Global Voices Online

Glenna Gordon interviews Paul Sika from Ivory Coast about his work: “I first came across Paul Sika's photos on the blog Africa is a Country and was immediately transfixed by how he transformed scenes that seemed so familiar to me into something brilliantly technicolor and radiant. I emailed him last week and asked a few questions and he was kind enough to fill me in with a little bit of information about his work for Context Africa.”

Sci-Cultura writes about African film: “Anyone who’s read the recent posts on this blog will know that I am enthralled, intrigued and besotted by the use of film as a medium to convey stories. This year has been good for raising the awareness of Kenya in the world of film. This time, not just as a location for big shot movies like Out of Africa, The Constant Gardener, etc., but more importantly for Kenyan creativity and talent in making films.”

AFWMNCIN discusses the evolution of Senegalese women in the film industry: “Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Safi Faye was the lone woman filmmaker in Senegal. New faces were visible in the 1990s with the emergence of Adrienne Diop, Mariam Kane Selly, Rokhaya Diop, Aissaou Laba Touré and Kady Sylla; all producing documentaries about aspects of Senegalese life and culture. Safi Faye’s strikingly beautiful Mossane is among the works produced during this dynamic and energetic decade.”

This year is Mobile Suit Gundam's 30th birthday.
While a giant statue of the robot stands in Odaiba's park (in the Tokyo bay area), in a theatre of northern Tokyo, blogger/actress Rie Takahashi [ja] and her crew pay tribute to the animated television series in stage play Robot.

“Michael Jackson, King of Pop, who passed away at the age of 50 earlier today exerted a huge influence on Bollywood and Indian film industry,” writes Kamla Bhatt and explains in details.

The Beatroot comments on a current dispute between Russia and Poland about a Russian state TV-documentary, claiming that Nazi Germany, Poland, and Japan were preparing to invade the Soviet Union during the early stages of World War II.

Collective blog The View from Fez reports on the dramatic decrease in the number of movie theatres in Morocco and their shrinking audiences. “In a country of more than 30 million people, there are currently only 50 cinemas, down from 70 just last year. They were 250 in 1995,” notes Abdallah Mchanna.

Matt Alt links to a Harvard Business School working paper (pdf) on the state of the Japanese anime industry: “If Japan wants to bank on its ‘Gross National Cool', it will have to overcome the inertia of system that has essentially reduced its most talented architects to the level of beggars.”

Xujun Eberlein from Inside-Out China comments on former Tiananmen activist Chai Ling's recent move to sue the film maker of “The Gate of Heavenly Peace” for “defamation” or “infringing trademark”.