Posted by BeautyandtheEast on 05-11-2012 | Comments | Share | Filed under: Entertainment, Film/TV
(CNN by Dean Obeidallah)—Sacha Baron Cohen’s new movie, “The Dictator,” is a modern-day minstrel show judging from the trailer and Cohen’s comments promoting the film while dressed as the film’s star, “Gen. Shabazz Aladeen,” the leader of a fictitious Arab country.
Cohen, who is not of Arab heritage, plays this Arab character while sporting a long fake beard and speaking in a strong Arabic accent, which would be fine, except the character is showcasing the worst stereotypes of Arabs.
For example, at a news conference in New York City this week promoting his film, Cohen exclaimed: “Welcome devils of the Zionist media and death to the West.” He then joked about liking TV shows that showed Arab terrorists killing Americans and admiring fashion designer John Galliano for hating the Jews.
To me, this is essentially the same as white performers in blackface portraying black people in buffoonish negative stereotypes for the enjoyment of white America.
But I am not advocating a ban on offensive comments or the telling of culturally insensitive jokes. I certainly am not calling for more PC comedy. I’m not calling for a boycott of anyone nor asking for one more insincere “I’m sorry to all those who were offended by me” from a celebrity.
I’m in no way arguing that Arab culture is off-limits or cannot be mocked. I’m a comedian of Arab heritage and have performed comedy shows not only for Arab-American groups across the United States, but also in the Middle East, from Egypt to Qatar to Saudi Arabia. I find the biggest laughs are elicited when performers hold up a comic mirror to Arab culture.
But for some reason, the entertainment industry appears to truly enjoy ridiculing “brown” people, Arabs and Indians, and has no qualms about casting people not of our heritage to portray us. Indeed, just last week Popchips snack company found itself embroiled in a controversy because an ad showed Ashton Kutcher playing an Indian character in brownface, similar to what Cohen is doing in “The Dictator.”
Here is my simple request to the entertainment industry: If you are going to mock and ridicule us for profit, can you at least cast Arabs and Indians to play us? And while we’re at it, why not include us in the creative process as co-writers and directors?
If you look at the names of the writers, co-stars and director of “The Dictator,” none is of Arab heritage. Ben Kingsley, who is of Indian heritage, co-stars, but if you don’t know the difference between Arabs and Indians, go to Google.
And let’s be honest, these types of buffoonish “brownface” stereotypes would not be permitted if it were any other minority group. What would the reaction be if a white actor in blackface mocked African-American culture? Or if an actor of Arab heritage pitched a movie about the leader of a fictitious Jewish state in which he would portray the Jewish leader and showcase the worst stereotypes of Jews? Is there any chance that film would get the green light from a Hollywood studio?
I understand that the entertainment industry is about making money, not correcting negative stereotypes—even those they helped perpetuate. But why not cast a person who is actually Arab as the sidekick to the star who is pretending to be Arab?
Arabs and South Asians have long been ghettoized in Hollywood, playing almost exclusively cab drivers, deli workers, terrorists and the occasional “good” guy who works with law enforcement, and who is usually killed later in the movie by a bad “brown” guy.
But here’s the thing Hollywood: Adding people of our heritage to the movie is actually good business. It would help the film rise above the superficial and cliched material we have seen for years when it comes to Arabs and Indians on the screen. For example, the jokes in “The Dictator” trailer sound like a less clever version of the material you would hear from comedian Jeff Dunham’s ventriloquist dummy “Achmed the Dead Terrorist.”
Hollywood learned this very lesson years ago when it made mafia movies with no Italian-Americans involved in the creative process or as stars. Those films failed because they lacked any true understanding of Italian culture, which would have enhanced the film. That changed when Paramount Studios hired Francis Ford Coppola, then a little-known director, to helm “The Godfather.” In turn, Coppola hired talented but unknown Italian-American actors such as Al Pacino and John Cazale (“Fredo Corleone”) to be co-stars. The rest is cinematic history.
In time, there will likely be an Arab and Indian-American Denzel Washington and Spike Lee. And that will come from a combination of the artists in those communities creating their own projects—which is increasingly happening—but also being cast in the bigger budget Hollywood movies. The big studio movies have the greatest reach and are the ones which create stars who then have the ability to get movies made that would present their culture in a more nuanced and entertaining manner.
“The Dictator” may turn out to be a blockbuster hit or a big budget miss. But I can assure you that the film would have been better if it included some input from the very community being ridiculed by the film.
Tags: the dictator, sasha baron cohen, dean obeidallah
Posted by BeautyandtheEast on 05-02-2012 | Comments | Share | Filed under: Entertainment, Film/TV
By Tim Kenneally
Ashton Kutcher’s new ad for a potato chip company could find him eating crow soon. The “Two and a Half Men” star’s ad for Popchips has raised the hackles of some in the Twitterverse, who are criticizing the ad as racist because Kutcher wears “brownface” in it. The commercial parodies dating-service ads, with Kutcher playing Raj, a 39-year-old “Bollywood producer” who’s looking for love. But the ad itself isn’t getting much love from Internet detractors, who are criticizing the brown makeup and stereotypical behavior he displays in the spot.
New York writer and entrepreneur Anil Dash called for an apology from Popchips, Kutcher and others associated with the ad. “I think the people behind this Popchips ad are not racist. I think they just made a racist ad, because they’re so steeped in our culture’s racism that they didn’t even realize they were doing it,” Dash wrote.
Brooklyn-based hip-hop group Das Racist was similarly unimpressed, and urged people to contact the company in protest.
“[T]hey got to pull this s—- and apologize, that’s it,” the group tweeted. “[I]t’s 2012, come on.”
A YouTube user offered another bashing in the comments section, writing, “LOL @ Ashton thinking he could become relevant again by putting on racist brownface, acting like Indian men are all creepers (who [have] moustaches), and attempting caricatures of popular filmy? dances. How mid-twentieth century! How cute! Very impressed.”
The ad is one in a series of Kutcher portraying a number of caricatures, including a bearded redneck, a dreadlocked British hippie and a pony-tailed German fashionista. Popchips claims that the ad campaign wasn’t intended to offend.
“The new Popchips worldwide dating video and ad campaign featuring four characters was created to provoke a few laughs and was never intended to stereotype or offend anyone,” the company said in a statement provided to TheWrap. “At Popchips we embrace all types of shapes, flavors and colors, and appreciate all snackers, no matter their race or ethnicity. We hope people can enjoy this in the spirit it was intended.”
A spokeswomen for Kutcher has not yet responded to TheWrap’s request for comment, though it’s a safe bet that the actor is probably blushing right now, under all that brownface makeup.
Tags: ashton kutcher, brownface, popchips
Posted by BeautyandtheEast on 04-18-2012 | Comments | Share | Filed under: Entertainment, Film/TV, Leaders/Stories
Huffington Post by Jim Luce: Interpreting Indian culture to an American audience is a challenge, but Shah Rukh Khan is so important to global art and social activism, I will attempt to do just that. The largest Bollywood actor and producer, he is a major, global entertainment figure who cares deeply about creativity and humanity. For this reason, Yale University presented him this week with its Chubb Fellow Award, its most prestigious award for leadership, given previously to Walter Cronkite, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. In 2011, The Los Angeles Times noted, “He is the biggest movie star you’ve never heard of. And perhaps the world’s biggest movie star, period.” He is all of that and more.
American entertainment figures who might come close to him include Madonna and Lady Gaga, although neither of our stars can touch the output or contributions that Shah Rukh has made to India and the world. Paul Newman with his foundation also comes to mind. Shah Rukh has an estimated fan following in literally the billions. With a “B.” It is estimated that one-third of the world’s population knows of him. In New Haven’s Schubert Theater, the frenzy around him—almost religious—reminded me of past concerts with Elvis or the Beatles. Yet the majority of 1,700 fans were South Asian. Newsweek named him one of the fifty most powerful people in the world four years ago; in 2004, Time had featured him in their list of “Asian Heroes” under the age of 40. Today, Bollywood itself has surpassed Hollywood around the world and is now headed to the U.S.
Shah Rukh Khan, informally referred to as “SRK,” Shah Rukh has acted in over seventy Hindi films. One billion U.S. dollars have been made by just eleven of his films. After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in economics, he started his career appearing in theatre and several television serials in the late 1980s. Deeply absorbed with goodness, ironically he is best known for his unconventional choice of negative roles in films such as Darr (1993), Baazigar (1993), and Anjaam (1994). Shah Rukh also owns a cricket team in India.
SRK was born in 1965. Although India has a Hindu majority, he is a Muslim—married to a Hindu woman, Gauri Chibber, in a traditional Hindu wedding ceremony. At home, his children follow both religions, with the Qur’an placed next to the Hindu deities. He spoke of his children frequently. Activism is in his genes, as his father was an Indian independence activist prior to Indian independence from the British in 1947. His distant roots are in Afghanistan. America still struggles with Islam: last year Shah Rukh was outrageously detained by our own immigration when he arrived through Newark. His press-conference and presentation was delayed for hours as, although he flew on a private jet from Mumbai to New Haven, U.S. immigration detained him in customs once again. He joked, “Whenever I begin to feel arrogant about myself, I take a trip to America!”
Shah Rukh was very attached to his parents as a child and describes their death at such a young age as a turning point in his life. His father lost his battle with cancer when Khan was 15 years old and his mother also passed away after a long illness. He says his biggest motivation for working hard is to make movies “so damn bloody big… that my parents somewhere sit down on a star and say ‘I can see his movies from here better than I can see the Wall of China or anything!’” He spoke repeatedly from the stage about his parents and the need for Yale students to honor theirs. “Love your parents. Cherish them.”
Shah Rukh works very hard, sleeping only 4-5 hours a night, but never brags about his good works. Known for not talking about his humanitarian work, he helped create the children’s ward at the Nanavati hospital in Mumbai. He contributes regularly to organizations and individuals, especially in the case of AIDS and cancer patients. He has also lent his name to various government campaigns throughout the years, notably those of Pulse Polio immunization campaign. He is a member of the board of directors of Make-A-Wish Foundation in India. He told the audience, “I want to increase education for women, provide toilets—simple things.” He dislikes gossip columnists. “The gossip and nonsense is so strange and make you feel weird—I just want to do good stuff.” “I don’t like relaxing at all,” he said, “and I am a disbeliever of holidays and taking times off.”
“I wish to give the creative part of me away, it’s not about how many Rupees I give.” But he gives generously. A few years ago, Shah Rukh adopted five entire villages outside Delhi, providing solar electricity through a program known as ‘Light A Billion Lives.’ The following year he adopted eight more villages—and then again eleven more. That’s a lot of light.
Recently this Bollywood legend visited two Kashmiri orphan children who suffered severe burns during a terrorist grenade attack in India and agreed to bear their medical expenses. In 2011 he was honored with the UNESCO’s Pyramide con Marni award for his charity engagements and social commitment towards providing education for children, becoming the first Indian to win the accolade. He told us how much he hated racial profiling, bigotry and sexism. As a Muslim performer, he has united not only India with its hundred languages and faiths, but people of all languages and faiths across the globe.
Back to his film career: in 1998, he won critical praise for his performance in Indian director Mani Ratnam’s critically acclaimed Dil Se… I interviewed Mani on film two years ago (video). In 2001 he played the role of Emperor Asoka in Santosh Sivan’s historical epic, Asoka, a partly fictionalized account of the life of Ashoka the Great whom I chronicled during my pilgrimage to Buddhist holy sites in India this January. Asoka was released coincidentally on 9/11 and played across the U.K. and in North America. Continuously challenged while “traveling while Muslim,” Shah Rukh was stuck in New York while promoting this film right after the September 11th attacks.
In 2009, while in Los Angeles, he took a break from filming to attend the 66th Golden Globe Awards in L.A. where he was introduced as the ‘King of Bollywood.’ Shah Rukh was then introduced with Freida Pinto of Slumdog Millionaire, a movie he had previously turned down.
My Name Is Khan is one of my personal favorites. Released in 2010 in cooperation with Fox, My Name is based on a true story, dealing with post 9/11 Islamaphobia. His film became the highest-grossing Bollywood film of all-time in the overseas market up until then. I love his line, “My name is Khan—and I am not a terrorist.” Being harassed by U.S. immigration seems to be SRK’s lietmotif. He told the Yale audience that our immigration service wears him down with silly questions. He imagined being asked his race so that he could reply, “white.”
I cannot commend my father’s alma mater, Yale University, for being the first American university to honor this man. Shah Rukh Khan is a thought leader and global citizen of the highest magnitude.
Tags: shah rukh khan, yale, chubb fellow award, jim luce
Posted by BeautyandtheEast on 04-17-2012 | Comments | Share | Filed under: Entertainment, Film/TV
Knights of the Mid-East Film Festival
New Film Makers Film Festival
Wednesday, April 25th, 2012
7-11 pm
32nd 2nd Ave (at 2 St.)
$6/film
Don’t miss the showing of Moniere’s new film XeNation at the festival! Born in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Moniere moved to Brooklyn, New York when he was nine. By age ten, Moniere embraced his acting and film career. He graduated from the State University of New York at New Paltz, double majoring in Psychology and Theater Arts. He also studied graduate level Film and Media at The City University of New York’s Hunter College and was accepted to The New School University’s graduate MFA program. Moniere has been awarded Best Director at several film festivals. His film, “Dissonance”, has been awarded numerous nominations and accolades including Best Feature Film. He is wrapping up a documentary trilogy: “XeNation?: Abundance”, “XeNation?: Consciousness”, and “XeNation?: MPO”; dedicated to the mind, body and spirit. Currently, Spring 2012, he is preparing for several narrative feature films which include, “Laila or Not” and “Scarlet Poppy”.
Tags: knights of mid east, new film makers festival, xe nation, moniere
Posted by BeautyandtheEast on 03-07-2012 | Comments | Share | Filed under: Entertainment, Film/TV
Hurriyet Daily News: “Fetih (Conquest) 1453,” a Turkish film that details the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul, was viewed by close to 2.5 million viewers in its first week, according to Anatolia news agency. The movie, which debuted Feb. 16, garnered an estimated record-breaking 12 million Turkish Liras at the box office in its first week, daily Milliyet reported.
The film is being shown in 850 cinemas around Turkey and has reportedly drawn 2.47 million people. The movie, directed by Faruk Aksoy, tells the story of Istanbul’s capture by the Ottomans during the reign of Sultan Mehmed II.
It has angered Christians in the German city of Cologne, with the Christian association Via Dolorosa boycotting the film. The association said Turks should be ashamed of what they did to Christians in the past instead of celebrating Istanbul’s conquest. Germany has prohibited the presentation of the film to viewers under the age of 16, Milliyet reported.
Turkish immigrants in Germany, more than 104,000 of whom went to see the film during the first three days of its release, have complained that they were unable to bring their children along.
The movie has also angered Greek viewers after it was released there in January. Greek weekly To Proto Thema described the film as “conquest propaganda by the Turks” in a story published on its website.
“The Turkish invaders present themselves as rulers of the world” and “[fail] to show the mass killings of Greeks and the plunder of the land by the Turks,” the piece said.
According to Wikipedia, The Fall of Constantinople (Greek: Άλωση της Κωνσταντινούπολης, Alōsē tēs Kōnstantinoupolēs; Turkish: İstanbul’un fethi) was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire, which occurred after a siege by the Ottoman Empire, under the command of 21-year-old Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, against the defending army commanded by Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos. The siege lasted from Friday, 6 April 1453 until Tuesday, 29 May 1453 (according to the Julian calendar), when the city was conquered by the Ottomans.
The capture of Constantinople (and two other Byzantine splinter territories soon thereafter) marked the end of the Roman Empire, a state which had lasted for nearly 1,500 years; it was also a massive blow to Christendom. After the conquest Mehmed made Constantinople the Ottoman Empire’s new capital. Several Greek and non-Greek intellectuals fled the city before and after the siege, migrating particularly to Italy. It is argued that they helped fuel the Renaissance. Some mark the end of the Middle Ages by the fall of the city and empire.
Tags: fetih 1453, conquest 1453, turkey, faruk aksoy
Posted by BeautyandtheEast on 03-05-2012 | Comments | Share | Filed under: Entertainment, Film/TV
Daily Mail: A new reality show is set to do to a group of Iranian immigrants what Keeping up With The Kardashians did to a wealthy LA family.
It also appears to be very similar, on first appearances, to other aspects of the Kardashian franchise - from the long, dark locks to the lavish lifestyles, Shahs of Sunset follows the antics of six 30-something ‘Persian socialites’ living around Sunset Boulevard. The brainchild of Ryan Seacrest - he of Kardashians and Sasha Baron-Cohen’s Oscars ashes stunt fame - the successful producer is keen to focus on their good values, rather than the flashiness and bling that have come to characterise many well-heeled Iranians in California.
‘The great thing about a show like this,’ he told The Daily Beast, ‘is that it promotes something I believe in, which is friendship and family. We like shows about that.’
Cast members from the area of LA known as Tehrangeles, agree, saying that the show is about friendship and are excited, as one put it, about ‘the impact it’s going to have on people to see us Persians and learn something new.’ They might be on to something - many of the cultural stereotypes of Iranians seen in the U.S. media hinge upon ‘the terrorist Arab archetype or Persian archetype,’ Thaddeus Russell, author of a renegade history of the United States, told The Daily Beast. Drawing upon the strong ties LA has to Iran - it became a new home to many exiled families after the 1979 revolution - the show is also being compared to Jersey Shore. But its proponents say the cast is about much more than than heels, lap dogs and hair extensions.
A dapper-looking moustachioed man by the name of Reza Farahan believes that he is an ‘anomaly’ in that he is a gay Persian. ‘We are much more sophisticated [than Jersey Shore’s cast],’ he told Daily Beast. ‘We come from different backgrounds of lawyers and doctors. Those people on Jersey Shore are hooking up every night. They have a ‘smoosh’ room. They drink pickle juice. They have nothing. They are incredibly trashy. We are not like that.’ He says he wouldn’t change a thing about his background and professes to be a great sports fan. The clique has close ties - all went to Beverley Hills High School together in the Eighties and Nineties.
29-year-old Golnesa ‘GG’ Gharachedaghi is a daddy’s girl - beautiful, hunting for a husband and fully financially dependent on her father. She is unabashed about the show’s potential. ‘Do I think people will see us in a different light? Yes, I do’ she said to the site. ‘We are not terrorists. Our money isn’t from oil. We’re not related to Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden.’ Asa Soltan Rahmati left Iran aged just 8 and made her way to the U.S. via Hamburg, Germany. On a show preview, the musician says she has been called the Persian MIA, the Persian Lady Gaga, the Persian Kesha and the Persian Grace Jones - and made a song named for her homeland pomegranate stew dish, FessenJoon.
‘My videos get around’ she tells the Daily Beast. ‘I get pulled over by Persian girls who want to take pictures of me. We don’t have any people that are out in the public, that are living outside the box.’ Mercedes ‘MJ’ Javid has a reputation as a party girl and spoils her two pet chihuahuas rotten. According to the bravo site, there is no love lost between her and her mother: ‘Coming from different sides of the spectrum MJ and her overbearing and unconventional Persian mother, Vida, fight over everything including the way MJ dresses.’ Sammy Younai and Mike Shouhed are both in the real-estate business. Mike, 33, says he is part of the city’s ‘Persian Real Estate Mafia’ while muscle-bound Sammy, 35, is a ‘ladies man’. He admits - for all the women out there - that while he is currently dating someone, the relationship is ‘not serious’.
Shahs of Sunset premieres on March 11 on Bravo at 10pm.
Tags: shahs of sunset, iran, ryan seacrest, bravo tv
Posted by BeautyandtheEast on 02-27-2012 | Comments | Share | Filed under: Entertainment, Film/TV
LA Times: It was a film that met with mixed feelings in Iran when it first came out. Was the domestic drama “A Separation” playing to the West by showing a darker side of Iran?
But Tehran wasn’t immune from Oscar mania when the film entered the race for best foreign-language film. Some Iranians stayed up until dawn Monday to watch filmmaker Asghar Farhadi accept the first Academy Award for an Iranian movie. Accolades for Farhadi poured into Iranian newspapers.
“This event is a clear hint that art, in its general meaning, and cinema in particular, are media that are able to help humanity to overcome aggression, enable us to bring our hearts closer to each other, and enable us to have dialogue among civilizations instead of conflicts and clashes,” former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami wrote in an open letter to the filmmaker published in Aftab News.
Javad Shamaqdari, the director of the Iran Cinema Organization, argued its victory was a sign that “American judgment bowed before the Iranian culture and Oscar voters showed a different reaction to the Zionist lobby, which is escalating war,” the Tehran Times reported.
The movie met with some resistance when an Iranian committee was deciding which film to submit to the Academy Awards, Farhadi told The Times last year. Some worried its themes of divorce and murder were too dark. Others said it only pleased the West because it depicted a troubled marriage in Iran.
“I’m not one of the people whose work the government particularly likes,” Farhadi told The Times.
In his acceptance speech Sunday night, Farhardi said, “At this time, many Iranians all over the world are watching us and I imagine them to be very happy. They are happy not just because of an important award or a film or filmmaker, but because at the time when talk of war, intimidation, and aggression is exchanged between politicians, the name of their country Iran is spoken here through her glorious culture, a rich and ancient culture that has been hidden under the heavy dust of politics.
“I proudly offer this award to the people of my country, a people who respect all cultures and civilizations and despise hostility and resentment.”
Feelings about the film in Iran are still mixed despite the Oscar glow. Though the film is a drama about a couple on the verge of splitting up, “A Separation” also resonated with audiences who saw it as an allegory for Iranian politics and society.
“Farhadi depicted the hypocrisy and concealing of truth in our society. He was clever to keep the end of the film open to different interpretations,” cinema enthusiast Mohsen Ferdowsi said.
Beforehand, only one film from Iran had been nominated for the foreign Oscar. The win comes at a tense time for Iran, which is facing pressure over its nuclear program. The United Nations atomic watchdog agency faulted Iran for dodging questions and stepping up its production of enriched uranium.
Tags: a separation, iran, oscar, academy awards, asghar farhadi, javad shamagdari
Posted by BeautyandtheEast on 02-27-2012 | Comments | Share | Filed under: Entertainment, Film/TV
NY Times: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Wearily accustomed to being the focus of bad news, Pakistanis celebrated on Monday after a filmmaker from Karachi won the country’s first Academy Award, for a documentary about the victims of gruesome acid attacks.
The filmmaker, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, and the co-director, Daniel Junge, won the Oscar in Los Angeles on Sunday night for the best short documentary for their film, “Saving Face,” which follows a British plastic surgeon as he repairs the horrific damage done to women who have been attacked with acid, often by jealous or vindictive husbands.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani led the tributes to Ms. Obaid-Chinoy, 33, saying that she would be given a “high civil award” for her achievement.
It was the second big victory for a film produced in the region. The award for best foreign-language film went to the Iranian movie “A Separation,” also a first for a country that is often at odds with the West.
Speaking by telephone from Hollywood, Ms. Obaid-Chinoy said that she was “dazed” by her success. “It reinforces the fact you can be anyone, come from anywhere and as long as you do quality work it gets rewarded,” she said.
She said she was congratulated backstage at the awards ceremony by Angelina Jolie, who has frequently traveled to Pakistan to highlight the plight of refugees and the poor.
“Saving Face” focuses on the efforts of Dr. Mohammad Jawad, a British plastic surgeon who traveled across Pakistan to repair the faces of women who had been burned by acid.
In one scene, a weeping patient tells him that she was attacked by a husband who threw battery acid on her, a sister-in-law who doused her with gasoline and a mother-in-law who struck the match that set her on fire. “I cannot understand this,” says Dr. Jawad, himself straining with tears. About 100 such attacks are reported to the police every year, the filmmakers said, although many more go unreported.
But Ms. Obaid-Chinoy emphasized that the film also focuses on courageous lawyers and legislators who introduced a strict law last year that mandates a sentence of life in prison for those convicted of committing acid attacks.
“This is a film about hope,” she said. “It shows that Pakistan has a problem, but that there are people on the ground who are tackling it.”
Ms. Obaid-Chinoy, who previously won an Emmy for a documentary about young Pakistani recruits to the Taliban, began her career in 2002 with New York Times Television, where she produced an award-winning documentary about the children of Afghan refugees. She said that she hoped her Oscar would inspire other Pakistani filmmakers. “This shows that someone from their ranks can do it,” she said.
Neither the Iranian nor the Pakistani film celebrated at the Academy Awards was entirely shorn of political context. In his acceptance speech, Asghar Farhadi, the Iranian writer and director of “A Separation,” referred to mounting speculation that Israel was preparing to attack Iran’s nuclear complexes.
“At a time of talk of war, intimidation and aggression,” he said, Iran had spoken though a “glorious culture, a rich and ancient culture that has been hidden under the heavy dust of politics.”
In Pakistan, the Oscar victory coincided with concern that the government was planning to restrict free speech through stringent new regulation of the vibrant electronic media, including a ban on television satires of politicians.
At a news conference in Islamabad, Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan sought to dispel the concerns. No regulation would be imposed without first consulting the television stations, she said.
Tags: saving face, pakistan, oscar, sharmeen obaid-chinoy, daniel junge
Posted by BeautyandtheEast on 02-16-2012 | Comments | Share | Filed under: Entertainment, Film/TV
Washington Post: BERLIN — Angelina Jolie says she’s not yet sure whether she will follow her directorial debut on the Bosnian war with another film on such serious material — but she has already written a script focusing on the conflict in Afghanistan.
Jolie, who presented her movie “In the Land of Blood and Honey” at the Berlin International Film Festival, told reporters Monday that even her husband Brad Pitt is unfamiliar with her Afghanistan idea.
She says: “I did write something on Afghanistan. Nobody’s seen it yet. Brad hasn’t seen it. It’s hidden. So I don’t know how very good it is, but it’s been a pleasure to write.”
Meantime, she says her next project is playing the villain in a Disney film — something she says her kids are much happier about.
Tags: angelina jolie, afghanistan
Posted by BeautyandtheEast on 02-15-2012 | Comments | Share | Filed under: Entertainment, Film/TV, Leaders/Stories
NY Daily News: Oliver Stone’s son has converted to Islam in Iran — in what’s sure to spark all sort of conspiracy theories on the Internet.
Sean Stone, 27, himself a budding director, underwent the conversion while in the country attending the 30th Fajr International Film Festival that ended Sunday, Iran’s Tehran Times reported. The younger Stone told the paper he had become a Shia Muslim and will use the name Ali.
“The conversion to Islam is not abandoning Christianity or Judaism, which I was born with,” the younger Stone told Agence France-Presse by phone from the Iranian city of Isfahan. “It means I have accepted Mohammad and other prophets.”
He had been in Tehran last September to start an untitled documentary.
There has yet to be any public reaction from Stone’s famous father, who is half Jewish by birth and currently a Buddhist. Sean Stone’s mother is Christian.
Sean (Ali) Stone has already shown a penchant for angering conservatives just like his father. In an interview with The Wrap last September, he drew criticism for remarks defending despot Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran’s right to build nuclear missiles.
“[Ahmadinejad\] did come to America to extend a hand. And there’s a lot of mistranslation, literally, I’ve seen it. Ahmadinejad will say something and it will be mistranslated,” he told The Wrap. “A lot of this is bull—, mistranslation. It’s an aggressive attitude on both parts, mostly on the American side.”
Tags: oliver stone, sean ali, convert to islam
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