AFRICAN DIASPORA FILM FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS
December 10, 2008 · Leave a Comment
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Tuesday, 9 December 2008 |
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“The Night in Egypt” with NY Premiere of Youssef Chahine last film “Chaos” – Screening + Reception “African Underground – Democracy in Dakar” Screening + Panel Discussion with director Ben Herson “Paris or nothing” Screening _ Q&A with director Josephine Ndagno Wednesday December 10 “The End of Poverty” – Screening + Panel discussion with director Philippe Diaz “Paris or nothing” Screening _ Q&A with director Josephine Ndagno Thursday December 11 Women Indies night “Period Piece” followed by “Gold Diggin‘ ” Screening + Q&A with director Pamela J. Richardson + Reception Friday December 12 Panel Discussions: Sisters in cinema – A conversation with independent African – American filmmakers whose films enjoyed a theatrical release in the US Conversation with Mohamed Soudani – ADFF 2008 Filmmaker in residence. Discussion followed by a reception Saturday December 13 Panel Discussions: Production of African, Latin American and Caribbean cinema – The focus of this panel will be on the support that various organizations provide to the production of films from and in developing countries with Cinema representative from the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, Tiziana Soudani (AMKA Films), Mark Walton (The Africa Channel)
Closing Ceremony Please note that the documentary “Made in Jamaica” will be playing at the Thalia Theater (Symphony Space) December 14 & December 16. |
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Categories: GENERAL
8 Mile Star Found Dead Day After Thanksgiving
December 10, 2008 · Leave a Comment
8 Mile Star Found Dead Day After Thanksgiving Feature Story
8 Mile Star Found Dead Day After Thanksgiving
8-Dec-2008
Written by: Ashlee ToddAspiring actor De’Angelo Wilson was found hung in a Los Angeles business just one day after Thanksgiving.
Aspiring actor De’Angelo Wilson was found hung in a Los Angeles business just one day after Thanksgiving.
According to police, the star, best known for his role in 8 Mile as “DJ Iz,” committed suicide. After a week spent locating Wilson’s next of kin, his mother said she did not have the funds to ship her dead son back to his hometown. Some of his friends have contributed to the costs, including the real Antwone Fisher, who became close with Wilson during the production of Antwone Fisher, in which he played a small role.
His most recent role was in 2006’s Mercy Street, when he starred as “Julius.” Wilson also played parts in The Salon, CSI: NY and Outside Man.
Categories: GENERAL
Newsweek Finds Bible Isn’t Actually Against Gay Marriage
December 10, 2008 · Leave a Comment
Newsweek Finds Bible Isn’t Actually Against Gay MarriageTuesday, December 9, 2008
This week’s Newsweek cover story titled Our Mutual Joynews is tres interesting. The story delves into Biblical Scriptures and the results show that the Bible doesn’t quite preach against gay marriage.
In the Old Testament, the concept of family is fundamental, but examples of what social conservatives would call “the traditional family” are scarcely to be found. Marriage was critical to the passing along of tradition and history, as well as to maintaining the Jews’ precious and fragile monotheism. But as the Barnard University Bible scholar Alan Segal puts it, the arrangement was between “one man and as many women as he could pay for.” Social conservatives point to Adam and Eve as evidence for their one man, one woman argument—in particular, this verse from Genesis: “Therefore shall a man leave his mother and father, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.” But as Segal says, if you believe that the Bible was written by men and not handed down in its leather bindings by God, then that verse was written by people for whom polygamy was the way of the world. (The fact that homosexual couples cannot procreate has also been raised as a biblical objection, for didn’t God say, “Be fruitful and multiply”? But the Bible authors could never have imagined the brave new world of international adoption and assisted reproductive technology—and besides, heterosexuals who are infertile or past the age of reproducing get married all the time.)
If the Bible doesn’t give abundant examples of traditional marriage, then what are the gay-marriage opponents really exercised about? Well, homosexuality, of course—specifically sex between men. Sex between women has never, even in biblical times, raised as much ire. In its entry on “Homosexual Practices,” the Anchor Bible Dictionary notes that nowhere in the Bible do its authors refer to sex between women, “possibly because it did not result in true physical ‘union’ (by male entry).” The Bible does condemn gay male sex in a handful of passages. Twice Leviticus refers to sex between men as “an abomination” (King James version), but these are throwaway lines in a peculiar text given over to codes for living in the ancient Jewish world, a text that devotes verse after verse to treatments for leprosy, cleanliness rituals for menstruating women and the correct way to sacrifice a goat—or a lamb or a turtle dove. Most of us no longer heed Leviticus on haircuts or blood sacrifices; our modern understanding of the world has surpassed its prescriptions. Why would we regard its condemnation of homosexuality with more seriousness than we regard its advice, which is far lengthier, on the best price to pay for a slave?
Paul was tough on homosexuality, though recently progressive scholars have argued that his condemnation of men who “were inflamed with lust for one another” (which he calls “a perversion”) is really a critique of the worst kind of wickedness: self-delusion, violence, promiscuity and debauchery. In his book “The Arrogance of Nations,” the scholar Neil Elliott argues that Paul is referring in this famous passage to the depravity of the Roman emperors, the craven habits of Nero and Caligula, a reference his audience would have grasped instantly. “Paul is not talking about what we call homosexuality at all,” Elliott says. “He’s talking about a certain group of people who have done everything in this list. We’re not dealing with anything like gay love or gay marriage. We’re talking about really, really violent people who meet their end and are judged by God.” In any case, one might add, Paul argued more strenuously against divorce—and at least half of the Christians in America disregard that teaching.
In addition to its praise of friendship and its condemnation of divorce, the Bible gives many examples of marriages that defy convention yet benefit the greater community. The Torah discouraged the ancient Hebrews from marrying outside the tribe, yet Moses himself is married to a foreigner, Zipporah. Queen Esther is married to a non-Jew and, according to legend, saves the Jewish people.
Categories: GENERAL
Baez Seeks a Ban on ‘Ghetto’
December 10, 2008 · Leave a Comment
Baez Seeks a Ban on ‘Ghetto’
By Azi Paybarah
nyc.gov
Baez.
In August, the New York Daily News ran a column headlined, “Maria Baez ‘goes ghetto’ on election power lawyer Stanley Schlein.”
The article describes a time when Baez was at the Board of Elections in the Bronx and was “cursing a blue streak [and] lunged across the table at Stanley.”
Today, Baez introduced a City Council resolution “declaring a symbolic ban on the negative use of the word ‘ghetto’ in New York City.”
Categories: GENERAL
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