MOMA ‘Global Lens’ Focuses on Moroccan film ‘PEGASE’ (2010). ‘Global Lens’, 2012 is a selection of ten films which screened at New York’s Museum of Modern Art gallery (MoMA) from January 12–28 as part of an effort between MoMA and The Global Film Initiative (GFI) to raise international awareness to developing cultures of cinema from politically and economically challenged countries. One of these films was ‘PEGASE’ (Morocco, 2010), the FESPACO (Pan-Africa...

    Question: What do you get when you mix ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’ (USA, 1987) and ‘The Visitor’ (USA, 2007), minus all sex and violence? Answer: Something a little bit like ‘MORGEN’ (2010, Romania) by Romanian director Marian Crisan, but also totally different.   There is almost nil violence in this film; rather, it is paradoxical in its nature using a very tough subject of much heated contention and portraying it in such a gracef...

  Interview with director Zeina Durra. THE IMPERIALISTS ARE STILL ALIVE (USA, 2010) screened at this year's Sofia International Film Festival in Sofia, Bulgaria.    Some weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak at length with Zeina Durra in Thessaloniki, Greece about her feature film debut, ‘The Imperialists Are Still Alive' (2010). We had a fun conversation about imperialism and proletariat, conventions, nonconformists, clothes, getting naked... and just eve...

Interview with director Zeina Durra.   Some weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak at length with Zeina Durra in Thessaloniki, Greece about her feature film debut, ‘The Imperialists Are Still Alive' (2010). We had a fun conversation about imperialism and proletariat, conventions, nonconformists, clothes, getting naked... and just everything about film in general.   Zeina is a spirited and passionate young woman and once you get her going, it's hard t...

This year at the open of Palm Springs Film Festival, 2011, I started my first film screening day with the Latin American Oscar Buzz Award film for Chile: Matias Bize's 'La Vida de los Peces' (The Life of Fish) This film was so perfect and heart rendering that I spent the rest of the festival having seen one of the best of the fest on the first day... What can I say? 'The Life of Fish' is about a young man, Andres (played by Santiago Cabrera), who returns home to Santiago, Chi...