Four years ago Dubai commenced their international film festival and today in Abu Dhabi, another Persian Gulf  town approximately 150 km south of Dubai, officials announced that they too will hold an international film festival during the second half of October.Dubai is well on its way to establishing itself as an regional film hub, and its own international film festival, set to run December 9-16, will be a direct competitor with Abu Dhabi's.  Although according to Abdulhamid Juma, Ch...

Sixty-one years ago, US and Japanese armies met on Iwo Jima. Decades later, several hundred letters are unearthed from that stark island’s soil. The letters give faces and voices to the men who fought there, as well as the extraordinary general who led them. The Japanese soldiers are sent to Iwo Jima knowing that in all probability they will not come back. Among them are Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), a baker who wants only to live to see the face of his newborn daughter; Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ih...

Monday, December 4---- The 19th edition of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) came to a rousing end on Saturday evening, with the awarding of the IDFA prizes in a number of categories. Films from Denmark made a remarkably strong showing, winning several major prizes at the Awards Ceremony held at De Zwijger. The VPRO Joris Ivens Award for the best long documentary was presented to Danish director Pernille Rose Grønkjær for her documentary THE MONASTERY--MR. VIG &...

Né au Bénin en 1967, Idrissou Mora-Kpaï a quitté son pays à l’âge de 19 ans et après un séjour en Algérie et en Italie, il s’installe en Allemagne où il fait des études de cinéma dans la section réalisation. Après quoi, il s’installe à Paris où il réalise son premier doc « Si-Gueriki, la Reine mère » qu’il a tourné au nord du Bénin et pour lequel il a reçu plusieurs prix dont celui du meilleur documentaire francophone à Namur en Belgique. Son film « Arlit, deuxi�...

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Sunday, June 4--- the good old days right after 9/11 when everyone was afraid to ride on airplanes, and those of us intrepid (or stupid) enough to continue flying off to film festivals always had empty seats around us? And airlines left on time? And the airline personnel were so happy to see a customer that you got treated like you were in first class (even though you were inevitably in the cheapo seats)? Well, I am here to tell you, brothers and sisters, that those times are long gone...

Sunday, June 4--- the good old days right after 9/11 when everyone was afraid to ride on airplanes, and those of us intrepid (or stupid) enough to continue flying off to film festivals always had empty seats around us? And airlines left on time? And the airline personnel were so happy to see a customer that you got treated like you were in first class (even though you were inevitably in the cheapo seats)? Well, I am here to tell you, brothers and sisters, that those times are long gone...