The list of cinema personalities encountering the public at this year’s festival in Morocco also includes Sean Penn and David Cronenberg, in Marrakech to receive their honorary awards, as well as persecuted Iranian helmer Mohammad Rasoulof, Mauritanian filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako and US director-slash-artist extraordinaire Tim Burton.
Read MoreFive films to illuminate in these dark times, and check your racism at the door
“I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” — James Baldwin
When I learned what happened to George Floyd on Memorial Day, I remembered more profoundly what “white privilege” means.
Read MoreThe Qumra Diaries: Brigitte Lacombe and the power of a photograph
I know that a Diaries series is meant to go chronologically, yet there are moments when the rules need to be broken.
For me, hearing master photographer and longtime Doha Film Institute collaborator Brigitte Lacombe talk about cinema and fashion from a photographic point of view was one such moment. I could not wait to get home and write about the pleasant afternoon I spent in her company -- along with a theater-full of attendees of this Qumra talk -- and her sister's, video photographer Marian Lacombe.
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