S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 The Arab and Islamic Culture Festival should grant the public an opportunity to see films about the East for free, starting on March 29th, and it should include a movie about recent social and political movements in the region. The festival is scheduled to take place at Associa\u00e7\u00e3o Cec\u00edlia, in the central region of the city of S\u00e3o Paulo, and will include films from Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, China and Yemen, as well as debates about matters connected to cinema and to the region.<\/p>\n
The highlight of the festival is documentary \u201cRoad to 25 January\u201d, in which director Rawan Damen shows how Egypt trailed the route to the revolution that ousted former president Hosni Mubarak. \u201cIt shows the preparation and attraction through Facebook<\/i> and other social networks, paving the route to January 25,\u201d stated journalist Marcia Camargos, one of the curators of the event. She recalls that another forerunner of the revolution was the protest, via Facebook<\/i>, due to the death of Khaled Said, tortured and murdered by policemen in Egypt in 2010.<\/p>\n
Camargos, who has a post-doctorate in History from the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (USP) and 22 books published, is responsible for the festival, alongside Arlene Clemesha, an Art History professor at USP, director of the Arab Studies Centre at the same university and author of books and articles on contemporary Arab history. They have both already curated other exhibitions and events about Arab and Islamic culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe aim to foster knowledge and reduce the bias there is regarding the Middle East. Yemen is different from Saudi Arabia, which has nothing to do with Egypt, although they are all in the same region and share Arabic and religion,\u201d she said, explaining the cultural diversity of the region.<\/p>\n
Other films speak about the daily life in the Arab and Islamic world. \u201cAsk the Wind\u201d deals with feminism in Iran, \u201cAl Nakba I and II\u201d deals with British colonisation of Palestine, \u201cThe Owners of the Homeland\u201d is about the Palestinians who have Israeli passports, \u201cA Flood in Baath Country\u201d tells the story of the 35 years of government of the Syrian Baath party, \u201cA Plate of Sardines \u2013 Omar Amiralay\u201d, tells the directors story and his thoughts on Arab questions.<\/p>\n
The festival also includes \u201cAll restrictions end\u201d, which connects the history of garments to Iran, \u201cBehind the Wheel of Life\u201d tells the story of how a single mother lives in Tehran, \u201cSecond voice\u201d covers the prohibition of female singing in Iran, \u201cCountdown\u201d tells the story of the daily life of an Iranian youth up to college, \u201cThe Afghan Bride\u201d tells the story of an Iranian trying to recover his love, \u201cOn a Tightrope\u201d tells the story of the Uyghur minority in China, \u201cThe Gift Maker\u201d tells the story of a bomb producer in Yemen, among others.<\/p>\n
The debates will be about Iranian society and cinema, on March 31st, at 4:00 pm, and about the Muslim Brotherhood, on Sunday, April 1st, at 4:00 pm. The festival has the support of the S\u00e3o Paulo State Cultural Secretariat and will take place at Associa\u00e7\u00e3o Cec\u00edlia up to April 1st. Associa\u00e7\u00e3o Cec\u00edlia, is a non-governmental organisation and should attract a new kind of audience to the festival, according to Camargos, including residents of Santa Cec\u00edlia and people who go to the association.<\/p>\n
*Translated by Mark Ament<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Festival shows movies about Arab and Islamic culture, starting on March 29, at Associa\u00e7\u00e3o Cec\u00edlia. \u2018Road to 25 January\u2019, on the revolution in Egypt and social networks, is a highlight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1455,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-41023","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-culture"},"wps_subtitle":"Festival shows movies about Arab and Islamic culture, starting on March 29, at Associa\u00e7\u00e3o Cec\u00edlia. \u2018Road to 25 January\u2019, on the revolution in Egypt and social networks, is a highlight.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1455"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41023\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}