Stories about Film from January, 2008
Belarus, Latvia: “Ploshcha”
Marginalia watches Ploshcha (“The Square”), a film about the March 2006 mass protests in Minsk – “and watching it is a good way to mark Ceauşescu's birthday and Suharto's death” – and muses on freedom in Latvia and the lack of it in Belarus.
Brazil: 5 years of Filmes do Chico
“I never thought that Filmes do Chico, this plaything of mine, would get this far. I shall thank all of you who have followed me in this 5 years eternity. Those who have always been close by, those who have had a look from far away. I very much like...
Bangladesh: Cinema, politics, health, photography and history
Cinema: The Bangladeshi film industry nicknamed Dhallywood used to produce decent films for the Bangladeshi society. But with the competition of superior quality pictures from Hollywood and Bollywood, which conquered Bangladesh market and the people with the help of cheap bootleg VCD/DVDs, Dhallywood was in trouble in the last decade....
Davos: peeking in and participating through videos
The World Economic Forum´s annual meeting of political and business leaders is taking place between January 23rd and January 27th in Davos, Switzerland. This year, common people can participate in this forum by giving their ideas to make the world a better place and posting it on the YouTube video sharing site.
Cameroon: Documentary on the Bakweri-German Wars
A new documentary on the history of the Bakweri people of Cameroon has been released: “…“Kuva Likenye” is a 30 minute documentary that profiles the heroic exploits of a mountain King called Kuva Likenye who mobilised an ill-trained ragtag army to stand up in arms against German exploitation of the...
China: Women at The Wheel
Tiger temple introduces an online documentary about woman taxi drivers’ life in China. The director is a Chinese migrant in Germany. The whole documentary is streamed at 24hr blogbus (zh).
Brazil: Blame the Oscar rules
“The exclusion of The Year My Parents Went on Vacation from the nominations for the foreign-language Oscar should not be blamed on the quality of the film itself or the timid campaign to promote the film in the United States, but on the stupid rules for this category”. Chico Fireman...
Pakistan: On Provocation
The Pakistani Spectator on a radical right-wing politician in Holland who is planning on broadcasting a provocative anti-Muslim film.
Botswana: Making movies in Botswana
Mma Ramotswa post a news article about making movies and documentaries in Botswana: “Over the past 10 or 20 years, digital cameras and computer editing have dramatically opened up filmmaking possibilities in “remote” places. Things are looking up for drama films and documentaries made in Botswana.”
Egypt: Secrets on Video
From Egypt, videos which expose secrets and ugly truths. One of them, Hideous, attempts to shock the rich into action by contrasting their carefree lives with the poverty on the streets. Also, To H.E Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, a song and video respectfully dedicated to Egypt´s First Lady, reporting about a story of child abuse, police brutality and misery.
Serbia: Kusturica vs Willis
Belgrade 2.0 writes about Emir Kusturica's dislike of Die Hard, Bruce Willis and all things Hollywood.
Latvia: Review of “Defenders of Riga”
Latvian Abroad reviews Defenders of Riga, “a feel-good patriotic movie”: “And watching a war movie in which bombs were falling on the familiar streets on which I've walked thousands of time, just a few hundred meters from the movie theater… was so much more intense emotionally.”
China and Hong Kong: Jet Li on Patriotism
Diumanpark blogs the transcript of famous actor Li Lianjie or Jet Li's T.V interview, in particular his view about patriotism. To Jet, independent thinking is most crucial (zh).
Iran:”Anti Iranian Series on Iranian TV!”
EarthSoldier says [Fa] that :”Setareh Soheyl” is “an anti Iranian series on Iranian TV” and it is produced in Iran. The blogger calls it worse than 300 movie.The blogger says in this series,Sassanid‘s soldiers were shown as very wild people who used to torture Muslim or non Muslim Arabs.
Mozambique: Sleep Walking Land
Forever Pemba [pt] is glad to find out that the film ‘Sleep Walking Land’, by Mozambican Teresa Prata based on a Mia Couto's book, will be shown at the Pune International Film Festival, in India, and in London's Bird's Eye Film Festival. “The movie tell us the Muidinga's story, a...
Brazil: The Year My Parents Went on Vacation
The Brazilian movie “The Year My Parents Went on Vacation”, by Cao Hamburger, has made it to the list of nine movies pre-selected for the foreign-language Academy Award. On January 22, a special committee will decide which of these will make to to the top 5 final list. Inagaki [pt]...
Kenya: Moving images of unrest and hope
A video walkthrough of the recent violent events in Kenya following the December 27th elections, with shocking images, insightful interviews and hopeful thoughts on the future.
Environment: Greening Communities in South Africa
Carbon Copy posts a 90 second award winning film shot in Cape Town's Khayelitsha township; The film “touches on daily township life in South Africa and how solar energy could be utilised to uplift the poor in a sustainable way.”
Colombia: Filmmaker Stone and the Hostages
The U.S. filmmaker Oliver Stone was on hand to document the handover of the FARC hostage, which ultimately failed. Constanza Vieira of Heavy Metal Colombia [es] discusses Stone's presence.
Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica: “Moving” Film
Caribbean Beat Blog turns the spotlight on Jamaican-born Annmarie Morais’ first feature film.
Egypt: No Country for Old Men
Jarelkamar from Egypt says No Country for Old Men is a must watch movie.
