Donkey Island

Premiere: Donkey Island – Award-winning Kenyan documentary, Jun. 15 2014 on Al Jazeera English

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Donkey Island

“My biggest dream is to have a donkey of my own.” 14-year-old Shee Famao, resident on Donkey Island

This Sunday, Al Jazeera journeys to Lamu, off the coast of Mombasa, to meet the residents of the fascinating place known as Donkey Island.

Lamu is populated by 24,000 people, 6,000 donkeys and just two cars. Nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Lamu is called ‘the donkey capital of Africa.’

Shee Famao is 14 and preparing to win his third donkey racing championship. His dream is to buy his own donkey. If he loses, however, the consequences will be dire. “I won’t be happy if I lose, because I won’t have money for food.”

The odds are stacked against Shee. As the only breadwinner for his family, he must juggle training for the race on a borrowed donkey with working to provide for his family and trying not to fall further behind at school, where he’s already in the third grade instead of the seventh.

Complicating things even more, Shee has a three-year probation hanging over his head for marijuana possession and his parole officer warns that he will be arrested if he competes, as donkey racers are being used to smuggle drugs.

Donkey Island won The Special Prize at Saratov Sufferings International Film Festival in Russia and Best Documentary Film at Golden Apricot International Film Festival.

The documentary premieres Sunday, 15 June 2014 at 23h30 East African Time on Witness, Al Jazeera’s flagship documentary strand.

For more information, visit this link

the audience

Screenings: National Theatre Live’s broadcast of The Audience, Jun. 15 & 28 2014 @ National Museum & Brookehouse Respectively

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the audience
CrossCulture XC brings you the third production in its Theatre Series: National Theatre Live’s broadcast of The Audience is coming to Nairobi from the Western End in London. Dame Helen Mirren (The Queen, Red, The Debt and Hitchcock) and Peter Morgan (director of The Queen, The Last King of Scotland, Frost/Nixon) come together once again for a performance about Queen Elizabeth II. The audience is bound to be another spectacular production with Mirren as the head of the British crown.

For 60 years Elizabeth II has met each of her 12 Prime Ministers in a weekly audience at Buckingham Palace – a meeting like no other in British public life – it is private. Both parties have an unspoken agreement never to repeat what is said. Not even to their spouses. The Audience breaks this contract of silence – and imagines a series of pivotal meetings between the Downing Street incumbents and their Queen. From Churchill to Cameron, each Prime Minister has used these private conversations as a sounding board and a confessional – sometimes intimate, sometimes explosive.

From young mother to grandmother, these private audiences chart the arc of the second Elizabethan Age. Politicians come and go through the revolving door of electoral politics, while she remains constant, waiting to welcome her next Prime Minister.

The Audience reunites writer Peter Morgan and Academy Award-winning actress Helen Mirren following their collaboration on the critically-acclaimed movie sensation The Queen.
The Audience is directed by Academy Award-nominated director Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot, The Hours) and presented in the West End by Matthew Byam Shaw for Playful Productions, Robert Fox and Andy Harries.

Dates and Timings
June 15th – National Museum of Kenya, Museum Hill
June 28th – Brookhouse School, Magadi Road, Karen
Bar and open seating from 2pm | Screening from 3pm
Cost: 2500KES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL9sjAgQCxw

Film Premeire: An Informal Image in Five Voices, Jun. 7 2014 @ Louis Leakey Auditorium

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Date: Saturday 7 June 2014
Venue: Louis Leakey Auditorium, Nairobi National Museum

A documentary film introducing five street vendors who are members of the Kenya National Alliance of Street Vendors and Informal Traders (KENASVIT).

The informal sector is part of the economy that is not monitored by any form of the government. In Kenya this sector includes about 2.5 M street vendors and hawkers, representing 7% of Kenya’s population.
The film focuses on their challenges and stories of success as they attempt to represent the informal traders and engage the local authorities in dialogue and work with them to improve their livelihoods.

Introduction and Q&A by
Abie Troen, producer of the film and Karpf and Hahn Peace Prize Winner
Refreshments for sale 3.15pm Film starts 4:00 pm
Donation: Ksh 200 Citizen or Student
Ksh 400 KMS member
Ksh 500 Guest

Reservations: 0724 255299, 2339158 or info@kenyamuseumsociety.org
Mpesa no: 400800, Account no: 6571570019

FINAL MANET A3

Screening: XC – MANET Exhibition on Screen, Jun. 7 & 8 2014 @ Brookehouse School & National Museum Respectively

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FINAL MANET A3
CrossCulture’s (XC) continue with their Art Series with screenings of the heralded Manet exhibition from the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Dates & Venues: June 7th at Brookhouse School in Karen and June 8th at The National Museum.
Bar opens and open seating begins at 2pm; the screening starts at 3pm.

About
This was the first ever major exhibition devoted to the portraiture of Edouard Manet, spanning his entire career. The exhibition will bring together great works from across Europe, Asia and the USA. XC offers you a chance to see exclusive behind-the-scenes moments of the Royal Academy’s exhibition preparation, moments usually hidden from view and experience a detailed, superbly crafted biography of Manet and 19th century Paris.

Tickets: Kshs 2500 available at the door on the day

You can find details on these screenings and XC’s other upcoming Art Series and Theatre Series titles by visiting XC on their Facebook: CrossCulture XC, following them on Twitter @CrossCultureXC, emailing them at xculture.info@gmail.com or phoning them at 0708 757606.

Always

Movie Screening: ALWAYS Sunset on Third Street – 3, May 31 2014 @ Japan Information & Culture Centre – Embassy of Japan

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Always
Date: Saturday, 31st May 2014
Venue: Japan Information & Culture Centre, Embassy of Japan, Mara Road, Upper Hill
Time: 2:00p.m.
Gates Open: 1:30pm
Entry Free | Registration Required

Synopsis: The third installment in a popular comedy-drama series following the lives of residents of a Tokyo neighborhood, this time taking place in 1964. As the benefits of Japan’s economic boom begin to be felt in Third Street in Sunset Town, novelist Chagawa (Yoshioka Hidetaka) finds himself upstaged by a younger writer and falls into a slump. Then he receives word from his family home in Nagano that his father is seriously ill…

Sub Berlin

TEN CITIES Screening Series: Sub-Berlin – The Story of Tresor, May 22 2014 @ Goethe Institut Auditorium

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Sub Berlin
Date & Time: Thursday, 22th May 2014, 6.30 pm
Venue: Goethe-Institut, Auditorium
Admission: free

A must-see flick about (Berlin) club culture history: Tilmann Künzel’s documentary SubBerlin – The Story of Tresor (2008, 89min). SubBerlin traces the history of Berlin’s famous club Tresor from its beginning in the early ‘90s to the closure of its original location in 2005.

The original Tresor was in many ways the quintessential Berlin club: located in an unrenovated vault beneath a bombed out department store, it quickly became a second home for artists like Juan Atkins, Jeff Mills and Blake Baxter, as well as countless German DJs. The documentary includes interviews with many of the artists that played at the venue, as well as the people that made the club happen, such as original founder Dimitri Hegemann.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f3qKZ5z6Q0
The TEN CITIES Screening Series shows numerous feature films and documentaries, focusing on different aspects of club and sub-culture around the globe, and will continue at Goethe-Institut and other venues.