radical act ( film )
in the current political and social climate, it seems almost a radical act to see two arab muslim actors playing romantic leads .
in uncertain times, it is a subtle act of rebellion to celebrate and uplift marginalized voices .
radical act, a feature - length (and vintage) documentary about the contribution of female artists to the 1990' s punk scene. featuring: kathleen hanna (bikini kill, le tigre), tribe 8, toshi... see full summary »
“when a woman makes a film, that is a radical act, ” director and screenwriter ava duvernay said at the women in the world summit in new york city on wednesday night. by that definition–and by any other, really–she and the other two women on stage, pakistani documentary filmmaker sharmeen obaid - chinoy and prolific actress meryl streep, are all radicals .
stay on top of the latest breaking film and tv news! sign up for our email newsletters here .
sami is an expressive actor and the broad, physical moments he does so well is what got the big laughs in the screening i attended at the recent arab film festival in sydney, but the film' s hidden strength is in those subtle moments .
ali' s wedding, directed by jeffrey walker and starring osamah sami and helena sawires and billed as australia' s first muslim romantic comedy, is one such film .
the film trades mostly on broad, physical comedy, making it appealing to a wide audience. but the impact of ali' s wedding goes deeper than whether it can make audiences laugh .
co - written by sami and based on his memoir good muslim boy, winner of the nsw premier' s literary award, ali' s wedding has already picked up a slew of audience and critics awards at film festivals around the country .
i’m so grateful to her, because i always had it rolling in the back of my mind that i wanted this period in time to be remembered for the sake of history, and for it to be in the library, or, you know, in the world – as somebody who’s interested in music and that period of time, that radical act would be out there as having told part of the story. it was a showcase for these folks who were talking about music and what it meant to them, and all of whom are really great musicians. so i hope some people who see it say, “who’s this meg hentges? let’s see if we can find some of her records. ” i hope people go back and listen to some of the musicians i recorded .
in this way, this film occupies a space alongside amal awad' s recently released non - fiction book beyond veiled cliches. although very different in scope and style, veiled cliches also refuses to shy away from the conflict between love and repression that many muslims experience .
all three women not only make their presence strongly felt in the male - dominated film industry, but tackle women’s issues and promote activism in their work–whether through portraying brave women so powerfully that even men can’t help but empathize, or exposing women’s struggles by documenting or dramatizing them .
in the summer of 1995, tex clark (then a final - year university student) embarked upon a trek across the u. s. to document the burgeoning role women were playing in the underground punk and indie rock scenes. the resulting film, clark' s final undergrad project, was
stephen colbert has made no secret of his opinions about donald trump. the late night host has been a ray of light in an endlessly depressing news cycle, inventing new and myriad ways to roast the president. but colbert has been quietly staging a more subtle act of rebellion on “the late show, ” by celebrating people of different races, genders, and orientations with a refreshingly inclusive showcase of stand - up comedians .
here, among the cacophony of muslim immigration bans, burqa stunts in parliament, and the ever present alarmism over
homegrown terrorism ,
is a film that refuses to put these issues at its centre, focusing instead on a story of, dare we say it, two star - crossed lovers trying to find a way to be together .
obaid - chinoy spoke poignantly about the psychological toll incurred by telling the heavy stories she takes on. “you have to live and breathe that reality with those people you are filming, often for years, ” she said. “their reality becomes your reality. their nightmares become your nightmares. you have to deal with your own demons when that film is done. ”
in the mid ‘90s, as female - led indie and punk bands proliferated under labels like foxcore and riot grrl, a college student named allison “tex” clark criss - crossed america with a vhs camera interviewing new - breed women rockers. pioneers like meg hentges and gretchen phillips of two nice girls, cult heroes like toshi reagon and bikini kill’s kathleen hanna (later of le tigre), and musicians little known outside local scenes in austin, baltimore, or champaign - urbana talked to clark about how picking up guitars and drumsticks was not just musically liberating but an empowering and political act .
i started law school in 1995, in september. i had submitted the documentary to a couple of festivals, but at the time i was on video, i wasn’t on film, and the film world hadn’t quite bridged the gap between, are we gonna show video, is video really cinema, and all that. like sundance, for instance, wouldn’t accept submissions unless they were on celluloid. and there were a lot of other ones. i mean, i wasn’t going to get into sundance, i know that, but they sort of were the tastemaker for that kind of policy. so i submitted it a couple of places, but really i was just studying, i was in law school, and the activist kind of interest that you see in the documentary got transformed into activism within the law and social justice interests that i had .
the show was great, phenomenal. but the one thing i missed from the original version were the backing vocals. the interplay between the awkward byrne in his tom wolfe - esque white suit and the grooving singers (edna holt and lynn mabry) was one of the elements that made the live shows captured by jonathan demme in the film stop making sense both sweet and transcendent, hilarious and delirious. fortunately the backing vocals are more prominent on kidjo’s album version, which drops june 8. but also, the singer brings front and center what the heads placed 20 feet from stardom, as the saying goes: # blackgirlmagic
in streep’s latest film, suffragette –a british historical drama that will be released in the u. s. in october–she plays emmeline pankhurst, who led british women in their fight for the vote a hundred years ago. if a movie about voting rights sounds dull to you, you’re probably american: the british women’s movement “was different from the one in the u. s. , which was very polite, ” streep said. “in england, it was violent. ” after their attempts to petition parliament failed, the british suffragettes took a creative approach: blowing up the politicians’ golf courses. but it was “about wrecking property, not hurting people, ” she said .
nine pm on a saturday night in an english seaside town, eric and i eat in harry ramsden’s fish and chips restaurant across from the seafront. we’re just like the other couples sipping large glasses of wine (the english equivalent of a “small glass” is a half pint) and tucking into their cod and chips and mushy peas, only eric doesn’t drink, and told the waitress “no mushy peas”. (i tried the mushy peas and agree they belong only in a color photo or black and white film .) we’re just like the other couples making occasional conversation while the overhead speakers dotted in among the modest chandeliers play the type of music good old harry would have liked back in the day .
colbert isn’t the only high profile fan of carmen lynch’s; the comedian recently wrote and starred in a short film directed by chloe sevigny. part of miu miu’s women’s tales series, “ carmen ” is an unsettling look at lynch’s life as a single woman comedian that begins with lynch telling jokes to an empty room. sans laughter, her black humor takes on an even more morose quality, which is the perfect complement to sevigny’s pensive shots of lynch walking the streets of new york. but not to worry — her colbert set is much funnier, if not entirely upbeat. “i love men in their forties, they’ve lost hope, ” she says. “they’re so real, they’re halfway to death and they know it. ”
kay turner, bac' s folk arts director, has a ph. d. in folklore and anthropology from the university of texas, austin. in addition to her work at bac, she teaches courses on gender, theory of time and performance, and oral narrative theory in the performance studies graduate program at new york university. among her publications are beautiful necessity: the art and meaning of women? s altars (thames and hudson) and baby precious always shines (st. martin? s press), an edited selection of love notes between gertrude stein and alice b. toklas. her current scholarly work includes? september 11th and the burden of the ephemeral, ? an essay published in 2009 and a book project with dr. pauline greenhill, transgressive tales: queering the grimms (forthcoming in 2012, wayne state university press) .
, talking heads thought and acted global. over the course of their previous three albums, they had made the transition from art - school weirdos to acclaimed rock band. now, as darkness dawned in reagan’s america, they wanted to do something truly historical. they thought big, expansive, the foundation of humanity. they thought africa .
on remain in light, an album on the library of congress registry, the rock quartet gathered musicians and sounds. inspired by afrobeat artists, specifically fela kuti, they played with polyrhythms, long jams, horns, backup singers. most critics and listeners loved it. but even that many years ago, some denounced the white americans for cultural appropriation. this is what makes angelique kidjo’s reinterpretation, or reappropriation if you will, of this seminal album so interesting .
kidjo is from benin, west africa. as a young singer recording her first album in the early 1980s, she enjoyed considerable less cultural freedom than talking heads. in fact, in ‘83, she fled the country’s military - controlled government for paris, not wanting to be pressed into civic service (a story remarkably similar to celia cruz’s flight from havana to the u. s .). in the decades since, she has become a global pop star, famous for her powerful voice, afrocentric anthems, and irrepressible dance moves. a few weeks ago, she staged a concert - cum - revival at the theater at the ace hotel, mostly playing all the songs from remain in light, but also leading the audience — and talking heads guitarist jerry harrison — in a conga line around the venue for some of her own classic hits .
i love the original remain in light; it lived on my turntable when i was in college. but kidjo makes the songs her own, digging into their juju and finding new resonance in david byrne’s famed lyrics of alienation — “this is not my beautiful house, ” the colonized female sings the colonizer male’s words. vivien goldman says kidjo “triumphantly re - claimed the album for her continent” in her essay on the musician for women who rock: bessie to beyoncé. girl groups to riot grrrl, the anthology i edited (hitting stores october 9). as you can see from the video above, when kidjo sings “born under punches, ” it’s not a metaphor .
i hear from reliable sources (my brother and st. vincent) that david byrne’s current tour is also incredible, which i don’t doubt. i watched stop making sense for the first time in years last weekend; it’s an important document of a band in transition. (though you do have to wonder what everyone was on that allowed them to perform at that speed and intensity — ah, the ’80s .) check out the mixture of aerobics and modern dance in “life during wartime” from stop making sense .
you would never have known from last night’s bold - as - love performance at the masonic lodge in the hollywood forever cemetery that liz phair has a history of crippling stage fright. maybe it was the army of ghosts that the artist said had her back (“don’t touch my ass! ” she scolded one), or maybe it was the quarter - century of power she found in the old songs she had dusted off for the show, but the exile from guyville played for about 80 minutes without falter or stammer. she wasn’t alone up there; a younger musician whom she never introduced but referred to once as “connor” accompanied her on electric guitar and vocals. but sonically, his role seemed to be primarily one of moral support. about halfway through the show, phair had had enough of his trying to lead each song with a countoff. reminding him he was playing with “a rebel, ” she plunged into the next song without the human metronome. empowered by the small audience’s enraptured support and the refound determination of her old songs, phair played with a confidence and ease that evaded her when her first album, exile in guyville, whose songs she mostly played last night, made her an overnight indie star 25 years ago .
if you’ve listened to the recently released box set of that album and the previous tapes she recorded as girly - sound, you know how well that material has held up over time. that was even more evident at the show. the lodge was full of, well, women (and men) like me: well into middle age (my friend sat over a vent because she was having hot flashes), nodding our heads to songs as we relived how phair was one of the first artists to express the gendered power imbalances of both intimate relationships and professional relationships in so - called alternative music communities. as she told me when i interviewed her back in april for the guardian: “i was tired of being the girlfriend of the guy in the band, i was tired of hearing that my music tastes suck. this was not ‘alternative’; this was just underproduced. ”
this was phair’s first show since the release of girly - sound to guyville. you’ll be hard - pressed to find tickets to the first leg of shows, but she has added more dates in the fall. for you angelenos, she’ll be at the theater at the ace september 21. sure, this was a nostalgia trip for many of us, but i think her songs would resonate with young women today; phair called it “fuck and run, ” today they call it “hook - up culture. ” as she told allison wolfe, for wolfe’s essay on her in women who rock: bessie to beyoncé. girl groups to riot grrrl, the book i edited (out october 9): . “male rock and roll singers have forever talked about sex graphically and gotten it on the radio. as a woman, i wanted to take that back. ”
said at the ascap expo panel i moderated may 7. it was her lovely, evocative way of answering my question about what it was like to make an album with
. in three words, this gifted musician summarized the spirit of artistic collaboration, of two souls open to innovation and communication bouncing ideas off each other, emailing each other bits of sounds and bobs of lyrics, not being afraid to fail in front of each other or to embarrass themselves. i want this saying on a t - shirt: freedom is contagious. let’s catch it .
it was an honor to share the stage with st. vincent, and a pleasant surprise to be there with king princess, a new artist who is already blowing up on youtube. my first question was to point out that not only do they both have stage / pen names that denote a high sense of self - esteem, but they are also identities that are at least partially masculine: what kind of freedom does such a put - on persona give them? both pointed out that their given names — annie clark and mikaela straus — don’t exactly shout “rock star! ” clark said her given name sounds like a “stoner babysitter from 1985. ” “king princess is like an attitude, ” mikaela explained. “i take comfort in it as kind of a shield to exist in, where i can make cohesive art .
hollywood, ca – may 07: st. vincent, evelyn mcdonnell and king princess attend the 2018 ascap “i create music” expo at loews hollywood hotel on may 7, 2018 in hollywood, california. (photo by lester cohen / getty images for ascap )
her holiness and her majesty were both articulate, engaging, empowering. i loved the way they spoke to each other, sharing their experiences of being college dropouts (st. vincent, from berklee school of music, king princess from usc) and urging audience members, especially women, to take advantage of the cheap and easy affordances of such gear as apogee. but their personal styles were so different. clark sat straight in her chair, looking elegant and poised in a long dress she had gotten that morning, while straus lounged in hers, all comfy in a long shirt, pants, and track shoes .
at just 19, king princess is already a fledgling online celebrity. she has earned her followers not just because she has a strong, vulnerable, warbling voice (think regina spektor, kd lang, amy winehouse, lorde) but also because she writes melody - driven songs about longing and loss, aimed unabashedly at female love interests. in
and at the expo panel, she is candid and open about her sexuality. her song “1950” is an ode to queer history, specifically the book
. she just released her latest song and video. like “1950, ” “talia” is a song about a lost lover, represented by an inflatable love doll in the video. watch it here :
tagged as ascap, ascap expo, david byrne, king princess, st. vincent
the news of space x building its big effing rocket in san pedro has gone national, global even. it, along with some hot property deals, also led to the predictable headlines about an “ upturn for san pedro. ” maybe, maybe not. as “ marina del pedro, ” an info - rich exhibit currently at the angels gate cultural center, shows, the efforts to develop this community are as old as the port itself. curator and artist tim maxeiner (discloser: he’s a friend) turned to both historical archives and the contemporary local community to tell the tale of the port of los angeles’s push and pull relationship to nature, industry, people, and business. the german - born egalitarian pulls work from both teens he taught at the boys and girls club and such local artists as phoebe barnum and beth elliott. i even wrote an essay for it, about waterfront adventures in this whale of a town. the exhibit closes saturday, with festivities from 3 to 6 p. m. below is my essay, which will also be in the catalog, available this weekend .
i live on the edge of a forest. it’s five acres large, a potential home to 700 species, and it thrives in winter, when its trunks and leaves stretch high to the sky, swaying back and forth in the ocean currents. animals feed and hide here in the giant kelp: mammals as big as you, who will swim up to your kayak and look you straight in the eye or roll in the water underneath, showing off, or maybe even nursing their young. schools of fish — sardines or spanish mackerels — flash silver in the sun, and bright orange garibaldi dart nervously around rock outcroppings, having been pushed out of their nests by crustacean bullies: armored lobsters and their sideway cousins, the crabs .
i live next to one of the busiest ports in the world. ships laden with containers slip in and out of angels gate, like multi - colored skyscrapers moving sideways across the sea. towering cranes await them, a forest of metal redwoods silhouetted against the mountains, ready to pluck the rectangular boxes off the cargo decks like so many toothpicks hundreds of feet in the air, then stack them neatly on the dock, where they’ll continue their voyage via trains, or trucks — the atoms of the neoliberal capitalist organism continuing their global orbit. refineries belch smoke in the background, processing the crude black oil pumped up from the bottom of the ocean by the rigs that loom like watchtowers on the southern most edge of my view — the rigs are the south poles, the refineries the north. between them lie the kelp and the commerce, the dolphins and the dock workers, the whales and the freighters — the urban wild landscape of san pedro, my adopted home .
liz phair is sitting in the rose café, a well - loved venice, california, eatery where tech - industry entrepreneurs munch quinoa alongside music - biz hipsters sipping lattes. the critically adored singer - songwriter does not look like 25 years – sufficient time for her to conceive, deliver, raise and send a son off to college – have intervened since her debut album, exile in guyville, made her the rolling stone cover girl for third - wave feminism. she ignores her matcha until a foul odor of burning oil wafts over from the kitchen – a peril of open - air design. phair coughs. once, twice, repeatedly. it’s as if something heavy and toxic has seeped into this bastion of urban chic, landed in her sensitive lungs, and has to be expelled, forcibly and immediately. she perseveres, telling me about how the book she has written was compelled by the election of donald trump, her voice cracking under siege. then i begin coughing .
“it’s affecting you too, ” our canary in the coal mine exclaims. “sorry, i’m going to save you. ” she flags down a server and we move beverages and recorder to the bar, far from noxious fumes .
liz phair does not suffer irritants quietly. and lately, irritants abound. once again, men are excluding women from power, reducing them to sexual objects, and shutting down or demeaning their modes of expression. it’s guyville redux, only this time, it’s not just faux - alternative hipsters in the indie - rock scene of chicago in the early 1990s. it’s the top dog in the white house .
i caught up with phair recently for the guardian, one of the world’s greatest newspapers. i have to admit i was heavily influenced by the great interview allison wolfe did with her for women who rock. read my interview with liz here: urltoken
i first heard david ivar sing at house 1002, a store where folks seek and discover odd treasures, on pacific avenue in san pedro, ca, the los angeles neighborhood david and i both call home. amid house’s cavernous space crammed with anchors and old tools and bamboo couches and vintage chandeliers, he sang leonard cohen, lou reed, and tom waits in a gentle loving tone, not an imitation of those rough - edged troubadours but a heartfull tribute. pacific runs from the end of the harbor freeway to sunken city, the off - limits tumble of asphalt and palm trees where seven decades ago, a housing development slipped into the sea. until a damn 7 - 11 opened a few years ago, there were no chain stores on pacific, just mom - and - pop ventures like house. this port town is a community of independent businesses and immigrants – a perfect spot for a french - swedish anti - folk anti - hero to lay his greek fisherman hat .
inspired by the words of mr. san pedro, mike watt, at a show – “release your own stuff! put out your own music! ” – david, under his musical name herman dune (other stage names include black yaya), is releasing his latest, 13th album on his own on may 17. sweet thursday is named after a john steinbeck novel and is also inspired by pedro’s monthly art walk on the first thursday of every month. along with brett sullivan of the band american anymen, david has made a video for each song. he’s releasing one video every thursday .
today, i have the honor of premiering “love cat blues, ” because, you know, i’m a cat lady. the video shows david driving around long beach, the south bay, and pedro in his old blue toyota, lovelorn and seeking. from his awkward southern twang in the spoken intro, to the road map background, to the steinbeckian title, to the americana groove, the album is a tribute to his adopted hometown and homeland, delivered at a time when immigrants are not always honored .
for more info about david and herman dune, and to buy limited edition copies of the album and of his art work, visit urltoken. you can watch the video below, or at urltoken, where you can also see his other videos as they are revealed over the next month .
words to live by from amy rigby: “i write my own story, thank you. ”
rt @ kamalaharris: “ (my son) is not the same since we were reunited… he cries when he does not see me. that behavior is not normal. ” this a… 5 hours ago
rt @ feelstheband: sat. july 14th we are playing 2 shows! !! 🔥 7: 30pm at the getty for their @ liveoffthe405 summer series! all ages and free! … 3 days ago
enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email .
privacy & cookies: this site uses cookies. by continuing to use this website, you agree to their use. to find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: cookie policy
sorry, we just need to make sure you' re not a robot. for best results, please make sure your browser is accepting cookies .
some parts of this page won' t work property. please reload or try later .
lakeith stanfield and his sorry to bother you crew reveal their most soul - crushing jobs in our freewheeling interview .
with jurassic world: fallen kingdom now in cinemas, we take a look at how imdb users rated the films of the franchise. plus, browse exclusive lego® jurassic world playsets, presented by lego .
explore popular and recently added tv series available to stream now with prime video .
urltoken - & nbspthis; website is for sale! - & nbspsadiemagazine; resources and information .
clockwise from top left: ramy youssef, pat brown, greer barnes, and carmen lynch .
countless stand - up careers have been launched by plum late night appearances, including storied debuts by joan rivers, eddie murphy, and ellen degeneres on johnny carson’s “the tonight show. ” luckily for emerging comedians everywhere, the current resurgence of late night means the tradition is alive and well, which can be especially helpful for those comedians who might otherwise be a token at a comedy club — namely anyone who is not a straight, white man. no late night show is supporting a more inclusive roster of rising comedians than “ the late show with stephen colbert. ”
of the 11 stand - up comedians colbert has hosted in 2017, only 4 have been white men, and one of those guys’ entire opening bit is about how he doesn’t look white (for what it’s worth). all hailing from the new york comedy scene, where “the late show” is filmed, the talent pool is fairly evenly distributed across age, race, and gender lines, though the men do outnumber the women, and colbert has yet to host any trans comics. (jimmy fallon recently had patti harrison on his show) .
while there are no awards for being a good guy, it bears noting that colbert is doing his part to pay it forward and give exposure to voices that might otherwise not get heard in primetime. the inclusivity of “the late show” stand - up line - up is all the more apparent considering the show airs on cbs, which recently made headlines for refusing to pay asian - american actors daniel dae kim and grace park the same salaries as their white male co - stars on “hawaii five - 0. ” looking at colbert’s guests, it is easy to forget that parity is not the norm .
stephen colbert compares donald trump, jr. ’s russia meeting to ‘ocean’s eleven’ — watch
the proof, as they say, is in the pudding — and very funny pudding it is. each of these comedians offer fresh perspectives on topics the average white male comic couldn’t touch and would never think to explore. from topics such as gentrification, dating men in their forties, and flying as an arab - american, these stand - ups remind us what comedy does best: take pain and turn it into joy .
“i got just enough white people in my neighborhood to have a good grocery store, ” says out lesbian pat brown at the beginning of her colbert set, making light of the sensitive issue of harlem’s gentrification. brown won best female comic at the las vegas comedy festival, and released her first album last year, “the pat brown sex tape. ”
muslim comedian mo amer’s profile rose significantly when he was unexpectedly seated next to eric trump on a flight to scotland. amer immediately posted to instagram with the caption, “sometimes god just sends you the material. ” the two apparently had a good chat, with trump assuring amer their would be no muslim registry. while those reassurances might seem hollow, there is at least one muslim who got something good out of the trumps. amer details the experience further in his set, with a particularly amusing riff about how the flight attendant who upgraded him had to be a democrat .
cool and collected, greer barnes glides onto the “late show” stage with the swagger of a seasoned professional, after colbert introduces him with a clip from hbo’s “crashing, ” where barnes confronts the series’ star pete holmes about taking his stage time the night before he’s “supposed to do colbert. ” barnes is no stranger to comedy; he has credits on “in living color” and “chappelle’s show, ” as well as more recently appearing on louis ck’s “horace and pete. ” his colbert set is confident and flawless, turning a funny bit about his fear of walking behind white women at night into a brilliant takedown of one of the most insidious examples of casual racism .
making her network television debut, onion writer sarah tollemache evokes the best of ellen degeneres with a clean set about aging parents, uber pools, and counting steps. dry and quirky, tollemache ends on an appropriately awkward “thank you” following a joke about death as a surefire solution to crippling debt .
sporting a bearded, megawatt smile, ramy youssef proudly introduces himself to the colbert crowd, adding that he’s muslim. “yeah, like from the news. have you guys seen our show? ” he says. “i feel like no matter what i do, i’m just gonna turn 30 and get a hogwarts letter from isis. ” as the set continues, he takes it a little deeper, discussing god and the disconnect between reading the news and everyday life. it’s clear his star is on the rise; youssef has a recurring role in the third season of “mr. robot. ”
sporting a mustache so handsome it made jimmy fallon jealous, out gay comedian matteo lane combines a storytelling joke style with grand old gay charm. “it’s hard to figure out who’s gay and straight in italy, they all look gay there, ” he says. “i pass for straight, that’s a problem. ” lane has also appeared on “late night with seth meyers, ” and his web series, “ janice and jeffrey, ” is currently streaming on ifc .
eric kohn and anne thompson discuss their favorite films of the year so far. they also debate several new releases and share some streaming recommendations .
in an episode dedicated to the show within the show, “glow” illustrates its grand capacity for storytelling, and the very good tv podcast breaks down how .
rules weren’t meant to be broken when it comes to tv episode lengths, but these 10 examples — introduced on the very good tv podcast — are clear exceptions .
after studying under cinematographer ed lachman, shevaun mizrahi forged her own unique filmmaking path with its own set of rules .
the actress and director both love the genre, but as they told indiewire, they also knew it needed to be retrofitted to tell the true story of catherine weldon and sitting bull .
lane and schoenbrun discuss how her interest in morgellons disease patients (“the pain of others”) and his exploration of the slenderman myth (“a self - induced hallucination”) led them to make archival films from youtubes .
the issue of women’s voting “is personal to me, ” streep said. “my grandmother had three children and still couldn’t vote. not in the school board election, let alone for president. ”
duvernay, who became the first african - american woman nominated for a best picture oscar with selma, her biopic about martin luther king, spoke about how different portraits of activism complement each other .
“this idea of the political as personal has a vibrancy now, ” she said. “you can see the interconnections. my hope is that people of color who are involved in the black lives matter movement might see suffragette and get ideas. ”
obaid - chinoy, who won an oscar in 2012 for her documentary about acid attacks on women in pakistan, tends to focus on exposing injustice in her home country. but her films also highlight inspiring women. one of her recent projects, ‘ho yaqeen: syeda fatima, ’ follows a female activist fighting for the rights of bonded laborers in her village in punjab. in a clip shown to the audience, a woman boldly confronts a man who beats his workers. she refuses to leave or back down as he tries to send her away, denies using violence and then defends it as his right .
“very often, we see women in my part of the world as victims, ” she said. “i hope by putting my camera out there, i am creating heroes in my part of the world for the next generation. i need my daughters to have heroes in pakistan. ”
she knows from first - hand experience how important it is to see women on screen–and how just one female role model can change the course of someone’s life. she spoke of watching cnn as a child, “on a grainy television, ” and seeing christiane amanpour “reporting among all the men, standing on the front lines” of the first gulf war .
“i said to myself, if she could do it, then anyone from this part of the world could do it, ” she said .
daily show host jon stewart, who moderated the panel, pointed to a common thread in all three films: “the men are assholes, ” he said, to the amusement of the women onstage as well as the audience .
but obaid - chinoy doesn’t mind hurting men’s feelings. “i like to make men uncomfortable, ” she said. she sees discomfort as the best impetus for change. “it’s only when you’re uncomfortable that you will perhaps look at yourself in the mirror and not like your reflection and think, maybe there is something wrong with the way i think. ”
save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time i comment .
stay connected with women in the world! get updated on the news and receive information about # witw events before they happen .
osamah sami plays the role of ali in muslim - australian romantic comedy ali' s wedding .
every now and then, a piece of art comes along to remind us that there is more than one way to appreciate it .
that' s not to say that ali' s wedding ignores anti - muslim bigotry — no serious story about muslims can leave that out altogether — but it takes a back seat to the daily concerns in the lives of the characters; the rivalry between the men at the mosque, the pressures of living in the shadow of a much - loved father admired for his wisdom, the irresistible attraction to the
wrong
girl .
and, of course, the difficulty of being young and muslim, not only because of racism but because of what is often a claustrophobic and judgmental community environment .
one of the unintended consequences of fending off bigoted attacks is the tendency to gloss over the more challenging aspects of being part of an ethnic community such as this .
even among more tolerant segments of society, there can be a failure to appreciate the complexity and diversity within immigrant and ethnic communities. as such, when members of such communities do attempt to point these out, they can be shouted down and silenced, or ostracised and dismissed as
native informants
.
the strictness, the subtle sexism in how parents favour boys over girls, and the unrelenting expectation to be
good muslim girls and boys
— these are real dilemmas facing real people .
like so many girls i have known, the youngster quickly learns to masks her pain behind an unreadable facial expression, suppressing emotional invalidation is how many us learned to survive .
ali' s wedding refuses to sugar coat this experience of growing up muslim in a western context, of the agony of growing up torn between your own desires and those of your community, something that is all too often ignored because of the danger it can be appropriated by those with a bigoted agenda .
the key, of course, is how it is done. and how ali' s wedding does it is in its lightest of touch and obvious affection .
the stories and characters are based on osamah sami' s real - life experiences .
both, however, refuse to demonise and ridicule the people they are portraying. rather, they allow their subjects full humanity, exploring this real struggle alongside the valuable aspects of the culture; family bonds, humour, the solace in community, the deep and abiding love .
this is the essential and necessary difference between criticism from within and much of the criticism of islam from without .
one appreciates complexity and seeks understanding, the other wants only to demonise and destroy .
ali' s wedding coming so soon after beyond veiled cliches could signal something i' ve been waiting to see for a long time — muslim and arab storytellers heading in a new and exciting direction regarding how they tell their stories. one that can lovingly recreate the good times without pretending the bad never existed .
a new dinosaur has been discovered. but did it walk on two legs or four ?
if you have inside knowledge of a topic in the news, contact the abc .
abc teams share the story behind the story and insights into the making of digital, tv and radio content .
it' s no surprise the plight of the soccer team has received global media attention. but it does raise some interesting questions about how we extend empathy and concern to people we don' t know .
hobart' s old zoo is famous as being where the last thylacine in captivity died, but in its heyday people could view elephants, zebras, monkeys and even see a girl walking her pet leopard. what happened to the beaumaris zoo ?
while they like to think you need a thick skin in politics, our representatives are notoriously quick to reach for the lawyers when they don' t like what they read .
we' ve ranked the top 50 wimbledon players over the last 50 years .
this service may include material from agence france - presse (afp), aptn, reuters, aap, cnn and the bbc world service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced .
html public
- / / w3c / / dtd xhtml + rdfa 1. 1 / / en
urltoken
in 1995 and went to law school (a fort worth native, she’s now a public defender in portland, oregon). for 15 years the movie was virtually unseen outside her living room, where she’d occasionally show it to friends .
, it’s snapshot of a time when women, especially gay women, were starting to assert themselves en masse in a mostly male domain .
before heading to work one morning this week, tex clark talked to mfw about her diy doc’s making and resurrection .
no. there is – well, yes, i am, because the other female tex that i knew is a trans - man and is no longer a she. so yes, but that wasn’t always the case. he is the main subject of a movie called gendernauts, if you are cruising the documentary section and you’d like to find out about the other tex .
i had been on the road as a roadie for a band called two nice girls. they broke up in 1992, but they were sort of hailed at the time in the music press, such as it was, as the lesbian beatles. they were a four - piece, really musically great band. i just had written them a letter when i was in college and said, “hey, i’ll sell your t - shirts and drive your van if you let me come on the road with you, ” and they thought that sounded like a pretty good deal. so i had a lot of connections through the music world, through the acts that opened for them, and talking to them about music. i was 18 when that roadie gig began, and i was really interested in making documentaries, and so my girlfriend at the time, we got on the road together and started calling people up and asking if they’d give us interviews .
you know, i was in my early 20s, and i was in college and thinking about what it means to be a feminist, the personal is political, all those ideas. i was really interested in, and still am interested in, feminism and women’s voices. but also i just really like kickass hard rock that is being written and produced by women. but certainly my association with two nice girls was really helpful. i had maybe a little bit of an in .
[ the movie ] was something i’d shown a couple of friends over the years, and i stayed in touch with some of the musicians. but it was just kinda done. and then through social circles i met erin donovan, who has a million movies a minute, and she was telling me about a project she had, and i said, “i made a documentary once, but, you know, it’s not very good, you won’t like it” – you know, “it was years ago, da da da da. ” and she was like, “oh, i’ll look at it. ” and she went crazy. she was like, “this is on, we are gonna do this. ”
i have to tell you, i am not very plugged in to pop music. i know who lady gaga is, and i’ve seen her mostly in the tabloid internet bits, like “oh my god, can you believe what she did? ” but i don’t really know her music very well. but it seems like she’s a good thing, from my very distant vista. she’s doing something that has always been done, from bessie smith and dusty springfield and on and on. which is, there are women who’ve had non - heterosexuality vibes who are making music that’s pretty sexual, and are embraced. but yeah, i think there’s something really queer and “screw you” about [ lady gaga’s ] public persona that’s entertaining.
radical act is a feature-length documentary by tex clark . shot in 1995 , radical act documents the contributions of female artists to the 1990s indie rock scene . participants include kathleen hanna ( bikini kill , le tigre , julie ruin ) , toshi reagon , gretchen phillips , melissa york ( team dresch , vitapup , the butchies ) , kim coletta ( jawbox , co-owner of desoto records ) , shirlé hale ( mary lou lord , gerty , womyn of destruction ) , sharon topper ( god is my co-pilot ) , journalist evelyn mcdonnell ( mamarama : a memoir of sex , kids and rock n roll and rock she wrote : women write about rock , pop and rap ) , author victoria " vicky " starr ( " kd lang : all you get is me " ) and dr. kay turner ( now folk arts director of brooklyn arts council ) . radical act screened at the 1996 outfest film festival in los angeles and was included in miranda july 's " joanie for jackie chainletter " collection of short films . 
radical act is a feature-length documentary by tex clark. shot in 1995, radical act documents the contributions of female artists to the 1990s indie rock scene. participants include kathleen hanna (bikini kill, le tigre, julie ruin), toshi reagon, gretchen phillips, melissa york (team dresch, vitapup, the butchies), kim coletta (jawbox, co-owner of desoto records), shirlé hale (mary lou lord, gerty, womyn of destruction), sharon topper (god is my co-pilot), journalist evelyn mcdonnell (mamarama: a memoir of sex, kids and rock n roll and rock she wrote: women write about rock, pop and rap), author victoria " vicky " starr (" kd lang: all you get is me ") and dr. kay turner (now folk arts director of brooklyn arts council). radical act screened at the 1996 outfest film festival in los angeles and was included in miranda july's " joanie for jackie chainletter " collection of short films.
radical act is a feature-length documentary by tex clark. shot in 1995, radical act documents the contributions of female artists to the 1990s indie rock scene. participants include kathleen hanna (bikini kill, le tigre, julie ruin), toshi reagon, gretchen phillips, melissa york (team dresch, vitapup, the butchies), kim coletta (jawbox, co-owner of desoto records), shirlé hale (mary lou lord, gerty, womyn of destruction), sharon topper (god is my co-pilot), journalist evelyn mcdonnell (mamarama: a memoir of sex, kids and rock n roll and rock she wrote: women write about rock, pop and rap), author victoria " vicky " starr (" kd lang: all you get is me ") and dr. kay turner (now folk arts director of brooklyn arts council). radical act screened at the 1996 outfest film festival in los angeles and was included in miranda july's " joanie for jackie chainletter " collection of short films.