America So BeautifulIRAN/AMERICA Then and Now (1979-2009): A Public Conversation and Special Screening of the feature "America So Beautiful" (visit americasobeautiful.com), with a panel discussion featuring writer/director Babak Shokrian, costar Fariborz David Diaan and international vocal star Sussan Deyhim, moderated by author Mark LeVine.

Presented by CODEPINK Women for Peace (codepinkalert.org), Levantine Cultural Center (levantinecenter.org) and Sociarts (sociarts.com).

Movie tickets $10, available in advance or at the door, call 310.657.5511 or 310.657.5522.

By Jordan Flaherty

Palestinian-Lebanese filmmaker Mai MasriMai Masri is a Palestinian-Lebanese female filmmaker.

Mixed Roots Fest: how many of us are the product of parents from different cultures or religions?How many of us are the product of parents from two different cultures, religions or nationalities?

Nadine LabakiNadine Labaki is best known for her film Caramel which she co-wrote, directed, and starred in.

Giorgos SeferisGiorgos Seferis (pen name for Geōrgios Seferiádēs) was born in Urla, Ottoman Empire.

Abdullah al-BaradouniAbdullah Al-Baradouni was a Yemeni writer and poet. Al-Baradouni was born in Zarajat Baradoun in Dhamar, Yemen. When he was six years old he came down with smallpox leaving him blind. Al-Baradouni started writing poetry when he was 13 years old. He published 12 poetry books and six books on topics ranging from politics to folklore to literature. He is considered Yemen's most famous poet. He advocated for democracy and women's writes and wrote poems critical of the government and revolutionaries who overthrew them. Because of his beliefs Al-Baradouni spent time in prison throughout the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.

Muhammad al-Gharsi is one of the most famous modern Yemeni poets. He is a friend of Ali Abdullah Saleh, the current President of Yemen, and former President of Yemen Arab Republic. Before the unification of Yemen, al-Gharsi was viewed as "an eloquent spokesman for the republican regime."

Khalid AbdulrahmanKhalid Abdulrahman is a beloved singer, songwriter, and musician from Saudi Arabia. He is affectionately nicknamed "Friend of the Night" due to him staying up late in to the night to write poetry. Abdulrahman is one of Saudi Arabia's most popular vocalists who gained fame from the release of his first album "Sarihini" in 1987. This led to a series of successful album releases. His latest album is titled "Rouh Rouhey" (Soul of My Soul) and was released in 2008.

Tahar Ben JellounTahar Ben Jelloun was born in Fez to a shopkeeper and his wife in December of 1944. He is one of North Africa's most successful post-colonial writers, author of such novels as The Sand Child, The Sacred Night (for which he won France's Prix Goncourt), Corruption, This Blinding Absence of Light, and Leaving Tangier. Ben Jelloun moved at eighteen from Fez to Tangier where he attended a French high school until enrolling at the Universite Mohammed V in Rabat in 1963. It was at the university where Ben Jelloun's writing career began. Exposed to the journal Soufflés (Breaths) as well as the journal's founder, poet Abdellatif Laabi. Later, while interned in Morocco under the iron fist of King Hassan II, Ben Jelloun found an escape in James Joyce.