This morning NPR’s Steve Inskeep profiled the music of Afghanistan’s Ammad Zahir as part of the program’s 50 Great Voices series, which highlights the most influential of singers from around the world. Zahir, called “Afghanistan’s Elvis” by many of his followers, was the king of the music scene in the go-go days of Kabul, when […]
Welcome to the FPB music blog. This week, we take a look at the efforts of musicians around the globe aimed at drawing attention to Haiti following the massive earthquake that hit the Caribbean nation two weeks ago. Leading the charge is Haitian-born rapper Wyclef Jean, whose Yele charity has raised more than $2 million […]
The children depicted in this movie are remarkable. They are internally displaced refugees in northern Uganda who have made their way to a national music festival in Kampala. As directors Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine follow the students of the Patongo Primary School, they spend time letting the audience get to know them. [kml_flashembed […]
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has moved quickly to connect with and help Haitian journalists impacted by the recent earthquake there. CPJ has responded with direct assistance for basic daily needs to “get them on their feet again”, according to the organization. CPJ’s Journalist Assistance program is cooperating with Jean Roland Chery. He is […]
THE FULL REPORT CAN BE READ HERE The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and other members of an international solidarity mission that investigated the November 23 massacre of 57 people in the southern Philippines is saying that Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her government must take all necessary measures to provide local media with […]
An upcoming exhibit at Tufts University will showcase some of the finest photojournalistic work available. The exhibit, entitled “Questions Without Answers,” will feature the work of all of VII photo agency’s photographers, Marcus Bleasdale; Ron Haviv; Antonin Kratochvil; Gary Knight; Joachim Ladefoged; Christopher Morris; James Nachtwey; Franco Pagetti; Stephanie Sinclair; and John Stanmeyer; and the […]
This movie will make the viewer grateful for even the worst pair of shoes. This Iranian film is a drama set in a poor neighborhood. Ali (Amir Farrokh Hashemian) and his sister Zhara (Bahare Seddiqi) concoct a scheme whereby she will wear a pair of sneakers in the morning and give them to her brother […]
An exclusive Newsweek interview with the wife of Dr. Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, the suicide bomber in Afghanistan who killed himself and 7 CIA agents, reveals a chilling anti-American sentiment. During the interview, Defne Bayrak, 31, spent more than an hour at the offices of NEWSWEEK Türkiye in Istanbul talking about her husband and his […]
Because Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi uses non-actor children in this movie, the viewer is given a sense of watching a documentary. The film takes place in Iraqi Kurdistan near the border with Turkey. It is set right before the American invasion in 2003. One of the main characters is called Satellite because he sets up […]
Of the seven new films reviewed in this space in the past year, the best by far is “Sin Nombre”. It is a harrowing tale of desperation and consequences. The movie follows the lives of a Honduran woman named Sayra who rides on top of trains hoping to reach Texas through Mexico and Casper (a.k.a. […]
2009 was an unusually dramatic year in the journalism world. But not because of ongoing corporate changes, which translated as the further downsizing of media companies. Lost jobs and denigrated institutional memory at major news outlets was an important part of what happened to reporters and their kin in the past year. However, the most […]
This film is solid. Not amazing, not incredible, but solid. It is about newly elected South African President Nelson Mandela and his relationship with the country’s rugby team captain. Mandela (played by Morgan Freeman) understands that post-apartheid South Africa needs to rally – black and white – behind a common cause. And that cause is […]
At first glance, this is a classic science fiction film. However, it is much more. “District 9” is a study in xenophobia and intolerance. Stranded on Earth, aliens are confined to a ghetto in modern South Africa. The suspicion of and hostility toward the aliens is reminiscent of the attitudes held by many whites about […]
Danny Schechter does his best to dissect the mainstream media’s treatment of the approach to war with Iraq in 2003. By poring over hundreds of broadcasts, it is Schechter’s conclusion that the mainstream media merely regurgitates what the government feeds them. However, that is not the case worldwide. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/kVrobidTnoo” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Take […]
The Committee to Protect Journalists reported earlier this week that two prominent journalists, Hengameh Shahidi and Saeed Laylaz were sentenced to extended prison terms of up to six yeas and three months, and no less than 9 years respectively, after being arrested earlier this year. Shahidi, who is an adviser to defeated presidential candidate Mehdi […]