Bastards continues to enjoy screenings in the UK and around the world. Two screenings on International Women’s Day, and more coming up …. Sunday 8 March Broadway Cinema, Nottingham, UK Sunday 8 March Arab Women’s Film Festival in The Hague, Holland Thursday 12 March Pembrokeshire Women’s Festival in Haverfordwest, UK Wednesday 25 March Salisbury Arts […]
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On the thirteenth anniversary of 9/11 it’s a good moment to report on the interfaith haven that is the International Festival of Muslim Cinema, taking place now in Kazan, the capital of the Russian republic of Tatarstan. Whatever the fearsome history of the Tatars (whom we know as the bloodthirsty Tartars) their republic is now […]
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It was a great honour for my film Bastards to be selected to open Morocco’s international documentary festival Fidadoc in April. Lamia Faridi, the heroic lawyer who features in the film, came with me to the screening in front ot the French Consul, the Mayor of Agadir, filmmakers from all over the world, and the […]
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In all the discussion of World War I, its heroism and its futility, a word is often used to describe the soldiers who died. They are the fallen. Laurence Binyon (1869-1943) memorably describes them in his poem For The Fallen: With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children, England mourns for her dead across the […]
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…says Shereen El Feki in her excellent TED talk. http://www.ted.com/talks/shereen_el_feki_a_little_told_tale_of_sex_and_sensuality.html I recommend it!
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A citizen of the world. A secular saint. An icon of reconciliation. The father of a nation. A profoundly good human being. Madiba. Who can find the words to describe Nelson Mandela? Archbishop Tutu perhaps.Who doesn’t feel a sense of loss at his death? Racist bigots perhaps. I want to record my own memories in […]
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Sorry about the corny headline, but it does seem appropriate as tomorrow I fly to Casablanca, where the British Council in Morocco will be hosting a private screening of “Bastards”. Charities, human rights organisations, think tanks, academics and lawyers have been invited, to discuss the issues raised by the film. It’s a personal story, of […]
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Thrilling to read a 29 October report about the United Nations Population Fund hosting an event in Morocco, to talk about the taboo of sex outside marriage, exactly the subject of my film “Bastards”. The women in the photo are wearing masks to hide their identities, but in my film all but one of the […]
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TV is a rough and tumble business where there are more great ideas than slots to be filled, and development hell really does exist if your great ideas don’t fit in with what the commissioners are looking for. When you get lucky and you get that hard-won commission (at least in the BBC documentary world […]
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Just back from shooting a film about the Berber Marriage Festival in Morocco’s High Atlas. A wonderful privilege to spend a week with Mohamed and Fatema, who met three months ago for one hour and decided to marry. They invited us to join them as they met for only the third time, to tie the […]
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