Contemporary Spanish cinema, Jul. 16 – Sep. 20 2011 @ Embassy of Spain/Alliance

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The Embassy of Spain in Nairobi is happy to invite you to
Cinema.ES, a new contemporary Spanish cinema series.

26th July 2011, 5:00pm at the Embassy of Spain:
La Vida Perra de Juanita Narboni, Dir. Faarida Benlyazid (2005, 101min.)

9th August 2011, 5:00pm at the Embassy of Spain:
Hiyab (short), Dir. Xavi Sala (2005, 8min.) + La Zona, Dir. Rodrigo Plá (2007, 97min.)

22nd August 2011, 6:00pm at Alliance Française de Nairobi:
La Vergüenza, Dir. David Planell (2009, 107min.)

6th September 2011, 5:00pm at the Embassy of Spain:
La Vida Secreta de la Palabras, Dir. Isabel Coixet (2005, 115min.)

20th September 2011, 5:00pm at the Embassy of Spain:
Vete de mi, Dir. Víctor García León (2006, 95min.)

* All films in Spanish original version with English subtitles.
Each screening will be followed by a discussion.

WHERE: Embassy of Spain, CBA Building, Mara & Ragati Rds., Upper Hill
Alliance Française de Nairobi, Monrovia/Loita Streets
Free Entrance.

Festival: Film Aid Film & Film Forward Festival, Jul. 18-20 2011 @ Alliance

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Dates: July 18-20, 2011
Venue: Alliance Française Auditorium
Time: 6pm
Entry: Free

July 18, 2011
Son of Babylon by Mohamed Al-Daradji, Iraq (2010 – 1h30)
In the days after the fall of Saddam Hussein, a young Kurdish boy and his grandmother venture through Iraq on a quest to find their missing father/son.

July 19, 2011
Winter’s Bone by Debra Granik, United States (2010 – 1h40)
An unflinching Ozark Mountain girl hacks through dangerous social terrain as she hunts down her missing father while trying to keep her family intact.

July 20, 2011
Amreeka by Cherien Dabis, United States (2009 – 1h36)
When a divorced Palestinian woman and her teenage son move to rural Illinois, they find their new lives replete with challenges.

The films are presented by Film Aid International & Film Forward in partnership with the Sundance Institute with the aim of advancing cultural dialogue.
All films will be preceded by a short film produced by refugees in Kenya.

For more information visit: www.filmaid.org/festival

Film Aid Festival, Jul. 14-21 2011

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Dates: July 14-21, 2011
Venues: Goethe Institut, Alliance Française, GoDown Arts Centre, Dadaab, Kakuma
Entrance: Free
Contacts: 0204443385, +254 722 540 543 or Nairobi@filmaid.org
Website: http://www.sundance.org/filmforward/

Festival includes: Workshops, regular screenings, feature short films, outdoor community screening, seminar and documentaries.

Download the Sundance Film forward Draft Schedule.doc

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mbsvw-IlJI&feature=player_embedded#at=111] “FilmAid International, though its innovative work of screening films in refugee camps, makes a significant difference in the daily lives of refugees.”
–Kofi Annan, Former Secretary-General, United Nations

Festival: Film Forward Festival, Jul. 16-17 2011 @ Goethe

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Dates: July 16-17, 2011
Venue: Goethe Institut Auditorium
Time: Saturday; 1, 4 & 7.30pm and Sunday; 1, 3, 4.30 & 5.30pm
Entry: Free

FilmAid is partnering with the Sundance Institute to bring the Film Forward Festival to Kenya. Film Forward is a cultural exchange program designed to enhance cross-cultural understanding, collaboration and dialogue around the globe by engaging audiences through the exhibition of film and conversation with filmmakers. Between 15th and 21st July, Film Forward events will take place throughout Kenya.

Screenings and workshops are being held in the refugee camps of Kakuma and Dadaab, and the slums of Kibera and Mathare in Nairobi. Through these programs FilmAid and Film Forward are engaging communities who would not usually be able to enjoy a world class film festival.

At Goethe Auditorium they will show amongst others Udaan (IND), Last Train Home (CHI), La Mission (USA), Afghan Star (UK), as well as A Small Act (USA) followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Jennifer Arnold.

SATURDAY, 16TH JULY 2011

1.00 pm UDAAN
India – Director and Screenwriter: Vikramaditya Motwane – 138 min
Cast: Rajat Barmecha, Ronit Roy, Aayan Boradia, Ram Kapoor
Following his expulsion from boarding school, Rohan returns to the small industrial town of Jamshedpur. After 8 years away, he finds himself closeted with an authoritarian father and a younger half-brother whom he didn’t even know existed. Udaan explores deep-rooted family dynamics and a triumph of the human spirit.  – Sundance 2010

4.00 pm LAST TRAIN HOME
Canada – Director: Lixin Fan – Documentary – 87 min
Getting a train ticket in China proves a towering ordeal as a migrant worker family embarks on a journey, along with 200 million other peasants, to reunite with their distant family. – Sundance 2010

7.30 pm A SMALL ACT – followed by Q&A with the filmmaker Jennifer Arnold
United States – Director: Jennifer Arnold – Documentary, 88 min
A young Kenyan’s life changes dramatically when his education is sponsored by a Swedish stranger. Years later, he founds his own scholarship program to replicate the kindness he once received.  – Sundance 2010

SUNDAY, 17TH JULY 2011

1.00 pm FREEDOM RIDERS
United States – Director: Stanley Nelson – Documentary – 113 min
The story behind a courageous band of civil rights activists called the Freedom Riders who in 1961 creatively challenged segregation in the American South. – Sundance 2010

3.00 pm LA MISSION
United States – Director and Screenwriter: Peter Bratt – 117 min
Cast: Benjamin Bratt, Erika Alexander, Jeremy Ray Valdez, Talisa Soto Bratt, Jesse Borrego
A traditional Latino father in San Francisco’s Mission District struggles to come to terms with his teenage son’s homosexuality. La Mission is credited by Latino media as being both authentic and genuine to various aspects of American Hispanic cultures. – Sundance 2009

4.30 pm A Short Refugee Film – followed by Q&A with the filmmaker
Sundance 2010

5.30 pm AFGHAN STAR
Afghanistan/UK – Director: Havana Marking – Documentary – 87 minutes
After 30 years of war and Taliban rule, Pop Idol has come to television in Afghanistan: millions are watching and voting for their favorite singer. This film follows the dramatic stories of four contestants as they risk their lives to sing.  – Sundance 2009

Film Forward is an initiative of Sundance Institute and The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (USA).

Screening/Discussion: Slingshot Hip Hop, Jul. 9 2011 @ Goethe

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Date: July 9, 2011
Venue: Goethe Institut Auditorium
Time: 6pm
Entry: Free

The Nairobi Rap Research Group presents Slingshot Hip Hop! This local research group is organised by Wasanii Mtaani as part of their ujuzi labs. It is made up of enthusiasts, historians, creative technologists, cultural critics, linguists, teachers, MCs and academics, who meet to discuss various topics in rap e.g. quantifying art & metaphor, data visualisation, cultural analysis, gaming, curriculum design and more.

The film Slingshot Hip Hop (80 min) covers the stories of young Palestinians living in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank as they discover Hip Hop and employ it as a tool to surmount divisions imposed by occupation and poverty.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rdS8zNp3ow&feature=player_embedded] The screening is intended for the purpose of adopting learning lessons that can be applied to the Kenyan situation. Afterwards there will be a discussion on the topic Migratory Aesthetics – A Working Model for International Hip Hop, moderated by Kevin Ovita Teddy.

Respond to Facebook Event

CinemAlliance: Llaguno Bridge Keys to Massacre, Jul 4 2011 @ Alliance

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A documentary film which deals with the terrible events of the 2002 Venezuelan coup d’état attempt

Date: July 4, 2011
Venue: Alliance Française
Time: 6pm
Entry: Free

Puente Llaguno: Claves de Una Masacre (Llaguno Bridge Keys to Massacre) by Angel Palacios (2004 -1h45)

Presented by Pamoja Film Initiative as part of the celebrations of the Bicentennial of the Venezuelan Independence

TEDxBraeburnSchools, Jul 2 2011 @ Braeburn School (Gitanga Rd)

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Why TED Talks? We need to intelligently reassess our systems of societal structure, education, and cultural narratives, and creatively think about the roles of morality, technology, human behaviour and collaborative civil society in our world. This event creates a space for open, exploratory dialogue to understand these issues, to ensure the diversity of our people and their thoughts are a source of intelligent constructive creativity rather than conflict.

At 10 for 10.30 to 12

Theme: The Internet in Society: Empowering or Censoring Citizens?

Beware of the online “filter bubbles”
As web companies strive to tailor their services (including news and search results) to our personal tastes, there’s a dangerous unintended consequence: We get trapped in a “filter bubble” and don’t get exposed to information that could challenge or broaden our worldview. Eli Pariser argues powerfully that this will ultimately prove to be bad for us and bad for democracy.

Does the internet actually inhibit, not encourage democracy? In this new RSA Animate adapted from a talk at the RSA, Evgeny Morozov presents an alternative take on ‘cyber-utopianism’ – the seductive idea that the internet plays a largely empancipatory role in global politics.
Exposing some idealistic myths about freedom and technology (during Iran’s ‘twitter revolution’ fewer than 20,000 Twitter users actually took part), Evgeny argues for some realism about the actual uses and abuses of the internet.

Join here to stay informed on TEDx events in Nairobi: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=122852434404442

Documentary: Restrepo, Jun 28 2011 @ Alliance

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Screening at 6pm

RESTREPO
by Tim Hetherington, Sebastian Junger (2010 – 1h33)

Grand Jury Prize for best documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival

A documentary that chronicles the deployment of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley. The movie focuses on a remote 15-man outpost, “Restrepo,” named after a platoon medic who was killed in action. The goal of the film is to make viewers feel as if they have just been through a 90-minute deployment. Hetherington was killed in April 2011 while covering the Libyan war

Documentary: Research & Development in the Tana River Delta, Jun 27 2011 @ Alliance

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Screening at 6pm

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT IN THE TANA RIVER DELTA
by Khamis Ramadhan (2011 – 15min)

documentary produced with the support of  the Embassy of France

The documentary highlights current participatory research activities in the Tana Delta being undertaken jointly by local and international researchers under Kenyan Wetlands Biodiversity Research Group (Kenweb). The discussions will focus on how best to utilize the natural resources for sustainable development in the Delta.

The film will be followed by a discussion.