RADIO INTIFADA
meaning the shaking off of oppression and silence
Voices from Kolkata to Casablanca
Voices of struggle, Voices for change
Thursday, October 22, 2009 3-4pm PST
KPFK/Pacifica Radio 90.7 FM, Los Angeles
98.7 FM in Santa Barbara
streaming at kpfk.org - available on audio archive for 90 days
Los Angeles a Cultural Mecca:
The ARAB FILM FESTIVAL
and
The ARMENIAN FILM FESTIVAL
The 13th Annual Arab Film Festival in the US is in it’s 3rd year in LA! To be held this weekend Friday, October 23rd – Sunday, October 25th at WGA Theater, 135 S. Doheny Dr., Beverly Hills, CA
Radio Intifada will give you a preview as host/producer Nile El Wardani interviews directors:
Najwa Najjar, Director of Pomegranates and Myrrh (Palestine)
Screening on OPENING NIGHT, WGA Theater, Friday, October 23rd, 8:00 PM
Synopsis: Dancer Kamar’s joyful wedding to Zaid is followed almost immediately by Zaid’s imprisonment in an Israeli jail for refusing to give up his land. Free-spirited Kamar wants to support her husband and be a dutiful wife but matters are complicated when a new dance instructor, Kais, returns to the studio after many years in Lebanon. She struggles to deal with the weight of Kais’s attention, which brings to the surface her attempts to balance her own desires with her duties as the wife of a prisoner. Najjar’s intimate storytelling and Yasmine Al Massri’s sensitive portrayal of Kamar create a film that addresses honestly the way a woman might face the realities of life in modern-day Palestine while refusing to be defined by them.
Sabine El Gemayel, Director - Niloofar (Iran/Lebanon)
Screening at WGA Theater, Saturday, October 24th, 12:00 pm
Synopsis: Niloofar is 12 years old and dreams to learn to read and write, but education is reserved only for boys in her village. Her mother, a midwife, insists Niloofar becomes her apprentice. While helping her mother during a delivery, Niloofar meets a woman who promises to teach her in secret. But her father has already promised her to an older man once she becomes a woman. Horrified by this prospect, Niloofar tries to postpone her womanhood, but when the inevitable occurs, she attempts to conceal the truth from her family for another two years. When Niloofar finally runs away, her family sends her step-brother to go looking for her.
Ibrahim El-Batout, Director - Eye of the Sun (Egypt)
Screening at WGA Theater, Saturday, October 24th, 6:00pm
Set in an impoverished Cairo neighborhood, Eye of the Sun tells the stories of a doctor, Mariam, and her 11-year-old patient, Shams, who dreams of a trip to downtown Cairo, which she envisions as a something out of a fairytale. Her father, Ramadan, struggles to make a living as a driver for a wealthy businessman, Selim, who himself is deep in debt. But when Selim’s nephew runs for office, Ramadan finds the opportunity to voice his frustration with the poverty and suffering that plagues his neighborhood. This gritty portrayal of life for the poor in Cairo flouted the censors in Egypt and prints of the film were not allowed in the country.
Annemarie Jacir, Director - Salt Of This Sea (Palestine/America)
Closing Festival, WGA Theater , Sunday, October 25th, 7:00 PM
Synopsis: Soraya, born in Brooklyn in a working class community of Palestinian refugees, discovers that her grandfather’s savings were frozen in a bank account in Jaffa when he was exiled in 1948. Stubborn, passionate and determined to reclaim what is hers, she fulfills her life-long dream of “returning” to Palestine. Slowly she is taken apart by the reality around her and is forced to confront her own internal anger. She meets Emad, a young Palestinian whose ambition, contrary to hers, is to leave forever. Tired of the constraints that dictate their lives, they know in order to be free, they must take things into their own hands.
SWANA CALENDAR OF EVENTS:
ARAB FILM FESTIVAL - Friday October 23 - Sunday October 25 Location: Writers Guild America - 135 So. Doheny Dr. at Wilshire Blvd. Beverly Hills - For more information go to www.aff.org
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Kiyana, Sama'a, Whirling Dance Presentations and Workshops
October 23, Friday, 7-9 pm, Conference and Demonstration
October 24, Saturday, 6-9 pm, Training, Movements & Dancing
October 25, Sunday, 4:30-7:30 pm, Training, Movements & Dancing
Sama'a master Javad Tehranian returns for a national tour with Kiyana presentations in Los Angeles in October, teaching the Persian form of whirling or Sufi dance known as Kiyana. For more information go to www.levantinecenter.org
