Just Wanna Know

Revolutionary Propaganda Organ

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Frankish Cannibalism and Victory!

This blog is the No. 2 destination for the search term "frankish cannibalism." This sort of thing is significant generally, since instead of canceling this blog I leave my almost six years of posts up for the main reason that I appear to continue to be a resource for answers to certain obscure questions, mainly about Arab pop music but also about other things.

But I am celebrating today because the entry for Crusader Cannibalism, my fifth post from back in October 2005, is one of three that I re-edited later (I believe in 2006 or 2007) to reflect a bet from over a decade before.

As members of a group of around 25 fellow undergraduates in Olomouc, Czech Republic, on a semester abroad in 1995, we were learning a lot about obscure historical events. We learned about the Sorbs, a tiny Slavic-speaking minority in Germany with ancient roots. We learned about the large numbers of Vietnamese in Eastern Europe. And we learned about the Sudetenland, areas of German-speaking Czechoslovakia that were voluntarily absorbed by the Nazi state and then Czechified after the war.

We wondered what sorts of other alternative histories could have resulted in disappeared and forgotten communities. We came up with the Sudetenland Chinese. We made a pact to further the goal of creating a (pseudo) history of an imaginary immigration and its subsequent disappearance. It appears that I am the only one who carried out the dare; a search for "sudetenland chinese" yields 10 results, of which I am responsible for 4.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

The Cairo Documentary Festival 2011

The American University in Cairo will host the Cairo Documentary
Festival from March 20-26 at its Tahrir Square and New Cairo campuses.
The Tahrir campus will host two program themes – Egypt Rising,
featuring numerous Egyptian documentaries and critical discussions,
and Neighboring Nations, featuring films from Turkey, Palestine, Iran,
and further afield.

AUC TAHRIR CAMPUS, EWART HALL

CDF DAY 1: Sunday, March 20

Egypt Rising 1: Dawning Faces
5:00-6:30pm Stories of Al Fagallah (2011, 60m, Egypt) Mohamed Abdel Bary
6:30-8:30pm Garbage Dreams (2009, 79m, Egypt) Mai Eskander
Discussion with Zabaleen
8:30-10:00pm Beit Sha'ar - Nomads Home (2010, 61m, Egypt) Iman Kamel


CDF DAY 2: Monday, March 21

Neighboring Nations 1: Memories & Premonitions
5:00-6:30pm Walls (2000, 83m, Germany) Can Candan
6:30-7:30pm Coffee Futures (2009, 22m, Turkey) Zeynep Devrim Gürsel
Still (2009, 18m, Cyprus) Alana Kakoyiannis
8:30-10:00pm Imperial Outposts (2010, 67m, Turkey) Amy Holmes
Discussion with Amy Holmes


CDF DAY 3: Tuesday, March 22

Neighboring Nations 2: Unexpected Stories
5:00-7:00pm Next Year in Bombay (2010, 55m, India) J. Pariente & M. Mangin
Jerusalem, the Adulterous Wife (2010, 8m, Belgium) M. De Groof
Camelrama (2001, 4m, Tunisia) Carolyn Macartney
Fashioning Faith (2010, 22m, USA) Yasmin Moll
Discussion with Yasmine Moll

Neighboring Nations 3: State of Imprisonment
7:30-10:00pm Degrees of Incarceration (2010, 59m, Palestine) A.
Bishara & N. Al-Azraq
Ticket From Azrael (2010, 30m, Palestine) Abdallah Awad Al Ghoul
Of Flesh and Blood (2009, 27m, Palestine) Azza Shaaban
Discussion with Azza Shaaban


CDF DAY 4: Thursday, March 24

Neighboring Nations 4: Cultural Industry in Sudan
3:00-5:00pm Sifinja – The Iron Bride (2009, 70m) Valerie Haensch
Inscriptions on Rosewater (2010, 15m) Salah Elmur
Discussion with Salah Elmur

Egypt Rising 2: Documentary Rising
5:00-6:00pm Sura (2010, 5m) Yasser Alwan
Article 212 (2010, 9m) Karim Elshenawy
Sturm: Fayoum (2010, 5m) Philip Rizk
Sturm: Ahmonseto (2010, 6m) Philip Rizk
Living in the Nile (2010, 10m) Mohamad El Wassify
Q&A with Filmmakers

6:00-7:00pm
Tawasol (2010, 7m) Maged Nader
Young Arabs (2008, 18m) Michael Graziano and E. Joong-Eun Park
I am George (2010, 10m) Mohsen Abdelghany
The Wizard (2010, 13m) Ahmed Abd Elaziz
Q&A with Filmmakers

7:00-7:30pm Egypt Rising Reception

Egypt Rising 3: Remembering Tahrir Square
7:30-10:00pm AUC in the 70s (2010, 15m) Jasmin Bauomy
Neighbors (Giran) (2009, 105m) Tahani Rached
Q&A with Filmmaker


CDF DAY 5: Saturday, March 26

Egypt Rising 4: Documenting in Revolutionary Times Panel Discussion
10:30-11:00am Brunch with the Panelists
11:00-12:30pm Discussion among filmmakers, scholars, & activists about
the intersection of social justice, new technology, and the politics
of aesthetics. How can contemporary documentary efforts in Egypt and
across the region address the current state of social unrest?

Egypt Rising 5: Streaming the Revolution
1:00-3:00pm Streaming Short Internet Videos from January 25th Revolution

Neighboring Nations 5: Iranian Body Politic
3:00-6:00pm Keynote: Dr. Hamid Naficy, “Internet Cinema—Iran”
Plastic Flowers Never Die (2008, 34m) Roxanne Varzi
Iran: Voices of the Unheard (2009, 68m) Davoud Geramifard
Discussion with Dr. Naficy

6:00-7:00pm Closing Awards Ceremony

Egypt Rising 6: Expanding the Horizon
7:00-10:00pm Mafrouza: Oh Night! (2007, 138m) Emmanuelle Demoris
Discussion with filmmaker

AUC NEW CAMPUS, P007

Assembly Hour Program (1-2pm) Everyday March 20-24 (Sun-Thurs)
Nominees for Audience Award

20/MAR Sunday
Beit Sha'ar - Nomads Home (2010, 61m, Egypt) Iman Kamel
An Egyptian filmmaker encounters a Bedouin social entrepreneur in the
Sinai Peninsula.

21/MAR Monday
Iran: Voices of the Unheard (2009, 68m, Iran) D. Geramifard
Rural and urban Iranians struggle against an oppressive regime after
the 2009 election.

22/MAR Tuesday
Sifinja – The Iron Bride (2009, 70m, Sudan) Valerie Haensch
Modifications of the English Bedford-Lorry makes it as comfortable as
'Sifinja' slippers.

23/MAR Wednesday
Next Year in Bombay (2010, 55m, India) Jonas Pariente and Mathias Mangin
2000 years of Jewish history in India is nearing its demise as the
community emigrates.

24/MAR Thursday
Degrees of Incarceration (2010, 59m, Palestine) Amahl Bishara and Nidal Al-Azraq
Palestinians strive to support each other in the enduring shadow of
political prison.

Updates coming soon to:

http://www6.aucegypt.edu/huss/sape/docFest/Pages/home.aspx

http://aucdocfest.blogspot.com/

Note: Due to the planned Constitutional Referendum scheduled for next
Saturday, March 19, all activities on that day of the festival have
been rescheduled. This adjustment to the schedule meant that the
entire schedule had to be reworked.