03 January , 2009
Slumdog Millionaire: Scamming The Audience
By Dan LiebermanEvery once in awhile a seemingly ordinary film entrances an audience beyond expectations. The Indian film Slumdog Millionaire appealed to Americans with its "rags to riches" story of a deprived youth from the slums of Mumbai, India, who used pluck, luck and an astonishing memory of incidents in his life to win 20 million rupees in a quiz program
01 December , 2008
Politics And The Arts,Internationalism And Activism
By Lloyd RowseyAn Interview With Gary Corseri
20 October , 2008
The Cruel Boredom Of Pornography
By Robert JensenPornography is relentlessly intense, pushing our sexual boundaries both physically and psychically. And, pornography also is incredibly repetitive and boring
A Wednesday- Making Fools Of Us All
By Ashley TellisA Wednesday is the latest in a lengthening list of films that prove that the Hindi film industry is complicit with the Indian state in demonising the Muslim and producing amnesiac versions of Indian nationalism and 'terrorism,' says Ashley Tellis
06 October , 2008
A Wednesday: Cinematic Politics
By Kamal MohammadA critique of the bollywood film "A Wednesday"
26 September , 2008
“Art And China’s Revolution” At The Asia
Society Museum:An Unofficial Guide To The Exhibit
By Li OnestoGo see this show. Don’t miss the opportunity to experience this art. Think about, discuss and debate with others, the important questions raised by this exhibit—and the whole period of human history that produced this art
09 September , 2008
Remembering 9/11
By Dr Marwan AsmarAs the world remembers the anniversary of 11 September, Osama Al Zain’s feature documentary Palestine Post 9/11 becomes ever more relevant in providing an analysis of the international system where war became an instrument of politics and priorities and alliances reordered to fight terrorist threats that may have been blown out of all proportions
27 August , 2008
Poetry, Hip-Hop And The Palestinian Experience
By Remi KanaziPoets For Palestine is a unique collection of poetry, spoken word, hip-hop and art devoted to Palestine. Unifying a diverse range of poets who have used their words to elevate the consciousness of humanity, this book aims to bridge a younger generation of poets with those who, for decades, have cultivated and strengthened the poetic medium
30 May , 2008
A Dream Deferred: Activism And The Arts
By Gary CorseriWe refuse to be quiet any longer. We refuse to numb ourselves to corporate crime, the military-industrial complex, the pollution of mainstream media, the theft of our ballots, the dumbing-down, the bastardization of our arts and culture. We are gathering and telling our stories. We are listening and painting and shaping the wood and inserting the grace notes. Poets are collaborating with composers and musicians. We no longer buy the tripe of “art for art’s sake.” We do not wait for the professors to sanction what we do. Politics is too important to be left to politicians
21 January , 2008
Horrors
By Mustapha B MarrouchiWhy do the horror, bleakness, and backward-looking despair seem to appeal to a Western audience pleased with itself, comforted by the feeling that the future is safe, that it has nothing to learn from Africa except the price it charges for toys and luxuries that it no longer chooses or knows how to make?
01 November , 2007
Liberals, Racism And The English Language
In 21st Century America
By Larry PinkneyOne of the most powerful and devastating forms of mental colonization in America is the English language itself—or more to the point the controlling definitions of said language. The so-called conservatives and liberals alike of white America are well aware of this, and often actually count on it. Mental colonization of we Black, Brown, and Red peoples assures the continuance of our physical subordination and control
17 September, 2007
M.I.A.’s Kala
By Sukant ChandanReview of M.I.A's new album 'KALA'
31 August, 2007
Green Voices: Some Aspects Of Ecological Criticism
By Dr. Murali SivaramakrishnanIntroducing ecocriticism into our hard-core curriculum would thus mean a rereading of our intellectual and cultural inheritance. Perhaps we could reintegrate our value systems and regain our sense of balance and harmony. Not through a strategy of homogenisation and universalisation but through a recognition of difference and an understanding of the many. Passion and compassion are at the core of ecocriticism
31 July, 2007
Song Of The Sleepless River
By Prasanna RatnayakeIn the past two months Hugh Masekela and Afroreggae have given sold-out concerts in the Barbican. But this note is not about jazz or reggae; it traces some reverberations and reflections these events evoked
28 July, 2007
The Terrible Innocence Of Art
By Jorge MajfudFreedom, perhaps, may be the main differential characteristic of art. And when this freedom does not turn its face away from the tragic reality of its people, then the characteristic turns into moral consciousness. Aesthetics is reconciled with ethics. Indifference is never neutral; only ignorance is neutral, but it proves to be an ethical and practical problem to promote ignorance in the name of some virtue
17 July, 2007
A New Documentary Series
From Dharmasiri Bandaranayake
By Prasanna RatnayakeSri Lanka’s political problems cannot be adequately understood without recognising the decades of systematic discrimination and exclusion from our cultural life of our non-Sinhala heritages. Dharmasiri Bandaranayake has made it a personal responsibility to recover and re-present aspects of our true traditions essential to the forging of a culturally coherent and liberated future for Sri Lanka
06 July, 2007
Protecting Culture Or Fishing In Troubled Waters?
By Prasanna RatnayakeAs books are no longer the main means of circulating modern culture, the attack is now on cinema. We are forced, or at least inclined to conclude that the methods of fascism have not changed greatly since the last century
29 May, 2007
Lisa Kois’s Film The Art Of Forgetting – Review
By Prasanna RatnayakeIt is sobering to watch Lisa Kois’s Art of Forgetting which covers the past thirty years of brutal civil wars and assassinations in the North, East and South of Sri Lanka. The subject of this documentary is the impact and scale of human suffering for people caught in the clash between those demanding a motherland and those defending a motherland
28 February, 2007
Parzania : Cinema That Questions The Spectator…..
By Anita RatnamWe all know that Secularism, sanity, safety cannot become real, if we remain "spectators". But how many movies remind us of this, and so poignantly?
19 February, 2007
Blackened Friday
By Farzana VerseyA critique of the film "Black Friday"
09 January, 2007
James Brown: The Man Who Named A People
By Glen FordJames Brown can arguably be credited with a feat few humans have achieved since the dawn of time. He named an entire people: Black Americans
The People's Republic Of Me
By Mickey Z.Novelist Nick Mamatas declares his independence
05 January, 2007
Writing The American Dream
By Mickey Z.An interview with novelist Mike Palecek
The Slow Suicide Of The West
By Jorge MajfudThe West appears, suddenly, devoid of its greatest virtues, constructed century after century, preoccupied now only with reproducing its own defects and with copying the defects of others, such as authoritarianism and the preemptive persecution of innocents
17 December, 2006
Apocalypto: The Cinematic Logic Of Genocide
By Juan SantosDespite its extreme brutality Apocalypto isn’t just Gibson’s latest snuff film with a religious theme. The film is a morality play, and there are only two things one needs to remember to get a hint of the ugly moral intent behind Mel Gibson’s depiction of the Maya
24 November, 2006
Viewer Or Voyeur?
By Amrita Nandy-JoshiWelcome to Indian Schadenfreude telly, where, as per the channel’s webpage, “The celebrities have to entertain themselves for 100 days whilst the public take pleasure in their pains”.
06 November, 2006
Pombo Must Go
By Robert BeckerA poem
03 November, 2006
Lessons from History, Tranquil Ripples
To Convulsive Tides
By Mirza A. BegA Poem
28 October, 2006
Lebanon's Irreplaceable Cultural Loss
By Mulham AssirThe loss inflicted by the Israeli war on Lebanon is measured in the 1,400 people killed, the thousands maimed (with more continuing to be killed and maimed by the hundreds of thousands of cluster bombs left behind), the hundreds of thousands displaced or left homeless, and the wholesale destruction of infrastructure essential to life. And yet there is even more loss, impossible to put a number to and irreplaceable- Lebanon's cultural loss
26 October, 2006
What's In A Label?
By Monish R. ChatterjeeAnglophile authors and pandering to neocon and Anglo-American sentiments on colonial freedom fighters.A review of the book Calcutta: a Cultural and Literary History by Krishna Dutta
07 October, 2006
Bricks In The Wall
By Farzana VerseyThe fate of the filming of Monica Ali's book will add her to the roster of Joans of Arc in what has now become a routine canonisation ritual of pop multiculturalism. A group of Bangladeshis has been opposing the film version of ' Brick Lane'; they found her story a caricature of them and their surroundings
31 August, 2006
Naguib Mahfouz Is No More
By Jeff BlackEgypt paid tribute yesterday to Naguib Mahfouz, father figure of Arabic literature, who died in Cairo aged 94
28 July, 2006
"An Iron Harvest" By C.P. Surendran
Reviewed By Vinod K. JoseThis is the debut novel of C.P. Surendran, a Resident Editor with The Times of India. The novel is set in Wayanad, Kerala and its Naxalite movement of 70s
09 July, 2006
A Motorbike Trip To Little Tibet- Part 1
By Ingmar LeeLadakh, is a wonderous desert moonscape of a land, set amidst the Earth's most spectacular mountain ranges, where an ancient culture strives to preserve its timeless way of life
08 July, 2006
Farewell Sleater-Kinney
By Joshua FrankI’m shocked to say that when Portland, Oregon based trio Sleater-Kinney announced last week that they were taking an “indefinite hiatus”, I was crushed
22 February, 2006
Horrors Of Camp Delta Are Exposed
By British Victims
By Nigel MorrisMichael Winterbottom's film "The Road to Guantanamo" shows prisoners in orange jumpsuits beaten, manacled to floors and subjected to defeaning music in solitary confinement. It tells the story of Asif Iqbal, Ruhel Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul, the so-called Tipton Three, who set off for Pakistan in September 2001 and ended up in Camp Delta, in Cuba's Guantanamo Bay. They were released without charge after more than two years' imprisonment.Winterbottom has called for the immediate closure of the US-run camp
21 February, 2006
The Muslim As The ‘Other’In Bollywood
By Gagandeep GhumanIn Bollywood caricatures, Muslims have either been Rahim Chacha’s or self-indulgent nawabs. By putting guns in their hands and jehad on their minds, Bollywood now fosters more dangerous stereotypes
11 February, 2006
Why We Fight
By Eugene Jarecki & Amy GoodmanA new film which opened in theatres in USA yesterday takes a look at the American war machine over the past half century. "Why We Fight" looks at conflicts from World War II right up to the current war in Iraq to examine the political, economic and ideological reasons that drive American war policy
22 January, 2006
My challenge For Steven Spielberg
By Robert Fisk'Munich' suggests for the first time on the big screen that Israel's policy is immoral
21 January, 2006
"Munich": Spielberg's Thrilling Crisis Of Conscience
By Maureen Clare MurphyAn appreciation of Spielberg's new film "Munich"
08 December, 2005
Art, Truth And Politics
By Harold PinterThe Nobel Prize lecture
17 October, 2005
The Silence Of Writers
By John PilgerHarold Pinter recently won the nobel prize for literature. John Pilger reminds us that While other writers have slept or twittered, Pinter has been aware that people are never still, and indeed are stirring again
21 August, 2005
The Rising Of The Rising
By Rajiv RawatA Bollywood blockbuster debates Imperialism, while North American film critics take a pass
02 June, 2005
Politics, Tamil Cinema Eshtyle
By S AnandTamil cinema's affair with politics has been a long-standing one, but in the last 10 years Tamil cinema has learnt to craft politics in a different fashion. How such politics is perceived and received has depended on the location of the audience in the caste-class, rural-urban axes
25 April, 2005
Abbas Kiarostami- Not A Martyr
By Stuart JeffriesJean-Luc Godard has said: "Film begins with DW Griffith and ends with Abbas Kiarostami." According to Martin Scorsese, "Kiarostami represents the highest level of artistry in the cinema." But in Iran, at least in official circles, Kiarostami worship is not on the agenda
23 April, 2005
The Secret Of Islamic Film-Makers
By Tariq AliIslamic film-makers have always had to subvert the rules of clerics and censors. It's what makes them some of the world's best directors
19 April, 2005
Decoded At Last: The 'Classical Holy Grail'
By David Keys and Nicholas PykeScientists begin to unlock the secrets of papyrus scraps bearing long-lost words by the literary giants of Greece and Rome
15 April, 2005
Russian Cinema Takes On Hollywood
By Nick Paton WalshThe phenomenal success of Nochnoi Dozor, or Night Watch, one of a new wave of homegrown blockbusters sweeping Russian cinemas is being touted as proof that Russian film can make money domestically and perhaps abroad
09 April, 2005
My Name Is Rachel Corrie
By Katharine VinerTwo years ago Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American protester, was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza. Since then she has become a potent symbol for both sides of the conflict. But who was the real Rachel? Katharine Viner has edited her writings for a new play "My Name Is Rachel Corrie"
18 March, 2005
The Media, The Entertainment
Industry And Michael Jackson
By David WalshThe Jackson trial has become the latest media extravaganza, given saturation coverage and endlessly hyped as part of the effort of corporate-controlled “news” outlets to coarsen and corrupt public sensibilities. The sordid character of the trial should come as a surprise to no one
13 March, 2005
Cinema And Secularism
By Mahesh Bhatt
The first rotten phase that Bollywood saw was when, under the name of demonising Pakistan, a lot of movies actually took perverse delight in mocking and ridiculing the Muslim community. It was a phase after which the public, having made one odd film into a big hit, themselves boycotted such films. And it is unlikely now that any such films will be made since they do not run at the box office anymore01 March, 2005
Expressions In Freedom
Documentary film festival by Asian women in DelhiThis International Women's Day, Delhi will witness a unique celebration of women & the ways in which they express themselves. 'Expressions in Freedom' is a festival celebrating documentary films by Asian women
18 February, 2005
Original Potemkin Beats The Censors After 79 Years
By Ronald BerganA new and uncensored version of one of cinema's classics, Battleship Potemkin is shown at the Berlin film festival
10 January, 2005
On The Passing Of Susan Sontag
By Am JohalWe are all diminished with the passing of Susan Sontag
28 October, 2004
Eminem Mosh Against Bush
By Sam Graham-FelsenEminem's new video 'Mosh' is a scathing indictment of President Bush and the War in Iraq. Mosh could be one of the most overtly political pop music videos ever produced
06 October, 2004
Indian Censors Hold Up 'Fahrenheit 9/11'
By Indo-Asian News ServiceIndian censors are holding up release of the award-winning documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11". Several reasons are being offered on why the censors are worried about the film. One of them is to avoid offending the American authorities
31 August, 2004
The Impact Of Fahrenheit 9/11
By John BergerFahrenheit 9/11 is astounding. Not so much as a film - although it is cunning and moving - but as an event.The film, considered as a political act, may be a historical landmark
06 August, 2004
Censor Board Bans 'Final Solution'
By Kalpana SharmaThe Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has refused to pass Rakesh Sharma's award-winning film on the Gujarat violence. Final Solution, the three-and-a-half hour documentary, was rejected by the Board on the grounds that it "promotes communal disharmony among Hindu and Muslim groups and presents the picture of Gujarat riots in a way that it may arouse communal feelings and clashes among Hindu Muslim groups."
28 July, 2004
Film Review: "Control Room"
By Maureen Clare MurphyA particularly troubling issue presented in the film is how the lines between media and military are blurred by the U.S. administration during wartime, demonstrated by U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld discussing how the U.S. government hopes to change Al-Jazeera's coverage as though doing so is part of U.S. military strategy
06 July, 2004
Fahrenheit 9/11 Is A Stupid White Movie
By Robert JensenFahrenheit 9/11 is under attack from the right, for very different reasons than I have raised. But those attacks shouldn't stop those who consider themselves left, progressive, liberal, anti-war, anti-empire or just plain pissed-off from criticizing the film's flaws and limitations
02 July, 2004
Michael Moore Is Blind, Or A Coward
By Bob DreyfussI have to conclude the Michael Moore is either blind, or a coward. Blind, if he can't see Bush's craven ties to Israel, driven by the neocons and the Christian Zionists and Bible-thumping fundamentalists like Jerry Falwell, who consider Israel Jesus' next stop and see Saudi Arabia as Satanic
23 June, 2004
Interface With Anand Patwardhan
By S Prince & Anand PatwardhanDocumentary film maker Anand Patwardhan talks about his politics and his movies
10 June, 2004
'They Want Us To Emigrate'
By Dan de LuceThanks to Makhmalbaf and Kiarostami, Iranian cinema is acclaimed around the world. But can its film-makers survive Iran's new conservative censors?
25 March, 2004
The Reel Savarkar
By Niranjan RamakrishnanA review of the film by Ved Rahi on the life of VD Savarkar now doing the rounds in North America
04 March, 2004
An Academy Award For Bigotry
By Mike DavisThe most startling thing about Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ -- even more than its relentless, shockingly eroticized cruelty -- is its fidelity to the anti-Semitic conventions of Hitlerian cinema
04 March, 2004
"Matrubhoomi: A Nation Without Women"
By Soma WadhwaManish Jha's film "Matrubhoomi: A Nation Without Women" tells of the metamorphosis of the male into animal if the world were to become womanless. The film takes the evil of female infanticide to its logical conclusion
30 January, 2004
The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine
By John PilgerJohn Pilger reviews the documentary "S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine" by Tuol Sleng and the Pol Pot regime
28 November, 2003
A Vatican For Film-Makers
By Chris PayneHow does a Havana film school attract lavish funding and the likes of Soderbergh and Spielberg? With a nod and a wink from Fidel Castro
11 November, 2003
The Silence Of Writers
By John PilgerFor the great writers of the 20th century, art could not be separated from politics. Today, there is a disturbing silence on the dark matters that should command our attention
28 October, 2003
Literature Is Freedom
By Susan SontagThe Friedenspreis acceptance speech of Susan Sontag
Tagore And His India
By Amartya SenA tribute to Tagore by the Nobel luareate Amartya Sen
31 August, 2003
Tagore and Jana Gana Mana
By Monish R. ChatterjeeThis article is written in response to the frequently perpetuated myth that Rabindranath Tagore wrote the song Jana Gana Mana for the British monarch
04 August, 2003
Remembering Bhishma Sahani
By K.G. KannabiranBhishma Sahani anticipated Gujarat long before and later in 1988, when his work was televised
23 July, 2003
The Necessity Of Anti-Sentimentalism
By Ananya Jahanara KabirArtists response to partition should mover from an overwhelmingly sentimental phase towards more searching, self-reflexive acts of remembrance, recuperation and mourning
11 July, 2003
Harry Potter And The Childish Adult
By A.S. ByattBooker Prize winning novelist A.S.Byatt dismisses the latest instalment of the Harry Potter adventures as below par "ersatz magic" which lacked the skill of the great children's writers and catered for readers with stunted imaginations
16 June, 2003
Orwell and Me
By Margaret AtwoodMargaret Atwood cried her eyes out when she first read Animal Farm at the age of nine. Later, its author became a major influence on her writing. As the centenary of George Orwell's birth approaches, she says he would have plenty to say about the post-9/11 world
17 May, 2003
Singing The Nation
By Nasreen RehmanThe Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi national anthems are very much in the tradition of their Western counterparts, glorifying a make-believe land where the landmass becomes an end in itself – a way of identifying the individual citizen, who is bound and defined by unreal geography and who sings the praise of an unreal nation
'Calcutta Robbed Me Of Words, I Was Mute'
The Nobel Prize winner Gunter Grass in conversation with Subhoranajan Dasgupta on a range of topics from George Bush's crusade to the writer's flowering as an artist.What is Architecture?
By R.L.KumarA view of architecture as human and intimate, craft like and local, regenerative and impermanent, the only long term and sustainable paradigm for homelessness and a relevant aesthetic.
Public Spaces: The Architecture of Supervised Freedom
By R.L. Kumar
Roads, parks, capitols, beaches, zoological/botanical sanctuaries are all public spaces which, in their design and intent, guarantee the freedom of some while denying the freedom of others.