Garbage Dreams

Director/Producer: Mai Iskander
Executive Producer: Tiffany Schauer

U.S.A | 80 min.

Garbage Dreams follows three teenage boys born into the trash trade and growing up in the world's largest garbage village, on the outskirts of Cairo. It is the home to 60,000 Zaballeen-Arabic for "garbage people." Far ahead of any modern "Green" initiatives, the Zaballeen survive by recycling 80 percent of the garbage they collect. When their community is suddenly faced with the globalization of its trade, each of the teenage boys is forced to make choices that will impact his future and the survival of his community.

Click here for dates/showtimes and to purchase tix.

Join us for a wine and cheese reception to close out "inside/outside & other oxymorons" at the Inside/Outside Gallery on Wednesday, August 12, featuring Vahé Berberian in person.

“inside/outside & other oxymorons” [sic] is an exhibition that explores the work of three multicultural artists—Sama Alshaibi, Vahé Berberian and Adnan Charara—whose lives of migration and experiences with war, displacement and political instability have given them a unique perspective on identity, culture and society.

Severe Clear doc

The International Documenary Association presents the Docuweeks festival during August 2009.

SEVERE CLEAR

Director/Writer: Kristian Fraga
Producer: Kristian Fraga, Marc Perez
Executive Producers: Benjamin Charbit, John L. Sikes

U.S.A | 93 min.

Armed with the world's most lethal ordnance and his home video camera, First Lieutenant Michael T. Scotti takes us on an epic first-person journey with the Marine Corps as they fight their way 300 miles from Kuwait to Baghdad. No Reporters...No Politics...No Censors...This is what he saw.

Click here for showtimes/tix.

The Wedding Song

The Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival and Levantine Cultural Center Present a Special Director's Screening of Karen Albou's "The Wedding Song," About Muslim and Jewish Friends in Tunisia

Written and Directed by Karin Albou
2008 | France, Tunisia |100 minutes

Q & A with Karin Albou to follow screening

Language: Arabic, French, German, with English Subtitles.

Viewer Discretion: Explicit nudity.

Seating is limited. Purchase advance tickets here.

Or order tickets by phone from Brown Paper Tickets: 800.838.3006.

Synopsis

Using film, music and scholarship, on August 5th, speakers will explore the Mizrahim (Eastern Jews):

• Are the Jews of the Middle East/North Africa as Arab or Iranian as their host nationalities?
• 
  How were they received in Israel?
• 
  Are the Mizrahim/Sephardim a missing link to Middle East peace?

A scene from "Come Mother"

This is an exclusive screening of Sami Shalom Chetrit's latest film, the story of the filmmaker's journey with his mother Yakut ("pearl" in Arabic) as she searches Israel for her elementary school classmates from the elementary school, Alliance, which she attended 60 years ago in the little village of Gurama in the Tafilalt region of Morocco. Through tales of past and present, transition, cultural crisis, and survival, Morocco is retold by women who were among the first generation of emigrants to Israel. The film is in Moroccan, Hebrew and French with English subtitles. 

The director will be in attendance and a short Q and A will follow.

Script and Director: Sami Shalom Chetrit
Producer: Haim Bouzaglo Production LTD
Cinematography: Philippe Bellaiche
Editor: Eli Hamo Soundtrack: Ilan Ben Ami, Yossi Appelbaum
Music: Ilan Ben Ami
Singing: Niva Ben Simon

The evening is moderated by investigative journalist Jason Leopold and co-hosted by Jordan Elgrably of Levantine Cultural Center.

Refreshments served.

RSVP a must via email: jan-pi-at-mindspring.com or proctor-at-artnet.net, or call 310.858.6643.

United4Iran event at UCLADesmond Tutu and other Nobel Peace Laureates, Iranian Poets and Artists Support July 25th Global Day of Action Protests in Iran Continue - Global Activism Increasing

In Los Angeles a coalition of student organizations, United4Iran.org, Levantine Cultural Center and others are presenting an evening of music, poetry, speeches and solidarity messages on Saturday, July 25, from six to nine pm. Among the presenters/performers are Amnesty International's Banafsheh Akhlaghi, Levantine Cultural Center advisor and author Reza Aslan, international vocalist Sussan Deyhim, actor and comedian Maz Jobrani, vocalists Mamak Khadem and Ziba Shirazi and many others.

Come visit the Levantine Cultural Center booth and pick up your free "Free Iran" tee-shirt, courtesy of American Apparel. Support freedom and democracy for Iranians when you gather for a live concert and multimedia presentation. Let the people of Iran know that we support their human and civil rights.

A press release from United4Iran quotes several prominent leaders and others:

Javad Tehranian teaches KiyanaSpecial guest instructor Javad Tehranian, who is touring the United States this summer, will be teaching the Persian form of whirling or Sufi dance known as Kiyana.

Wear comfortable clothes and prepare for a three-hour intense dance and exercise workshop. Javad Tehranian teaches vital exercises, infinity respiration, eye exercises, and body discipline, as well as symmetric and asymmetric movements by the method of divided attention, inner development, rhythmical contemplative movements, and the  enchanting, euphoric Sama'a dance.

Kiyana, meaning “the origin”, is a system of movements and internal work coming from ancient Persia; it relates to the education and the complete development, the unity and oneness of the body, mind and spirit, cleanliness, purity, equilibrium, power, health of body, tranquility in the mind and subtility of the soul of human beings.

The ability to observe and recognize the level of the self-being and beyond.

Concentration and complete attention, divided attention, and presence.

The Immigrant Experience Workshop

THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE
Saturdays July 18th, August 1st, 8th and 15th, 1:30 - 4:30 PM

Whether you and/or your family immigrated by choice, were exiled or displaced as a result of war, revolution or political suppression, you left one life behind and crossed a threshold into a new one. You may be living a life with the body in one place and the heart in another.

The workshop will offer inspiration from literature, art and music to usher you into a story that positions the personal against a historical/ political/ societal background.