Leonardo Lênin*
São Paulo – An intellectual and a poet, both Palestinian, and the various views on the different manifestations in Islam. These are the topics the three documentaries in the film show "Arabs: journeys and exiles" approach. The show will be promoted by the Institute of Arab Culture (Icarabe) and the Casa das Rosas Literature and Poetry Space, in São Paulo, southeast Brazil, and will take place today (29) and on the 6th and 7th of July.
Today, the Palestinian intellectual Edward Said, author of "Orientalism", is the theme of the film "Selves and Others". In the documentary, the director Emmanuelle Hamon presents Said in exile in the United States. The author died in 2003. For the writer Milton Hatoum, Said was the "translator of the complexity of the Arab world and his culture hidden to the West".
On the second film of the show, "Writers on the Frontiers", which will be exhibited on the 6th of July, the topic is the visit that a delegation of writers, amongst them the Literature Nobel Prize winner José Saramago, made to the Palestinian poet Mahmud Darwish. The meeting took place right after the Israeli army invaded the cultural centre that the writer directed as well as his house, in Palestine, in 2003. Darwish currently lives in France, in exile.
"One Thousand and One Voices" will be the last documentary exhibited in the cinema show. Soraia Smaili, president of the Icarabe, defines the film as "a view of the various aspects and different ways of exaltation seen in Islam".
As well as the Arab countries, the documentary visits countries like Turkey, India and regions of Africa, showing how the religion appears in different chants and dances in each region. The documentary approaches also the Sufi philosophy, Islamic mysticism. According to Soraia, the documentary shows an view that goes beyond the stereotype that westerners have of Islam.
Debates
"We realised that every time after we show the film on Said, for example, the public wants to know more information on the culture and history of the Middle East," tells the president of the Icarabe. Since the films are relatively short, the institute invited some specialists to debate with the public after showing the documentaries.
Today will be the turn of the historian Arlene Clemesha, specialist in the Middle East and one of the translators of the works of Edward Said in Brazil. After the film, "Writers on the Fronteirs", Soraya Makhamra, who acted in many human rights non-governmental organisations in Brazil and other countries, will be debating. The guest for "One Thousand and One Voices" has not yet been confirmed.
Second semester
The Icarabe will organise in August a great event with dance, music, poetry and film exhibitions. The event will be at the Galeria Olido, in São Paulo, and will also bring to the city the photo exhibit "Amrik – Arab Presence in South America", work of 22 photographers from 10 countries in South America.
In October there will be another film show. There will be seven films from the Institute of the Arab World in Paris. The Icarabe is also preparing for September a course with 13 lectures on Arab culture which will have representatives from the fields of literature, philosophy, geography and history. The course will have the support of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce.
Service
"Arabs: journeys and exiles" Film Show
Venue: Casa das Rosas, Av. Paulista, 37, São Paulo (SP)
Date: 29th of June and 6th and 7th of July, always at 8 p.m.
*Translated by Silvia Lindsey
