And the film importantly holds proof that in order to understand our future, we must look at the past — the very distant, millions of years ago, dinosaurs and all, past!
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'Truth' in Journalism, Honesty in Life with James Vanderbilt
I was always a huge fan of the CBS news show 60 Minutes. To this day, there are some indelible segments that have stayed with me, like the Mike Wallace interview with tobacco industry insider Jeffrey Wigand and the Dan Rather expose on George W. Bush and how the 43rd President of the United States of America came to be in the Air National Guard during the time of the Vietnam War.
Incidentally, both those segments have been made into films and these days 60 Minutes continues to be a trailblazer in US news reporting, with an analytical twist, though perhaps today they do what they do with a bit more caution.
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'Searching for Saraswati': How to claim a river, or build a wall, to unite a country
A couple of days ago I woke up to a quote by beloved Mexican artist and all around cool woman Frida Kahlo on Twitter -- it was her birth day: "I do not think the banks of a river suffer because they let the river flow.." It seemed significant in my life because it was the day I'd received from two wondrous filmmakers their latest work, 'Searching for Saraswati' -- a NY Times Op-Docs 20-minute documentary supported by the Sundance Institute and the MacArthur Foundation on the rediscovery of the mythical Saraswati river in Northern India.
Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya first appeared on my cinematic radar two years ago, when their feature 'The Cinema Travellers' premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. When I was sent a screener of the film, I ended up watching it spellbound, for its duration, never stopping or even daring to look away. And more than two years later, the images from this masterpiece -- their first feature film, if you can believe it! -- still color my consciousness. I find myself, from time to time, yearning for that feeling of wonder I had watching it for the first time, and the second time and even a third, finally on the big screen in Dubai. Truly, 'The Cinema Travellers' is a masterpiece of sensitivity and a love song by two poets of our times to the Seventh Art.
So how would the duo ever outdo themselves, I wondered, and felt a bit of nervous apprehension as I prepared to watch 'Searching for Saraswati' -- which premieres on the 10th of July on the NY Times site.
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Hédi Jouini and Ninette in 1946
A chat with Claire Belhassine about 'The Man Behind the Microphone' as the film prepares to screen at Manarat in Tunisia
English-born filmmaker Claire Belhassine didn't know, for most of her young life, that her grandfather was Hédi Jouini, who is recognized as the Godfather of Tunisian music and the “Tunisian Frank Sinatra.” She spent summers in the company of her Tunisian extended family, yet they never talked of his historic past — and this is a man who was even featured on a Tunisian postage stamp! Until, one day in the back of a Paris taxi, she learned that her grandfather Hédi was a superstar.
So how is that possible, you may be thinking right about now? Well, I won't give the details of Belhassine's spellbinding and utterly pleasant to watch documentary away, but I will tell you that the filmmaker takes us on a personal journey with her, accompanied by Jouini's music and her own soothing narrative.
This coming week, 'The Man Behind the Microphone' premieres in Tunis at the Manarat Film Festival of the Mediterranean in Tunisia, a passion project by another wondrous woman, producer Dora Bouchoucha. The film originally world premiered at the Dubai International Film Festival where I watched it and it was probably the most interactive film there, complete with an impromptu concert on the beach by some of Belhassine's talented family.
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Image courtesy of Magnolia Pictures
Phenomenal Man: Samuel L. Jackson Channels James Baldwin in ‘I Am Not Your Negro’
In I Am Not Your Negro, Raoul Peck manages to weave archival photos, video and even the odd space footage into a beautifully watchable, mesmerizing, can’t-tear-your-eyes-away-from-the-screen masterpiece of understanding, drawn out straight from Baldwin’s writing. Samuel L. Jackson narrates by reading from the 30 pages of notes for Remember This House, a book Baldwin never completed where he wanted to tell the story of his three murdered friends — MLK, Malcolm X and Evers. At times I had to remind myself that it wasn’t Baldwin talking me through his fascinating life, but Jackson instead. If ever someone channeled the spirit, courage and great humanity of the author, it’s the beloved Hollywood actor.
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Shoemaking legend Manolo Blahnik
Highlights of the Dubai Film Festival: Producer James Cabourne Talks 'Manolo: The Boy Who Made Shoes for Lizards'
To any woman who hasn’t lived under a rock in the last twenty years, the sheer mention of the name “Manolo” sends shivers down our spine. Possessing a great last name, Blahnik of course, but known perfectly by his famous, inimitable first one, Manolo makes the kind of shoes a girl’s dreams are made of.
At this year’s Dubai International Film Festival, fashion is in the air, along with film. I mean, movies are always enough for me, but when documentary filmmaking is mixed with the wonderful world of style, I find my pieces simply write themselves. This one certainly seemed to float out easily, because Michael Roberts’s ‘Manolo: The Boy Who Made Shoes for Lizards’ is a wondrous work of fashionable cinematic art. There I’ve said it.
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