Intercultural Film Festival

Albeniz, Thursday 23th at 18.00 – 19.45

Director: Gonzalo Ballester

Illegal immigration is not only a problem for our society. Not only does the illegal immigrant suffer from social uprooting but also the most difficult part of this situation: the family division. This document was born of the desire to bring together, even if it w as only through a camera, a family that since long ago wishes so. Awards: Best Short Film at Euromed café International Short Film Contest; Best Documentary at Certamen Audiovisual Intenacional Liceo Casino Vilagarcia de Arousa (Spain); Best Young Director at festival International de Filmets de Badalona (Spain); Development Cooperation Award at Certamen de Cortometrajes Cortos con Fondo (Spain)

Gonzalo Ballester (1982) was born in Murcia, Spain. He has a degree in Audiovisual Communication. He directed several short films on social matters: Mimoune; La Serenissima selected for the Festival de Málaga and nominated as best short film for the Goya 2007. In 2006 Gonzalo was selected for the Youth Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. In the same year he travelled to Iran to shoot a documentary about an independent liberal newspaper

Albeniz, Thursday 23th at 18.00 – 19.50

Director: Elizabeth Jones

Discussion afterwards with the producer Alison Rooper

France’s controversial law banning religious symbols from school provoked outrage from its 5 million strong muslim community.  The Headmaster and the Headscarves follows a group of veiled girls at a Paris school who decide to resist the new law in defiance of the headmaster.  At stake for the girls is their all-vital school leaving exams – refusing to remove their headscarves could mean expulsion.  A few of the staff are supportive, fearing that the headscarf ban is a form of discrimination against north african pupils.  But the majority of teachers believe school should be a bastion against a rising tide of islamic fundamentalism.
The film documents how a group of shy teenage girls, most who’d never met before, found themselves carrying out their first ever political act against a backdrop of media hysteria and rising ethnic tension. The girls bear witness to the fears and hopes of a community of French citizens, hidden away on housing estates, who are usually invisible to the French media.  Events take a dramatic turn after Iraqi terrorists kidnap two French journalists and demand the repeal of the law banning headscarves.

Filmed over several months, with unique access to events at a Paris school, this observational documentary captures the anguish of veiled schoolgirls, teachers, and the school authorities as they grapple with rules which threaten to inflame the very tensions they were designed to calm.

With over 20 years in the industry, Alison Rooper is an award winning producer/director and executive producer working across factual programming of all genres. At Granada Television she worked with documentary producer Roger Graef and on the historical documentaries of Brian Lapping. After joining the BBC's current affairs department as producer / director, she went on to edit and series produce some of the corporation's flagship programmes in science, documentary and current affairs. Over the last three years she has been responsible for a number of international co-productions both as an independent producer and inside the BBC. She set up In Focus Productions in 2002.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/4352171.stm

Albeniz, Saturday 25th at 11.00 – 12.50

Director: Nitzan Gilady

Discussion afterwards with director Nitzan Gilady

In the summer of 2006, Jerusalem was to host, for the first time in history, the World Pride events, which were to culminate in a traditional gay pride parade for the first time in the city’s history. This hair raising documentary captures the homophobic hate campaign launched by fundamentalist religious groups.
The planned events stirred turmoil in the politically complex city, with Jewish, Muslim and Christian religious leaders banding together in an uncompromising battle against what they said would “defile the holy city”. On the other side stood the activists of the Open House, Jerusalem’s LGBT community center, who planned the events. Steadfast in the face of the heated and violent anti-gay sentiment, they had to deal with threats to much more than just their right to march…

Awards: The CMCA "Mediterranean Challenges" Grand Prize. Best Documentary at BAFF world Television Film Festival. Movies that Matter Human Rights Award At IDFA. A Silver Hugo (Chicago). Best Out Standing Documentary at Outfest, USA. Audience Award for Favorite Documentary and honorable mention from the jury for   excellence in documentary filmmaking at Seattle LGBT Film Festival, USA

Nitzan Gilady  is a graduate of the high art school "Thelma Yelin" (Israel) and the Academy of arts "Circle in the Square" (New York). He is director/producer of the documentary films “Jerusalem Is Proud To Present”, “In Satmar Custody” and “The Last Enemy”. His films have received 13 international awards, participated in over 120 international film festivals and broadcast in prestigious TV channels over the world (among them: Sundanse channel and ZDF-ARTE). Nitzan Gilady has received a grant for the art of cinema 2004 initiated by the Ministry of education, culture and sport given to outstanding Israeli filmmakers and film professionals.

Albeniz, Friday 24th , 15.00 - 16.45

Director: Bregtje van der Haak

Discussion afterwards with the director: Bregtje van der Haak

Focusing on the popular women talk show Kalam Nawaem ('Sweet talk' or 'Women's Talk'), this lively documentary explores how Arab satellite TV influences lifestyles and public opinion in the Middle East. Hosted by four charming women from four different Arab countries, this hugely successful prime time TV show brings the world seen from the vantage point of women to millions of Arab viewers worldwide.
Discussing hot issues like homosexuality, terrorism, and masturbation, Lebanese Rania, Egyptian Fawzia, Palestinian Farah, and Saudi Muna are the controversial stars of a record- breaking television format, bringing in millions of dollars in advertising revenue for its Saudi owners.
Who are these charming women breaking new ground? How do they use the power of media to change their world? And what happens when their conservations are heard in Arab living rooms? Satellite Queens is an intimate look at the making of Arab public opinion.

Director Bregtje van der Haak has previously worked in the Arab world and has an extensive network and unique access in a number of countries in the Middle East. In 2005, she was the first filmmaker who obtained permission to film the daily lives of women in Saudi Arabia. She has recently directed international documentaries on workingwomen in Saudi Arabia (Saudi Solutions, 2006) and Morocco (Femmes Fatales, 2005). In 2002, she made Lagos/Koolhaas, a unique documentary about explosive urban growth in Lagos, Nigeria in collaboration with architect Rem Koolhaas and the Harvard Project on the City. She also developed Lagos Wide & Close (2004), an interactive DVD and museum installation, which uses experimental narrative techniques. It has been shown in museums worldwide and will be featured in the 27th Sao Paulo Biennial Exhibition in October 2007.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episodes/dishing-democracy/filmmaker-notes-bregtje-van-der-haak/1842/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episodes/dishing-democracy/introduction/973/

Albeniz, Thursday 23th , 15.00 – 16.45

Director: Marc Isaacs

Discussion afterwards with director Marc Isaacs



Filmmaker Marc Isaacs' funny and illuminating documentary gives a voice to people who feel that they are at the sharp end of multicultural Britain. Take a trip to the London borough of Barking and Dagenham, an area which has some of the highest levels of immigration in the country and where residents are struggling to come to terms with their new arrivals.

There we meet life-long residents Susan and Jeff who are encouraged to put their assumptions aside to welcome their new Nigerian neighbours. There's also Dave whose anger at the influx of immigrants has led him to campaign for the far right British Nationalist Party - despite both his daughters having non-white boyfriends. Meanwhile, Holocaust survivor Monty and African Betty form a close friendship, despite disapproving stares.

Isaacs' gentle probing of these very different characters helps to paint a vivid picture of the attitudes and preconceptions at the heart of Modern Britain.

Marc Isaacs first film, Lift, in 2001 was produced after spending some time in the BBC. It has screened at hundreds of festivals worldwide and won many awards. In 2002 and 2003 he made a further three films: Travellers, Calais the Last Border and Someday My Prince Will Come. All of these films have screened at major festivals and won prizes. 2006 saw the release of Philip and his Seven Wives and in 2007 Marc produced All White In Barking. What characterises all these films is a desire to get under the skin of complicated and engaging characters in order to communicate universal human experience.

http://www.dfgdocs.com/Directory/Names/1983.aspx

Albeniz, Friday 24th, 18.00 – 19.30/19.45

Director: Chai Locher

Discussion afterwards with Alastair Crooke

Should one talk to terrorists? ‘Absolutely not’ say the US, Europe and a large proportion of the Western public opinion. ‘Yes, you should’ says Alastair Crooke, already doing so for many years. Terrorists acts and military reactions are only  a limited means in a much more complex political struggle. Its is the later one you want to win, or in the case of Mr. Crooke, want to help bringing to an end. Only dialogue will make that happen.

This film witnesses unofficial discussions initiated by Crooke in Beirut between the British, highly experienced, politician Michael Ancram and leaders of Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas. Ancram, member of parliament for the conservative party in Great Britain, was responsible from 1994 for the peace process with the IRA as a cabinet minister of Northern Ireland. He is taking advantage of his experience in this delicate process by applying it to other parts of the world.
Alastair Crooke worked for the diplomatic service for 30 years in peace negotiations in Northern Ireland, South Africa, Cambodia, Colombia, Afghanistan and the Middle East. He became advisor on Middle East matters to Javier Solana, the High Representative for foreign and safety policy of the European Union. On behalf of the EU he helped mediate several cease fires between Israel and the Palestinians. “I believe that we must go back to the strength of diplomacy and dialogue in the 21st century .."

Alastair Crooke, Director and Founder of Conflicts Forum – an international movement which engages with Islamist movements broadly; organizer of US and European unofficial dialogues in 2005 with Hezbollah, Hamas and other Islamist movements; former special Mid-East adviser to European Union High Representative, Javier Solana; facilitated various Israeli-Palestinian ceasefires during 2001-2003; instrumental in the negotiations leading to the ending of the siege of the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem; mediated in the negotiations leading to the ceasefire declared by Hamas and Islamic Jihad in June 2003; staff member of President Clinton’s Fact Finding Committee, led by Senator Mitchell into the causes of the Intifada; direct experience of conflict over a period of 30 years in Ireland, South Africa, Namibia, Afghanistan, Cambodia and Colombia; coordinator in hostage negotiations; author of articles and contributor to television productions on the Palestinian–Israeli conflict and on insurgency and political Islam more generally.

http://conflictsforum.org
http://www.vpro.nl/programma/tegenlicht/afleveringen/39491327/
http://www.vpro.nl/programma/tegenlicht/service_info/19361409
http://www.linedin.com/pub/4/1a6/b61
http://www.d-word.com/people/locher