Showing posts with label arts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label arts. Show all posts

Saturday, March 25, 2017

Soldier's daughter, filmmaker who supports the GI Film Festival

THE G.I. FILM FESTIVAL 2017 - BLOG POST

Guest Blogger: Ana Quinata
           Contact: quin@anaquinata.com
            Follow: Twitter/IG: @anaquinata



            Since the first days of cinema, commercial productions and even some newsreel documentaries have often found success as entertainment but as true to life tales they have had a tendency to fall short or miss the mark entirely in their depiction of the service member experience. 

This was in large part due to the delicate constitutions of the viewing populace. Essentially, studios wouldn't make money and the government wouldn't entice recruits if they always told it the way it really was. South Pacific ring a bell for anyone? For those seeking an unapologetic level of honesty, there is a solution.


            Currently in its eleventh year, the pioneering G.I. Film Festival remains an important platform for the military veteran community to share their stories in several categories including music videos, student films, features, and screenplays to name a few, allowing differing levels of filmmakers and avenues of expression to be showcased. Participants are also afforded the fantastic opportunity to network with working professionals in the television and film industry - the importance of which cannot be understated. 

When pursuing a career after the active duty military life has come to its conclusion, the exceptional news coverage the film festival garners is not limited to local newspapers around the D.C. area but reaches every corner of the nation through articles printed in the Washington Post and stories featured on national television providing widespread exposure to the projects selected.


GI Film Festival 2017
GIFF2017 - #GIFF2017
May 24 - May 28, 2017
Washington D.C., USA


            Whether those projects be narrative shorts or feature-length documentaries, every experience shared on screen at the GI Film Festival is a real story that can only be told by those men and women of the armed forces that have lived through them. Stories that speak to viewers on spiritual levels; that reach depths within us that we thought perhaps we'd buried. 

In being open with their experiences - the good, the bad, and the in-between - participants promote understanding and encourages others to do the same. It is their expression that the event was founded on and on which it continues to thrive because their authenticity can be felt by those who watch in the screening rooms.





            Now, who can be in those screening rooms? Anyone, really. Not only those aforementioned entertainment industry professionals looking for talent but film students, family members, anyone in the general public who enjoys military stories and of course, fellow veterans. 

The event also includes opportunities for attendees and participants to socialize with one another and on the international level with respective counterparts from American allied countries.

     

GI Film Festival 2017
GIFF2017 - #GIFF2017
May 24 - May 28, 2017
Washington D.C., USA


       As a daughter of two former United States soldiers myself, I appreciate the steadfast efforts the GI Film Festival team has put forth with each passing year for this event to continue as another means of connectivity among veterans. 

As a filmmaker with much of my work focused on military conflicts in the last century, this provides proof that these stories matter as they should which is in turn encouragement to keep pushing forward to share them as best I can so that one day I might be able to honor those who have sacrificed so that I might be in this position to do just that.


Guest Blogger: Ana Quinata
           Contact: quin@anaquinata.com
            Follow: Twitter/IG: @anaquinata

GI Film Festival 2017
GIFF2017 - #GIFF2017
May 24 - May 28, 2017 
Washington D.C., USA

Blog posted by:
Fulton Film Company
Fresno, California




Sunday, September 25, 2016

Official selection - 3000 Nights - Jordan, Palestine, France, Lebanon, UAE, Qatar

Asian world film festival 2016

Culver City, California, USA 
October 24 - November 1, 2016

3000 NIGHTS

SYNOPSIS

Accused of helping a teenage boy on the run, newlywed Palestinian schoolteacher, Layal finds herself incarcerated in a top security Israeli prison for Palestinian and Israeli women. 

After being subjected to a harrowing reception from the female guards and inmates, Layal discovers that she is pregnant. The prison director pressures her to abort the baby and spy on the Palestinian inmates. Terrified but defiant, Layal gives birth to her child in chains.

Through her struggle to raise her son behind bars and her turbulent relationship with the other prisoners, Layal manages to find a sense of hope and meaning to her life. When prison conditions deteriorate and the Palestinian prisoners decide to strike, the prison director warns her against joining the strike and threatens to take her son away. 

In a moment of truth, Layal is forced to make a choice that will forever change her life.

 Inspired by a true story and shot in a real prison, 3000 Nights traces a young mother’s journey of hope, resilience and survival against all odds.

Followed by Q & A with Director Mai Masri

ABOUT THE FILM

Genre: Drama

Country: Jordan, Palestine, France, Lebanon, UAE, Qatar

Year: 2014

Duration: 113 minutes

Director: Mai Masri

Language(s): Arabic, Hebrew

Subtitles: English subtitles

Producer: Mai Masri, Sabine Sidawi, Charlotte Uzu

Screenplay: Mai Masri

Cinematographer: Gilles Porte

Editor: Michele Tyan

Sound Recording: Raja Dubayah , Chadi Roukoz    
                                                                              
Sound Design: Rana Eid

Principal Cast:  Maisa Abd Elhadi, Nadera Omran, Raida Adon, Karim Saleh, Rakeen Saad, Abeer Haddad, Anahid Fayyad, Hana Chamoun, Haifa Al-Agha, Ahmad Al-Omari, Khitam Edelbi

Contact  
Production: Orjouane Productions, +961.3.499080 rshamdan@cyberia.net.lb
Sales: Intramovies, +39 335 841 0149 paola.corvino@intramovies.com

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

I first had the idea to make 3000 Nights several years ago when I was filming in my hometown, Nablus during the first intifada where I met a young Palestinian woman who had given birth to her son in an Israeli prison. I was profoundly affected to hear how she had delivered her child in chains and raised him together with her cellmates only to be forcefully separated from him at the age of two. I felt that this was a story that had to be told.

Inspired by the true stories of children born in prison and young women coming of age behind bars, 3000 Nights is first and foremost a human story of a young mother who, through her struggle to protect her child and her relationship with the prisoners around her, finds the space to reflect, develop, and mature as a young woman.

Featuring an almost entirely female cast and shot in an old disused prison, The film explores the meaning of motherhood, love and betrayal, focusing on the imagination, creativity and solidarity of women prisoners that empowers them to survive and endure. Prison is a metaphor for the condition of the Palestinian people – and Palestinina women in particular. I am drawn to this story because it allows me to explore the complex relationships that take place within the intimacy of a confined, hidden space of a women’s world and to go beyond the relationship of conflict and into the realm of the unexpected bonds that can arise between captive women at war.  

This story has been living with me for such a long time that I feel I have been imprisoned with these women and seen the same walls and heard the same sounds. For me this is a film about resilience and resistance. It is above all a film about hope.

Asian World Film Festival 2016, Culver City, USA
Hollywood, California