A federal judge has allowed Chevron to subpoena filmmaker Joe Berlinger for hundreds of hours of footage not used for “Crude,” a 2009 documentary. “Crude” is about the 17-year, $27.3 billion lawsuit brought against Chevron for allegedly dumping toxic oil waste in the Amazon sector of Ecuador. The 30,000 residents of the area have filed […]
Britain holds parliamentary elections this Thursday (May 6) that are widely viewed as the closest in the country’s recent history. The latest polls show the opposition Conservatives under David Cameron in the lead with anything from 33 percent to 37 percent, against 27 percent or 28 percent each for Gordon Brown’s governing Labour Party and […]
Silence = Death That anti-AIDS slogan should be heeded worldwide but perhaps even moreso in Malawi. The singer Madonna traveled to the country, one of the world’s poorest, in 2006 and wrote and produced this documentary. It is about children growing up without parents who have died from AIDS and who have AIDS themselves. Out […]
After being shut down last month under the pretense of having no valid operating license, Nativity TV is still not back on the air. Nativity TV is the only Christian television station in the Palestinian Authority (PA) and operates out of Bethlehem. Last month, after the TV station was shut down by the PA, an […]
The Israeli media has been on edge in recent weeks over the unprecedented case of journalists privy to sensitive military documents. Uri Blau, a reporter for the left-wing Haaretz newspaper, got about 2,000 pages of documents from a former Israeli soldier who leaked the information to him illegally. Blau is currently in London, where he […]
Iranian expatriate. Marjaneh Halati has created a center in Tehran called Omid e Mehr, where women living on the margins of Iranian society can come for training and hope for a better future. That is what this documentary is about. It follows the lives of four young women over an 18 month period and shows […]
This is a charming film. Set at the beginning of the current war in Iraq, the movie follows the lives of Palestinians Muna and her teenage son, Fadi. The pair relocate to a small town in Illinois where they encounter obstacles to achieving their dreams. One theme that runs throughout the movie is the question […]
The British media love to announce the end of the “special relationship” between the United States and Britain, and now they have been joined by a UK Parliamentary Committee, which recommends that the phrase, first coined by Winston Churchill, be abandoned. Britain should put its own interests first and stop showing so much deference to […]
The following are excerpts from an article that appears on the National Public Radio Web site: “British-Egyptian actor Khalid Abdalla jokingly calls his recent films — about Sept. 11, Afghanistan and Iraq — his ‘war on terror’ trilogy. Abdalla played a hijacker in United 93, an Afghan immigrant in The Kite Runner, and now, a […]
Human Rights Watch reported this week that Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi was arrested at his home on Monday, March 1st, together with his wife, daughter and 15 dinner guests who are fellow filmmakers and actors. Fellow FPA blogger Neshani Jani writes about it in her Middle East Media blog. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/HUO5sl_cqPw” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] […]
Detained Filmmaker Jafar Panahi Earlier this week, Human Rights Watch reported that Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi was arrested at his home on Monday, March 1st, together with his wife, daughter and 15 dinner guests who are fellow filmmakers and actors. According to several news reports, Panahi and his guests were discussing an upcoming film when […]
There was a huge outcry in the United States in 2008, when the Pentagon awarded a $40 billion contract for tanker refueling aircraft for the Air Force to a consortium including a European competitor – EADS, parent of Airbus. EADS won the bid in partnership with Northrop Grumman, the U.S. defense contractor, beating a rival […]
What is refreshing about this documentary is that it is balanced. It is about the 17-year, $27.3 billion lawsuit brought against Chevron for allegedly dumping toxic oil waste in the Amazon sector of Ecuador. The 30,000 residents of the area have filed a class action suit against Chevron, which assumed control of Texaco in 2001. […]
“Sure, ‘The Hurt Locker’ was a compelling profile of a horrible, though heroic, job — dismantling bombs. And more generally, fighting wars is a horrible, thankless occupation pushed on our young men and women. But anything deeper on war and peace, Hollywood fails to provide. Yes, the adrenaline rush and even addiction that war forces […]
A few days ago I came across the Global Music Project, an international non profit whose goal is to unite musicians and music lovers in order to foster cultural awareness, and strengthen collaboration, peace and understanding in areas of conflict. The Global Music Project runs several music preservation and music discovery projects that connect musicians […]