Classical Indian Dance, World Music, Palestine Film Festival, and More
Mark Lacy
-Namita Bodaji, Classical Indian Dance, May 3-
-Music Beyond Borders World Music Festival, May 5-
-Cinco de Mayo Parade in Downtown, May 5-
-Asian/Pacific American Heritage Festival, May 06-
-Songs From Asia: Embracing The Eastern World, May 6-
-Houston Palestine Film Festival, May 11-20-
There is a multitude of excellent events taking place in Houston over
the next couple of weeks. Below are a few we recommend. We will
provide a supplement next week with information about the Houston Art
Car Parade and an exhibit at the Art League of Houston called
"Surviving Katrina and Rita in Houston: Who We Are" and more.
Namita Bodaji with her guest Shikha Mehta
Performing Modern and Classical Indian Dance
Thursday, May 3, 2007, 7:00pm
University of St Thomas Jones Hall
Yoakum at W. Alabama Street
Free and open to the public; Presented by Houston Institute for
Culture and Modern and Classical Languages
Contact: 713-521-3686, in...@houstonculture.org
Visitors should park in the Moran Center Parking Garage located at W.
Alabama and Graustark, 2 blocks west of Yoakum on W. Alabama Street.
A master of the ancient Indian art of Bharata Natyam, Namita Bodaji
will demonstrate the language of Indian dance and interpret epic
dramas. Shikha Mehta, an exceptionally-talented student who is
studying under Namita in Mumbai, will also perform the dance
tradition, which utilizes complex body movements, hand signs, facial
and eye expressions. The talented artists will present a fusion of
modern and classical dances in a performance themed Bharatajazzyam.
Namita Bodaji studied at Sri Rajrajeshwari Bharat Natya Kala Mandir
Institute in Mumbai, India and received the high honor of Sringar Mani
(Artistic Jewel).
She has performed during important Indian festivals, Pallovothsava and
Janmashtami, and danced at holy temples, such as Guruvayoor in Kerala,
and Jagmohan Palace in Mysore. Bodaji choreographs and teaches modern
and classical Indian dance. She has a Masters in English Literature.
Bodaji has performed in the ballets "Vasantavalli" and "Krishna Lila"
(choreographed by Guru Kalyanasundaram) in the South of India, and she
has appeared at the India International Center in New Delhi, the House
of Soviet Culture, World Folk Festival and was featured on an Indian
dance tour of England. She has toured in the United States biennially
since 2000.
Special thanks to master of the tabla and percussion teacher David
Courtney, who will introduce Namita.
Houston Institute for Culture is supported by the National Endowment
for the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, Houston Arts alliance,
Humanities Texas, Houston Young Lawyers Foundation, with additional
sponsorship from Literal-Latin American Voices, and many more generous
donors.
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Music Beyond Borders Festival
Saturday May 5, 6-10pm
The Artery
5301 Jackson @ Prospect (enter on Prospect)
There is no admission charge, but donations are accepted.
The festival will feature Xiuh Ollin (danza Azteca), Mohammad Rashed
(Palestine), Fun's Cantonese Opera Academy (China), Kangsen Wakai
(Cameroon), Chakaveh Music Ensemble (Iran) , and David and Chandra
Courtney (India/Pakistan), with the film "Floating" by Oliver
Eclarinal (Philippines).
This event is hosted by the volunteer DJs of the world music
collective, who produce Music Beyond Borders on KPFT 90.1FM. The show
is heard on Tuesday and Thursday, from 2:00 - 3:00pm.
http://www.musicbeyondborders.com
http://www.arteryhouston.org
================================
Cinco de Mayo
Saturday, May 5, 10:00am
The annual Cinco de Mayo Parade will take place on Saturday, May 5,
2007. It originates near Minute Maid Park and travels through the east
side of downtown. The event is free and open to the public. For parade
information, call 713-695-5980.
To learn more about Cinco de Mayo, please see:
http://www.houstonculture.org/mexico/cincodemayo.html
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2007 Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month Festival
Sunday, May 06, 2:00 - 9:00pm
The festival will present cultural ferformances, foods, and children's
activities, with the theme "Lighting The Past, Present and Future",
from 2:00 - 9:00pm, and a musical showcase at 7:30pm, "Opening Doors:
Asians on Broadway".
Miller Outdoor Theatre
Hermann Park (in the Museum District)
100 Concert Drive
http://www.apaha.org
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Songs From Asia: Embracing The Eastern World
United Nations Association International Choir with Space City Gamelan
The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, Zilkha Hall
Sunday, May 6, 4:00pm
For more information, please call 713-315-2400
This afternoon of international music will include traditions from the
vast expanses of Asia and Asia Minor-from Iran to the Pacific islands
of the Philippines-the choir will perform choral and folk music in
native languages from Azerbaijan, China, India, Iran, Israel, Japan,
Korea, Lebanon, Philippines, and Vietnam. Throughout the program, the
choir will be accompanied by a variety of indigenous instruments. In
addition to a wide spectrum of choral traditions, the program will
also feature dance and other cultural presentations from many of the
beautifully intricate but little-known Asian cultures.
Space City Gamelan is honored to be included in the United Nations
Association International Choir's presentation of Songs From Asia:
Embracing The Eastern World. Both Space City Gamelan & the Choir are
collaborating to perfrom a traditional Indonesian song with a choir
arrangement by Philip Kloeckner, Artistic Director of the UNAIC.
Tickets may be purchased, in person, at the box office of the Hobby
Center, 800 Bagby St. Houston, TX 77002, or by calling 713-315-2400.
Visit the choir's website, www.unahouston.org/unachoir , or call
281-498-7562, for more information about the program and ordering
tickets.
http://www.myspace.com/houstongamelan
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Houston Palestine Film Festival
Presented by Voices Breaking Boundaries
Daily admission $5; Film Pass for 5 nights $20 (excluding May 13
screening at Museum of Fine Arts Houston)
May 11-13 and May 18-20, 7:00 pm every night
This exciting festival will bring not only cutting edge new cinema
from Palestine about Palestine, but will also present three directors
Lina Makboul, Nida Sinnokrot and Elle Flanders along with political
analyst/ academic/ journalist As'ad Abu Khalil and Rice University
Associate professor Ussama Makdisi.
The first annual Houston Palestine Film Festival brings an honest and
independent view of Palestine and its diaspora's society, culture, and
political travails through the art of film. This group of
groundbreaking cinematic texts rise above the degrading stereotypes or
reductively politicized depictions that are so familiar to
Houstonians. A major goal of the Festival is to directly expose our
local community to the perspective of artists as a first step toward
circumventing the many government and media filters that pollute our
understanding of Palestine and the wider region. Some of the films in
this year's festival include Waiting / Attente (Dir. Rashid Mashrawi)
and Leila Khaled, Hijacker (Dir. Lina Makboul). The first annual
Houston Palestine Film Festival will include film screenings and
conversations with directors and political scientists.
FILM SCHEDULE
Friday May 11, 2007, 7:00 pm
Rice University Media Center
Rice University campus, Entrance No. 8 off University Blvd. at Stockton Dr
(Parking at Rice Media Center is 2$. Free Parking is available across
from the Media Center, behind the campus police station building)
Kemo Sabe
Rana Kazkaz
United States, 2005,13 minutes
Yussef, a six year old Arab-American boy, dreams of being the Cowboy
instead of the Indian on the playground. Daring to challenge the role
his race has determined, Yussef learns the playground rules of
becoming a Cowboy. But is being a Cowboy everything Yussef hoped it
would be?
Leila Khaled, Hijacker
Director, Lina Makboul
Sweden, 2005, 58 minutes
Leila Khaled, Hijacker documents the life of activist Leila Khaled,
who achieved international notoriety with two airplane hijackings in
1969 and 1970. For filmmaker Makboul, her teenage hero worship of the
world's first female hijacker served as the catalyst for her pursuit
of the present-day Leila Khaled, a motherly but unrepentant
60-year-old who staunchly defends guerilla action in service of the
Palestinian cause. In Makboul's increasingly intimate conversations
with Khaled, and in interviews with airline personnel, difficult
questions elicit surprising answers. In Swedish, Arabic, and English
with English subtitles.
Lina Makboul will be in attendance to answer questions. Makboul was
born in Sweden by Palestinian parents who are from Nablus on the West
bank. She started working as a journalist at the Swedish National
Radio 1996. In 1998 she began working with television at the Swedish
National Television, SVT. Leila Khaled: Hijacker is Lina's debut film.
Reception follows screenings.
___________________________
Saturday, May 12, 2007, 7:00 pm
The Station Museum
1502 Alabama, Houston, TX 77004
Clothesline
Director Alia Arasoughly
Palestine, 2006, 13 minutes
The Clothesline examines the war inside and war outside of an
apartment during the 2002 Ramallah siege.
Bethlehem Bandolero
Director, Larissa Sansour
2004, 5 minutes
Bandolero features the artist herself as a Mexican gunslinger arriving
in Bethlehem for a duel with the Segregation Wall. Wearing a big, red
sombrero and a scarf, she walks the streets of Bethlehem and greets
the people before taking off for her final showdown.
Palestine Blues
Director, Nida Sinnokrot
USA, 2005, 80 minutes
The demolished house that is the site of the death of American peace
activist Rachel Corrie is only the first of the troubling markers in
the landscape charted by Palestine Blues as the director travels the
route of the infamous security wall. A bereft farmer grieves for his
ancient orchard as the bulldozers lay it to waste, but a new movement
in nonviolent resistance grows in its place. In Arabic and Hebrew with
English subtitles.
Filmmaker and installation artist Nida Sinnokrot will discuss the film
with the audience. Born and raised in Algeria, Sinnokrot has exhibited
installations at the Station (Made in Palestine, Houston, TX, 2002);
Mexican American Cultural Council, Austin, TX, 2001; Cinematexas
International (Austin, TX, 2000); the Chocolate Factory,
(Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, 1999); the Fisher Arts Center
(Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, 1998 and 1997). Sinnokrot has been part of
the Whitney Independent Studio Program (2001-2002) and he lives in New
York. His film Obstacle was released in 2005.
___________________________
Sunday, May 13, 2007, 7:00 pm
Museum of Fine Arts Houston
1001 Bissonnet Street, Houston, TX 77005
Waiting (Attente)
Director, Rashid Masharawi
France-Palestine, 2005, 72 min
From the director of the highly regarded Ticket to Jerusalem comes
another strong film about the contemporary Palestinian experience. In
Waiting, the National Palestinian Theatre is about to open in a
magnificent new building financed by the European Union in Gaza.
Ahmad, a famed Palestinian stage director, sets out to hire actors for
the new company despite his reluctance upon viewing the construction
site. Enlisting a local television personality and her cameraman for
his crew, Ahmad travels to refugee camps in Jordan, Syria, and
Lebanon, where open casting calls have been issued. The resulting
auditions are chaotic, funny, and poignant, revealing much about the
lives of people who have been displaced from their homes and separated
from their families.
As'ad Abu Khalil will be discussing the film with the audience. Born
in Tyre, Lebanon, Khalil grew up in Beirut and received his education
from American University of Beirut. After coming to the US in 1983,
Khalil received his PhD from Georgetown University and went on to
teach at universities around the US. He also served as free-lance
Middle East consultant for NBC News and ABC News, an experience that
only served to increase his disdain for maintream US media. He is now
professor of political science at California State University,
Stanislaus and visiting professor at UC, Berkeley.
___________________________
Friday, May 18, 2007, 7:00 pm
Rice University Media Center
Rice University campus, Entrance No. 8 off University Blvd. at Stockton Dr
(Parking at Rice Media Center is 2$. Free Parking is available across
from the Media Center, behind the campus police station building)
Make a Wish
Director Cherien Dabis
2006, Palestine, 12min
A young Palestinian girl will do whatever it takes to buy a birthday
cake. Eleven year-old Mariam begs her mother for the extra money she
needs to buy a cake at the local bakery. Her mother begrudgingly
relents, but when Mariam arrives at the bakery, she realizes that she
still doesn't have enough. Determined to get the cake, she sets out to
brave the obstacles and land some cash. What begins as a simple trip
to the bakery turns into a journey that depicts not only the subtle
tensions of a politically charged environment, but also illustrates
the grief that can result from growing up under occupation. In Arabic
with English subtitles.
Just Married
Director Ayelet Bechar
Israel, 2005, 71 minutes,
In this documentary recording a Fall 2003 wedding in the north of
Israel, two hundred guests, dance to music. The bride in a white
dress. 36-year-old Kifah Massarwi, an Israeli citizen, organized a
wedding for herself, minus the groom as part of her bitter battle
against the Israeli authorities, who forbid her spouse from entering
the country. The Citizenship Law, effective since 2003, states that
residents of the Palestinian Authority may not enter Israel, even if
married to Israeli citizens. Just Married is the story of two
Palestinian couples who decided to marry knowing that it would be
impossible for them to bring their partners back to Israel.
___________________________
Saturday, May 19, 2007, 7:00 pm
Fotofest Inc.
1113 Vine Street, Suite 101, Houston, TX 77002
Kings and Extras: Digging for a Palestinian Image
Director Azza el-Hassan
2004, 62 minutes
In Kings and Extras: Digging for a Palestinian Image, Azza el-Hassan
uses rare and 1970s and 1980s archival footage of the Palestinian
national movement and a series of contemporary interviews with
film-makers, archivists and historians to explore the role of
film-making and photography during this period. At the heart of the
film is her search for answers as to the apparently mysterious 'loss'
of the central Palestinian cinema archive in Beirut during the Israeli
occupation. Arabic with English subtitles.
A medley of 13 shorts films by various Palestinian artists
Summer 2006, Palestine (35 minutes)
Reception follows screening.
___________________________
Sunday, May 20, 2007, 7:00 pm
Rice University Media Center
Rice University campus, Entrance No. 8 off University Blvd. at Stockton Dr
(Parking at Rice Media Center is 2$. Free Parking is available across
from the Media Center, behind the campus police station building)
Zero Degrees of Separation
Director, Elle Flanders
Canada: 2005, 89 mins.
The documentary feature Zero Degrees of Separation takes viewers on a
unique journey through the complex lives of Israeli and Palestinian
gays and lesbians in inter-ethnic relationships. Though living on the
margins of society, these couples defy the odds, existing in the midst
of conflict with a gentle humanity and mutual respect. Interwoven into
these stories is director Elle Flanders' own narrative of growing up
with grandparents who were intimately involved in the founding of the
state of Israel. Zero Degrees of Separation premiered at the Berlin
International Film Festival and has toured extensively, winning awards
internationally.
Director Elle Flanders will be present at the screening and will be
available to answer questions at the end. Born in Montreal and raised
in Canada and Israel, Flanders is a filmmaker and photographer based
in Toronto and New York City. Also present at the question and answer
series will be Ussama Makdisi Associate Professor of History and the
first holder of the Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair of Arab
Studies at Rice University. He is the author of The Culture of
Sectarianism: Community, History, and Violence in Nineteenth-Century
Ottoman Lebanon (University of California Press, 2000).
The Houston Palestine Film Festival's closing includes a reception and
an awards ceremony.
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Thank you for supporting great cultural and educational activities in Houston.
____________________________________________________
M a r k @houstonculture.org
Houston Institute for Culture
Havens Center
1827 W. Alabama Street
Houston, Texas 77098