Vivien Sansour, puppeteer-clown-actor-organizer of the Olive Tree Circus, is back from the olive harvest tour of West Bank towns including Bethlehem, Hebron and surrounding villages. She will be removing her red nose and sharing with a large audience the slide show, video and personal experiences of the fourteen Arab, Jewish and non-Middle Eastern Americans who traveled together, creating puppets and performing for the children of the West Bank in the service of peace.

Cosponsored by the Iman Cultural Center and the American Friends Service Committee, Middle East Peace Education Program.

Free to the public, RSVPs strongly advised: 310.657.5511.

The American Cinematheque and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association present a special double bill,the Swedish nominee, "EVERLASTING MOMENTS."2008,( IFC Films, SWEDEN/DENMARK, 131 min. Dir. Jan Troell ) screening at 7:30 pm, folowed by "Waltz With Bashir" at 9:30 pm. (For info on a roundtable with Ari Folman et al on Jan. 10, see below)

"Waltz With Bashir" (2008, Sony Pictures Classics, 90 min.) is a mesmerizing and gripping animated documentary—a hand-drawn chronicle of director Ari Folman's repressed memories of war. Folman, who also wrote and produced the film, describes the narrative this way:

Amazigh Film FestivalThe second annual Amazigh Film Festival, under the stewardship of director Helene Hagan, will present art, music and films of the Amazigh or Berber cultures of North Africa. Last year's event was highly successful and the second edition promises to be even more intriguing. Here's the schedule:

4:00-4:30 pm: Slideshow presentation, "Kabylia, the land, the people, the Arts" (10 min) - Welcome Address by Helene Hagan and presentation by Rachid Bouksim, Director of the Issni N'Ourgh Film Festival of Agadir, Morocco, on the recent development of the Amazigh Cinematography in Morocco.

4:30-6:30 pm: Documentaries "Pottery from the Rif" (27 min, 2003, Morocco, Dounia Productions, Ltd.) and "On Native Lands" (86 min, Canada/Morocco, 2007, Orbi xii).

6:30-7:30 pm: Art Exhibit and Reception with art by Moroccan artists Hassan Moumene (Atlas) and Abdallah Aourik (Souss). Traditional mint tea and tidbits catered by CHAMEAU, Inc. of Beverly Hills.

Roles for Arab/Muslim Actors in Film and TelevisionEven as the United States finds itself increasing enmeshed in the Arab/Muslim world politically, Hollywood exports a great deal of film and television programs watched in the Middle East. We are indeed the dominant cultural force in many Arab/Muslim countries. Meanwhile, Americans are finding more and more Arab/Muslim characters in their film and TV programming…

Read Andrew Gumbel's L.A. Weekly feature, Arab Adventures in Hollywood.

Putting Peaces Together, a conflict resolution training facilitated by master trainers Barbara and Richard Dash, who lived in the Middle East for 18 years, will be held Jan. 16-18th at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

Putting Peaces Together is a model for organizations and individuals dedicated to living in, and working from, a heart-centered, purposed environment. A highlight of th seminar will be a Tune Up to Peace Concert at Agape International Spiritual Center on Jan. 17th in Culver City by Grammy nominated pianist Freddie Ravel. Ravel is a musical maestro who uses the four elements of music (rythym, harmony, melody and score)w how people can communicate more effectively. For more information, and to register, visit www.puttingpeacestogether.org. Click on L.A. seminar.

Please check the above web site for complete schedule and hours.

Since the tragic events of 9/11, there has been an upsurge in ethnic comedy by Arabs/Muslims in America. More and more Arab/Muslim individuals and groups such as "Allah Made Me Funny," the "Sultans of Satire" and "Axis of Evil" are appearing on stage with comic routines and they are attracting larger and larger non-Muslim audiences. Paradoxically, a tragedy that triggered widespread Islamophobia in American society seems also to have opened the field for Arab/Muslim comedy.

This panel discussion and lecture series, sponsored by The Middle East Center at the University of Pennsylvania, will explore the landscape of American Middle Eastern ethnic comedy and its intricate relationship with Islamophobia.

Panel Members: Mucahit Bilici (Professor of Sociology at John Jay College-CUNY), Jordan Elgrably (Founder of Levantine Cultural Center, and the Sultans of Satire: Middle East Comic Relief) and Rahim Armat (of Kodoom.com, Cultural Events Search Engine).

This groundbreaking and highly relevant exhibit takes the focus off Iran’s politicians and realigns it squarely on the country and its people. Exploring the Other challenges the conventional media narrative of Iran by offering rare and candid insight into this enigmatic country from the perspective of an embedded international journalist and photographer. Internationally recognized correspondent and 2008 Nieman Fellow Iason Athanasiadis, who has spent more time than almost any other Western journalist living and working in post-revolutionary Iran, shares his extraordinary experience in this must-see exhibit.

A conference including documentary and feature screenings, panels and symposium, organized by Levantine Cultural Center and the University of California, Irvine, the Middle East Studies Student Initiative (MESSI). Cosponsored by the Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies/UCI, American Friends Service Committee, LA Jews for Peace and supported by Diane and Jeanette Shammas, Lawrence Joseph, Kanan Hamzeh, Casey Kasem, Bana Hilal, Asad Farah and the Salaam-Shalom Educational Foundation.

UC Irvine Student CenterThis conference takes place at the UC Irvine Student Center in the Crystal Cove Auditorium and Pacific Ballroom. [Map].