Iran: One time radical students become establishment

The Guardian published this excellent commentary on how the students who brought about great political change are now resisting it in order to maintain power.
"The remarkable refusal of Iran's Reformist opposition to give in, and the regime's increasing air of desperation as it attempts, with diminishing legitimacy, to force it to do so, has left many observers, foreign and domestic, wondering whether the second Iranian revolution is finally underway....
The fanatical students who drove an American president to ruin, the faithful warriors who faced down Saddam Hussein and his western backers during eight years of war, the ideologues who uniquely placed their supreme leader, the Vali al-Faqih, on the right hand of God, have now themselves become the establishment they so abhorred – incompetent, corrupt, and reviled."
Read More

VIDEO: UAE Students on CNN discuss the future of the Middle East, the Taliban and Karzai.

The American University of Sharjah is one of the top universities in the Gulf region. CNN featured an interview with two students from the American University of Sharjah discussing some of the issues in the Middle East.
It must have been an intimidating setting for a couple of students but they did great!.

U.A.E. Removes Sunday London Times From Newsstands

The Wall Street Journal just reported that the U.A.E. authorities have removed the Sunday London Times from newsstands. There are several schools teaching Media and Communication studies in the UAE, including The American University of Sharjah, The Higher Colleges of Technology, New York University Abu Dhabi, Zayed University, etc . I'd like to hear from media students or professors, what are your thoughts? Here's the text and a link to the full story: By Andrew Critchlow
DUBAI -- The Sunday London Times newspaper was removed by authorities from shelves in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday amid intensive reporting of Dubai's debt problems, an executive at the paper said.
The National Media Council ordered the paper blocked by distributors without providing a reason, an executive at the paper in Dubai told Zawya Dow Jones. The Sunday Times edition available in the U.A.E. on Nov. 29 featured a double-page spread graphic illustrating Dubai's ruler Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum sinking in a sea of debt. The Times wasn't given a reason for the block, or a timeframe when it will be lifted, the executive said.
A government official in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the U.A.E., said that the picture of Sheik Mohammed, which accompanied a story entitled: The sinking of Dubai's dream, was "offensive."
Under the U.A.E.'s media code, publications are prohibited from criticizing the sheikdom's rulers. Local media and government officials have criticized international press coverage of Dubai's debt crisis. Markets around the world fell last week after the government requested a debt standstill for one of its biggest conglomerates.
Earlier this month Dubai's Sheik Mohammed told reporters gathered at an investment conference in the city to "shut up" and stop criticizing the emirate and its crucial relationship with Abu Dhabi.
Dubai is struggling to deal with it debts estimated to exceed $80 billion.
The Sunday Times is part of News International, a unit of News Corp., owner of Dow Jones & Co. The Times and The Sunday Times are published in the U.A.E. through a local partner SAB Media.

Iraqi Journalism Student in Abu Dhabi

Zahraa Al Khalisi, an Iraqi national studying at The University of Western Ontario's Masters of Arts in Journalism program in Canada, is the program's first student to intern in the Middle East. Zahraa spent 6 weeks as an intern at Abu Dhabi's daily newspaper: The National. The first assignment was a camel "beauty contest," which isn't unusual in the UAE. After the contest, camels were bought and sold with more than Dh25 million (US$6.8m) changing hands.

Zahraa Al Khalisi's full story.

Middle East International Film Festival

The Abu Dhabi film festival is over, but we're continuing to publish our interviews with student filmmakers who were selected for competition. It's been great to see student filmmakers from a variety of cultures sharing information about their education and inspiration.
Below are interviews with some of the festival's award winners
The Award for Best Emerging Student Filmmaker went to Serena Abi Aad. (interview below)
The Award for Best Narrative, Student Filmmaker, went to Burhan Qurabni. (interview still to come)

Jasmine Kosovic. American Filmmaker Interview

Name: JASMINE KOSOVIC
Place of Birth: NEW YORK CITY
I Currently Live In: VENICE, CALIFORNIA
Last (or Current) School Attended: AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE’S DIRECTING WORKSHOP FOR WOMEN

My Film: KATE WAKES

Which Family Member Gave You the Most Inspiration: My cousin Daghi, who introduced me to avant garde theatre, and my cousin Velimir, who introduced me to the Beatles!

As a Student, What’s the Most Helpful Class You've Taken?

This may not seem to be connected to filmmaking but for me it is. The class was some sort of survey of modern American politics, but it was the teacher, not the class that made it so important to me. I took the class in college (I went to Barnard College, Columbia University) and in that class I learned how to write properly, even strongly. How to argue my case, be consistent in theme, thesis, etc. This way of thinking came up all the time when I was directing my short; I was always asking myself, “is this way I’m going to place the camera, this way I’m directing the actors/lighting the scene, adding music/etc. “– are these serving my theme?

If I Could Cast One Professional Actor it Would it Be?
Juliette Binoche. I’m writing a script now with her in mind for one of the parts. So she is lodged in my brain at the moment!

My Three Favorite Films: Oh! This is almost impossible! OK, OK… Well, Jim Jarmusch’s STANGER THAN PARADISE made me want to become a director. It was the first time that I saw and understood that film is more than the sum of its parts, that it is a language all its own. Believe it or not, I love Steven Spielberg’s E.T. Federico Fellini’s 8/12 affected me profoundly.

My Three Most Prized Possessions are:
The people in my life are what I prize the most. They’re not possessions, I know, but they are what make my heart whole.

Philipp Yuryev. Russian Filmmaker Interview

Name: Philipp Yuryev
Place of Birth: Russia, Moscow
I Currently Live In: Moscow
Last (or Current) School Attended: I graduated from The Moscow Gymnasium and now I am studing in The State Institute of cinematography (VGIK)

My Film: “ The Morning in Other eyes”

As a Student, What's the Most Helpful Class You've Taken? The classes of masterpieces of filming by our professor, the famous russian director Aleksey Ychitel. He is the director of many brilliant fiction and documentaries films.
Which Family Member Gave You the Most Inspiration? My uncle Michael Yuryev, the businessman. Now he is going to produce a very interesting film project, it is his first experience. And one more member is my mother, a great fan of cinema. She works on Russian TV as an editor.

If I Could Cast One Professional Actor It Would be? It is very difficult question. I like Jenifer Lopes in films of Almodovar, I should like to try Scarlet Johanson (I like her play very much in Woody Allen's films). And?... of course, Nicole Kidman

My Three Favorite Films: "The Mystery Train” and “ Broken Flowers” by Jim Jarmusch “Everything About My Mother” by Almodovar “The Sky Above Berlin” by Vim Venders.

My 3 Most Prized Possessions Are: 1. I think that my most valuable prize was the prize of audience’s sympathies in the festival of my institute, VGIK. 2. The diploma for the most unexpectable decision of the plot in my second film “ The changed landscape”. 3. The invitation to present my film in child oncological hospital.