Stories about Film from July, 2009
Put it On: Global Online Contest for Filmmakers
Put it On is awarding a scholarship to the New York Film Academy and a cash prize of $5000 USD in its contest for the best short and feature films from around the world. [This is a paid promotion].
Pakistan: Breaking Western Stereotypes
Pakfactor writes about a documentary called “Made In Pakistan”, which “documents the lives of four ordinary Pakistani citizens during military rule in an effort to break Western stereotypes about the country.”
Russia: Oleg Yankovsky
Mumin Shakirov of OpenDemocracy.net writes about actor Oleg Yankovsky, who died of cancer in Moscow earlier this year.
Malaysia: Remembering film director Yasmin Ahmad
Popular Malaysian filmmaker Yasmin Ahmad passed away suddenly on July 25. The Malaysian blogosphere took to their keyboards to pay tribute to the icon.
United Nations: Video contest for 9-25 year olds about migration
The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations is organizing the Plural+ video contest about building a more inclusive, tolerant society. The contest is open for any participant between the ages of 9 and 25 before September 30th.
Uruguay: CIP, Showcasing National Films and Shorts
They call it an alternative to online video channels so that their videos don't have to compete for attention with short home-videos of birthdays, cats and lip synching to music. Two young Uruguayans decided to change the situation and created Cip, a website dedicated to showcasing the works of independent film-makers, so they can take their films out of their desk drawers and share them with a wider community.
Ethiopia: Live discussion of the film “The Market Maker”
Follow live discussion of the film “The Market Maker”: The Market Maker follows Eleni Gabre-Madhin, a charismatic Ethiopian economist who, in an effort to end hunger in her famine-plagued country, designs the country’s first commodities exchange.
Bangladesh, South Korea: Bandhobi, Addressing Migrant Workers’ Issues
Bangladeshi blogger Fahmidul Haque introduces us [bn] to a Korean Movie which features the love between a Bangladeshi migrant worker and a South Korean teenager girl and addresses migrant workers' issues.
Cuba, Jamaica: Film & Music
AfriClassical notes that famed Afro-Cuban composer Leo Brouwer has received his country's 2009 National Film Award, while Repeating Islands discovers that the musical based on Jamaican Perry Henzell’s 1972 film The Harder They Come will soon open in Canada.
Democracy Video Challenge Winner Showcase
What is Democracy? That is the question more than 900 participants set out to answer through their videos, in response to the Democracy Video Challenge set up by the US Department of State and many other partners, open for participants from all over the world. Today we show you the winning videos which explain in their own way the phrase Democracy is...
Japan: Cat mania
The spreading of communities of people with same interests and hobbies is not new in the internet society. Netizens often exchange news, suggestions and picture on things and activities they share a common interest on. In Japan that is not only limited to hobbies, however, also love for pets is...
Jamaica: The Last Don
As “word on the street has it that the Jamaican Security Forces have created a ‘Don Squad'”, Annie Paul interviews the man behind the film The Last Don, “about the process of making this comic documentary and his own history as a film-maker and photographer.”
Singapore: Censors refuse to classify political film
Singapore censors refuse to classify a political film (One Nation Under Lee) for containing video excerpts from a banned film.
India: Family dynamics and domestic violence
Mandy Van Deven's post in The WIP analyses family dynamics and its impact on domestic violence in the context of Deepa Mehta's film ‘Heaven on Earth’.
Jamaica: KOTE '09
Annie Paul reviews Kingston on the Edge 2009 – Jamaica's up-and-coming urban art festival.
Japan: Beng Mealea Temple and Miyazaki's Laputa
Karapaia shares some pictures of the ruins of Beng Mealea Temple, Cambodia, which, the blogger says, inspired the architecture of the floating island in the anime Laputa: Castle in the Sky (original title 天空の城ラピュタ, Tenku no Shiro Lapyuta), by Miyazaki.
Fiji: The fall of movie pirates
With Fiji’s government cracking down on outlets selling pirated DVDs, L. Cass pens a piece in Failed Paradise criticizing these “cheating” retailers but also lamenting their downfall
Trinidad & Tobago: Film on Minshall
Keith in Trinidad is excited about a soon-to-be-released film on “Peter Minshall, the greatest band leader in modern Carnival. Ever.”
Cote d'Ivoire: Paul Sika's technicolor dreamscape
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...
Africa: Some thoughts on African film
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....
Senegal: The evolution of Senegalese women in film
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...
