When I sat with the maestro Lav Diaz for our interview for his Competition film 'Season of the Devil', he pointed to the film critics, the journalists who write about cinema, as an integral part of the filmmaking process. And I agree wholeheartedly with the genius that is Diaz, a man who, in this age of everything fast and immediate, still makes films that lull us into watching them for four and a half hours! He teaches us how to watch his cinema, and I believe as film writers, we hold a responsibility to teach audiences to find those films.
Read MoreThe Berlinale Diaries: Hulu's 'The Looming Tower' and a Lav Diaz virgin no more!
The 21st century version of the all-American question "where were you when JFK was assassinated?" is "what were you doing when the planes hit the World Trade Center?"
Some of us watched the towers disintegrate before our very eyes, our landscape changed forever, and it's a vision, a feeling we will carry inside our hearts for as long as we live. The smell throughout downtown Manhattan, the lines of demarcation -- complete with checkpoints -- between the northern and southern parts of the city but also the newfound sense of camaraderie we bestowed upon each other to merely get from day to day, is also what I remember from those days.
Read MoreThe Berlinale Diaries: Face to Face with German Films and 'Genesis' by Árpád Bogdán
There are several films this year at the Berlinale that explore the theme of family. Or rather, set out to redefine it. In 'Daughter of Mine', Laura Bispuri asks, cinematically, just who our mother is -- the woman who physically brings us into this world, or the person who rears us? For most of us they are both within one person, but in rare cases, it's not.
Also present during this 68th edition of the Berlin Film Festival is a sub current of childhood, attempting to view this chaotic, pretty damn ugly world of ours at the moment through a child's eye view. Wes Anderson kicked that off in style with the opening film 'Isle of Dogs' and now I keep finding myself looking at what I watch from his "I don't want to grow up" POV.
Read MoreThe Berlinale Diaries: Elia Suleiman talks Qumra plus Laura Bispuri's 'Daughter of Mine'
From the fabulous women of 'Daughter of Mine' to a wondrous man, my early Sunday morning at Berlinale was spent in the company of Elia Suleiman, the Palestinian filmmaker extraordinaire and Artistic Advisor of the Doha Film Institute.
Read MoreThe Berlinale Diaries: 'That Summer', 'What Comes Around' and Q's 'Garbage'
I've been a fan of Göran Hugo Olsson's filmmaking since I watched his 'The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975' quite a few years ago. He talked to me then about having a "100 percent connection with the material" which make his films not only wonderful but deeply honest.
Read MoreThe Berlinale Diaries: Karim Aïnouz, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Murray, Bob Balaban, Bryan Cranston and Liev Schreiber, oh boy!
The day started with a long, leisurely talk with Algerian-Brazilian, NYC-based filmmaker Karim Aïnouz and the two men who are the center of his latest film, 'Central Airport THF' -- Ibrahim Al Hussein from Syria and Qutaiba Nafea from Iraq. I won't talk about the film itself until it premieres tonight since the festival here in Berlin is quite strict about embargoes and more power to them for that! But I will say that some films really grow more special and important once the intention of their filmmaker becomes clear. In simpler words, sitting down with Aïnouz made his latest project wildly more interesting, because of who he is but also because of his subjects' backstories -- both refugees who are in Germany after escaping from their war-torn countries.
Read MoreThe Berlinale Diaries: The #MeToo movement and should the carpet really have been black?
This year, at Berlinale, the annual film festival held in Berlin, there is media chatter of a red carpet that should have been black in honor of the #MeToo movement. In my country a black carpet means someone died so I wonder, do we want to open a film festival, a festive event by definition, with a gloom and doom parade of stars on a drab black piece of carpeting? Isn't it enough that we woke up on its inauguration day to the news of yet one more totally avoidable shooting in the US?
Read MoreThe Berlinale Diaries: I Love Dogs -- AKA Wes Anderson's 'Isle of Dogs' is finally here (and not a moment too soon!)
A movie festival is nothing without films and I kicked off my first full day at Berlinale by watching Wes Anderson's animated treasure 'Isle of Dogs' featuring puppets like you've never seen them before, beloved actors giving voices to fantastical dogs and a message of humanity hidden within a film that is so darn entertaining to watch, I may have to go back for seconds. Or thirds even. I know you've heard me talk like this before, but this time I mean it in a whole new and different way: If I went home today, I'd be happy, after watching 'Isle of Dogs'.
Read MoreThe Pitti Uomo 93 Diaries: M1992’s Paninaro Reinvented, Magliano’s Everyday Rockstar and ‘The Day The World Went Away’
My third and last day of Pitti Uomo 93, Fall/Winter 2018-19 collections held some surprises. Most were pleasant, welcomed discoveries of designers who hadn’t been on my radar, and now forever more will be. Yet one, at the very end of the day was a disturbing reminder that the #MeToo movement needs to evolve, and include models, young men and children. If we don’t protect every victims — not just the attractive women stars of Hollywood who are looking for a second wind in their career — we are failing allthe injured.
Read MoreThe Pitti Uomo 93 Diaries: Eton’s Kyoto Anywhere, Concept Korea and Les Benjamins at the Pyramids
On my second full day of Pitti Uomo, I went on a journey eastward to Egypt, Korea and Japan, thanks to the vision and wit of four fashion brands.
I’ll start with Eton, because for me Pitti Uomo always begins with Eton. The Swedish shirt brand has become synonymous with fashion with a conscience, and a symbol of how great ethics and cool designs can make for a powerful, winning combination in today’s market. While some designers with attitudes, and their ungrateful PRs can create attention for almost anything for a season or two before disappearing into oblivion, these days it’s with principles and great artistic vision that fashion houses thrive, time and time again. The inclusive atmosphere I experienced at the Gucci Garden launch party here in Florence only confirmed my theory.
Read MoreThe Pitti Uomo 93 Diaries: Light, Camera... Fashion!
Fashion has become the most affordable of art forms. We could all wear a piece of Christian Lacroix while he designed for Spanish brand Desigual and even typically untouchable Christian Dior features a few knick-knacks under $200 in their current collection, courtesy of artistic director Maria Grazia Chiuri — whose streetwise styles have reinvigorated the Maison.
Read MoreFollowing the Dubai International Film Festival, Where Does Arabwood Go Now?
“Are you ready for us to make history again?!”
As I stepped into one of the magnificent Majlis — literally translating as a “place of sitting” from the Arabic — a meeting room inside the Madinat Jumeirah complex to catch up with the Chairman of the Dubai International Film Festival, Abdulhamid Juma uttered those words. I was taken aback for a moment and then I remembered that throughout the six years I’ve attended DIFF, I’ve sat down with him and together, we’ve come up with some of best questions about Arab cinema, its place in the world and its importance in dispelling stereotypes and breaking down walls.
This year, I came to DIFF with a heavy heart and I leave it still wondering if all the efforts — personal and collective have been worth it. We’ve witnessed how easily the mighty of the film stratosphere can be taken down in Hollywood when no longer of use to their business partners, destroying careers that should be looked at with respect, regardless of these men’s questionable behavior. We seem to have forgotten that “the casting couch” is a term as old as the movies themselves. Now we just “throw out the baby with the bathwater” as the old saying goes...
Read MoreThe Dubai Film Festival Diaries: Couldn’t Have Done It Without You, Madinat Jumeirah!
Anyone who has ever had to travel for work knows, deeply and personally, how important a hotel room can be.
For me, while I spent eight nights and nine days at this year’s Dubai International Film Festival, the Mina A’Salam hotel, in Madinat Jumeirah provided a home away from home, the perfect place to get away from it all and write, not to mention my very own soft place to fall. All rolled up into the perfectly glamorous package of a luxury 5-star plus hotel.
Read MoreThe Dubai Film Festival Diaries: ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ and Why It Is a Fashionista’s Dream Come True
I wasn’t a huge fan of the last installment of ‘Star Wars’ titled ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’, which closed the Dubai International Film Festival in 2016. I found the chemistry between Felicity Jones and Diego Luna like a couple of fingernails dragging on a blackboard. When they were — **spoiler alert!** — done away with, I was actually kind of happy. And that’s not how you should feel about intergalactic heroes, am I right?
Fast forward one year and I found inspiration and fun in another chapters of the ‘Star Wars’ saga which has been going on since I was a child!
Read MoreThe Dubai Film Festival Diaries: Superstar Bushra, Costume Diva Alexandra Byrne and the Power of Great Women
We need more women film writers. Repeat after me. We need more women film writers and when they are published, those few random times, we need to support them.
Read MoreThe Dubai Film Festival Diaries: Swarovski, Morgan Spurlock, ‘The Man Behind the Microphone’ and Cinemas in Saudi by 2018
What is heritage and how important is our connection to the past in shaping who we will be in the future? And if our ideals seem to clash with what our leaders are encouraging, or we simply can see beyond the chaos — are we right? Or does that make us just different... Those are all questions that have come up in the last 48 hours for me, at this year’s Dubai International Film Festival.
Read MoreThe Dubai Film Festival Diaries: Sir Patrick Stewart, ‘Sharp Tools’ and ‘Harry Potter’ at the Opera
This place never ceases to surprise me. HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, has stated that he wishes the Emirate to become an open air art gallery by the time it will host Expo 2020. And in fact, at every corner during my stay here for the Dubai International Film Festival, I’ve experience art, beauty and film.
I mean, where else in the world can you sit listening to Sir Patrick Stewart talk film and life, watch a cool cultural Emirati film like ‘Sharp Tools’ by Nujoom Al Ghanem and then walk over to a turtle sanctuary just behind your hotel, at Jumeirah Al Naseem all in one day? If you said Dubai, you got it.
Read MoreThe Dubai Film Festival Diaries: Rob Reiner’s ‘Shock & Awe’, Claes Bang, Q’orianka Kilcher and Working Through the Madness
When the whole Hollywood sexual predator news broke back in October, I received a message from a colleague I’m connected with on Facebook. He pointed to the fact that as a woman, in light of the recent revelations, I would now find it much “impossible” to get one-on-ones with male stars and directors. The statement hit me and I felt an immediate pang of anxiety. I mean, my job as a woman, a blogger, someone who holds on to her personal opinions and is proud of going against the current if need be is already pretty difficult as it is. To add to that burden — because lets face it, even when diversity and/or equality are celebrated and demanded in the arts, it never really manages to trickle down to the media side of things — would only make my work impossible.
But DIFF has proven my colleague wrong, of course. I’ve never had more access, and more professional intimacy than what I’ve experienced here so far. I mean, the kind of face to face talks that mean so much to a writer, because in the end, you know they will help the pieces write themselves. The kind of great human connections that we all strive to create, across cultures, with different personalities and among our fellow humans.
What’s that saying DIFF? “Film Will Find You”? Yes, it always does, and helps me to discover the way back.
Read MoreThe Dubai Film Festival Diaries: Cate Blanchett, Sir Patrick Stewart, Irrfan Khan and ‘Hostiles’ Kick Off the 14th Edition of DIFF
Lets face it, it’s a frightening time to be alive. If a certain North Korean dictator doesn’t nuke us into oblivion first, maybe the recent decision regarding the status of Jerusalem by our President might just turn the wraths of the entire Muslim world population upon us. Admit it, you’re beginning to think this way, even if just a little bit...
And yet, here I am in the midst of the Arab world and film, the power of great cinema is helping me to get a grip on what it’s really like, once we step away from the frenzy of inflated CNN headlines and the anger that these days appears to be the sole motivation for so much around us. Because when we dig deep into our collective hearts, we all feel the same way, and if poked, we all bleed the same color blood.
Even Shakespeare knew that to be true, more than five hundred years ago.
Read MoreThe Venice Film Festival Diaries: ‘mother!’, ‘Loving Pablo’ Escobar and Jim Carrey Made Me Cry
Every meeting at this year’s Venice Film Festival has been a once-in-a-lifetime chance encounter for me. From chatting with the fabulous James Toback, to meeting his visionary producer Michael Mailer, from the relaxed junket on San Clemente island with Kirsten Dunst and the Rodarte sisters to sitting leisurely with artist Shirin Neshat at Villa degli Autori, from the wisdom of Argentinian filmmaker Lucrecia Martel to the Zen discipline and class of Maestro Ryuichi Sakamoto — it’s all been divine. There is no other word to describe it.
And yet, on the seventh day of the festival, another surprise awaited me. A cozy, wonderful junket with Jim Carrey and director Chris Smith, who together made a film that has quickly risen to my top five — alright top three actually — in Venice.
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