The 4th Annual God Loves Beauty Festival, Nov. 12-20, 2008

Niloofar, a film by Sabine El GemayelMobina 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.

“I can tell you’re Egyptian when you turn to the side, because everyone knows that Egyptians only have profiles,” Danny—one of my best friends on the planet, who also happens to be Jewish—jests.

I get it. I get it. Ancient Egyptian ruins always depicted the human form as a profile. Fantastic. The Arab-Jew jokes are endless, and his multiple references to Anubis or the irony of our friendship are always appreciated. I sincerely don’t mind it, as he is one of the most decent and intelligent people I know; he shares my belief that the best way to deconstruct stereotypes is to critique their flawed logic via exaggeration, parody, and not-so-subtle humor. Yet it was not until college that I discovered how some people actually manage to possess such naiveté—the very ignorance that Danny I could mock and repudiate without end.

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