Online TV on Labour Issues launched in Pakistan

October 24, 2012: Labour Watch Pakistan, launched first ever online TV today on labour issues – labourwatch.tv, produced by the Child Rights Legal Centre and the Solidarity Center.

The online TV will provide viewers exclusive access to selected quality productions and a platform for quick learning, sharing and discussing labour issues in Pakistan. Labour Watch Pakistan, has also started an educational series in which labour experts will be sharing their expertise and knowledge on the problems facing workers in Pakistan.

More than 100 selected productions including documentaries, songs, educational shows, messages and special reports are available on labourwatch.tv on subjects such as child labour, working women, unions, poverty, privatization, human trafficking, working conditions and wages. The portal will be regularly updated for the convenience of the readers-viewers.

Labour Watch Pakistan values and acknowledges the vital role of Pakistani electronic media in highlighting the problems of workers and dedicates this initiative to all the journalists who devote their time and energies in an effort to bring some respite to the repressed and downtrodden fellow workers of their country.

Reported by: Labour Watch Pakistan at http://labourwatchpakistan.com/?p=10654

uddari@live.ca
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Call for submissions: MONITOR 9: New South Asian short film and video – Nov 9/12

SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Centre) invites submissions for its ninth annual experimental short film and video screening program, Monitor 9.

Monitor 9 is dedicated to the presentation of experimental short films and videos by/and/or about South Asians from Canada and around the world. We invite independent and innovative short films and videos that explore the aesthetic and form of the moving image and its relation to narrative. Monitor 9 encourages new, experimental and risk-taking work that challenges the viewer’s active engagement.

Selected works will be screened at the ninth annual short film and video screening program, Monitor 9 on March 14, 2013 in Toronto, Canada. Monitor 9 will be programmed by independent curator and artist Nahed Mansour.

Monitor is reviewed by a jury of contemporary artists, curators and programmers. This year’s jury consists of Renata Mohamed, Noni Kaur, Cheyanne Turions and Rehab Nazzal.

Previous Monitor programs
Monitor 8, Monitor 7, Monitor 6, Monitor 5

GUIDELINES
Works must be under 20 minutes and produced after 2010.

Submissions from first time directors are welcome. Artist fees will be paid.

Submissions MUST include all the following
Name of artist or director. Full contact information (address, phone, email, website)
Title of work
Date of production (No earlier than 2010)
Brief synopsis of the work (300 words max)
Brief biography of the artist (200 words max)
Artist CV
High-resolution production stills

Submissions can be sent via email with a URL link to the artist/director’s YouTube/Vimeo account (please provide passwords if necessary).

The subject heading must state MONITOR9_ARTISTLASTNAME to sharlene@savac.net

Submissions can be sent on DVD (PAL, NTSC) enclosed with the following:

Send all materials to
SAVAC – MONITOR 9
401 Richmond Street West, Suite 450
Toronto, ON Canada M5V 3A8

Inquiries can be sent to sharlene@savac.net with the subject title: MONITOR 9

All deliveries from international participants must be marked:
“NO COMMERCIAL VALUE” Please do not claim any monetary value over $50 on your package for insurance or otherwise or you will be charged customs, duties and taxes.

All submissions must be sent prepaid. SAVAC will not accept collect or C.O.D. shipments and will not accept shipments incurring expenses for duties, taxes or customs brokerage.

Please note that ONLY selected artists will be contacted by December 21st, 2012. Submissions will only be returned if the package includes a self-addressed stamped envelope (in Canadian postage) or send a cheque payable to SAVAC for the return postage amount.

For more information, please contact
Sharlene Bamboat
Programming Coordinator
SAVAC [South Asian Visual Arts Centre]
Telephone: 416.542.1661
Email: sharlene@savac.net
Website: www.savac.net

Information sent by Jordan strom, JStrom@surrey.ca

uddari@live.ca
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Movie ‘Midnight’s Children’ – Beautiful Rendition of the Novel

On October 3rd, Vancouver offered to the movie ‘Midnight’s Children’ the largest attendance recorded for a screening at Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF). Produced by David Hamilton, directed by Deepa Mehta and written by Salman Rushdie, the film is a(n explosive) treat to watch.

The world of Midnight’s Children, a cellulide incarnation of Salman Rushdie’s classic novel on the partition of India, comes alive from the start and continues to become more vivid, more exciting, more bizarre – as it does. From hillarious to outrageous, it’s a riot to witness a woman in bits and parts through the holed sheet, and then see her emerge as a complete, and somehow baffling young woman; the three sisters, two of whom progress to become wives while the third (‘who marries a book?’) stays sitting on the sofa; the celebrated birth of Salim Sinai, and nurse Mary’s inspirational pro-activism in switching the newborns; the un-sighted black mango with all it’s ramifications on the young mind of Salim; the recurrence of the spittoon; the white-locked lady of all political powers, generals and plans, the killing fields, the homeless, Parvati’s magic, Picture Singh’s supportive appearances; and most of all, an optimistic end.

Tying it together is Salman Rushdie’s first person narration as Salim Sinai that runs through the film like the nadi connecting all the seven chakras across the body. In a world where anything is possible, and at a time when people must experience the violence of doctored political change, the continuity of the narrator’s voice enables the viewer to go with it till the end.

Deepa Mehta has created this film with amazing skill, depth and vision. The chaotic culture of pre-Partition India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the characters, the atmosphere, the beauty- it is a forceful, moving and fascinating experience in cinema. A profound art film and not a single dull moment.

Actors performed their characters well even when there was not enough time for most. Amazing talent, beauty and hard work shines through the whole team led by Satya Bhabha (Saleem Sinai), Shahana Goswami (Amina), Seema Biswas (Mary), Shriya Saran (Parvati), Rahul Bose (General Zulfikar) and Ronit Roy (Ahmed Sinai). An unexpected disappointment: Shabana Azmi (Naseem).

The movie ‘Midnight’s Children’ remains in the mind as an unforgettable visual experience, and as a worthy preamble to a larger film. Because of the time constraint that may have caused the collage of key events toward the end, the later half, unlike the first, could not establish all of it’s changing worlds for it’s characters to live in. It does work but feels like a tease to a viewer who has read the novel, and confusion to the one who hasn’t.

About the river and the bowl, the river of novel Midnight’s Children is indeed captured and contained in the bowl of a 90-minute film even though brimming, spilling, splashing. It’s spoiling for a slightly bigger bowl of perhaps a 3-hour film or a mini tv series.

Don’t miss it! In Theatres November 2, 2012
http://www.midnightschildren.com/
http://www.facebook.com/midnightsmovie
http://www.hamiltonmehta.com/about/
http://www.salman-rushdie.com/

To be released in India December 2012
http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/

Related content at uddari
- ‘Midnight’s Children’ World Premiere: Toronto Sept 9 & 10 – Vancouver Sept 27
- 2012 Attraction: A Deepa Mehta Film

Uddari Weblog
uddari@live.ca
Facebook page

Fauzia Rafique
@RafiqueFauzia
gandholi.wordpress.com
http://www.facebook.com/fauzia.zohra.rafique
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Premiere Screening of ‘It’s A Girl!’ USA/CAN/AUS: Sept 30 – Oct 22/12

“It’s A Girl!” — the much awaited new documentary film on female gendercide in India and China, directed by Evan Grae Davis, is NOW BEING SCREENED IN COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD! It has already premiered on NDTV in India, and the one word we’ve repeatedly heard from people who’ve already seen it is ‘It’s POWERFUL!”

The film also interviews Rita Banerji, the founder of this Cause — The 50 Million Missing Campaign (http://www.50millionmissing.info)

So don’t miss your chance to see the film! Almost all the showings are FREE, but you may need to BOOK in advance.

The TRAILER for the film, a MAP with locations and details of which town/COUNTRY the film is showing in on which DATE are all given on the following link.

We’ve listed some of the places and dates from the U.S., Europe, Canada and Australia below. FOR A LIST OF ALL THE SCREENINGS and more details please click on this link http://www.itsagirlmovie.com/screenings/find-a-screening

Fresno, California, U.S.A. @Golden Place; 30 September 2012 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm

Malibu, California, U.S.A. @Pepperdine University, 03 October 2012 7:00 pm

Evansville, Indiana, U.S.A. @Tugg Theater, 04 October 2012 7:30 pm

Copenhagen, Denmark; @Christian Hansen Lecture Hall, 05 October 2012 6:00 pm

Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.A.; hosted by Women in the World @TBA; 06 October 2012 7:00 pm

Toronto, Canada, @Metro Toronto Convention Center, 06 October 2012 8:30 pm

New York, New York, U.S.A.; hosted by K and M Barneche; 09 October 2012 7:30 pm

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, @University of Alberta 11 October 2012 7:00 pm

Toronto, Canada, by the UN Assoc of Canada @ George Ignatieff Theater 12 October 2012 7:00 pm

Norwalk, Connecticut, U.S.A., 14 October 2012 5:00 pm
RSVP – to Sam at 203 354 3001

Wichita Falls, Texas, U.S.A., @ Clark Student Center, Shawnee Theatre 15 October 2012 6:30 pm

Shelbyville, Tennessee, U.S.A.;@ 411A-D Light Hall, Vanderbilt School of Medicine; 16 October 2012 5:00 pm

Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S.A.; by World Affairs Council of Charlotte and Central Piedmont Community College 17 October 2012 6:00 pm

Vernon Hills, Illinois, U.S.A.; @Tugg Theater 17 October 2012 6:30 pm;

Dallas, Texas, U.S.A. @ Angelika Theater 17 October 2012 7:00 pm

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada; College of Medicine; 18 October 2012 6:00 pm

Austin, Texas, U.S.A. @ Quadrangle Room of the Union Building; University of Texas 18 October 2012 6:00 pm

Perth, Australia, @ University of Western Australia Tavern 18 October 2012 6:30 pm

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia @ National Film and Sound Archive 22 October 2012 6:00 pm

http://www.causes.com/causes/
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‘Midnight’s Children’ World Premiere: Toronto Sept 9 & 10 – Vancouver Sept 27

The movie ‘Midnight’s Children’ by Deepa Mehta is set to enjoy a befitting stage this month by being featured at both Toronto film festival (September 9 – 10) and Vancouver film festival (September 27).

‘Midnight’s Children’ will hold its ‘World Premiere at Toronto International Film Festival, and will be the opening film at Vancouver International Film Festival’.

Toronto festival
http://tiff.net/thefestival
http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/midnightschildren
http://tiff.net/thefestival/filmprogramming

Vancouver festival
http://goo.gl/lTrEy
http://www.viff.org/festival
http://www.viff.org/festival/program-guides

In theatres November 2
http://www.facebook.com/midnightsmovie
http://www.midnightschildren.com/

The Author’s view
‘It has been an extraordinary experience to watch my novel brought to life by so many talents working in harmony. Dilip Mehta’s production design, with its meticulous eye for period detail, re-created the world of MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN, much of it drawn from my own childhood memories, so vividly and accurately that there were moments when I gasped – see, there was my father’s old Rolleiflex! And look, there were my grandmother’s ferocious geese! Giles Nuttgens’s magnificent camera photographed a world that was both epic and intimate, which was afterwards given rhythm and shape by Colin Monie’s editing; Nitin Sawhney’s score lifted scene after scene to new levels, adding layers of emotion; and above all Deepa Mehta’s kindly, ferocious direction orchestrated it all and made a film that’s true to the spirit of the original novel, but that also, I think, possesses its own authority, and establishes itself as a work of art in its own right.’

Salman Rushdie

Excerpt from: http://www.midnightschildren.com/

Related Content at Uddari
http://uddari.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/top-2012-attraction-a-deepa-mehta-film/
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Vancouver Queer Film Festival: COME OUT AGAINST ISRAELI APARTHEID!

Uddari fully supports Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel.

August 24, 2012
By PWI

(Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories) August 22, 2012. Queer activists and allies gathered outside the Vancouver Queer Film Festival (VQFF) screening of ‘The Invisible Men’, carrying sparkly signs and handing out pink informational leaflets to festival patrons.

The group came together under the banner Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) in response to the VQFF’s screening of two films – ‘The Invisible Men’ and ‘Joe + Belle’ – that have received funding from the Israeli government and support from Israeli cultural institutions. In response to the screening of these films, QuAIA has called on the VQFF to stand in solidarity with Palestinian queers and come out against the Israeli apartheid regime.

‘The Israeli government tries to cover up its ongoing and brutal occupation of Palestine through public relations campaigns that tell us Israel is a friend to queers everywhere,’ stated Isabel Krupp.

According to Arielle Friedman, ‘Israel’s attempt to pinkwash apartheid includes its funding and support for movies like ‘The Invisible Men’, which fail to portray the realities of Israel as a settler colonial state.’ Friedman stressed that ‘when movies like this – produced by Israeli film makers and supported by the Israeli state – are screened at queer film festivals, it perpetuates the silencing of Palestinian queers who resist colonization as queer minorities on a daily basis.’

The QuAIA action is not the first to call out ‘The Invisible Men’ for collusion with the Israeli state and pinkwashing. At the 2012 San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, queer activists called out the Executive Director of the Festival during the introduction to the film, criticizing the festival for engaging in pinkwashing through its partnership with the Israeli Consulate. When confronted by activists at the Festival, ‘The Invisible Men’ director, Yariv Mozer, labeled the West Bank and Gaza as ‘primitive’ and stated that he was ‘helping Palestinian queers’, despite the stated positions of all Palestinian queer organizations – including PQBDS, Al-Qaws, and Aswat – in support of the call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, including cultural boycott (audio available).

QuAIA also delivered an open letter to VQFF staff and Board of Directors, calling on the Festival to support the global movement for BDS against the state of Israel by endorsing the cultural boycott of Israel for future festivals, via the guidelines proposed by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). The open letter has been endorsed by a number of local anti-racist and Palestinian solidarity organizations, including Trikone (Vancouver), No One Is Illegal (Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories), Salaam (Vancouver), Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign (Vancouver), and Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (UBC). International organizations, including Palestinian Queers for BDS, Pink Watching Israel, NYC Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, and Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism, have also endorsed the letter.

‘VQFF staff have been open so far in allowing us to have space to share our views’, stated Amal Rana. ‘They made space for us to read our open letter during the panel discussion after the screening, for which we’re very thankful, and they’ve agreed to stay in dialogue with us around these issues…
‘We chose not to boycott or protest at these film screenings in order to work in partnership with members of our community in the coming months to build dialogue and solidarity regarding this critical issue…
‘The theme for this festival is lovers and fighters, and we’ve come forward on this issue with a deep love for our community and our collective legacy of fighting injustice.’ With the VQFF coming to a close this weekend, Rana emphasized that ‘this is a queer issue and we’re committed to working with a broad spectrum of people in the community for what may be a long struggle as has been the case in other cities where there are strong BDS campaigns.’

‘We urge the VQFF to come out against Israeli apartheid and pinkwashing by supporting the call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel,’ reiterated Emma Ellison. ‘We’re certainly encouraged by the widespread support we’ve already received from local queer communities for this campaign.’

Media Contacts
Amal Rana: 604.764.6257
Isabel Krupp: 604.618.2405
quaia.vancouver@gmail.com

Open letter
Submitted by QuAIA Vancouver to VQFF Executive Director, Drew Dennis, Director of Programming, Amber Dawn, and Board of Directors

If you would like to add your name or community organization to the list of endorsers, please contact: quaia.vancouver@gmail.com

Backgrounder
ISRAELI APARTHEID, BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, AND SANCTIONS (BDS), AND PINKWASHING

For over 60 years, the Israeli occupation and expanding apartheid system have denied the Palestinian people their basic human rights. Palestinians in the West Bank live under a brutal military occupation, which takes the form of illegal Israeli settlements, checkpoints, and a system of walls, barriers, and roads accessible solely to Israeli settlers. Palestinians living inside Israel face discriminatory policies; currently there are over 25 laws which specifically target them as non-Jewish and reduce them to second class citizens of Israel. Palestinians in the Diaspora and in UN-administered refugee camps are by default denied their UN-sanctioned right to return to their lands. Finally, over 1.8 million Palestinian in the Gaza Strip are living in an open air prison under an illegal siege, described by many prominent international experts as “slow genocide.”

In 2005, Palestinian civil society organizations called upon people of conscience around the world to engage in boycott, divestment and sanctions – similar to the campaign focusing on apartheid South Africa – to use popular power of economic boycotts, divestment, sanctions advocacy, but also cultural and academic boycott. This call has been taken up by cultural workers and academics around the world, including John Greyson, Barbara Hammer, John Berger, Judith Butler, Alice Walker, Ken Loach, Marilyn Hacker, Adrienne Rich, and Lisa Zuhair Majaj.

In particular, queer activists have found it necessary and urgent to take up the cultural boycott in light of what has become known as Israel’s “pinkwashing” campaign. Israel has launched an aggressive public relations campaign to market itself as an oasis of liberal tolerance in the Middle East. In particular, Israel is working to brand itself as the only gay-friendly country in an otherwise hostile region. By appealing to the global LGBTQ community to support the Israeli state at the expense of the Palestinian people, Israel is actively engaged in the “pinkwashing” of apartheid and occupation.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Palestinian BDS National Committee
Palestinian Queers for BDS
Boycott Israeli Apartheid Committee (Vancouver)
Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (Toronto)
Pinkwatching Israel
Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel

From
Pink Watching Israel (PWI)
http://www.pinkwatchingisrael.com/portfolio/vancouver-queer-film-fest/
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‘Pakistan’s Mock Oscar’ a poem by Fauzia Rafique

Drone attacks, dollar stacks
Prestige shmacks
___ Pakistan’s mock Oscar
___ The latest US-NATO jok(e) Oscar
___ Rhyming is important
___ But get the point across, Oscar

‘Humanitarian’ food drop
U.S. cargo C-17
(thou must use humanitarian aid) with
the Daisy-Cutter
BLU-82 – 15,000 lb.
(ammonium nitrate, aluminum powder, polystyrene) bomb
vietnam, gulf, afghanistan
clear-cut, 100 to 300 meter,
lush green,
forest, wetland or mountainous,
(flowers, birds, fields, animals, homes, humans, butterflies) batter
into flat—
land.
But remember, air-drop
some food
before and after.
___ You gleefully support this deadly
___ Mental bloody flock, Oscar
___ Connections are important
___ At least be your own boss, Oscar
Pakistan’s mock Oscar
The latest US-NATO jok Oscar

All 15 menus, vegetarian
(made for hindus, where’s afghanistan, not in india?)
2,200 calories per body (and many
many body bags) per day
Sample: beans and rice
in tomato sauce
(fruit bars, vegetable crackers, fruit pastry, herb rice,) non-alcoholic towlette.
“This is a food gift
from the people
of the United States
of America”
In English, Spanish and French
(Gift-wrapped for England, Spain and France).
919,967 people killed
Men, women, children, civilians.
___ Our Freedom must Endure all the mass-killing
___ Operations of your Goldi-lock, Oscar.
___ Markets are important
___ But do consider our loss, Oscar
Pakistan’s mock Oscar
The latest US-NATO jok Oscar

Saving face
Women’s rights
Ignorant chauvinist man fights
(extreme violence, disfigurement, irreparable damage to body and spirit) because
it was impossible to restrict
control contain possess
subdue
that one special woman in his life.
This other human who,
amidst all man-favoring laws
stays strong
and able
to exercise
her will.
But this is not what you want.
For you, this is the subject:
Third world women’s rights!
Ignorant chauvinist man fights!
Islam in bad sights!
Wah Wah Human Rights!
At last some Pakistanis in limelights!
___ This lime does not light
___ Any part of my block, Oscar
___ Distinction is important
___ But this is the wrong gloss, Oscar
Pakistan’s mock Oscar
The latest US-NATO jok Oscar

Me, us and we
your numerous humble subjects
(mullah, military, industrialists, landowners, politicians, media, artists, professionals) we
are all here
ready to be bought
and sold
by you, take us
with drone attacks, dollar stacks, prestige shmacks.
But my sister’s acid-burnt face
you recently employed
to hide your own
extreme violence,
disfigurements, deaths, causing irreparable damage
to body and spirit,
is an outrage.
Innocent brave faces of my sisters
for petty political gain!
___ It does not rock, Oscar
___ Your art is full of crock, Oscar
___ Diplomacy is important
___ But find some other sauce, Oscar
Pakistan’s mock Oscar
The latest US-NATO jok Oscar

Surrey, June 2012

Jok (spirit) – ‘A Jok is a class of spirit within the traditional Acholi belief system that are viewed as the cause of illness.[1] Traditional healers first identify the Jok in question and then make an appropriate sacrifice and ceremony to counter them.[1] The range of Jok is extensive and includes a number that have been influenced by the experience of colonization.’

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jok_(spirit)

Related content at Uddari
‘RIP Dear AI’ a poem by Fauzia Rafique
‘Face saving needed for Saving Face’ by Syed Mohammad Ali

Fauzia Rafique
uddari@live.ca
http://gandholi.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/fauzia.zohra.rafique
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‘Face saving needed for Saving Face’ by Syed Mohammad Ali

Pakistan’s mock Oscar draws some scowls in Pakistan and abroad. This comes soon after the sham glory that the US Empire tried to confer on a country it’s ravaging with all possible weapons of political, economic, social and military coercion. Coercion is unbearable in all its forms but it appears worse when applied to the various fields of art and journalistic media. This NATO-ized Oscar is perhaps the most untimely award in the history of awards. Uddari. 

It was upsetting to note recent media reports pointing out how some of the acid attack survivors portrayed in the Oscar winning movie, Saving face, have been compelled to seek legal assistance to prevent the director of the movie from releasing it for viewing in Pakistan.

Having done research for the same NGO which facilitated Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy in making her documentary — including firsthand meetings with many acid attack survivors, as well as with some of the perpetrators of such attacks, and visits to communities within which such heinous incidents had occurred — one does appreciate the nuances behind this seemingly strange turn of events.

I certainly do not begrudge Ms Obaid-Chinoy or her Oscar. Her accomplishment, in fact, has instilled a sense of pride among Pakistanis around the world. I also do not think that shedding light on a disturbing phenomenon, which continues to afflict tragedy and suffering in the lives of many people in our country, should be avoided out of fear that it will reinforce Western stereotypes. Even the fact that the US was quick to hand out an Oscar for a movie highlighting gender violence and thereafter denied granting a visa to another Pakistani documentary maker who chose to focus on the human cost of drone strikes, is more of a problem for US analysts and concerned citizens to contend with or to challenge. It is the ethical dimension surrounding the screening of Saving face documentary within Pakistan, however, which has evoked a personal sense of distress in me.

On the one hand, I realise the need to not only create awareness, but to take practical steps to prevent acid attacks in Pakistan. It is great to see Ms Obaid-Chinoy becoming very proactive on this issue subsequent to the Oscar win and the honours conferred on her by our government. However, she must stop insisting on screening the documentary within Pakistan if these survivors feel that they could be at risk of a backlash when and if the released film is seen by people they know. Given that the movie itself acknowledges the complex realities that these acid survivors must contend with, Ms Obaid-Chinoy must respect the wishes of these survivors, even if she had obtained some form of consent from them regarding its release. After all, the survivors featured in the documentary have not exactly signed acting contracts.

The NGO which initially provided access to the acid attack survivors — it prefers to use the term ‘survivor’ instead of ‘victim’ in order to infuse a sense of empowerment amongst people trying to recover and rehabilitate subsequent to acid attacks — is now trying to help them by providing assistance in going to court if required, to stop the documentary maker from showing the movie in Pakistan.

I have not had a chance to speak with Ms Obaid-Chinoy directly on this issue, so I do not know her side of the story. But whatever her perspective is, surely the need to protect the very people who have propelled her to international fame and glory must take precedence over any further publicity of her work. Moreover, there are several other ways to help create awareness on this issue, as well as countering the prevalence of acid attacks. Ongoing advocacy by those working on this issue have identified many practical means which merit further attention, ranging from curbing unregulated sale of concentrated acid to the need for demanding effective implementation of the new legislation that provides for the prosecution of acid attack perpetrators and to simultaneously paying greater attention to help survivors cope with recovery and rehabilitation. It is these unaddressed areas that Ms Obaid-Chinoy must offer greater attention on, rather than trying to insist upon screening her already awarded documentary in Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 2^nd, 2012. 

http://tribune.com.pk/story/387415/face-saving-needed-for-saving-face/

The writer is a development consultant and a PhD student at the University of Melbourne syed.ali@tribune.com.pk

Article pointed to by Shahid Mirza at http://lahorechitrkar.com/

Related content at Uddari
‘Pakistan’s Mock Oscar’ a poem by Fauzia Rafique
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‘The Peacock’ – Screening the Beauty of a Poem and a Concept

This short film is a refreshing and stunningly beautiful rendition of Amarjit Chandan‘s Punjabi poem with English translation. Recited in Punjabi by the poet himself, the poem is provided with a captivating visual environment to unfold by Producer Madi Boyd, Director Kuldip Powar and Musician Ruth Chan.

English tanslation of poem by Amin Mughal.

Filmed on location in London UK, this 11 minute video is created ‘to explore the notion of the national bird of India through the prism of colonialism.’

View it on Vimeo:
https://vimeo.com/41975072

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Doctorow, Atwood and Amis on America and its Role in Global Political Culture

By Abbie Fentress Swanson
Culture Editor & Interactive Content Producer
New York Times

One of the highlights of this year’s PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature was a talk between writers E.L. Doctorow, Margaret Atwood and Martin Amis. New York Times chief film critic A.O. Scott asked the authors about America and its role in the global political culture at The Times Center.

The Sunday before the talk, Doctorow (Homer & Langley, Ragtime), Atwood (The Blind Assassin, Alias Grace) and Amis (Time’s Arrow, The Rachel Papers) had written essays for The Sunday Review section of The Times on the subject.

A.O. Scott interviews E.L. Doctorow, Margaret Atwood and Martin Amis at the PEN World Voices Festival. (Photograph © Susan Horgan/PEN American Center Times Talks/flickr)

Doctorow’s was called, “Unexceptionalism: A Primer”; Atwood’s was titled, “Hello, Martians. Let Moby Dick Explain”; and Amis’s, “Marty and Nick Jr. Go to America.”

Roughly 100 writers from 25 countries were in New York City from April 30 to May 6 for this year’s PEN festival.

Bon Mots:

Doctorow on why America is becoming increasingly unexceptional, “in terms of our secret warrant-less searches of people’s homes and businesses and records, and our data-mining, and all the subversions of what we think of as life in the United States.”

Atwood on what America should be: “I think with a lot of countries, you don’t ask the question, ‘What should it be?’ But America has always had that question, ‘What should it be?’ because it did start as a utopian community. So it is always examining, ‘What should it be?’ as opposed to ‘What it is.’”

Amis on Trayvon Martin and American law: “Is it possible to confess to the pursuit and murder of an unarmed white 17-year-old, white 17-year-old, and be released that evening without charge? And I wanted to be told, ‘Yes.’ But in fact, as we all know — it’s one of the public secrets of America — is that this happens all the time.”

Atwood on Herman Melville’s Moby Dick: “I think that Melville designed it very carefully to represent a number of different segments of American society. It wasn’t for nothing that he named the ship after an extinct native tribe and put three harpooners in there from different parts of the empire and made the owners two hypocritical Quakers.”

Doctorow on Edgar Allan Poe: “Did I ever tell you I was named after him? [Atwood: No.] I think it was my father’s idea. He was philosophically inclined but he was busy supporting us during the Depression and couldn’t give vent to his literary and philosophical being but he named his child after a writer he admired … A few years before my mother died, I finally asked a question, I said, ‘Do you realize you and Dad named me after an alcoholic, drug-addicted, delusional paranoid with strong necrophiliac tendencies?’”

Atwood on being a smart, but not necessarily an intellectual, politician: “What you probably want is somebody who’s got some political smarts or somebody who’s at least smart enough to avoid sinking the entire fortune of a country in some really ill-advised, unnecessary war.”

Amis, responding to Atwood’s point: “And anti-intellectualism exists in many English-speaking countries, but the American variant is worship of stupidity.”
Atwood: “And that’s a different thing.”
Amis: “It is an entirely different thing.”

Click the link above to hear the full PEN festival talk, which took place on May 2 and opened with remarks from Carol Day. Or watch a video of the talk below.

http://cdn.livestream.com/embed/nytimes?layout=4&clip=pla_a47a38ff-f2ac-4ab4-b89a-aeffb5d60481&color=0xffad4b&autoPlay=false&mute=false&iconColorOver=0xe17b00&iconColor=0xb96500&allowchat=true&height=295&width=480

Watch live streaming video from nytimes at livestream.com

Posted Friday, May 11, 2012 in ‘Talk To Me’ at:
http://culture.wnyc.org/articles/talk-me/2012/may/11/doctorow-atwood-and-amis/
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Top 2012 Attraction: A Deepa Mehta Film

Update
Release date
November 2/12
Stills, Videos, Press
http://www.midnightschildren.com/

Midnight’s Children A Deepa Mehta film is our top choice for 2012. To be released this September, the film boasts Salman Rushdie’s own screenplay, Deepa Mehta’s direction, and work by many great actors including Shabana Azmi.
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Deepa Mehta is a Punjabi Canadian filmmaker who has directed over 16 films and has won many awards. She made her first short film in 1976, and has since given us Sam And Me (1991), Camilla (1994), trilogy Fire (1996) Earth (1998) and Water (2001), Bollywood/Hollywood (2002), and Heaven on earth (2008). Her brilliance comes out in her trilogy where tabooed themes are expressed, at times, in breathtaking moments of societal/emotional chaos to surface conclusions and understandings. Her frames strike as paintings of intense beauty using bold colours, shapes and sound. Mehta has the proven capability of turning even hard-to-read novels into captivating cinema, looking forward to view her projection of a Booker of Bookers.

Hamilton Mehta Productions
Facebook page

Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children is by far the most profound, enchanting and creative work of fiction on the 1947 Partition. A lot has been created on this time period. My favorites: short fiction by Saadat Hasan Manto, some paintings by Gujral, a poem by Amrita Preetam, and Midnight’s Children.

Rushdie is a master storyteller who has since 1975 written 9 novels, 2 children’s books and 3 collections of short fiction. Top favourites: Midnight’s Children (1981), Shame (1983), Satanic Verses (1988), and The Moor’s Last Sigh (1995). Also an accomplished writer of non fiction, he is soon coming out with his memoir ‘Joseph Anton’ about how the author endured long years of life-threatening backlash from Muslim fundamentalists after the 1989 Fatwa on Satanic Verses.

Salman Rushdie
Facebook Page

The film Midnight’s Children is produced by David Hamilton and Deepa Mehta. Shooting happened in Sri Lanka. Crew and the cast is huge. Below, find at least some faces and names.

Midnight’s Children movie

Director, Author, Producer, Actor

Oops! This isn’t the ‘Amazing crew’.
It’s the actual ‘midnight’s children’ with Deepa Mehta and Zorawar Shukla!

And here’s almost everyone who made this film possible:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1714866/fullcredits#cast

Some Actors

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Saleem Sinai Satya Bhabha

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Shiva Siddharth

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Ahmed Sinai Ronit Roy

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Amina Shahana Goswami

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Naseem Shabana Azmi

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Aadam Aziz Rajat Kapoor

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Mary Seema Biswas

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Parvati Shriya Saran

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Jamila Singer Soha Ali Khan

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And now, the creeps… General Zulfiqar Rahul Bose with Emerald Anita Majumdar

More here

A great novel, a wonderful team, a gifted director. If the screenplay captures the spirit/s of the novel, it would have contained a river in a bowl (‘darya ko koozay main band kerna’). In this case, it’s the same river Rushdie had earlier set afloat.

 Titles
Expressing the multi-layered complicatedness of the novel

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- Fauzia Rafique

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World Television Premier of ‘STOLEN MEMORIES’ – OMNI TV March 4/12

OMNI TELEVISION OPENS
A PHOTO ALBUM TO THE PAST
IN THE WORLD TELEVISION PREMIERE
OF DOCUMENTARY
‘STOLEN MEMORIES’
ON MARCH, 4TH

One-hour, original documentary follows one man’s quest to return a photo album stolen from a Japanese Canadian family during the Japanese internment

Follow a filmmaker’s emotional journey as he seeks to return a photo album he believes is connected to a Japanese-Canadian family who fled their home during the Japanese internment, in OMNI Television’s original 60-minute documentary, Stolen Memories. Dating back to 1939, filmmaker Kagan Goh is determined to find the rightful owners of the album –purchased at a garage sale – and discover the stories behind the images. Premiering Saturday, Mar. 4 at 9pm ET/MT/PT to English-language audiences on OMNI. 2, OMNI Alberta and OMNI B.C., Stolen Memories will also air to Japanese-language audiences on Sunday, Mar. 11 at 9pm ET/MT/PT on OMNI. 2, OMNI Alberta and OMNI B.C

After the 1942 bombing of Pearl Harbour, Japanese Canadians were ordered to turn over property and belongings to the Custodian of Enemy Alien Property as a “protective measure only.” Caught in the whirlwind of anti-Japanese hysteria and paranoia, all Japanese descendents living in Canada were rounded from their homes and taken to internment camps and declared “enemy aliens.” The album, left behind when the family was interned, was either seized by the Canadian government and sold for a pittance, or stolen by looters, along with their other belongings. They lost everything. Along with his 70-year-old detective sidekick, Mary Seki, Goh documents their search as well as attempts to redress the wrongs of a dark chapter in Canadian history.

“Stolen Memories uses the extraordinary journey of Kagan Goh as a way to bring deeply-rooted issues of injustice to the surface for the Japanese Canadian community,” said Madeline Ziniak, National Vice President, OMNI Television. “The Japanese internment was a significant historical event, which contributes to the Japanese Canadian legacy. OMNI Television is happy to share this eye-opening piece of history with viewers. “

Stolen Memories is a MonkeyKing Motion Pictures production, directed by Kagan Goh and produced by both Kagan Goh and Imtiaz Popat.

View trailer:

Stolen Memories Trailer from Monkeyking Motion Pictures on Vimeo.

For further information and updates of new screening dates, please check our website:
www.stolenmemoriesmovie.com
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Surrey Muse Gathering – Surrey BC Jan 27/12

The second gathering of
Surrey Muse
An Interdisciplinary Arts & Literature Group
Friday Jan 27, 2012
5:30 – 8:30 PM
Room 418 – City Centre branch
Surrey Public Library
Phone: (604) 598-7420
(Surrey Central skytrain)
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Guest Author Margo Bates
Featured Poet Timothy Shay
Featured Filmmaker Alison Richards
Book Signing Ashok Bhargava
Open Mic opens with Valerie B.-Taylor
Host Randeep Purewall

Book Table
Refreshments

Free event
Donations welcome

Download Poster in PDF

More on Surrey Muse

Jan-June 2012 Program

Contact: surrey.muse@gmail.com
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Punjabi Film makes it to International Film Festival

Congratulations to Film Director Gurvinder Singh and all members of the team who created ‘Anney Gorhey da Daan’!

Anney Gorhey da Daan ਅੰਨ੍ੇ ਘੋੜੇ ਦਾ ਦਾਨ (Alms of the Blind Horse) a film in Punjabi directed by Gurvinder Singh and based on the novel of the same title on the so-called Dalit theme by Gurdial Singh has been selected for the 68th Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica – Venice International Film Festival – to be held from 31st August 2011 to 10th September 2011. This is the first Punjabi film to make it to an international Film Festival of great repute and that too in the Competition section. This is indeed a proud day for Punjab.

The film produced by the Indian National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) was shot in Bathinda earlier this year. It has all non-professional local Punjabi cast except the one main role played by Samuel John of Patiala.

Samuel John who plays the main role of Melu

Anhey Ghorhey Da Daan / Alms of the Blind Horse
Synopsis
On a foggy winter morning, a family in a village in Punjab wakes up to the news of the demolition of a house on the outskirts of the village. Father, a silent sympathiser, joins the community in demand for justice. The same day, his son Melu, a rickshaw puller in the city, is participating in a strike by his union. Injured and alienated, Melu spends the day quietly resting and hesitantly drinks with friends in the night as they debate the meaning of their existence. Cycling through the city streets, Melu feels lost and wonders where to go and what to do. Back in the village, his mother feels humiliated at the treatment meted out by the landlords in whose fields she works. Gunshots are heard in the night and the village is tense. It’s the night of the lunar eclipse. A man wanders asking for the traditional alms while Father decides to visit the city with a friend, even as his daughter Dayalo walks through the village streets in the night.

Director’s Comment
The human face is a landscape. The lived reality of the face reflects time: endured, lived and suffered. Cinema unravels time through the movement in space. The visible evokes the invisible through relationships, contexts, gestures, conflicts. There is the immediate invisible, off screen: the image confronting sound, space confronting space, time confronting time. Then there is the larger cosmic invisible, devoid of cause and effect paradigm, layered through centuries.
Anhey Ghorhey Da Daan tries to evoke the effect of years of subordination of the struggling classes reflected in the macrocosm of events spinning beyond their control. It’s about silent witnesses devoid of power to change or influence the course of destiny, about the invisible violence of power equation and simmering discontent reflected on their faces.

Photos by Sunaina Singh

View Gurvinder’s profile on Uddari Art

‘City Spirit – Shehr Atma’: A set of Gurvinder’s black&white still photography
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‘I Am’ by Sonali Gulati in Vancouver Queer Film Festival – August 13/11

For the past 6 years, the Vancouver Queer Film Festival has asked Trikone-Vancouver to sponsor a film as a community partner. For Trikone-Vanc, that gives an opportunity to introduce/talk about Trikone-Vanc and our South Asian queer existence/presence to the audience.

This year, the film we are sponsoring is “I Am” directed by Sonali Gulati. Read about it and/or watch the trailer here:
http://www.sonalifilm.com/I-AM.html

“I Am”
Saturday, August 13
7 p.m. (PRIME TIME for the film festival)
Rio Cinema
Broadway & Commercial Drive
To buy tickets online, go here:
http://www.queerfilmfestival.ca/content/TICKET_INFORMATION/710

The director, Sonali Gulati, will be in attendance. She will speak after the film. This makes it a very special screening!

Afterwards, at 10 p.m. the same night, there’s a party at Canvas Lounge where we can hang out some more with Sonali.

The Queer Film Fest this year is showcasing films from Asia (called “Focus on Asian Voices”) so there’s a lot of programming to catch. There are 20 films from Asia or with primarily Asian content, but only 5 are feature films, including “I Am”. Check out the program here:
http://www.queerfilmfestival.ca/film/FILMS/739

“I Am” looks/sounds really interesting and of value not just to us but to our parents too, if by some miracle we can get our parents to watch it sometime. :))

For more information on Trikone Vancouver, send email message to:
trikone_vancouver@yahoogroups.com

Information provided by Randeep Purewall.
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