The lawyer of actress Lindsay has confirmed that the actress would be appearing in the court on Thursday. The actress is currently in Cannes for the International Film Festival. The “Mean Girls†star has been ordered by the judge to appear for a probation status hearing on Thursday.
Lindsay’s is represented in the court by lawyer [...]
Posts Tagged ‘international film festival’
Actress Lindsay To Be In Court On Thursday
May 21st, 2010 |
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Lindsay Lohan in trouble
May 17th, 2010 |
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Lindsay Lohan has until May 18 to prove to the judge she completed a 13-sessions detox program, and failing to comply would mean JAILTIME.
As of today, she completed 9 out of 13 and we’re 48h away from the deadline, and she’s planning a trip to Cannes’ International Film Festival instead of trying to catch up [...]
Belgrade film festival set to open
February 19th, 2010 |
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The 38th FEST International Film Festival is set to open tonight in Belgrade. Visitors will be able to see more than 70 films from around the world at several locations in Belgrade until February 28.
International Film Festival kicks off in Kashmir
November 14th, 2009 |
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The three-day International Film Festival, showcasing 15 international documentary flicks by distinguished filmmakers across the globe, began here on Friday (November 13).
The event, which is being jointly organised by a Srinagar-based NGO, Experimental Moving Images and Theatre Association (XMITA) in association with the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, is expected [...]
Red-carpet kids
August 10th, 2009 |
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By Mpho Lakaje
BBC News, Durban
It is an inspirational tale with a cast of untrained child actors from humble backgrounds. Comparisons with Slumdog Millionaire are inevitable, but the film Izulu Lami (My Secret Sky) is all about South Africa.
It is a story of resilience. It follows the lives of two young children who are orphaned after their mother dies of a mystery illness.
The children decide to leave their village in rural Kwa-Zulu Natal for Durban where they plan to sell the only item of value left by their mother, a well-decorated African mat.
While she was alive their mother would make trips to the city to sell her handmade carpets. This was their only means of survival.
Knowing that they will be wealthy if they successfully put their mother’s carpet on the market, they stop at nothing to make their dream come true.
"They don’t have boundaries, they don’t put stops like adults"
Director Madodo Ncayiyana
They arrive at a buzzing Durban which presents adversities and forces them down the path of self-discovery.
The movie is performed by a cast of child actors with no previous acting experience.
"The fulfilling thing is that they are willing to learn," says director Madodo Ncayiyana.
"They don’t have boundaries, they don’t put stops like adults."
Izulu Lami was filmed in the city and humble rural villages of Kwa-Zulu Natal, where all the actors and director come from.
‘Unexpected’ adulation
Although IsiZulu is the dominant language in the film, this did not stop it from wowing audiences in Japan and Spain – albeit with the aid of subtitles.
"I’m proud of myself because I never thought I had such abilities, I thank God for the talents He has blessed me with"
Sobahle Mkhabase
It launched officially at the annual Durban International Film Festival in July and goes on general release later this month.
South Africa’s film industry has grown over the past 10 years with some films receiving international acclaim.
Films such as Tsotsi, which won an Academy award in 2006 for Best International film, Yesterday which received the country’s first Oscar nomination in 2005 and u-Carmen eKhayelitsha which received an award for Best film at the Berlin Film festival in 2005, are just some of the country’s most well-received films.
Movie critics say the strength of this movie lies in the performances and innocence of the youngsters as well as its emotional storyline.
Eleven-year-old Sobahle Mkhabase who plays one of the lead roles says she is "surprised by the achievements of the movie".
"I really didn’t expect all of this," she beams.
The creators say it was challenging for the children to portray scenes that they have never gone through in real life, such as a near rape situation.
"I’m proud of myself because I never thought I had such abilities, I thank God for the talents He has blessed me with," adds an eloquent Miss Mkhabase.
‘Raw acting’
Another member of the cast, 13-year-old Sizwe Xaba, says he is "trying to find ways of dealing with my overnight fame".
"I realise that I am famous at an early age but I think I’ll be able to handle it. I never knew I would reach this level but I’m happy to find myself here," he says.
Durban residents were treated to a premier of the movie recently.
Even though many complained about Izulu Lami’s slow start, the movie was received warmly.
"I quite enjoyed it. Raw cinematography, raw acting but great story and it taps into your emotions," explained one of the moviegoers at the film’s premiere.
Another one described it as "intriguing".
The strides made by the local industry show that there is a growing interest in South African storytelling both locally and abroad.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Chinese hack film festival site
July 26th, 2009 |
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Chinese hackers have attacked the website of Australia’s biggest film festival over a documentary about Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer.
Content on the Melbourne International Film Festival site was briefly replaced with the Chinese flag and anti-Kadeer slogans on Saturday, reports said.
In an earlier protest on Friday, Beijing withdrew four Chinese films.
Melbourne’s The Age newspaper says private security guards have been hired to protect Kadeer and other film-goers.
She is due to attend the screening of Ten Conditions of Love, by Australian documentary-maker Jeff Daniels, on 8 August.
‘Vile language’
Chinese authorities blame Kadeer – leader of the World Uighur Congress – for inciting ethnic unrest in Xinjiang, charges she denies.
Earlier this month, around 200 people died and 1,600 were injured during fighting in the region between the mostly Muslim Uighurs and settlers from China’s Han majority.
Kadeer, 62, spent six years in a Chinese prison before she was released into exile in the US in 2005. In 2004, she won the Rafto Prize for human rights.
Richard Moore, head of the Melbourne International Film Festival, told the Age his staff had been bombarded with abusive emails after the festival refused the Chinese government’s demands to withdraw the film about Kadeer and cancel her invitation to the festival.
"The language has been vile," Mr Moore said. "It is obviously a concerted campaign to get us."
He said police were investigating the website attacks, which appear to come from a Chinese internet address.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Chinese directors shun festival
July 22nd, 2009 |
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Two Chinese directors have boycotted Australia’s biggest film festival over the screening of a documentary about political activist Rebiya Kadeer.
Richard Moore, head of the Melbourne International Film Festival, said their films were pulled after he ignored political pressure from Beijing.
He told the AFP news agency "It’s hard to draw any other conclusion."
Chinese authorities blame Kadeer – leader of the World Uighur Congress – for inciting ethnic unrest in Xinjiang.
Earlier this month, at least 197 people died and more than 1,600 were injured during fighting in the region between the mostly Muslim Uighurs and a growing number of settlers from China’s Han majority.
Kadeer, 62, spent six years in a Chinese prison before she was released into exile in the US in 2005.
In 2004, she won the Rafto Prize for human rights.
She is expected to attend the screening of Ten Conditions of Love, by Australian documentary-maker Jeff Daniels.
‘Annoyed and irritated’
In a statement, Mr Moore said Jia Zhangke, director of the short film Cry Me A River, and Emily Tang, the director of Perfect Life, "have decided to withdraw their films from this year’s festival".
He added that Ms Tang had cancelled her trip to Melbourne as a guest of the festival.
Mr Moore said the screening of Ten Conditions of Love, which has sold out at the event, was the subject of a phone call from a Chinese consular official last week.
But he said the festival would stand firm by its decision to include the documentary in the programme.
He told AFP: "It makes me feel angry, annoyed and irritated all at the same time, that they would try to interfere with our programme for blatantly political ends."
China has not commented on the films being withdrawn.
A third Chinese film-maker, Zhao Liang, has also asked the festival to drop his film Petition, a controversial documentary examining injustices in China’s court system. </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
South Africa’s Slumdog wins plaudits
July 21st, 2009 |
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Low-budget film with 11-year-old township girl in lead role wins international plaudits
An 11-year-old township girl will walk down the red carpet this week at the premiere of an award-winning film described as South Africa’s Slumdog Millionaire.
Sobahle Mkhabase is among seven children plucked from impoverished backgrounds who have won plaudits for their roles in iZulu Lami which, in the Zulu language, means My Secret Sky.
Sobahle has already won a best actress award at the Tarifa festival in Spain, where the film was also honoured. It has won further prizes at African film festivals in Cannes and Zanzibar.
Shot in a month on a budget of just 4.5m rand (£350,000), My Secret Sky receives its first domestic screening on Thursday at the Durban international film festival.
Comparisons with Slumdog seem inevitable. Thembi, 10, played by Sobahle, and her eight-year-old brother Kwezi, played by Sibonelo Malinga, are left alone in their rural homestead after their mother dies. Their only possession is a traditional Zulu mat she had created to enter in a craft competition.
They head to Durban for the competition but run into a gang of street kids. Although the film is hopeful in tone, there are difficult and violent scenes, including Thembi narrowly escaping being raped.
The child actors, who attended extensive workshops, were selected over 18 months from auditions of 3,000 in streets and schools in KwaZulu-Natal province. Many had never been inside a cinema. Sobahle, like her character, has no contact with her father and lives in a township.
Jeremy Nathan, the film’s producer, said: “They all come from really poor homes. They are at school living in various degrees of difficulty. They are all tremendous kids and learned a lot from the process.
“I don’t think the premiere will be anything on the scale of Slumdog or Harry Potter, but in a small South African way I hope there will be some glitz and glamour for them to experience. They’re amazing little people.”
He added: “The story is told from a children’s point of view on the world. Without them it wouldn’t work at all.”
The movie is made almost entirely in the Zulu language and is aimed at a domestic audience rather than Hollywood. Madoda Ncayiyana, its director and co-writer, said: “South Africa has so many interesting stories to tell, yet our film industry is an emerging industry spoilt by overseas junk. Unfortunately, we think it’s the right thing to bring in those cliches.
“But audiences are moving away from that. iZulu Lami was filmed using performances which are honest and I expect South African audiences to enjoy it.”
The film has been submitted to the London film festival to be considered for a UK premiere later this year. Ncayiyana is working on his next screenplay, with a role written for Sobahle, who wants to pursue a career as an actor.
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China tries to block Uighur film
July 15th, 2009 |
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Organisers of Melbourne’s International Film Festival have defied calls from China not to show a documentary about an exiled Uighur leader.
Festival director Richard Moore said a Chinese consular official had insisted that the film be withdrawn, but he had refused to do so.
The film, Ten Conditions of Love, centres on Rebiya Kadeer, the US-based head of the World Uighur Congress.
China accuses the group of inciting recent ethnic unrest in Xinjiang.
Beijing and Canberra are already locked in a row over an Australian mining executive who has been arrested for spying in China.
‘Strident’
Mr Moore said that after the event’s programme was published, he was contacted by Melbourne-based Chinese cultural attache Chunmei Chen who urged him to withdraw the film.
"I said I had no reason to withdraw the film from the festival and she then proceeded to tell me that I had to justify my decision to include the film in the festival.
"No-one reacts well to strident approaches, or to the appearance of being bullied. I don’t think it’s a positive way of behaving," he added.
He said he told Ms Chen he did not have to justify the film’s inclusion, "then politely hung up".
The Chinese consulate in Melbourne has not commented on the incident.
China has accused Ms Kadeer of orchestrating recent bloodshed in Xinjiang, home to the ethnic Muslim Uighurs and a growing number of China’s Han majority.
Violence between the two groups this month has left more than 180 people dead and more than 1,600 injured, Chinese authorities say.
Ms Kadeer, one of China’s richest women, was jailed in China for endangering national security but released in 2005 on medical grounds. She now lives in the US.
Ten Conditions of Love, by Melbourne film-maker Jeff Daniels, tells of Ms Kadeer’s relationship with her activist husband Sidik Rouzi and the impact her campaigning had on her 11 children.
Three of her children have been jailed.
‘Spying’ arrest
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd warned China on Wednesday that governments and corporations around the world were watching how it handled the case of an Australian mining executive.
Stern Hu, the Australian head of Rio Tinto’s iron ore business in China, was detained on suspicion of industrial espionage relating to negotiations with Chinese steel mills over iron ore prices.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.