. The filming lasted for 72 days with a huge number of extras in some scenes”, revealed Korki. “The castle seen in the film played a role during the past thirty years because it started as a military base, then became a prison of Kurds during the Saddam Hussein regime. After Saddam’s downfall, the castle/ prison became somewhat of a shelter for the homeless. During the shooting, we also used

theater so she was not a complete amateur, saddled as she is in real life with a conservative father-in-law, like the character she plays in Anfal… Most of the time, I like to cast either professional or semi-professional actors but, of course, we don’t have a wide range of options to choose from to find adequate actors. Also, like in Anfal, all of the returning sons of the lands don’t care about culture and come back to engage in business. This also includes the ministry of culture of the region that reluctantly supported the film… Other problems were technical, like

giving natural performances. Nevertheless, I helmed rehearsals for three weeks prior to the start of the principal photography”.

To realize the aesthetic feeling of a film within a film, Korki shot in digital format then blew up the scenes of Anfal specifically on 35mm in Berlin to get the scratching effects of a working print. The final projection format of Memories on Stone is the current Digital Cinema Package (DCP).

Near the end of Memories on Stone, there is a jump between the times when Hussein the director became a crippled trying to finish his film Anfal, with the help of his assistants, until the night when they screen the complete film to the people in Kurdistan. “In the first draft of the script, the end was rather ambiguous with Hussein somewhat lost while everything is falling apart around him”, said Korki. “Then, I decided with Producer Mehmet Aktas, who is also my co-scriptwriter, to create the final scene where the director and the cast of the film are attending the open-air screening. That was when then the generator went off and the film projector stops, leaving what’s left of the spectators in the rain. The final scene has much significance. It tells us that showing a film in that part of the world is as difficult as its shooting. Also, it indicates how the cinema in Iraq was destroyed, as an industry, and as an art form. Only two years ago, there were new constructions of

Continued from page 7 Continued on page 9

The film’s poster featuring Shima Molaei as Sinor.

Director Shawkat Amin Korki.

The film within the film about Anfal Genocide.

Shima Molaei as Sinor while undergoing a camera test for Anfal.

Producer Mehmet Aktas, Director Shawkat Amin Korki, Producer Jana Raschke, and Actor Hussein Hassan presenting the film Memories of Stone in KVIFF 2014.

CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES

Memories on Stone

new malls with multiplexes. As for the new generations in Kurdistan, they prefer to go and buy pirated DVDs for $1. So they don’t know there is a big difference in watching the film on the big screen. Perhaps this will

change in the future”.

Manic in Manhattan–Part III

By CHRIS ROSTENBERG

I want you to know what it’s like to be mentally ill.This is a personal story about frustration, aimlessness and shame that concludes with a lifechanging decision; it is at times embarrassing. But I did nothing wrong (almost) and don’t deserve the stigma (for the most part), and the only way I know to get counter the stigma is to show what it is like to be the target of it. The symptomatic are unable to tell their story, so I feel a responsibility to speak on behalf of them, to a degree.

My serious thoughts on drugs began in sixth grade. I heard an anti-drug lesson and swore an oath never to use them, and I took promises seriously. But mine was the old story of being ostracized: my best friend, Gary, dumped me to hang with another guy to get high together. Gary then disappeared from school (and years later, I figured his mother had discovered his drug use and had sent him to rehab.) I don’t drink and have never taken a puff of a cigarette; drug use really was inconsistent with my nature.

In high school, my grades did not reflect my intelligence, so I was sent to a prep school

which immediately made me repeat the tenth grade. I was furious, upset and powerless. At the end of the school year, I rebelled and demanded to go back to my public school, thinking I’d be back with my former peers in twelfth grade. I got half of what I wanted: I was returned to my old school, but with eleventh graders, who I did not know, so in a way, I attended three high schools. This killed me, so I resentfully “amended” my anti-drug oath: I wouldn’t use drugs for four years of high school; when I hit my fifth year, I got stoned.

Pot took me to another world, and when I was by myself and lonely, it was a friend. I didn’t smoke pot like others, just taking a hit or two; I got absolutely zonked. I felt my brain float away and lie warmly on an angel’s tit. I sold most of my CD’s to buy more doobitch. I had no idea I was to develop a mental illness and that marijuana would exacerbate it.

He also contributes to Variety, in the United States, and is the film critic of Variety Arabia ( http://varietyarabia.com/ ), in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Al-Masry Al-Youm Website ( http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/ node/198132 ) and The Westchester Guardian (www.WestchesterGuardian.com ).

There were hints. I couldn’t sleep because my brain was always humming. I had trouble socializing. My perception of the world spun from sad to exciting. I would want to be invisible at school, and sometimes wore shabby clothes to help me not stand out. I once was so confused, I refused to retrieve a quarter off the floor because I thought it was a trap set by

a woman devil. One time, I heard my dad and step-mother having a fight in her house, but when my dad emerged, it was clear from his body language that he was in good spirits: I’d had an auditory hallucination. Another time, I was working as a landscaper and I heard a couple having sex from within a house that was supposed to be deserted. I was baffled as to why my coworkers didn’t react to the sounds. I peeked in a window and saw that the chairs were on the kitchen table: the house was empty. These sensory problems were so frightening, I kept them secret even from myself.

To underlie the irony that it was my mind that became ill, I am offered an opportunity to brag: my IQ was 135, in the ninety-eighth percentile, and I did well on the SAT’s scoring in the ninety-third percentile on the verbal section and scoring in the ninety-eighth percentile on the math section. But I had trouble planning and making decisions: I chose a college that was completely inappropriate. I was put on academic probation the first semester, then suspension the second. Half the problem was my lack of discipline, the other my budding illness. I returned home and attended Westchester Community College, humiliated.

Chris Rostenberg is a freelance writer. Correspondence may be directed to ChrisRosty@ gmail.com Continued from page 8

Gubernatorial Election

CALENDAR

News & Notes from Northern Westchester

Continued from page 5

sundown. Admission and parking are free. Moviegoers should bring blankets, folding chairs and a picnic. Refreshments will also be available for sale. In the event of rain, the movie will be canceled.

More “Dam” activity…Enjoy the best of Jewish music and dance during

the 40th Annual Jewish Music and Arts Festival of Westchester, Sunday, August 17th , from 12Noon to 6pm, at Kensico Dam Plaza in Valhalla. The festival wraps up Westchester County’s series of cultural heritage celebrations for 2014. Musical entertainment includes headliner, Hasidic New Wave, Kol Hazzanim, Kol Rinah, The What’s Up Band, Shlomones, and the Westchester

CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES

Corrections Class

By SHERIF AWAD

The best films created about teenagers have come from teens and those only slightly older themselves. This applies to the works by twenty-six-year-old Russian filmmaker Ivan I. Tverdovsky (born in Moscow, 1988), who succeeded to get two awards in the 49th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for his new film Corrections Class. It earned a Special Mention by the Federation of Film Critics of Europe and the Mediterranean, FEDEORA, critics jury and another Special Mention from the jury of the East of the West Competition.

Corrections Class revolves around Lena, a bright yet disabled girl who, after years of studying at home, is keen to go back to school. To be allowed to do so, she is assigned to a special class for disabled pupils who have to present themselves before a school commission at the end of the year in order to be allowed to go to a “normal”

Klezmer Program Band will also perform. Dancers from Camp Zeke, a Jewish camp that celebrates healthy, active living will perform Israeli dances, and rounding out the entertainment and activities will be magic by Phil Klipper and face painting by Andrea McCafferty. Kosher food will be available for purchase and vendor exhibitions will consist of Jewish art and Judaica.

Our friend Terrie Paladino Viola tells us that The Bedford Hills

Free Library received an $18,202 Construction Grant from New York State for a new project to upgrade its entire lighting system and improve climate control. The changes will create more energy efficient and pleasant conditions for its patrons as the library prepares to mark the centennial of its founding in 2015.

Three cheers to the Katonah Swim and Dive Team as they celebrate their 50th anniversary; I’m standing by to give

them one of my famous cannonball pool splashes…

We all enjoyed the Bedford Fire Department Parade last week, all the area departments looked great and we just wanted to thank them for their dedicated hard work to keep all of us safe… see you next week.

Mark Jeffers resides in Bedford Hills, New York, with his wife Sarah, and three daughters, Kate, Amanda, and Claire.

school. But Lena’s enervated teachers show absolutely no desire to motivate her or the rest of the students to improve their capacities. Nevertheless, Lena soon involves herself in the school routine and even starts an innocent relationship with her classmate Anton. However, their relationship isn’t approved of, neither by their classmates or their parents.

Tverdovsky graduated from Moscow’s Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography in 2011. He has garnered eight documentary films to his credit at this time. His latest short documentary Space Dog was a harrowing film about a game that many kids and teens have played at school without knowing how dangerous it could become. The game is called “Space Dog” in Russia. It is a “game” that teens play the mimics the breathing cadence of a hyperventilating dog. After a lengthy breathing effort, engaged while standing while the upper body is made to lean forward, keeping your body from keeling over by having your hands grasp your legs above the knee, the next step is soon engaged. The hyperventilating teen thereafter stands upright, leaning against a wall for support while a friend chokes the participant. After the loss of consciousness this process induces hallucinations. This “game” is described under similar names, all of them regarded as “Choking Games”.

This game has different names in different countries (I remember we played it in Egypt when we were kids!) but it is so fraught with danger, to the point that approximately 1,000 teenagers have died from similar choking games around the world in the last ten years.

Our hero lives a full teenage life: school, friends, football, clubs, first love. When he was younger, he also played “Space Dog”. Now he senses a need to return to it again.

“Space Dog is based on a true story about a young boy who loved a girl older than he”, explained Tverdovsky. “So, when he played chocking games, the boy starts to experience imaginary things. It is something like a free drug. This film took part in the Student Competition of the International Documentary Film Festival

Amsterdam (IDFA) last year. At IDFA it was a scene in Corrections Class, a film where mother and daughter were watching TV on the kitchen. The movie playing in the background was “Space Dog”.

Corrections Class, Tverdovsky’s newest film was based on Ekaterina Murashova, a child psychologist and author from Saint

Petersburg, Russia. Tverdovsky adapted the novel for his film and changed the gender of the main character to make it the young girl Lena. “Murachova’s novel was about young boys and friendship. It also didn’t have the romantic plot about first love”, says Tverdovsky. “However, the book was a starting point for me to go and visit real corrections classes... Of course, I was shocked... I rewrote the story completely and as a result we got a different film.”

“When Ekaterina Murashova saw our film, she asked her name not be incorporated into the final credits. I believe her request was fair. Murashova is a popular, well-respected woman known throughout Russia. My Mom loves her short novels. But I think she writes in the style of soap operas, which I do not like.”

When casting the film, Tverdovsky turned to the Gogol Center in Moscow. “The theater was revived by the famous Russian film and theater Director Kirill Serebrennikov and his students”, explained Tverdovsky “It was the oldest theater in Moscow but it faced many difficulties

Maria Poezhaeva as Lena in Corrections Class.

The premier of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2014 held in the Czech Republic.

that dissuaded audiences from attending, leaving classic actors performing to empty seats! But when the culture department appointed Serebrennikov the new general-director, it became a very modern and vital place. It pleases me to note that three of our main actors worked in Gogol and they are very talented. As for supporting actors, we have a casting director who also played the role of the school director in the film. We also cast Natalya Pavlenkova as Lena’s mother and Olga Lapshina as Anton’s mother. They were lovely… Some of the actors in the corrections class were mentally challenged… We filmed people suffering real disabilities, like the midget (little people) girl, and other non-actors. This helped me to make the film feel like a documentary. This helped the actors to feel and play a lot of details. It was very important for me because there are some nuances that

HEALTH

can’t be played by actors.”

With respect to the teaching system intentioned to serve the mentally challenged in Russia, Ivan I. Tverdovsky had many observations. “There are very serious problems. It started in the 90s during the collapse of the Soviet Union and the deep economic crisis. The government had begun to close special schools that had teachers with special medical training to best contend with the handicapped population. After the crisis, the government decided to create a new system. They created these corrections classes in regular schools. In those classes they accepted poor children and sometimes violent kids or kids who behaved badly. However, this drove teachers and other students to hate these classes and its students. And as time went on corrections classes came to be regarded like a jail. That is the painful point and it is a huge problem in Russian society today. I think we took the first step to change this situation with this film.”

In the final scene, we find Lena

Manic in Manhattan – Part IV

By CHRIS ROSTENBERG

My mind was changing. One night, I sat on my bed, trying to track my thoughts on paper while monitoring the time. The next thing I knew, it was sunrise. Light took on a strange quality and I thought my crystalline mind could shatter with a hard blow. Camera shots on TV which looked straight down over New York City scared me because I thought I would fall from the helicopter and plummet to the ground. I figured there was something wrong with my pot, so I tried better pot.

During an argument with my mother, I stared into her eyes and she realized I was no longer sane. She called the police. She had no idea I would be crazy for years, essentially another person. As I heard the cops climb the stairs, I made a desperate call to a friend who had a mental illness and she told me the difference between a psychologist and a psychiatrist; told me I would probably have to take lithium, and suggested a mental hospital.

Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan, Connecticut, was a country-club mental facility and I was ready to kiss the floor

overcoming her walking problems, leaving her chair and walking out of school. The scene could be interpreted as real or a dream from Lena’s perspective.

“I was changing the course of the film that started as a social documentary but tried to end it with a Biblical proverb”, says the director. “It was a very interesting trip. Lena came into in this story like an angel who helped her classmates and her boyfriend and also wanted to change the system. However, near the end, everyone, including her mother and her teachers betrayed her. I was imagining that Lena possessed supernatural powers. Although we know that in real life it’s impossible and her disease is incurable, I wanted to give people hope that miracles can happen”.

Last week, it was announced that Corrections Class will be jointly released in Russia by ‘20th Century Fox ‘ and ‘A Company’ that both decided to acquire the film together following its festival screenings. Being a Russian-German coproduction between New People Film

Company and Jomami Film Production, the German premiere will be at the 24th Cottbus Festival next November.

in The Netherlands. He also contributes to Variety, in the United States, and is the film critic of Variety Arabia ( http:// varietyarabia.com/ ), in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Al-Masry Al-Youm Website ( http://www.almasryalyoum. com/en/node/198132 ) and The Westchester Guardian (www.WestchesterGuardian. com).

when I gained asylum. By this time, I was succumbing to a manic episode, where electrified bees flew around in my head, thwacking into the inside of my skull. My thoughts were forced, repetitive, and tormenting. I believed I had a super-power, “accelerated thinking”, which might allow me someday to do math at terrific speeds and eventually predict the future. I thought I would become the next messiah, which isn’t easy for an atheist like me.

As I nodded off at night, I would visualize a truck bearing down on a child; I would jump out to save her and my own head would be run over instead. This thought was vivid and intense, much stronger than the image it creates in your head as you read this. Just as I was to fall asleep, I leapt up from bed, repeatedly, imagining having my skull flattened. My consciousness was small and crowded in a mind full of mental static – I wasn’t in charge of my own mind! To experience mania, simply use a pair of jumper cables to link a car battery to your ears.

My only respite was listening to U2’s Joshua Tree: the guitar strumming disciplined my brainwaves back into the domain of sanity. Annoyingly, my doctor

took my radio away because it had a power cord that I could use to hang myself with. He had stupidly asked if I had thought about suicide when what he meant is whether or not I had considered it.

I’m not the kind of person to ask, “Why me?” As an atheist, I don’t expect the universe to be concerned with me.

But my peers in the hospital had done something to cause their conditions: abused drugs or alcohol, or had eating disorders. I hadn’t done anything to get

bipolar illness, and did not see how marijuana had made things worse; I have to admit to feeling a bit cheated.

Chris Rostenberg is a freelance writer. Correspondence may be directed to ChrisRosty@ gmail.com

a handful of doctors in the US offer this surgery!

A scene from Space Dog, Ivan I. Tverdovsiy’s harrowing documentary.

c URRENT c OMMENTARY / BUSINESS

Why Vegas Prospers While Atlantic city Shrivels

Continued from page 7

along well enough.

Gambling, and the other diversions casinos provide, are components of the entertainment industry; that industry, by its nature, creates hours of amusement, but nothing tangible of lasting value. Although I would personally prefer to spend my time and money at an amusement park than in a room full of slot machines, other people feel differently.

But you cannot build an entire economy off gambling alone. Cities simply can’t live on entertainment, of any sort, without any other underlying economic activity. When you compare Atlantic City to Las Vegas, this principle becomes clear. You would expect expanded gambling venues nationwide to hit Las Vegas as hard as, or maybe proportionally harder than, Atlantic City. But long-term visitor trends say otherwise. Over

39 million people visited Las Vegas in 2013, about 6 million more than visited in 1999.

Atlantic City’s visitor total fell by about the same amount over that period.

What, then, is the difference? Las Vegas, although it makes a big part of its living from casinos, doesn’t rely on them exclusively for its success and continued existence. Nevada offers a favorable tax climate and, for those who can stand (or escape) the heat, a favorable living climate too, with only around 4 inches of rain a year. People hold business conferences there. People retire there. People set up their banking or trusts there. Businesses incorporate there.

Atlantic City has both a miserable climate for business and a miserable climate for people. Despite a few mild ocean breezes in the summer, it’s mainly a damp, expensive place. And if you leave the casinos, you can’t

FILM / c UL TURAL PERSPE c TIVES

Grand Piano

By SHERIF AWAD

Eugenio Mira belongs to the new generation of Spanish filmmakers who are starting to get international recognition at a relatively young age. Mira who was born in 1977 in the Spanish city of Castalia belongs to an artistic family. After taking piano lessons during his childhood, he enrolled in art studies only to become a composer, a comic book illustrator, a set designer, and then a filmmaker.

In the year 2000, Mira made his directorial debut with the short narrative Fade that he also wrote. Shot in English, the film centered on a peculiar salesman who offers people a machine that helps to bring back some of their memories. Fade showed the direction Mira wanted to explore with film: the psychological thrillers infused with touches of horrors targeting the international audience. The short would in time start to make noise and gain notice across the festivals’ circuits until it ended up in the hands of Guillermo del Toro, the acclaimed Mexican filmmaker who has expertise in sci-fi and horror films. Del Toro becomes instrumental in gaining greater recognition for Mira’s vision. Two years later, Mira joined a group of twelve Spanish directors who co-directed twelve short films, one minute each. Each film composition created by one of the twelve directors. The compilation of the 12 works were each designated placement under one title,

help but notice the rest of the city is decrepit. It took until 2012 for Atlantic City to get a supermarket. Nobody retires to Atlantic City.

Las Vegas isn’t a bigger Atlantic City. Las Vegas is Phoenix with casinos.

The need for Atlantic City to diversify its economy has not been lost on everyone. There is talk of trying to attract a four-year college and expanded retail investment,

MarketWatch reported. But a place where 8,000 workers have abruptly lost their jobs and 30 percent of the population lives below the poverty line is one that will face an uphill battle, especially with the headwinds of New Jersey’s overall business climate working against it.

To fix Atlantic City – or, for that matter, other New Jersey cities like Camden or

Paterson or Newark – New Jersey’s leaders need to fix what’s actually wrong in the city and, more broadly, in the state. They can’t do anything about the weather, true. But until New Jersey becomes an attractive place to settle, build wealth and enjoy retirement, Atlantic City will never be another Las Vegas.

Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®, has provided personal financial and tax counseling to a sophisticated client base since 1986. After six years with Arthur Andersen, where he was a senior manager for personal financial planning and family wealth planning, he founded his own firm in Hastings on Hudson, N.Y., in 1992. That firm grew steadily and became the Palisades Hudson organization, which moved to Scarsdale, N.Y., in 2002. The firm expanded to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in 2005 and to Atlanta in 2008.

Diminutos del calvario (Tiny Calvary).

Mira’s contribution was a one-minute black-and-white segment called Rancor in which actor Enric Cervera played a crippled doctor sitting in a wheelchair listening to his gramophone. After having fallen asleep, sounds of a door opening and wind howling are heard. The wind somehow caused the wheelchair to move under the chandeliers in the room; he is apparently being visited by an invisible entity. The picture suddenly cuts to black at the point when the chandeliers are about to fall on his head…

The Birthday, Mira’s first feature as writer-director, came about in 2004. The screenplay was supported by a Spanish producer; most of the principal photography took place in a hotel. Mira also cast the American actor Corey Feldman, once a teen sensation, when he co-starred in films like The Goonies, Gremlins, and Stand by Me in the 1980s. In The Birthday thriller that starts slow, then rises to violent and complicated cliffhangers, Feldman played the naive Norman.As Norman, he is invited by his girlfriend to come to her father’s birthday party. Once there, he comes to discover that it is a ceremony for a demonic cult. “It is like Blake Edwards’ The Party being directed by Roman Polanski to mutate into Rosemary’s Baby”, as Mira described it to me when I met him last July in Karlovy Vary Festival. Again, del Toro was very much enthusiastic about Mira’s Birthday to the point that he helped the young director find a Hollywood agent. Mira’s follow-up was another psychological thriller called Agnosia; it came to be ralized in 2010. It had Hitchcockian

elements with the main protagonist named Joana who suffers from agnosia, a strange neuropsychological illness that affects her perception. Although her eyes and ears are in perfect condition, her brain cannot interpret the stimuli she receives through them. Being the only one who knows the industrial secret left behind by her father, Joana become the target of a sinister plot to get the information out of her mind. The story of Agnosia took place in Spain during the last year of the19th Century so the main protagonists were Spanish… and making it Mira’s first costume thriller. The film also employed Mediterranean gothica elements as it paid homage to Luchino Visconti and Bernardo Bertolucci’s early Italian classics.

Since 2013, Mira’s latest film Grand Piano achieved many releases in the US and internationally. Like The Birthday, Agnosia and many of Hitchcock’s classics, the story revolved around a vulnerable character who is suffering from psychological problems and yet he is put in extraordinary situations. Moreover, like he did for his two previous features, Mira composed the soundtrack for Grand Piano and also set it almost in real time. Yet the music in this particular story was also a live character because the main protagonist was a pianist. In the thrilling film, Elijah Wood played Tom Selznick who happens to be the most talented pianist of his generation. After stopping to perform in public because of his stage fright and a catastrophic performance, Tom reappears in a long awaited concert in a packed Chicago theater and he is about to play an impossible piece. However, in front of the expectant

Slot machines at Revel. Photo by and courtesy of Flickr user Ingret9

Corey Feldman (center) in ‘The Birthday’.

(L-R): John Cusack, Eugenio Mira, Elijah Wood and Alex Winter on the set of ‘Grand Piano’.

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Grand Piano

audience, Tom finds a message written on the score he should perform: “Play one wrong note and you die”. Without leaving the piano, Tom must discover the motives of a sniper, played by John Cusack, who is hiding somewhere in the backstage pointing a rifle at him.

The movie was shot in Spain because it had better tax incentives than the US. All the exteriors were shot in Chicago. A small unit traveled from Spain and the rest of the crew was made up of American technicians. Likewise, a large number of the supporting actors are American or British, some of whom are particularly charismatic and have been part of recent cinema history: Dee Wallace (the lovely mother in Spielberg’s E.T.), for example, plays the radio presenter who interviews Elijah Wood at the start of the film, while Alex Winter, Keanu Reeves’ companion in Bill and Ted’s Excellent

Adventure, plays Wood’s assistant. Mira wrapped Grand Piano on time and ten times cheaper than many American directors.

“I must say it had to be George Lucas and Steven Spielberg who influenced me to become a director of thrillers and sci-fi”, Mira told me. “Also, we owe Álex de la Iglesia,

the Spanish director of the sci-fi and horror genres who pioneered starting with Acción mutante in 1993. There are also influence elements of the Anglo-Saxon pop culture and the films that Terence Fisher directed for Hammer Studios in the UK during the 1960s and 1970s. I used to enjoy American

Relatives Always Meet at Social Reunions

By JOSEPHINE gALgANO gORE

The great advantage of today’s Internet is making it possible for groups who share common interests to stay close and in touch. For fourteen years, the descendants of immigrants from the mountain town of Calitri, Italy joined together to celebrate their heritage in planned events announced on their online website “Calitri Connections.”

On Sunday, September 7, some ninety people gathered at a special Mass at St Joseph’s Church in New Rochelle to honor the feast day of the Immacolata Concezione (Calitri’s Patroness). Following the Mass, a luncheon was served allowing time for guests to mingle and share memories. The highlight of the event was a magnificent vocal performance by Rinaldo Toglia whose family has

on page 10

films with special effects like Superman and Ghostbusters but I also wanted to learn how they have realized the visual tricks”.

Hollywood and other studios should give more opportunities to non-US filmmakers like Eugenio Mira to work in the US in order to inject new blood to mainstream films rather that the reboots and the remakes we are seeing over and over again.

Born in Cairo, Egypt, Sherif Awad is a film / video critic and film festival curator. He is the

film editor of Egypt Today Magazine (www. EgyptToday.com ), and the artistic director for both the Alexandria Film Festival, in Egypt, and the Arab Rotterdam Festival, in The Netherlands. He also contributes to Variety, in the United States, and is the film critic of Variety Arabia (http://varietyarabia.com/), in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Al-Masry Al-Youm Website (http://www. almasryalyoum.com/en/node/198132 ) and The Westchester Guardian (www. WestchesterGuardian.com).

Enric Cervera in ‘Rancor’ by Eugenio Mira.

Elijah Wood and John Cusack in ‘Grand Piano’.

Barbara Goenaga as Joana in ‘Agnosia’.

Honorable Ronald C. Tocci holds plaque given to him by the Calitri Connections Events Committee. (L-R): Elaine Grasso Hennessey, Francine Mucci, Maura Mandrano, Ann Michelle Pinto and Linda Santoro DeChance. Continued

Sherif M. Awad (CV+Resume)+Articles Samples)

Sherif M. Awad

Since1990

Egyptian,nowbasedinEcuador

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PART-TIME

Sherif M. Awad

Sherif M. Awad

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