When Durga Puja sms are sent, they tend to have a special meaning especially to lady receipients. The idea that someone remembered a lady during the Durga Puja season may have a deeper meaning than when the text is sent at other times. Bseing a time set aside to worship the Durga goddess, men may use it to make advances to the women they adore. The Durga Puja sms can say anything, including the suggestion that the man worships the woman just like Durga is worshipped. Many proposals for relationships and marriage are conveyed during this festive season and many commitments are entered into. It is no wonder that the Durga Puja sms services have gained increased following across India and the world.

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A year ago, the festival Jazz Britannia was such a success that the Barbican along with BBC Four are bringing to us this year, a 3 day festival which celebrates the evolution of British folk music from the end of the Second World War right up to its modern day revival. From the 2nd to 4th February ‘06, the Barbican holds a series of live events encompassing three themed concerts, free music, films and talks. Tying in with the event is BBC Four’s very special three-part documentary series of the same title that engages with the disparate and sometimes argumentative elements of the contemporary folk scene.

To kick off on Thursday 2nd February, Which Side Are You On? is a night that features two of the biggest names in folk music of the British Isles and will be hosted by the force that is, Billy Bragg. The monumental Scottish firebrand singer-songwriter Dick Gaughan, will take to the Barbican Hall stage alongside Martin Carthy, a mainstay of the English folk scene.

Daughters of Albion on Friday 3rd February brings together some of England’s finest female folk artists and singer-songwriters in a themed concert to sing songs of experience. The set list places ancient folk ballads alongside West Country trip hop and 21st Century R’n’B. All performances will be accompanied by an ensemble featuring ex-Pogue and master multi-instrumentalist David Coulter, guitarist Neil MacColl and Van Morrison’s drummer Liam Bradley, all arranged by MD Kate St John. Artists include June Tabor, Sheila Chandra and Norma Waterson.

The final night, Into The Mystic celebrates the current resurgence of interest in the psychedelic, mystical, neo-folk of the late 1960s and early 1070s. It explores how this renewed interest has been reflected on a new generation of artists today. It will feature artists from pioneer bands such as Pentangle, The Incredible String Band, Donovan and Vashti Bunyan.

Meanwhile, the BBC 4 series will be divided into three one hour episodes which chronicles how the music was coerced into a revolutionary soundtrack by the Left in the 50s, how the hippie generation bent it into progressive folk-rock in the 60s and 70s only for punks like The Pogues and Billy Bragg to bring things back to basics in the 80s and 90s. The story of folk will be told by a stellar cast of musicians, live performances and archive footage and the debates that arise in its argumentative world will be discussed.

www.barbican.org.uk/music

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Let’s get one thing straight, Shorty aren’t an all singing all dancing group of (let’s be politically correct here) ‘vertically-challenged people’. Neither are they a girl band who named themselves so, out of devotion to 50 Cent and that infamous line from the song In Da Club. Far from that, Shorty are, with the exception of two band members, well over six foot tall and are, with the exception of vocalist Celeste, male. Shorty was just an aptly ironic name for a band whose members are often referred to as ‘trees’. As for 50 Cent and the reference to ‘fine women’ Shorty were around long before that. What the band Shorty can be referred to however, is a seven- piece hip hop/funk collective that thrive on the live scene who have already been establishing themselves as a force in UK hip hop to be reckoned with.

The beginnings of Shorty started in Leeds when bassist Dan French met guitarist Jim Reynolds and drummer Charlie Taylor at university. Later on in London, DJ Hudge along with MCs Ducane and Cisco filled in the gaps while vocalist Celeste completed the picture when they found her singing at a friend’s party. So what happens when you throw seven strong minded people together and ask them to produce a sound? The good news is, Shorty landed on the right side of the term ‘mish-mash’.

With seven people who are all massively into music, how does a band find their sound? Shorty have taken in a varied range of influences; from Led Zeppelin to Gangstarr, from Stevie Wonder and Lauryn Hill to A Tribe Called Quest and Fela Kuti. These influences have thus contributed to their producing a sound that can’t quite be placed into a genre as such. Celeste agrees that “it is a fantastic thing although it can be difficult to explain sometimes”. The reason it is a fantastic thing is because, Shorty have found a way to ‘smash it all down and mix it up’ and produce something that appeals. “When you look at people’s influences these days you find that they like a bit of rock and they like a bit of hip hop but they also might like a bit of jazz and a bit of soul. There aren’t necessarily too many bands that mix them all together. They find it refreshing as music genres aren’t so defined anymore. It appeals to a much broader section of people,” say the band.

Their sound is further emphasised by their lyrics which broach anything that needs calling to attention. The majority of lyrics are written by Cisco, DuCane and Celeste who say that their songs, “come from experiences or things in a particular moment that spark a creative process.” Shorty’s songwriting process is as organic as sitting in Celeste’s flat, looking out a window and finding inspiration from an average Brixton street nut.

So does a band that so evidently know what it takes to produce good music ever think of using it as a tool to perhaps get political? Shorty acknowledge that “there are people who do the political thing really well and they should be commended, but we don’t want to jump on the bandwagon and do the political thing, just for the sake of doing politics.” They like to consider themselves more of a party band. That is not to say however, that they would ever sway in the direction of so many hip hop type bands that have started to jump into that other bandwagon of superficiality.

The superficiality here refers to the notion of sex, ‘bling’ and videos that feature ‘wall to wall ass shaking’ which more often than not, gets clumped into the urban culture scene. Shorty realise that they inevitably are representative of this scene and stress that they want no part of the trivial side of things. Says Celeste, “It’s a shame because there’s a whole generation of kids that are ‘plonked’ in front of MTV and there’s a whole generation growing up on this sort of degradation. It breeds ignorance and the more cynical that this generation gets, the more sex and porn that they have to sell to drag people in. There’s no aspect of our music that ever goes there and there never can be.” Shorty would rather stick to making quality music that is “slightly quirky and appeal to different people’s sense of humour.”

With attitude and their feet firmly stuck to the gravel, Shorty have been carving themselves a niche in the UK urban/hip hop scene. They’ve been dubbed the next big thing and have collected themselves the Diesel-U-Music Award for Hip Hop back in 2002. The band have worked with UK heavyweight producers, Blackbeard and have toured in Europe which included a Roots Manuva after show. Shorty reckon they would do well in the US as their brand of sound that blends different sorts of music has more of a niche there. However, for now, they are setting their sights on home ground. “There is a lot of talent and good music that hasn’t been given the chance and hopefully, we’ll be seen as a breath of fresh air,” says Hudge.

In the pipeline, is a mixed tape that they are in the process of producing for online release which will feature the best of five or six tracks that could sum up their sound and Shorty hope to be seen at the festivals of 2006. In the nearer future, they will be playing Cargo on 8th March 2006.

This band is set to make an impact. A tall order but one Shorty aren’t afraid to take on.

Cargo
83 Rivington St
Kingsland Viaduct
Shoreditch
London EC2A 3AY
www.cargo-london.com
www.shortyonline.co.uk

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Meeting at the UK Pavilion. Dealing with passes and accreditations. Sorting out the usual mumbo-jumbo required to cruise through the festival.

‘Volver’ from eternal ‘enfant-terrible’ Pedro Almodovar is on show and has the usual red-carpet treatment. Penelope Cruz – gorgeous in a white Balanciagga dress, or is it? – and Carmen Maura, the co-stars are with him. Penelope returns to our first director and says: “There is one and only one Pedro, he is my priority in all fields. He writes for women who are 14, 35, 50 or 80 years old, this film is perfect example; there are lots of female characters of all ages in his films. I’m sure that my career wouldn’t have been the same without Pedro, my life wouldn’t have been the same without him. I hope that in the future that this will continue. I am very grateful to possibilities given to me somewhere else, it is interesting, one can learn a lot, but I worked in the United States for seven years, and in Europe for about fifteen, but Pedro still remains truly exceptional for me.

As for Pedro Almodovar. You can’t help but feel that each film is a complex description of his obsession for his mother…A bit like Woody Allen and his New-York or Spike Lee and…well New-York too… This is what the master had to say: In Volver, I speak of the women around me when I was a child. I was brought up by women, the men being in fields, whom I practically never saw. Volver speaks of the way I grew up, listening to these women. I would hear them singing whenever I went along the riverbanks with my mother; I accompanied her from my very earliest age. That’s how I learnt a lot about dramatic art, there are many roles that I have written which were inspired by my sisters or my mother, by characters firmly anchored in reality, even if they belong to the realm of fiction. They are characters who spin extraordinary tales, which has always immensely impressed me.”

Another Palme d’or favorite is: Fast Food Nation which casts a critical eye on the fast food industry in the US, via the destinies of three main characters: a marketing executive of a fast food chain, an employee of the same chain, and a clandestine immigrant working for slaughterhouse. For this movie, Richard Linklater has been able to recruit A-list cast with Ethan Hawke, Greg Kinnear, Patricia Arquette, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Patricia Arquette and Bruce Willis.

Apparatchiks aplenty in sight for the tribute paid to Russian filmmaker Sergei M. Eisenstein yesterday with the screening of two of his films – Bezhin Meadow and October – Headed by the Cannes Film Festival President Gilles Jacob, the director of the Russian State Archives for Literature and the Arts Tatiana Goriaeva, the director of the Eisenstein Memorial Naum Kleiman, and the vice-president of the Russian Film Festival Kinotavr, Igor Tolstounov, a stellar night devoted to the director of the masterpieces The Battleship Potemkin and Ivan The Terrible.

20th & 21st May

We have been given a lot of business cards and collected a more impressive number. As always in Cannes, during the festival, we have late, late nights and early mornings (12:00 AM). The mix of sleep depravation, the crowd, the expectation, open the floodgate to a huge array of emotions from fascinating to scary, to fun, dull, exciting all in one. The mood changes minute by minute. Survival is the key here.
Samuel L. Jackson was dining in the Majestic on a table next to us. Al Gore on the red carpet… Otherwise you do see lots of people you think might be someone but you can never really be too sure. But that is not why we are here: We have to sell our projects and establish contacts/bridges with the industry.

The first French Film in the running for this year Palme d’Or, was Charlie Says It does re-introduce us to the films of filmmaker-actress Nicole Garcia, who was a Jury Member in 2000. Nicole Garcia returns to an essentially male world, twelve years after having directed the trio Gérard Lanvin/Bernard Giraudeau/Jean-Marc Barr in The Favourite Son. This time, the film revolves around a quartet of actors – Benoît Magimel, Jean-Pierre Bacri, Benoît Poelvoorde and Vincent Lindon – and a child – the famous Charlie embodied by the young Ferdinand Martin – whose destinies appear to criss-cross on screen. Not in a ‘crash’ way as Benoit Poelvoorde will put it: “This film is so ‘Nicole’. She is the one who entirely carries the film, the actors are relieved of any pressure. That’s why we clown around!” – Benoit stole a few grins with that one.

Nicole has made over the years, her business of filming complex male interactions and stories. Charlie Says could be another stone brought to her body of work:

“Men have this photo genius, this blend of robustness and fragility which fascinates me. They bear in them contradictions which make us wonder what they are going to become. It is these contrary tendencies which interest me. In Charlie Says, it is a question of variations on various kinds of men, about corpulences and various psychologies. This is a territory which I wanted to explore.”

After Wesh, Wesh (2002), a highly remarked debut feature film, Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche introduces us to ‘Bled number One’ in the section Un Certain Regard, the “follow-up” (or prologue) entitled Bled Number One. “The end of Wesh, Wesh,” he explains, “ends with a shot of a pond after a car chase between a cop and Kamel. We then hear a gunshot but we don’t know if Kamel has been killed or not. The only thing which I do know is that Kamel was a victim of the double punishment, therefore we could make a second film: double punishment, double film! We already foresaw a follow-up by making Wesh, Wesh. Whether it takes place before or after is of little importance. Why always consider time as something purely chronological?” Kamel is barely out of prison and is expelled to his country of origin, Algeria. This forced exile obliges him to cast a critical eye upon a country in full effervescence, transformation, torn between a youthful desire for modernity and tradition.

Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche wanted to show: “The energetic manner of filming can recall that of documentary cinema, but it is true that we aren’t for all that dealing with current events. It is another relationship with time, when it isn’t necessarily a question of filming some immediate reality, in realistic way. It is simply a proposal, just to present things, not to bear judgment. (…) To write Bled Number One, I didn’t return at all to Algeria to capture something about today’s youth there. I wrote this story based my holiday memories. But it is also because I felt that things hadn’t really changed, that time passes differently there. You have the time to reflect and be, faced with the elements. (…) A film is a gesture, a burst, a job, an enterprise, an action. An action in life, a pure lesson of life. It is here that we seize something alive. For it is necessary to remain alive, no matter what happens.”

Which leads us to what Cannes, has been famous for the world over; Parties…’Snooty’ French can do parties too: The Cannes Mix program has a DJ set headed by Fred Elalouf at the Beach Cinema.

The Menu? :

- Soundtracks of French films of the 60s and 70s
- Made in Bollywood

This didn’t give us enough opportunity to find our beds. We swapped showers for after-shaves and headed the next day. – After a brunch at the Majestic….always Brunch there if you can afford it! – for the international village, where we crossed the borders from Maroc to the Netherlands and back again. It reminded to some of us, the town of Basel in Switzerland where you can cross three borders within walking distances (France, Germany, and Switzerland). We also saw a film by Daft Punk. Very interesting.

We were also moved by Nanni Moretti’s The Caiman…Great filmmaker always seem to have that obsession, they tend to film time and time again. Nanni is no different. He again speaks about politic and democracy, but avoid acting in it, which is a first, five years after having won the Palme d’Or for The Son’s Room. It’s his 10th feature film, and the 5th presented in the Official Selection. Released in Italy in the middle of the controversial elections, a few days before Romano Prodi’s victory, The Caiman is the story of a young filmmaker (played by Jasmine Trinca, also in The Son’s Room) who wants to make a film about Silvio Berlusconi, and appeals to a producer in crisis of serie “Z” movies (Silvio Orlando, Moretti’s old buddy) to finance her movie. Moretti says: “The Caiman is a love story, a homage to cinema and a political films,” resumes the director, who clarifies his intentions: “I tried to tell, using the means of the motion pictures, a reality which we are no longer able to see or perceive. I think that our problem is one of habit: we’ve become used to characters and situations however truly incredible for the sake of democracy.’

Another particular highlight of the day was the last piece of a trilogy about China The Orphan of Anyang (2001) and Night and Day (2005). This time, the filmmaker allows his camera in the life of a schoolteacher close to retirement, who set out to search for his son. His wife, gravely ill, would like to see their son one last time before dying. He hasn’t given any news for a long time. The father will be welcomed by his daughter who does shifts as a hostess in a nightclub…Brace yourself for a solid family drama with confrontations aplenty.

“Luxury Car,” explains Wang Chao, “falls within the continuance of the reflections and criticisms already expressed in my first two films, on the reality and historic and political allegories of contemporary China. Here, the gap between the rich and poor, the distance which separates people from happiness, the contradictions between the social system inherited from past and the burden of the present are so many problems which I myself, as a full-fledged member of the people, feel all the weight and intensity. That’s why it made me decide to shoot the picture.”

On the party radar, at the Cannes Mix. The new wave soundtracks are honored. Can’t wait for my suit and sunglasses and rehearse my JL Godard ‘A Band apart’ moves…Which implies another night without sleep. I know, I know…

22nd & 23rd May

The ‘babe’s battle’, Halle Berry and Rebecca Romijn: Sublime visions of nature’s most famous achievement on the red carpet. For your eyes only…Their presence allegedly being required for the promotion of the third X-Men movie… As for the film, wait for the DVD release, or PSP, or Podcast, or Palm, or…On a more serious note, ‘Bamako’ by Abderrahmane Sissako. Born in Mauritania, raised in Mali, read film at the prestigious VGIK in Moscow before releasing his first work in 1990 (Le Jeu). After string of international awards (Fespaco, Perugia,…) Cannes awaited to be seduced in 2002 by Waiting for Happiness. ‘Bamako’ is out of competition…As is the seminal film about French ‘demi-god’ Zinedine Zidane. Helmed by Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno, acted by none other than double Z or ‘ZZ’ himself. The film celebrates the bizarre cult of Zidanemania, shot in real time during a Madrid game supported by no less than 17 high-tech HD cameras, aimed solely at the artist Thierry Henry refers to as ‘the man who do stuff with his foot, you could only dream of doing with your hands’…It’s a pity the film didn’t really try to develop a narrative we would follow but rather lays on the technological foundations pitched to us beforehand. But if you enjoy seeing master at work, be my guest!
To the International village and another trip to Germany and Canada, then South Korea…That’s where the buzz is at the moment…
Kidulthood by Menjah Huda from the UK was also screened over there at 12:00 PM…Couldn’t make it, but should be up for DVD viewing, back in London…

ON THE PARTY RADAR: For two nights, the Didier Riey Group, a gypsy jazz collective will take over the Cannes Mix programme opening for the outdoors screening, made of a selection of twelve animation-shorts by Canadian Norman McLaren, featuring Horizontal Lines, Stars and Stripes, and The Grey Hen. On Wednesday, The Holy Mountain a tale about a quest for immortality by Chilean director/artist Alejandro Jodorowsky. A student of the mime Marcel Marceau (other prestigious alumni include Michael Jackson….), friend of the surrealists Topor & Arrabal. ‘El Topo’ his first mainstream movie, became a cult classic in 1970. When work dried out in films for the Chilean director, he went into comic books, working with fellow cult author Jean ‘Moebius’ Giraud – Lieutenant Blueberry, adapted for the silver screen by Jan Koonen of ‘Doberman’ fame in 2004 – Van Hamme, Gal,…achieving cult-status within the comic book fraternity when releasing l’Incal and working on its follow-up: ‘The Meta-Barons saga’. If you want to grasp his influence in modern western comic-books, you would have to speak of him in the same breath as a Hayao Miyazaki(Nausicaa), Akira Toriyama (Dragonball), Katsuhiro Otomo, (Akira) or a Chris Claremont (X-men)…

24th & 25th May

TELEGRAM:

Was in Monaco. /Stop/ couldn’t be bothered to be in Cannes. /Stop/ had a few business dealings to handle. /Stop/. Didn’t have time to blog lately, sorry. /Full Stop/

Telegram, heh? What a funny thing…How many of you remember what it was to send a telegram at the other end of the world? Here we are taking this world for granted. Anyone who’s been on the French Riviera during that period of the year is aware of the fact that we are reaching the high points of the season with the Monte-Carlo tennis tournament, the Cannes festival, the Monaco grand prix, then Avignon festival in Provence, (equivalent to the Edinburgh theater festival…) and so on…We stopped in Grace and St-Tropez too…bumped into Michael Stipe, Robin Aubert, the director and lost our lawyer inside a casino…in Monaco…also known as the ‘Millionaire’s playground’ …
Formula One is the toy here…The noise, the smell, the gas, the sheer pollution it creates and with the little amount of overtaking opportunities, due to the tight confines of the roads, the Monaco Grand Prix must be an ecologist idea of hell.

With preparations in full swing it is quite difficult to drive through the city. Remember, the Monaco grand prix is the last of its kind, as the race track is made of the principality’s own streets. It’s the world’s most famous street track…

An open city as was Rome in January 1945 when the remnants of the German army occupying the ‘eternal city’ are about to surrender …A priest and a communist worker, the two pillars of post-war anti-fascism in Italy will join together to defeat Nazism. The movie buffs among you will recognize the pitch for ‘Rome, open city’ and the birth of Italian neo-realism. Black and white movies, with strong ‘real’ characters shot in the streets, as Cinecitta the babylonesque studios built by Mussolini had been bombed during the war. Serge July, editor of left-wing daily newspaper Liberation, directed a short-documentary called ‘Once upon a time…Rome open city’ showing in Cannes…

Another graceful vision, Barbie Hsu. Her sensual and timeless interpretation left very few moviegoers untouched. The actress is the lead in ‘Silk’ by Taiwanese director, Chao Pin Su: “We tried to make the best possible feature film on all levels,” explains the director. “Usually, in all Taiwanese films, the action is relatively slow and the atmosphere rather dark. I believe that we impose limits on ourselves due to various points of view, even when due to creative talent. This time, we had the good fortune of securing solid financing, which allowed us to develop our ideas with complete serenity. The entire crew is very satisfied with it. This picture is really different from the rest of Taiwanese productions.”
As for Barbie: “It was a true challenge to take on this character, I had a lot of fun playing her. Furthermore, there are terrible deaths in the film, which I greatly enjoyed from this point of view. Not to mention the end, it really touched me.”

Another timeless vision, but this one celebrates a movie dynasty. Like the Douglas, the Van Peebles, etc…Here come the Coppolas! Sofia, the daughter of Francis is back in Cannes with Marie-Antoinette (Her third movie after ‘Virgin Suicides’ – Director’s fortnight – and ‘Lost in translation’). The film charts the life of. ..’Marie-Antoinette’, queen of France during the 1789 revolution and famous for answering to a starving crowd asking for bread: ‘Let them eat cake!’
For me, Marie Antoinette has remained, first and foremost, the symbol of a totally decadent style. I didn’t realize to what point these people, who were called upon to govern a country, were in point of fact no more than teenagers. Daily life in the Château de Versailles is also, for these adolescents, a form of apprenticeship set in a tense, difficult environment. It is this position and the complexity of the character of Marie Antoinette which interested me.” (Sofia C.)
A few recognizable faces in the casting like Steve Coogan (yes…I know!), Marianne Faithfull, Kirsten Dunst and Aurore Clement…However, Sofia is adamant she never tried to make a political statement: ‘I wasn’t making a political movie about the French Revolution, I was doing a portrait of the character Marie Antoinette and my themes are in the film. She was a symbol of decadence. It was very interesting to read and research more about Marie Antoinette, more about the human experience of this young girl who went to Versailles when she was 14 and how she developed in the Cour de Versailles. I thought she was an interesting character. I have always been attracted to the 18th century in France. I knew so little about the personal side of her. The story is about teenagers in Versailles so I wanted it to have the energy of youth, a teenage feeling to it.” I am making one if I tell you that the movie is adapted from a book written by Antonia Margaret Caroline Pakenham also known as CBE lady Antonia Fraser…?

Anyone who’s been on the French Riviera during that period of the year is aware of the fact that we are reaching the high points of the season with the Monte-Carlo tennis tournament, the Cannes festival, the Monaco grand prix, then Avignon festival in Provence, (equivalent to the Edinburgh theater festival…) and so on…We stopped in Grace and St-Tropez too…bumped into Michael Stipe, Robin Aubert, the director and lost our lawyer inside a casino…in Monaco…also known as the ‘Millionaire’s playground’ … Formula One is the toy here…The noise, the smell, the gas, the sheer pollution it creates and with the little amount of overtaking opportunities, due to the tight confines of the roads, the Monaco Grand Prix must be an ecologist idea of hell.

With preparations in full swing it is quite difficult to drive through the city. Remember, the Monaco grand prix is the last of its kind, as the race track is made of the principality’s own streets. It’s the world’s most famous street track…

An open city as was Rome in January 1945 when the remnants of the German army occupying the ‘eternal city’ are about to surrender …A priest and a communist worker, the two pillars of post-war anti-fascism in Italy will join together to defeat Nazism. The movie buffs among you will recognize the pitch for ‘Rome, open city’ and the birth of Italian neo-realism. Black and white movies, with strong ‘real’ characters shot in the streets, as Cinecitta the babylonesque studios built by Mussolini had been bombed during the war. Serge July, editor of left-wing daily newspaper Liberation, directed a short-documentary called ‘Once upon a time…Rome open city’ showing in Cannes…

Another graceful vision, Barbie Hsu. Her sensual and timeless interpretation left very few moviegoers untouched. The actress is the lead in ‘Silk’ by Taiwanese director, Chao Pin Su: “We tried to make the best possible feature film on all levels,” explains the director. “Usually, in all Taiwanese films, the action is relatively slow and the atmosphere rather dark. I believe that we impose limits on ourselves due to various points of view, even when due to creative talent. This time, we had the good fortune of securing solid financing, which allowed us to develop our ideas with complete serenity. The entire crew is very satisfied with it. This picture is really different from the rest of Taiwanese productions.” As for Barbie: “It was a true challenge to take on this character, I had a lot of fun playing her. Furthermore, there are terrible deaths in the film, which I greatly enjoyed from this point of view. Not to mention the end, it really touched me.”

Another timeless vision, but this one celebrates a movie dynasty. Like the Douglas, the Van Peebles, etc…Here come the Coppolas! Sofia, the daughter of Francis is back in Cannes with Marie-Antoinette (Her third movie after ‘Virgin Suicides’ – Director’s fortnight – and ‘Lost in translation’). The film charts the life of. ..’Marie-Antoinette’, queen of France during the 1789 revolution and famous for answering to a starving crowd asking for bread: ‘Let them eat cake!’ For me, Marie Antoinette has remained, first and foremost, the symbol of a totally decadent style. I didn’t realize to what point these people, who were called upon to govern a country, were in point of fact no more than teenagers. Daily life in the Château de Versailles is also, for these adolescents, a form of apprenticeship set in a tense, difficult environment. It is this position and the complexity of the character of Marie Antoinette which interested me.” (Sofia C.) A few recognizable faces in the casting like Steve Coogan (yes…I know!), Marianne Faithfull, Kirsten Dunst and Aurore Clement…However, Sofia is adamant she never tried to make a political statement: ‘I wasn’t making a political movie about the French Revolution, I was doing a portrait of the character Marie Antoinette and my themes are in the film. She was a symbol of decadence. It was very interesting to read and research more about Marie Antoinette, more about the human experience of this young girl who went to Versailles when she was 14 and how she developed in the Cour de Versailles. I thought she was an interesting character. I have always been attracted to the 18th century in France. I knew so little about the personal side of her. The story is about teenagers in Versailles so I wanted it to have the energy of youth, a teenage feeling to it.” I am making one if I tell you that the movie is adapted from a book written by Antonia Margaret Caroline Pakenham also known as CBE lady Antonia Fraser…?

Left the sea, s… and sun…for gritty, rainy London. But Cannes is not over yet. I have to give you a few tips for the ‘Palme d’Or’ …This year’s festival has been very ‘serious’ and has featured movies with ‘gravitas’. The president of the jury is Wong-Kar-Wai filmmaker renown for his uncompromising style. Two films spring to mind, when thinking about the Palme d’or or Jury’s prize. The two have wars at their core: ‘The wind that shakes the barley’ by Ken Loach and the excellent ‘Day of glory’…

The movie is about the Algerian, Moroccans, and Tunisians, Senegalese soldiers or goumiers dead and forgotten during the Second World War, who liberated France from Nazism. The director, Rachid Bouchareb, has assembled a stellar ensemble cast, made of some of France’s finest actors: Sami Bouajila, Rochdy Zem, and the two icons of French’s suburbs youth culture, Sami Naceri (Taxi 1 to 3) and Djamel Debbouze (Amelie…).

Rachid Bouchared, the director knew straight from the get-go what would be the major stumbling block for such a movie and forecasted it in his approach: the cinema is a vehicle for encounters and emotions, perceived by audiences first as feelings, even if it gives them more to discover. It was only in this way that I could carry the story and creates a tie with the audience,” he adds. “I didn’t want to be didactic, which serves nothing. We developed the screenplay over two and a half years. We needed 25 versions to be able to step beyond history and concentrate on the human subject matter, on all the tiny details of daily life which reflect life far better than any speech.”

Sami Naceri as always very intense, took the bait with hesitation first, before putting ‘a lot into this film, to the point of even learning Arabic. I literally charged into the story. It isn’t a vindictive picture, nor political. But those in school should learn that these North Africans were the first to fall under German bullets for the liberation of Marseilles, Toulon and Corsica.” Djamel Debbouze, who is considered as one – if not the one – of the most bankable actor in France at the moment had to chip in to get the project going: ‘On the one hand, we come up with budgets in the several million euros to produce comedies where audiences want to see me slipping on banana peels, and on the other hand, I see that a project such as Rachid’s which was non-stop revised downwards. France still has difficulty in coping with its own past.”

Djamel Debbouze, the actor has fulfilled most of his dreams emerging as a disabled kid from the suburbs to one of France’s most recognizable face but the producer was looking for a strong project to sink his teeth in, refusing the usual farces, he is now renowned for: ‘ After Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra, I received a multitude of scripts of the kind Asterix vs. the North Africans or Rabin Hood, and I was extremely skeptical. While Rachid’s film presented pleasant and noble challenges to be defended. It was therefore perfectly normal and logical to go all the way for such a film. As co-producer, I am proud that Days of Glory is presented at Cannes, it’s all the better for us. To put together funds for this film, I was even compelled to go meet Sarkozy, which really taught me a lesson!”

R. Bouchardeb went one step further, by asking rai icon Khaled (worldwide hit, ‘Didi’) to score the music for the film, despite early reservations: ‘in normal times, I sing of love and peace, so I was somewhat taken aback when Rachid suggested to me working on the music of a film about war. He then explained to me that it wasn’t really a war picture, its goal was rather to honor those people who helped lead to the Liberation and who brought us the joy of doing certain things. It is out of respect for his people who died for us that I joined Rachid.”

From one master to another: Sydney Pollack, the American director and actor with more than 40 years in the trade and 20 films under his belt. His filmography includes ‘Out of Africa’, ‘Three days of the condor’ and as an actor, the last Kubrick’s work ‘Eyes wide shut’. The night is called ‘A Film master class with Sydney Pollack’. His first words were: ‘I just have to say that anything I am presenting that has the name” master class ” is enough to ring every alarm bell in my brain,”. A master-raconteur, Sydney Pollack cruise through the night dispensing words of wisdom like: To be absolutely honest, I don’t think of myself as a visual director. That’s an area that I work very hard in because it’s my weaker muscle. My stronger muscles are with performance. Because I feel that I am stronger in performance, I try to concentrate as hard as I can on the visual aspects of the movie because it isn’t my forte. There are great visual styles that I admire immensely like Bertolucci. The danger with somebody like me who comes from the theatre as an actor is to follow along with two-people talk scenes and I like to do those. My films are full of them.” Sydney Pollack was also presenting out of competition ‘Sketches of Frank Gehry’, the patron of the arts and founder of the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao among other things…

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The Live8 concert in July this year, in London’s Hyde Park was set up to raise awareness about the Black continent issues, but before the first guitar riffs, the gig highlighted one single home truth: Africans should do it for themselves! The lack of performers from Africa in the initial line-up raised eyebrows on every side of the argument.

Cue Ligali, an east London organisation whose role is to monitor the media, act as complaint body, be active in the educational field and raise awareness on the issues that plague black communities up and down the country: gun crime, rebellion against authority, stop and search…On the same day, a day of African remembrance was staged at the Hackney Town Hall and the day-long event put together by Ligali is a “positive day to remember the struggle against slavery, our ancestors and their sacrifice in what is widely considered as an holocaust,”‘ according to Emma Pierre-Joseph, spokesperson for the organisation. She also told CEN Magazine that it is “a forward-looking day to provide a platform of reflection for the whole community and its future.”

The centrepiece of the event is the screening of a newly released DVD on the African slavery trade, the shameful human trade officially abolished in 1772 in the UK and its empire. Liverpool was the unofficial capital of the slave trade with more than 10 millions souls from the continent‘s west coast (Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal) transiting there, on their way to build the new continent, America. Other towns throughout Europe, shared that infamous tag Bordeaux, Nantes, Bristol in France, Lisbon in Portugal, Barcelona in Spain and Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Winner already of the best documentary prize at the Pan-African film festival and Bridgetown film festival and with testimonies ranging among others, from Dr M. Karenga, Amira Baraka, Desmond Tutu, Dr Helena Woodward, Shaykh Muhammad Shareef and Trevor Marshall. The film, is a compelling compilation of testimonies, voices and opinions gathered around five continents and more than 20 countries on the subject. “‘We went to universities as well as into the neighbourhoods to talk to the common folk,” says Asante Jr, the talented scriptwriter and poet, who was a first year media graduate at the time when he started working on the project.

HIV/AIDS, crime, drugs, low expectation, and underdevelopment plague most people of African origin throughout the world. 500 years later, after slavery, colonialism, the cold war and subsequent neo-colonialism, daughters and sons of the continent are still suffering and cannot enjoy basic freedom or wealth. Told from the continent vantage-point, the film scrutinises the holocaust and subsequent uprooting of Africans from their homeland and culture. In the words of producer-director, Owen ‘Alik’ Shahadah, “500 Years Later chronicles the struggle of a people who have fought and continue to fight for the most essential human right: Freedom.”

Owen used to produce a stylish work of art and set up a website www.500yearslater.com to foster and further the debate, knowing that the film has already garnered interest from education bodies throughout the world, willing to use it as a teaching method.

That might be exactly what African communities in the UK need, as reveals Asher D, the rapper and member of the So Solid Crew collective in his subsequent Channel 4 documentary aired in November 2004, surfing on the same subject, but neighbouring issue of the ‘N word’ (nigger/ nigga).

“It’s definitely an issue that people of my generation don’t know enough about black history and that’s a point I raise throughout the programme.” He finishes with “when it comes to the teaching of black history, there is none” and for the first time, our rulers seem to agree with him, as Liverpool’s Riverside Labour MP Louise Ellman called for the Blair-Brown government to introduce teaching slave trade history in British schools and asked for a national day of remembrance. 117 MPs across the chamber joined her and settled for the debate to take place in the commons, during Black History month in October this year. However, on the question of responsibility, which could trigger lawsuits and potential reparations, the government washed its hands of the problem, stating that it “cannot take responsibility for what happened over 170 years ago” even if it recognizes that “the slave trade is one of the worst examples of man’s inhumanity to man” and added that it wasn’t an unlawful act at the time the British government condoned it. 500 Years Later the film’s sequel will be released in 2006, focusing on AIDS/HIV, the colonisation of the African continent, neo-colonisation, the ill-effects of globalisation with a chapter on Bretton-Woods institutions like the World Bank and the IMF.

The film has an obvious quality, for its combination of thoughtful photography signed by the director Owen, retrospective voices and using a multi-media platform to get its point across, which could see him becoming a benchmark in filmmaking history. Although filed with facts, it relies on a gripping narrative infused by the flavour and a soundtrack for poetical freedom and liberation. Showing the chains that tied their ancestors and contemporaries, it also offers a serious path outside of the plantations.

Scriptwriter, Asante Jr is a poet master with an interesting ability to transfer its art from the written/spoken word to the screen and his influence transpires throughout 500 years later. “To have people be so receptive and come up to us crying and embrace us after seeing the film is just amazing,” reveals Asante Jr. “We worked on the project for two and half years, and you just don’t know if people are going to like it; you are just going on passion and what you think is right.”

Right he surely was.

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The exquisite alchemy which takes place when music and visuals fuse has long been an underground phenomenon, inspired by early experimental film and developed through the nightclub and alternative art worlds.From acts who make both music and images, or who create live cinema, through to audio-synched visual mixes and animations, Optronica explores the growing sectors of live media and electronic music culture where performing and recording with both visuals and music are fast becoming the norm.

Optronica showcases both established and emerging talent, opening a new window on this blossoming genre of the arts and providing audiences with a rare opportunity to experience live experimental work in a cinema environment. Showing world premiere of Plaid (warp) & Bob Jaroc’s Greedy Baby UK premiere of DJ Spooky’s solo film remix Rebirth of a Nation AV spectacular from electronic music pioneer Karl Bartos and Addictive TV live on the roof of the National Theatre.

Highlights:
The Addictive TV guys (the organisers/curators of the festival), will be performing their new AV show at the festival, up on the roof of the National Theatre with huge projections on the side of the building that you’ll be able to see across the Thames.

The Plaid & Bob Jaroc’s new AV show – Plaid & Bob Jaroc will open the festival on Wednesday 20th July at the London IMAX cinema.

www.optronica.org

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Nina considers the musical language of jazz to be one of her greatest inspirations. Her exhibition, Jazz in the City is the culmination of a life’s work for this innovative and unique artist.

It also begins a tour featuring Nina as an artist in residence, to include The International Jazz Festival in Moscow, during which Nina’s work will be exhibited at the State Museum for Contemporary Art, Moscow.

Nina was born in the Russian city of St. Petersburg and obtained a Masters Degree from Moscow’s Gubkin Academy. In 1991 after

she moved to Germany, Nina started her career as an artist where she studied under teacher and artist Margarita Budini. From 1994 to 1998 she established her studio in The Netherlands and in 2000 she moved to London where she has been living and working as an artist. Now based in Richmond, Nina finds artistic inspiration for her paintings in music, poetry and philosophy. The powerful colours and dramatic shapes in her paintings reflect her own experience of living in different cultures, while still infused within her Russian heritage. Nina says of her traveling experience, “I have found the most success in London, because London is a cultural centre and a major port. Kinky-Kalinki Transrussian Express is a tribute to London’s art scene, to show how you can be poor and foreign in London and still be accepted.”

Kinky-Kalinki Transrussian Express is a documentary film charting London’s art, music and club scene from 2000 to 2005, the length of time that Nina has lived here. “I have focused on one east London club in this film,” says Nina, “Rhythm Factory on Whitechapel road where it is possible to have live music, art on the walls and a club night all in one. East London is a buzzing area, that’s not to say that Richmond where I am based is not buzzing, but East London has a modern and contemporary feel.”
Old Vinyl.

Nina has exhibited her work in both solo and group shows and has begun to exhibit her work across Europe and overseas. In December 2003 Nina represented the UK at The Florence Bienniale and in November 2004 was invited to be Artist in Residence for Black History Month at the National Opera Studios in London. Other artistic residencies include River Walk at The OXO Tower and The Players Theatre in The West End.

Carol Cordrey will be in conversation with Nina on the 22nd of September at the Glass House Gallery and comments, “Jazz was once the music of yesteryear. Now, it is growing in popularity in cities the world over. Its powerful rhythm and improvisation have always appealed to performers with strong characters. Using instruments or voices, passion or pathos, they have used jazz to stir the human spirit. Nina Gruschwitz has an expressive personality, loves jazz and imbues all her work with a plethora of emotions. With brushes for instruments, this artist reinforces the contemporary impact of jazz. It is now seen and not just heard.”

Nina Gruschwitz’s exploration of Jazz and its influence on her art is to be exhibited at the Glass House gallery from the 13th of September.

The Glass House Gallery
2-3 Bull’s Head Passage, Leadenhall Market, London EC3, 13 Sept – 9 Oct
In Conversation: Artist talk with Carol Cordrey: Thu. 22 Sept 6 – 8pm
Special event: Kinky-Kalinki Transrussian Express: Wed 21 Sept 8pm-midnight
Rhythm Factory
16-18 Whitechapel Rd, London E1 1EW
info@thecynthiacorbettgallery.com
www.thecynthiacorbettgallery.com

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Of special note are three documentaries screening at City Hall telling the migrant stories of the first Chinese settlers in east Londons Limehouse Basin in the very first China Town. The film explores their views on British life and eventual settlement here. Memories of the genuine children of Limehouse Chinatown is an informal documentary film capturing the historical experience of Connie Hoe, Leslie Hoe and Leslie Heng, now in their eighties and nineties who take you on a journey to the Limehouse Causeway and Pennyfields area of east London, before the second world war. Reminiscing about their Chinese fathers from Hong Kong and Shanghai, their historical east end upbringing, the Blitz, all the fairy tale myths that have sprung up about the Chinese community and how they have integrated and settled in London, Connie Hoe, Leslie Hoe and Leslie Heng will also be available to talk to at the end of the screening. Whispers of Time charts the lives of London’s elderly Chinese people who have settled in Britain since the 1950s. They discuss their life stories, childhood experiences, the war years, marriage in China, migration their early impressions of Britain, settlement, achievements and the next generation.

The National Portrait Gallery screens two striking romantic films from prominent filmmaker Zhiang Yimou, The Road Home and Happy Times. Yimou is an internationally acclaimed director and after graduating from the fifth class of the Beijing Film Academy in 1982, along with classmates such as Chen Kaige and Tian Zhuang, became known as a Fifth Generation filmmaker alongside his peers. Together they produced a new Chinese cinema rejecting the politicised angst of national survival in films of the first half of the 20th century and the class heroics of socialist realist cinema under Mao Zedong after 1949. Two decades on, Zhang Yimou is one of the most versatile and significant of these Fifth Generation directors.

The National Film Theatre also hosts Jiang Wen in conversation with Anthony Minghella. Wen is a celebrated Chinese actor and director whose film Devils On The Doorstep (2000) was a winner of the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, but was never distributed in the UK. Anthony Minghella is one of the UK’s most outspoken and respected film directors and is also the Chair of The British Film Institute.

Shanghai on Screen: Various venues

Museum in Docklands
No 1 Warehouse, West India Quay, Hertsmere Rd, London E14 4AL
www.museumindocklands.org.uk

National Portrait Gallery
Ondaatje Wing Theatre
2 St Martins Place, London, WC2H
www.npg.org.uk

City Hall
The Queen’s Walk, SE1 2AA
www.london.gov.uk
National Film Theatre South Bank
Waterloo, SE1 8XT
www.bfi.org.uk

Vue West End
3 Cranbourn Street, Leicester Square, WC2H 7AL
08712 240240
www.myvue.com
www.london.gov.uk

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Work from Peter Ainsworth, Henrietta Armstrong, Emilie Bell, Claire Brewster, Angela Corcoran, Nicola Cunningham, Charlie Danby, Joel Ely, Kirsty Harris, Richard Hubner, Cheryl Lane, Harry Logan, James Manning, Tracy Neal, Johanna Nilsson, James Ormiston, Cara O’Keefe, Scott O’Rourke, Emily Power, Fiona Przybylski, Sophie Ruderman, Lucie Russell, Ben Twiston-Davies, Liam Williams and Mike Young will be for sale, with a percentage of the proceeds donated to Hackney Empire.

Theme Park Charlie Danby’s woodland constructions tell the story of that which is lost, and that which is to be discovered. Remnants of roller-coasters, references to theme parks, ruins, castles, bridges and fortified walls that separate nothing and safeguard even less. Myth and fairytale bring them into a landscape of synthetic idyll, where objects are both visible and invisible. The works are built on platforms that float like islands, scale and reference shift constantly and mirrors present optical recess and provide strange vistas.

Joel Ely’s paintings have been selected for the BP Portrait Award for the second consecutive year. His practice involves researching and combining disparate elements of the histories, theories and fictions surrounding food, nature and figurative art. This is realised through a bastardised approach to painting, performance and installation.

Kirsty Harris’ breakfast scene installation becomes quite unsettling when a closer look at the egg’s shell reveals it was broken by a bullet. Waking up, every day, to the carefully edited images and news reports is the way we gauge how the rest of the world exists. Reliance on corporations to transmit the truth suddenly seems naïve.

Empirical Emily Power manipulates the surface of wallpaper to include words beneath its pattern. Intermarried with the codes and regulations of the pre-made paper, the text looks towards linguistics and habit forming systems of communication, adopting a freeze-frame of gridded language to suggest an arresting of circumstances.

PRIVATE VIEW: SUNDAY 10th JULY 2005 6-9pm
Performance – 8pm Nicola Cunningham
Photography and Disc Jockeys in the Marie Lloyd bar, 8pm till late

OPEN DAILY 11th–14TH JULY 2005 5-9pm
Hackney Empire’s Exhibition Space
291 Mare Street
Hackney, London E8 1EJ

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East London Metropolitan Opera continues to bring together top professional musicians with members of the local community and children from Hackney schools accompanied by a full orchestra.

For those with more contemporary, independent tastes, a hip triple bill on the 13th July with Billy Childish and the Buff Medways, Ed Harcourt and Paul The Girl, is not to be missed. A cult figure in America, Europe and Japan, Billy Childish is arguably the most prolific painter, poet and songwriter of his generation. In a twenty-year period he has published 30 collections of his poetry, recorded over 90 full-length independent LP’s and produced over 2000 paintings. High praise comes from Alternative Press, USA, “Of all the ’70s punk survivors Childish is one of the select few who didn’t sell out, or end up sucking.” Whilst Time Out describes Billy as “terse, gutsy and powerfully humane.” Ed Harcourt, reviewed by the Observer Music Monthly, has been praised also, “the blissful sound of a besotted drunk in love…Harcourt retains a composer’s eye for detail which repays whatever attention you care to give it.” British artist, Paul The Girl is an admired and accomplished musician; The Guardian review wrote,”…on her own tiny label, Paul is making the most original music of any British artist, of either gender.” Spice festival goers will be spoilt for choice with the line-up of drama performances. From Cardboard Citizens; an clectic mix of theatre, circus and music developed and devised by This Way Up, the UK’s largest arts performance programme for homeless people, to Rajni Shah Theatres’ story of Queen Elizabeth I, a traditional Indian bride and according to the synopsis, “…the relationships we have to the land we live on, and the theatres we all invent.”

Let’s not forget the little people for whom the Movingstage Marionette Company bring double bill, Captain Grimy and The Three Little Pigs, a charming puppet show re-telling these familiar, timeless tales. Also presented by Spice Festival is Richard Pinner, Gold Star BAFTA award winner who will be performing, “excellent close-up magic,” as described by The Stage.

The diverse drama available includes internationally renowned theatre company Rotozaza presenting their unique and innovative acts without any rehearsal. Actors perform by following live instructions. ROMCOM or The Distance Love Can Be Maintained Between Any Two Fixed Points, by Glen Neath is performed by two unprepared actors with headphones telling them what to say and do. The Glasgow Herald likens it to,”…one of Godards movies…as well as comedy it’s a complex study of compatibility and communication.”

2005 Events

Opera Gala Evening:
Hackney Empire:
Tuesday 12th July: 8pm, Tickets: £8, concessions £2.50

Billy Childish and The Buff Medways, Ed Harcourt, Paul The Girl:
Hackney Empire:
13 July: Doors 8.15pm Tickets: £10, conc. £7.50

Cardboard Citizens:
Acorn Theatre:
Thursday 21st July: 7.30pm

Rotozaza:
Hackney Empire:
17th July: 3pm: Tickets: £12/£8

Rajni Shah Theatre:
Acorn Theatre: Sunday 24th July: 4pm & 7.30pm: Tickets:£10/ £7

Movingstage Marionette Company:
Acorn Theatre:
16th July. 11am & 2pm: Tickets:£6, children £4.50.

Richard Pinner:
Bullion Theatre:
Sunday 24th July: 2.30pm: Tickets: £6 children, £4.50.

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