Stories about Film from January, 2011
Egypt: Citizen Videos Manage to Bypass Blockage
Although the internet and mobile phone shutdown during the protests of the past few days have made it harder for people in Egypt to show the rest of the world what is happening at ground level during the protests, some citizen videos have made it through.
Video: Life in a Day
Collaborative documentary recounting what the 24th of July of 2010 was like all around the world through people's uploads on YouTube will premiere later on today, live from the Sundance Film Festival on the YouTube Life In a Day Channel.
Iran:High school celebration before the Islamic Revolution
Here is a video film about a celebration in a high school in Iran before the revolution. You can see girls without veil with their male classmates.
Tanzania: Tanzania's First Gay Movie
Last week Kenyan Gay came across a gay movie produced and shot in Tanzania, which will premier on 4th February 2011.
China: Robot animation for the holidays
Robot planet Haven sees its worst energy crisis in a millennium. Only “chosen one” superboy Molin holds the keys to restore balance, but will he succeed? “Legend of Molin” is a new 3D animation which will run in the prime time slot on CCTV-1 throughout Spring Festival; part one aired...
China: P2P service down for copyright compliance
When leading Chinese P2P website VeryCD was shut down in 2009, it was back online the next day. This time, it appears the network won't be back up until all copyrighted materials are removed: ‘The days of “free” movie downloads for Chinese users,’ writes [zh] tech blogger William Long, ‘are...
China: Domestic national image film
If you found China Red irresistible, check out the kind of Chinese national image film that gets played to a domestic audience, via Joel Martinsen at Danwei.
India: Women Empowerment and Videoblogging
Women Aloud Videoblogging for Empowerment (WAVE) is a platform and program aiming to get women from semi-urban areas of India to voice their opinions on topics that matter to them through online video tools.
Uganda: Introducing Maisha Film Labs
Tambay introduces Uganda's Maisha Film Labs: “The goal of the Maisha Film Labs is to give aspiring filmmakers in the East African country the tools & knowledge they currently lack, to tell their own stories through film, which would then help foster a self-sustaining film industry in Uganda and vicinity,...
Cuba: Forbidden Programs
Generation Y blogs about the upsurge in sales of pirated DVDs and music, commenting: “Absent from the public catalogs are the documentaries — so often watched in Cuban homes — that approach our national history through a different lens from the official.”
Jamaica, Barbados: Caribbean Tales in Bim
Geoffrey Philp reports that Barbados will host this year's CaribbeanTales Film Festival.
Ghana: An African Election: A Documentary
An African Election is a documentary based on the 2008 presidential elections in Ghana that looks behind-the-scenes at the complex, political machinery of a third world democracy struggling to legitimize itself to its first world contemporaries.
