By Govindini Murty. Israel has had tremendous problems in recent years getting any fair treatment in the Western media or in Western popular culture. As we have already well documented here at Libertas Film Magazine, the Western cinema – in particular Hollywood – is going out of its way to portray Islamic radicalism in a positive light (just look at the pro-Islamist messages in recent films like the remake of Clash of the Titans, Robin Hood, Kingdom of Heaven, and even Avatar). These films all portray Islamic radicals to varying degrees as noble freedom fighters, oppressed minorities, and virtuous warriors against the hegemonic forces of the West. What is so sad is that there is a democracy in the Middle East, Israel, that is truly made up of an oppressed, persecuted minority – the Jewish people – who receive no such favorable treatment from the Western cultural establishment.
This is all the more tragically clear in the media’s biased coverage of the current crisis off the coast of Israel. Since LFM is not a political site but a film and culture site, I wanted to let our readers know about some good documentaries that will shed some light on the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The barrage of lies about Israel by the Western media and cultural establishment is so great that even the most well-reasoned books and columns by pro-Israel commentators have little chance of getting through to the public. That’s why supporters of Israel need to pursue artistic and cultural means to communicate why Israel is worth defending.
Here are seven documentaries you should see in order to understand what is actually going on in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We’re proud to have shown a number of these films at the Liberty Film Festival, and you can buy most of them in our LFM Store above. Note, these films are listed in the order that people should ideally see them, starting with the earlier documentaries and proceeding then to the later ones: Continue reading 7 Films about Israel & The Background to the Current Gaza Crisis
By Jason Apuzzo.Prince of Persia is opening this weekend, a Jerry Bruckheimer film based on a video game and starring an American guy of Swedish descent in the lead. If that’s your type of cinema, feel free to knock yourself out this weekend – but I thought that for the heck of it I would briefly review a marvelous film that’s still out in theaters right now and that was made by (and about) actual Persians. It’s a little indie gem called No One Knows About Persian Cats, which won the Special Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section of last year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Persian Cats is about two young Iranian rock musicians – a naive young guy and his cute, shrewd girlfriend – who are planning an indie rock gig for themselves in London just after having been released from prison. The film takes place in the underground rock scene of Tehran, where such imprisonments are apparently common. Hoping to snag fake passports and visas for themselves, the two young people spend much of the film meandering through the underground rock scene of Tehran – much of which is literally underground – trying to convince other musicians to join them in their attempt to get out of the country.
What makes Persian Cats so compelling – even somewhat shocking – is how utterly Westernized the young kids and their musical compatriots are. There was a period of my life when I spent a lot of time around musicians, and Persian Cats almost feels like a documentary about struggling young musicians in New York or LA – except in this case, these young kids are literally struggling to launch their careers under a death threat. As tragic as the circumstances are, though, the film makes it abundantly clear that American culture – and the freedom it embodies – is seeping through the pores of Iranian society to a degree far beyond what the regime there can control.
Persian Cats is directed by Bahman Ghobadi (A Time for Drunken Horses, Marooned in Iraq), and this is the second film of Ghobadi’s to deal with Iranian restrictions against women singing. [In Iran, it’s illegal for women to perform even traditional Persian music in public, so don’t expect Lady Gaga to appear there any time soon.] Ghobadi’s Marooned in Iraq dealt with a Kurdish man helping his ex-wife flee Iran subsequent to the ban on women performing. Persian Cats thematically picks up where that film left off, although this film is considerably more dynamic – and, indeed, more musical than its predecessor.
The film’s two leads are played by Negar Shaghaghi and Ashkan Koshanejad, both real-life figures of Iran’s alt-rock scene. In their mission to re-assemble their band (Take It Easy Hospital) and purchase forged passports and visas to exit the country, they encounter a variety of colorful figures – the most amusing being Nader (played by Hamed Behdad), a fast-talking agent-fixer. Behdad gives what is to me the stand-out performance of the film, particularly when at one point he grovels his way out of being lashed by the authorities.
Acting performances really are secondary, though, to the music and cinematography of the film. Cinematographer Turaj Mansuri draws deeply saturated colors out of the Tehranian night, and the indie-alt soundtrack features some nice numbers that are still swimming around in my head. The film is otherwise shot and edited very much like a documentary – and whereas the ‘documentary-realist’ style comes across in most films as an affectation, here it works perfectly. Persian Cats has a mellow, bouncy, improvised feeling to it – there’s not a moment that’s forced or contrived. And the acting itself feels improvised, although that may be because the cast members were apparently playing thinly veiled versions of themselves.
Persian Cats was co-written and executive produced by Roxana Saberi, the Iranian-American journalist who was imprisoned in Iran last year on trumped-up ‘espionage’ charges. And there is, ultimately, an aura of the ex-patriot about the whole production. Persian Cats feels like a film made by – and for – a younger generation who have mentally and emotionally checked-out of contemporary Iran, even when they’re still living there. That’s both encouraging and disheartening. Persian Cats is ultimately a film about young kids living free lives … for as long as they can keep the cage door open. That cage door is always there, though, as certain events late in the film make poignantly clear.
Congratulations to everyone involved in this film for making such a light, sweet and stylish feature about what is otherwise an ongoing tragedy. Persian Cats is not going to bring down the regime in Tehran – but perhaps someday when the mullahs are gone, it will remind people that not even that horrible regime could stop young people from rocking.
No One Knows About Persian Catsis still playing in select theaters (see here), and the DVD will be available on July 26th. You can also catch it right now on video-on-demand on a variety of cable networks (I caught it recently in gorgeous high-definition on Cox cable).
[Editor’s note: the trailer above contains strong language and scenes of battlefield violence. Viewer discretion advised.]
By Jason Apuzzo. The trailer above is for a forthcoming on-line documentary series by independent filmmaker Danfung Dennis called Battle for Hearts and Minds. On July 2nd, 2009, four thousand US Marines of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade launched a major helicopter assault into a Taliban stronghold in the Helmand River Valley in southern Afghanistan in order to break a military stalemate reached with the Taliban. Dennis was embedded with Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Company, as they were dropped 18 km behind enemy lines.
The series focuses on the sometimes contradictory roles played by the Marines as both warriors and statesmen in their effort to ‘win the hearts and minds’ of the Afghan people.
Based on the trailer, the series looks like it will be intense and compelling – and we look forward to its debut. You can read an interview with Dennis about his experiences with Echo Company here. In the interview Dennis goes to great lengths to describe how the Marines do everything possible to distinguish between friend and foe in Afghanistan in order to avoid civilian casualties – often a very difficult task when the enemy hides among civilians.
We are, as most people are aware, sorely lacking in good war reporting these days – i.e., reporting that lacks a political agenda, but also that captures the complexity of the situation we’re facing. I’m hoping this series gets some attention. From a photographic standpoint the series certainly looks extraordinary. Dennis shot the footage with a custom built rig using a Canon 5D Mark II, 24-70 f/2.8 L lens, Sennheiser ME-66 and G2 wireless system, Singh-Ray variable ND filter, and Beachtek 2XAs mounted on a Glidecam 2000 HD with custom made aluminum ‘wings.’
You can find out more information about the series here. Feel free to also follow Danfung Dennis on Twitter, or visit the Facebook page for The Battle for Hearts and Minds.
By Joe Bendel. After Danis Tanović’s No Man’s Land won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and Jasmila Žbanić’s Grbavica captured the Golden Bear at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival, serious fest watchers had to take Bosnia’s small but accomplished film industry seriously. Unlike most former captive nations, recent Bosnian films have been less likely to address the Soviet experience, instead focusing on the 1994 war. Those ghosts could again be seen in the selections of the Seventh Annual Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival, which is perhaps ironically one of the friendliest fests in New York.
Indeed, the war loomed large in all three programming blocks of three features preceded by a number of shorts. Though already available on DVD (and streaming on Netflix), Hans-Christian Schmid’s Storm (trailer above) would probably be of the most interest to Libertas readers, given its cynical view of the International Criminal Court – portrayed as a typical government office, full of petty corruption and bloated egos. Struggling to prosecute a Bosnian Serb accused of war crimes, Hannah Maynard’s case is in danger of imminent collapse unless she can convince a reluctant witness to come forward. Her serpentine boss, a master at navigating the Court’s roiling bureaucratic waters, backs her efforts, but only so far.
Storm is a German-Danish-Dutch co-production directed by a German starring a Romanian actress as a Bosnian, but its lingua franca is English, with some subtitled German, Bosnian, and Serbian thrown in for good measure. It might be an international affair, but it hardly engenders confidence in aspiring world-governing bodies like the international court. The performances though, especially Romanian Anamaria Marinca and the jowly Rolf Lassgård as Maynard’s world weary Swedish lover, are quite impressive. Political but genuinely nuanced, Storm is an intriguing film worth checking out (despite a Hollywood-style ending that seems at odds with the rest of the film).
From "Sevdah."
A meditation of Sevdalinka, the Bosnian blues, Marina Andree’s Sevdah is also haunted by the war. Representing a culture under siege for Bosnians exiled during the war, the documentary captures the beautiful melancholy of the music. Particularly memorable were a Sendalinka rendition of Gershwin’s “Summertime” and a Delta Blues take on a Sevdalinka standard.
Easily the oddest selection of this or any year’s BHFF was Geoffrey Alan Rhodes and Steven Eastwood’s Buried Land, which recently had its world premiere at Tribeca. Incorporating elements of fictionalized documentary, mockumentary, and performance art video, Land ostensibly documents a film crew shooting a film about the Visoko Pyramids, which may or may not be monuments of an ancient civilization predating the Egyptian pyramids (most experts seem to be skeptical).
In Rhodes and Eastwood’s film, most of the local Bosnians embrace the pyramids as a positive development for their country following the horrors of war. However, they are skeptical of the film crew, fearing they will try to give them the “Borat” treatment — concerns that soon appear to be justified. [Thanks for giving us a bad name, Hollywood and Sacha Baron Cohen.] It is hard to judge, but Land could well be an ironic statement on either provincial gullibility or media cynicism (or both). It is a strange hybrid, but the scenery is striking. Defying easy classification and description, Land is a film for those who appreciate cleverness more than emotional engagement in cinema. It definitely made for a diverse slate at this year’s BHFF.
BHFF might be one of the smaller New York fest (for now), but it always has something good to cover. Usually coming hard on the heels of Tribeca, it is worth sticking around New York for.
The new Libertas Film Magazine (LFM) is almost here! LFM is a new on-line film magazine focusing on the idea of freedom as expressed in movies and popular culture.
LFM celebrates the democratizing of film. Talented, free-thinking artists from America and around the world are currently using digital technology to make films that celebrate freedom and the individual. LFM will feature the best of these independent and foreign films – and occasionally even Hollywood films – that promote the ideas and values vital to the future of democratic civilization.
Stayed tuned for the launch of LFM on May 19th, 2010! The independent film world will never be the same. LFM is the new voice for freedom in movies and popular culture. Join us each day … and free your mind.
By Govindini Murty. Israel has had tremendous problems in recent years getting any fair treatment in the Western media or in Western popular culture. As we have already well documented here at Libertas Film Magazine, the Western cinema – in particular Hollywood – is going out of its way to portray Islamic radicalism in a positive light (just look at the pro-Islamist messages in recent films like the remake of Clash of the Titans, Robin Hood, Kingdom of Heaven, and even Avatar). These films all portray Islamic radicals to varying degrees as noble freedom fighters, oppressed minorities, and virtuous warriors against the hegemonic forces of the West. What is so sad is that there is a democracy in the Middle East, Israel, that is truly made up of an oppressed, persecuted minority – the Jewish people – who receive no such favorable treatment from the Western cultural establishment.
