Yamustafa!

Young African filmmakers listen to master Gerima Click here to see more photos by Egyptian photographer Hasan Amin The Luxor African Film Festival (LAFF) concluded its second edition Sunday March 24th 2013 in the historic Luxor city in Egypt. The festival ran in several venues in the city. It was characterized by workshops on filmmaking presented by Egyptian filmmakers under the guidance of Tunisian filmmaker Mr. Reda Elbahi. A fourth workshop was conducted by world-renowned Ethiopian master filmmaker Haile Gerima (maker of Teza , Sankofa etc.) Here is what LAFF organizers had to say about Gerima's contribution: ".. Haile Gerima's Workshop in Luxor is a big African and international occurrence. Youth of Africa will get an opportunity to gather and get to know more about each other; to discover their imaginations, perceptions and common issues and problems. As a result, a new generation of filmmakers will appear in our mother continent Africa. Accordin...

"The cinema language happened by experimentation – by people not knowing what to do. But unfortunately, after 15-20 years, it became a commercial industry. People made money in the cinema, and then they began to say to the pioneers, “Don’t experiment. We want to make money. We don’t want to take chances.” Francis Ford Coppola. It is such a vibrant, varied and unrelenting cinematic experience! An article would only be a faint appetizer after which you dive into the buffet of abundance and variety! Upon venturing to put words on paper you feel like besieged by the question where to start. But let us start by his 2009 movie Tetro which was screened as a sideshow in the Director's Fortnight Program at  Cannes International Film Festival, not the official competition.  Copploa had sent Tetro to Cannes at the beginning of the year and remained waiting for the answer, and only two days before the official announcements were t...

Former Ottomans, Pharaohs Court Black Mama 2012 must be a landmark year for African cinema! Soon after the Istanbul Modern screening of African films in January, The first edition of the Luxor African Film Festival (AFF) took place on Feb. 18th – 28th, 2012 in Luxor, Egypt. Both festivities had in common a private and independent nature; away from beaurocracies of governments! They both shared the declared goals of seeking alternative film screening platforms and building of capacities and networking. The Istanbul Modern is a movie theater that is part of the İstanbul Museum of Modern Art , Turkey’s first private museum which was founded in 2004, and has become a multipurpose cultural center on the shores of the Bosphorus. Just in case you are visiting Turkey, screenings are free of charge for museum visitors and members! The Egyptian festival of Luxor has made sure steps toward becoming a major festival in Africa in terms of the large number of African ...

But Lots of Dying Everywhere! It's true; an inconvenient truth, though! I am not talking Syria or Iraq but the other man-made disasters that are sending planet Earth into the environmental apocalypse!! Probing into the huge number of cinema/movie festivals around the globe and their close occurences, I stumbled on such festival names as Goya Awards,Nica Awards, Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival or Thessaloniki Int'l Film Festival. Lots of them! But I found myself inclined to narrow my interest to revisiting the non-fictional movies in recent years. The prophetic or premonitional kind of depiction or the exact opposite, the optimistic, life-affirming one!  The reason must be obvious. This is 2012! The year of the ultimate prediction! No matter to what degree what is circulating is just hype. Nature seems to favour this premonitional scary talk by sending a mild winter to Canada but also giving Europe a surprise dumping or setting the ice on fire in Iceland. A...

What American Filmmakers Say in An African Festival!! Speaking mostly in French at a news conference in Algiers Saturday Nov. 19, American filmmaker Oliver Stone (Platoon 1986, Wall Street 1987 and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps Never 2010) said he was shocked by the global financial crisis and “to see how money was venerated by America.” He also said:" The United States do not live in a democracy even under Barack Obama!" Stone was in Algiers to attend the "Algiers International Film Festival" which centered its first edition around the "Film Engage" or the "committed movie" which according to the festival organiser Zehira Yahi was Oliver Stone "about defending ideas, practices or ethics, in whatever field that may be. The most obvious example is of political engagement!" Oliver Stone participated in this festival by his movie "Persona Non Grata". It is worth mentioning that Oliver Stone is the son of a former Wall ...