The Arts Edit: Amman Film Festival's Gaza focus
Welcome to the latest edition of The Arts Edit, my weekly newsletter from The National News's Abu Dhabi newsroom rounding up this week's most noteworthy arts and culture stories.
IN FOCUS
Amman International Film Festival is running this week in Jordan and this year’s edition has focused on amplifying the diverse voices of Palestine with steadfast moral clarity.
This is particularly notable in the current context. Since October, international festivals around the world have dealt with the ongoing tragedy in Gaza, which the Lancet medical journal estimates may have resulted in 186,000 deaths thus far, in very different ways.
Some have cancelled editions entirely. Others have addressed the Israel-Gaza war without making it a focus. In May, Cannes Film Festival, one of the world's most significant events of its kind, discouraged political statements of any type, leading stars to use subtle red carpet nods of Palestinian solidarity as an act of resistance.
But in Amman, telling Palestinian stories on a grand stage feels more vital than ever. Those participating consider art as an important tool towards establishing peace and an integral effort towards preserving a culture under threat.
As Lina Soualem, whose Oscar-submitted documentary Bye Bye Tiberias screened on the festival’s opening night, said: “I just want to say that through our films and our voices, we fight oblivion.”
Jordan's Princess Rym Ali, who is president of the festival, explained the event’s aims in her opening speech. Find Razmig Bedirian's report from the festival's opening night here.
“This is a very difficult time for all of us. We have spent the past 10 months watching unbelievable tragedies unfold in Palestine,” Princess Rym said, before referencing Palestinian activist Rafeef Ziadah’s viral poem We Teach Life, Sir.
“We decided to practise life and show it on the big silver screen by sharing stories of those who never allow their culture to be erased,” she added. “So let's tell our stories.”
Those stories have been told both on screen and off. The prolific actress Hiam Abbass, star of Succession as well as her daughter’s film Bye Bye Tiberias, shared her "life or death" journey towards film in a one-on-one session, highlighting the difficulty she had in pursuing the arts. Find more here.
Alana Hadid, sister of Bella and Gigi Hadid, made a virtual appearance as well, to discuss the foundation of the Palestine-focused production company Watermelon Pictures, for which she serves as creative director.
For Hadid, it is important not only to tell Palestinian stories at the moment – but for Palestinians to be involved at every stage of production.
“We want to make sure that our stories are being represented correctly,” Hadid said on stage. "Arabs have been looked at as the bad guys because it's been normalised within western entertainment. This translates into how people can get away with things, like what’s happening in Gaza." Find more here.
While Palestine is the central focus of this year's festival, the event also celebrates Arab voices from around the world. The National spoke to Swiss-Egyptian filmmaker Tamer Ruggli, whose film Back to Alexandria stars Nadine Labaki as a woman whose trip home to see her mother in Egypt causes a crisis of conscience. Find that here.
Our correspondents are on the ground in Jordan all week at the festival, so keep an eye on The National for ongoing coverage.
Fight to preserve indigenous Tamazight language
A 2,000-year-old North African language spoken by about three million and has now been given a global online platform by Google Translate, writes Saeed Saeed.
领英推荐
Tamazight is spoken by Amazigh communities predominantly in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia – and awareness of the indigenous language has been growing thanks to artists, musicians and educators across the region.
The addition of Tamazight to the world's most popular search engine, facilitating the use of the language's Tifinagh alphabet for online communication and translation, is being described as another “significant” step forward by speakers.
“It’s one thing to speak the language,” says Khadija El Bennaoui, a Moroccan events producer and curator. “But it’s another to actually type it online. Previously, we had to use a third language like French for emails or phone messages. Now my language is available, I look forward to learning more about how to write it online, which will be a small challenge.”
The challenge is a welcome one for El Bennaoui, who remembers when her indigenous tongue was overlooked, dismissed and ignored.
Recalling a childhood in Morocco long before the Amazigh identity was constitutionally recognised in 2011, she says: “We are going back about three decades now, but back then in Morocco, I wasn’t allowed to speak my language at school. Instead, we heard Arabic, French and English.
“Tamazight was viewed as an old and unfashionable language. It was falsely perceived as a language of the lower class and those speaking it were viewed as uneducated or uncultured.”
Find more here.
Meet the man guiding The Beatles' future
On October 9, 1969, seven weeks and a day after the Beatles' final recording session together at Abbey Road Studios, Giles Martin, son of the band's gamed producer George Martin, was born in London. It was John Lennon’s 29th birthday.
On Sunday, The Beatles: Love, the acclaimed Cirque du Soleil show that has run for 18 years, closed permanently in Las Vegas. It was Ringo Starr’s 84th birthday.
“It’s quite sad. They’re knocking down the casino, and even the powers that be can’t change that,” Martin, 54, laments to The National.
“I was with Paul McCartney last week and we were talking about how long it’s been. It was the first thing I did on this journey, and it changed my life, genuinely speaking – making that show,” he continues. “And I’m very proud of it.”
The show wouldn’t have existed without Martin. In the early noughties, plans for a collaboration between the French circus and the Fab Four nearly fell apart before Martin had an idea of how to make it work.
Its success turned Martin into one of the most in-demand sound experts globally. Over the past 18 years, Martin has produced the acclaimed deluxe editions of most of the Beatles catalogue, collaborated with a host of legendary artists including The Rolling Stones, Kate Bush and Elvis Costello, and worked on films with directors including Martin Scorsese, Peter Jackson, Ron Howard and Matthew Vaughn – winning himself an Emmy in the process.
He spoke to The National about his journey, his father, and his plans for the Beatles' future, which you can find here.
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