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Ed Webb

Inside Kannywood: Nigeria's Muslim film industry - Al Jazeera English - 0 views

www.aljazeera.com/...-industry-160304135629131.html

Nigeria Africa film women gender Islam media

shared by Ed Webb on 16 Mar 16 - No Cached
  • This film industry has been coined Kannywood, after the city it originated in. According to statistics from the National Film and Video Censors Board, its movies make up about 30 percent of the films produced by the Nigerian-based film industry popularly called Nollywood, which is often portrayed as the third-largest in the world, after Hollywood and Bollywood. Kannywood even has its own TV channel, Africa Magic Hausa, showing Hausa-language movies on satellite TV.
  • Kannywood treats the viewer to a mishmash of cultural influences. Before the local film industry came into existence in the 1990s, northerners watched Hindi language films from India. The glamour of the Bollywood musicals has rubbed off on the Hausa movies, some of which feature singing and dancing.
  • Their tone is devoutly Muslim, though, and quite often the very last line of the end credits is "Glory be to God". Many of these movies also denounce the hypocrisy of the ruling classes who preach piousness in public while sinning in private.
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  • They don't shy away from the problems women face in everyday life, such as forced marriage, sexual molestation, the lack of female education, and domestic violence - matters this society is not accustomed to discussing openly.
  • It is hardly surprising that women, who for the first time see their own experiences reflected in the public domain, form a significant part of Kannywood's audience. They also play a considerable role in the industry itself. According to the Motion Pictures Practitioners Association of Nigeria, 75 percent of the Hausa movie actors are female, as is the case for two-thirds of the association's members - from singers and producers to actors and make-up artists.
  • the Kano-based film industry is providing jobs and business to the city, something that went a long way towards improving public opinion of the profession.
  • not more than 10 years ago, a moralistic backlash triggered by a sex scandal almost destroyed the local film industry. As is often the case in public fights about morality, the female body was the battleground.
  • The Censorship Board came into existence before the scandal in 2001, and is a combined initiative of the local film industry and the state government. It was a response to the adoption of Islamic law in Kano a year earlier. Under the law, filmmaking was under threat of being abolished altogether. In order to avoid that, Kannywood voluntarily subjected itself to stricter censorship.
  • stricter guidelines, such as the banning of married women from acting, while also requiring all women in the industry to have a male guardian who would be legally responsible if their ward broke the rules
  • The overly zealous KSCB executive lost his moral authority when the police caught him in a compromising situation with a young girl in his car, and Kannywood celebrated when, in 2011, the newly elected governor appointed a new head of the Censorship Board.
  • He describes the task of the board as "preserving Hausa culture".
  • "We don't like to see body contact between men and women. No handshaking, let alone kissing," he says. "And no nudity or transparent dresses." The general secretary explains how things such as prostitution, lesbianism and adultery may be portrayed, as long as it is clear to the audience that they are unacceptable. Song and dance are permissible, as long as there is no physical contact between the sexes.
  • "Filmmakers themselves understand they have a task to educate people and cannot go against society,"
  • Kannywood movies do transmit empowering messages to a female audience
  • "It's the masses who watch Kannywood movies, not the elite. The general public is more ready for social change than political and religious leaders."
  • female producers are rare, let alone female directors
  • most female producers work with a male assistant to get things done on the ground
Ed Webb

Reviving the art of cinema in Gaza City - AJE News - 0 views

www.aljazeera.com/...gaza-city-160324060451220.html

film Gaza Palestine cinema

shared by Ed Webb on 27 Mar 16 - No Cached
  • The sight of an active cinema hall is not common in Gaza, where all cinemas were either destroyed or permanently closed around the time of the first Intifada. Save for a couple of failed attempts to reopen them in the 1990s, the 10 cinemas that existed across the coastal territory before the Intifada have remained shut ever since.
  • Gaza Cinema, led by members of the production company Ain Media, launched about six weeks ago with a goal to revive cinema culture in the besieged enclave, where younger generations have grown up without ever setting foot inside a movie theatre. "I'm from the generation that never experienced cinema in Gaza," 27-year-old Hossam Salem, one of the organisers, told Al Jazeera. "People have a wider choice online, so one of the challenges is to get them to come and pay money to see a movie. I would like to see cinema culture one day become mainstream again."
  • "We are working with films that do not breach our tradition and that carry a good message, whether it is national or social," Salem said, noting blurbs about each film are submitted to the culture ministry for approval prior to screening. Most of the movies screened so far have been Palestinian feature films and children's cartoons.
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  • The history of cinema in Gaza dates back to the 1940s, noted Khalil al-Mozayen, who directed a documentary called 36mm about the decline of cinema in Gaza.  "After 1948, war and refugees came to Gaza," Mozayen told Al Jazeera. "UNRWA [the UN's Palestinian refugee agency] began showing Arabic cinema in the refugee camps. Before the film, they'd broadcast messages telling people to drink milk and clean their teeth. The project enjoyed a lot of popularity." In the 1950s, Mozayen said, businessmen started to open cinemas. But after 1967, "religious groups started broadcasting messages against cinema", he said.
  • Al-Nasser Cinema was closed after the 1967 war, only to be reopened a year later upon the request of the new occupying authorities, the Israelis.
  • "At that time, we could no longer bring films from Egypt; we brought films from Israel. The cinema started showing Chinese, Indian, and European films," Khazendar said. "It was then that people began to stop going to the cinema. It became associated with the 'bad people'."
  • Gaza has produced notable film directors, such as Rashid Masharawi and the Nasser brothers, known as Arab and Tarzan, who have pursued their careers outside of Gaza
Ed Webb

Israel's war on the Arabic language - AJE News - 1 views

www.aljazeera.com/...-language-160404102325547.html

Israel language Palestinians Arabic minority minorities politics nationalism

shared by Ed Webb on 09 Apr 16 - No Cached
  • A survey, publicised at a conference at Tel Aviv University in December, found that while 17 percent of Jewish citizens claimed to understand Arabic, that figure fell to just 1 percent when they were asked to read a book
  • those with a working knowledge of Arabic were mostly elderly Jewish immigrants born in Arab countries - a generation rapidly dying off
  • half of Israeli Jews with a western heritage wanted Arabic scrapped as an official language, while the figure rose even higher - to 60 percent - among Jews whose families originated from Arab countries
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  • Israel's Jewish schools barely teach Arabic, he observed, and students choosing it do so chiefly as a qualification for entering Israeli military intelligence.
  • When the head of Israel Railways was questioned in 2012 on why station stops were announced in Hebrew and English only, he replied that adding Arabic would "make the train ride noisy".
  • According to a survey, one in four Palestinian citizens struggle to read Hebrew. Farah, of Mossawa, noted that even when public bodies such as the transport ministry included Arabic, it was often so poorly translated from Hebrew that the information was unintelligible.
  • In February it was revealed that Tel Aviv University had barred Palestinian staff in its tuition department from speaking Arabic to students. The policy was reversed after threats of legal action.
  • Jewish and Palestinian parents in Jaffa staged a protest, accusing the Tel Aviv municipality of breaking promises to include Arabic signs and respect Muslim and Christian holidays at the city's first public bilingual school
  • Sawsan Zaher, a lawyer with Adalah, said the 2002 ruling had been a high point for recognition of Arabic in Israel, with the more liberal court of the time stating that it was vital to the dignity of the Palestinian minority that Arabic be used in public spaces in mixed cities. "In recent years Adalah has been very cautious about bringing more such cases to the courts," she told Al Jazeera. "Given the shift to the right in the intervening years, we are worried that the advances made in language rights then might be reversed by the current court."
Ed Webb

Safety of journalists takes centre stage at Doha events - Al Jazeera English - 0 views

www.aljazeera.com/...ha-events-160317210015332.html

Qatar media journalists MENA

shared by Ed Webb on 18 Mar 16 - No Cached
  • Ed Webb on 18 Mar 16
     
    MENA has become a particularly dangerous region for journalists, but was not always so.
Ed Webb

A year of blogging, threats and silence - Opinion - Al Jazeera English - 0 views

www.aljazeera.com/...20111230102652797662.html

bloggers censorship analysis Egypt Syria Bahrain Iran

shared by Ed Webb on 02 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • statistics compiled by tireless groups such as Global Voices, Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists suggest 2011 to be among the worst years yet for online free expression, marred by the persecution of bloggers and social media users in a number of states
Ed Webb

Bahrain: The media war - Listening Post - Al Jazeera English - 0 views

www.aljazeera.com/...2012217112626131152.html

media Bahrain street_art

shared by Ed Webb on 26 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Over the last year, the Bahraini government has been scaling up its information control apparatus and media access to the country is rigorously monitored and managed by the government and its team of Western PR advisors.
  • 'Social media' conjures up thoughts of instant internet communication, global chatter over the web, computers, mobiles, tweets, posts etc. But there is a communication form that predates these modern tools - political street art. Street art can be dated back to ancient Egypt and throughout history it has been employed by those with a political point to make. From the outset of the Arab uprisings, people from Egypt to Libya have been enjoying their newfound freedom of expression, taking to the walls to say what they want to say. In this week's feature, Listening Post's Meenakshi Ravi looks at a communication form that is for the people, by the people.
Ed Webb

Tunisia's embattled artists speak out - Features - Al Jazeera English - 0 views

www.aljazeera.com/...2012615111819112421.html

Tunisia censorship Salafists ennahda religion art

shared by Ed Webb on 19 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • Members of the Ennahdha party, the dominant group in the coalition government, were among those calling for renewed protests. Odalisque 2.0 by Héla Ammar, was part of the exhibition The movement's leader, Rachid Ghannouchi, said in a statement on Friday that he condemned all violence against individuals or property. Yet he also restated his opposition to "attacks on the beliefs of Tunisians" and of the need to protect "sacred symbols".
  • Rachid Ghannouchi, said in a statement on Friday that he condemned all violence against individuals or property. Yet he also restated his opposition to "attacks on the beliefs of Tunisians" and of the need to protect "sacred symbols".
  • The concept of national or sacred values is just a pretext to muzzle artists and creativity. These concepts can be interpreted in many different ways, especially the most restrictive, which will ultimately result in Tunisia having official art and dissident art
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  • Artists, intellectuals and journalists have routinely been cast as elitist and non-believers, they say, not only by the ultra-conservative fringe, but also by members of the coalition government.
  • We are in the middle of a war between several political movements, with the Salafists and other reactionary movements which are pressuring the present government against moderation and appeasement
  • the personal details of some artists have been published on extremist [Facebook] pages which have thousands of fans. They are calling for the murder of these artists
  • we don't have any protection, and even the cultural ministry, which should be defending us, has abandoned us. The minister [of culture] put out a statement condemning the violence and the calls for murder - but that is far from enough, because he has never expressly spoken up in support of artists
  • Under Ben Ali, we suffered most of all from self-censorship when it came to tackling political subjects. Now, the censorship is based on religious and moral questions, which has made things even worse. These latest developments are a windfall for conservative supporters, who are already proposing to incriminate any attack on the sacred. If that happens, all artists and intellectuals will be affected
Ed Webb

Erdogan: Turkey freer than some EU states - Europe - Al Jazeera English - 0 views

www.aljazeera.com/...-states-20142971837480535.html

Turkey censorship internet EU Erdogan

shared by Ed Webb on 09 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • "These regulations do not impose any censorship at all on the internet. On the contrary, they make it safer and freer."
  • Human Rights Watch said the restrictions raised concerns that a "defensive government is seeking to increase its power to silence critics and to arbitrarily limit politically damaging material online". Martin Schulz, European Parliament chief, called them a "step back in an already suffocating environment for media freedom", while the US also expressed misgivings. 460
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