The 4th Annual God Loves Beauty Festival, Nov. 12-20, 2008
Niloofar, a film by Sabine El Gemayel
Mobina Aynehdar as NiloofarMeet director Sabine El Gemayel on Saturday, November 1, when the AFI Fest screens her new feature, "Niloofar." (Also screens Nov. 3).El Gemayel will discuss the challenges of shooting on location in Iran this year.
This Franco-Iranian production includes Roya Nownahali, Shahab Hosseini, Hengameh Ghaziani, Mobina Ayenedar, Amir Aghai, Sadegh Safai, and Fatemeh Motamed Aria.
Niloofar is a twelve-year-old girl whose dream is to read and write in a village where education is only for boys. While assisting her mother during a delivery Niloofar meets a wise woman who allows her to secretly study.
From October 24-26 in
Hollywood, Arpa International Film Festival will screen 50 films from 21
nations, including Armenia, Australia, Canada, China, Congo, Czech Republic,
Ecuador, France, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Romania, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Tobago,
Trinidad, Turkey, UK, and Venezuela.
Arpa International Film Festival, which goes green in 2008, is produced by Arpa Foundation for Film,
Music, and Art (AFFMA), a non-profit organization dedicated to artists
exploring identity, multi-culturalism, war, exile, genocide and global empathy.
“We play heavy metal because our lives are heavy metal.”
—Reda Zine, one of the founders of the Moroccan heavy-metal
scene
“Music is the weapon of the future.” —Fela Kuti
Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam: your purchase benefits LCC programmingMark
LeVine is the author of Why They Don't Hate Us, Unveiling the
Axis of Evil. In his new book, Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam, you'll find an eighteen-year-old
Moroccan who loves Black Sabbath. A twenty-two-year-old rapper from
the Gaza Strip. A young Lebanese singer who quotes Bob Marley’s
“Redemption Song.” They are as representative of the world
of Islam today as the conservatives and extremists we see every
night on the news. Heavy metal, punk, hip-hop, and reggae are each
the music of protest, and in many cases considered immoral in the
Muslim world. This music may also turn out to be the soundtrack
of a revolution unfolding across that world.
A Map of Home, by Randa JarrarA Map of Home recently won the prestigious Hopwood Award. Here's what one of our favorite Arab American writers/poets, Naomi Shihab Nye, had to say about this debut novel:
"Jazzy, and vastly intelligent and fun. Jarrar is a wonderworker
with delectable details and sweet swerves of surprise. I adore her
multicultural mix and her wry, punchy attitude and think she embodies
some crucial new-world Arab-American that I wish the whole world could
see, the old worlds and the smug self-satisfied pundits who think they
can know or guess what a creative spirit might really be. I turn to her
for gusto." - Naomi Shihab Nye