‘Winter’ is Winner in Macao Festival’s Glitzy Finale

The first edition of the International Film Festival & Awards Macao wrapped up with a snappy and well-drilled prize ceremony. The competition section was won by Argentinian film “The Winter” (aka “El Ivierno”) directed by Emiliano Torres.
           

The best director award went to Marco Martins for “Saint George” about an unemployed boxer. “Saint George” also claimed the best actor prize for Nuno Lopes.

The ceremony was held at the casino town’s cultural center Tuesday night. Notable film folk in attendance included Jon Chu, Gianni Nunnuri, Chin Han, John Penotti, Ludi Lin, the BFI’s Sandra Hebron and Ann Hui. Career achievement awards were accepted in person by top Chinese director Feng Xiaogang and producer-financier Yu Dong of Bona Film Group.

The competition section jury also included Shekhar Kapur, Giovanna Fulvi and Japanese actress Makiko Watanabe.

The festival was hatched with the idea of adding to the former Portuguese colony’s cultural activities and diversifying its appeal as a tourist destination.

While the sudden resignation of festival director Marco Mueller in October shook the organizers, the festival overcame that and delivered both a strong film lineup – jury president Kapur said “when you have a jury where everyone has a personal favorite that they champion you know you have a strong selection” – and an impressive industry section. It included a project market, conferences and a screening series.

British film, “Trespass Against Us” won both the jury prize and the prize for Lyndsey Marshal as best actress. The best screenplay award went to Amy Jump and Ben Wheatley for another British film “Free Fire.” The best technical contribution prize went to the sound design in tough Brazilian drama “Elon Doesn’t Believe in Death.”

One of the biggest cheers of the night was for the selection of Jennifer Yu as best newcomer for her performance in Macau director Tracy Choi’s “Sisterhood.” “The young actress delivered a difficult part, which is both dramatic and humorous at the same level, and kept us emotionally engaged in the story. For her very first feature film, this young actress showed incredible promise,” the jury said. “Sisterhood” also earned the audience prize.

Maitreya Festival May Be Returning In March Next Year

Ill-fated electronic music festival Maitreya has announced that it’s coming back next year despite previously saying it “may never” return.
                 

If you need a quick catch up on Maitreya Festival, here you are. Earlier this year, the festival ran into trouble when the council denied its permit to host the festival at Wooroonook Lakes. They announced a new site but cancelled the festival after police warned punters not to attend.

They then failed to offer refunds to all ticketholders and ticketing agency TryBooking were left over $400,000 out of pocket. Another event was planned “exclusively” for those ticketholders but that too was cancelled.

It’s been a journey that’s for sure but it sounds like they’re ready to do it all again.

Festival organisers have penned a very cryptic post on Facebook that basically says they’re holding an event in March.

When we say cryptic, we mean really cryptic.

“Time itself has also contacted us and made the request, warning of quantum malfunction of the warp sphere should the dance not take place,” reads one line from the post but it’s clear enough to reveal that something is happening in March.

They’ve asked punters to “follow us down the rabbit hole” in March and also said to, “please stay tuned.”

It’s unknown whether it will be a festival similar to what was planned for this year. They were previously unable to get council approval to hold it at their regular site but were hoping something would change as the CEO and mayor of Buloke Council had stepped down.

David Bowie tribute concert Nothing Has Changed shakes Hamer Hall's foundations

"Nothing has changed, everything has changed," is the full David Bowie couplet that gives this rock-orchestral tribute its name. The "everything" is still hard to bear sometimes, like when Tim Rogers slides down his microphone stand wringing those agonising notes of rage from the dying light of Lazarus.

But "we're all here because we love David," he had reminded us earlier, in between his sizzling Fame duet with Deborah Conway and saucy Sorrow with Adalita​. If anything has changed on that score since the great man's passing, it's exponentially.

Dressed in outlandish homage to Bowie's Ashes To Ashes Pierrot, iOTA's first line to Major Tom was a lightning rod for a physical rush of affection from the crowd. The joy on his white-painted face told a story of liberation so many of us shared. His soaring Life On Mars? was another high that drew vocal surges of emotion from the dark.

Conway's grin might have been equally about the sheer good fortune of having a song like Starman or Ziggy Stardust to sing, loaded with all that melody and drama and ingenious allegory. With almost breathless admiration, she framed the lyrics of Oh You Pretty Things to underscore Bowie's extraordinary prescience as a young man.

Darker characters haunted Steve Kilbey​'s songs, his face a mask of concentration as he channelled the post-apocalyptic decadence of Diamond Dogs, the psychopathic sugar daddy of China Girl – an ironically playful duet with Robyn Loau​– and the cocaine-enlightened Thin White Duke in the show's most ambitious selection, Station to Station.

Thousands enjoy food, fun games at Italian Festival

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Thousands of Staten Islanders turned out for the inaugural "Italian Festival at the Mount" this weekend at Mount Loretto in Pleasant Plains.
                 

The event was hosted by the Catholic Charities of Staten Island and was presented by ShopRite. It ran from 5-11 p.m. Friday, 3-11 p.m. Saturday and 2-9 p.m. Sunday at 6450 Hylan Blvd.

"It was a great display for Catholic Charities and a great way for the Staten Island community to come together for an event," said Anthony Rapacciuolo, who owns PRcision which coordinates events at Mount Loretto.

Rapacciuolo was thrilled with the overwhelming turnout at the event.

A cannoli-eating contest was sponsored by Alfonso's Bakery.

Vendors at the event included: Food Network star Chef Dom Tesoriero's Mac Truck, Soda City, John's Catering, Beansie Cakes, Montalbano's of Rosebank, Peter Botros' Stone House, Giovanni's Trattoria, Uncle Louie G's, Daiquiri on Wheels, Orange Theory, Pinot's Palette and Vincent's Zeppoles.

An Italian-style, outdoor cafe served espressos, sangria and Italian beers. The event included more than 10 trailer-style games, mechanical rides and live musical performances throughout all three days.

Admission to the festival was free, but parking was $5 which will be donated to the Catholic Charities organization.

Spanish town under fire over stabbings of calves at bullfighting festival

A Spanish town has come under fire for alleged animal cruelty after activists released a video showing men fighting small calves less than a year old as if they were full-grown bulls.

The excruciating video shows one man sticking barbed darts known as banderillas in a calf’s back, causing the animal to low with pain.

“We have never seen such cruelty at a bullfighting festival,” said representatives of Spain’s animal rights party Pacma, which posted the footage.

Other images show men aping professional matadors by goading calves with capes, making the clumsy young animals stumble and fall before they have swords stuck between their shoulder blades. The calves shown taking part in the August festival in Valmojado, a town near Toledo, are so small that the swords can be seen to pass right through the young bulls’ torsos.

The town, located southwest of Madrid, issued a statement on Thursday defending the spectacle as a legitimate part of Spain's bullfighting culture. It said the video had been manipulated and misrepresented the calf event earlier this month.

The town protested the barrage of insults it says it and its residents have received since the video was posted this week.

On Azealia Banks & Not Being African Enough

This evening, I tweeted a supportive response to Azealia Banks after she tweeted that she had been called a “nigger,” a “slave” and a “gringo” by an African male on Twitter. Azealia happened to retweet it, and immediately I was flooded with replies from presumably Nigerian Twitter users telling me that I’m crazy for claiming her on behalf of Nigeria, that Nigeria doesn’t want her, that I’m less Nigerian for claiming her, etc.

Yeah. I’ve been told I’m not Nigerian enough my whole life. I, who was born in Nigeria to Nigerian parents who were born and raised in Nigeria. Like Azealia, I was rejected by certain Africans when I went back to Nigeria for the first time–though much more subtly. As I discuss in my book, certain Nigerians found every opportunity to remind me of the many things they saw as my failings as a Nigerian, the things that made me too American, everything from my lack of fluency in Igbo, to my diet, to my unfamiliarity with Nigerian customs. The same thing happens to me when I meet certain Nigerians and Africans in the US.

I have to infer that it’s easy for Nigerians who have never left or rarely leave the country to act this way, to hold so tenaciously to a nationality that, mind you, was originally fabricated by white men, as if others’ claims to it threaten your own authenticity, to lash out against members of the African diaspora without empathy or understanding, to ignore the history of slavery or worse, use it against African-Americans as Azealia’s Twitter abuser did, or to refuse to accept the fact that there are diverse ways to be African and Nigerian.

And what exactly is it about Azealia Banks that you want no part of? In my opinion, she is one of the only African-American female artists at her level of visibility (shoutout to Nicki Minaj and Claudia Rankine among others) who openly and uncompromisingly reprimand white institutions, the same institutions who at their core see all you “real Africans” as illiterate, impoverished, savage, dirty monkeys, no matter what you otherwise know to be true, no matter how well you think of yourselves or how highly you carry yourselves. Need I remind you of the anti-African hatred that Ebola unleashed, to say the very least? Azealia’s sense of self, her strength and her enormous talent are far more valuable than your hatred for her is, and contribute far more to global consciousness about the strength and vibrancy of people of African descent.

The only time I feel ashamed to be African is when I hear Africans express hatred for African-Americans and others they deem not African enough. I wish more continental Africans would take a moment to see beyond their perspectives and acknowledge that diasporan Africans exist and are valid. I’m not even asking you to “accept” us, I’m just suggesting that you consider our experiences. But then, we thrive and cultivate our Africanness without your affirmation every day.

Foreign Ministry: Spanish festival's boycott of US

“We always said that BDS was not connected to the Palestinian issue or the settlements but was nothing more than Jew hatred,” spokesman says after music festival drops American Jewish artist.

If you plan on going to the Sunsplash Rototom Reggae Festival in Spain this week, you better not speak the language of the Hebrewman. If you do, they might kick you out.

The festival’s cancellation of a scheduled August 22 appearance by Jewish-American reggae artist Matisyahu – under pressure from Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists – unmasks the anti-Semitic nature of that movement, a Foreign Ministry representative said Sunday.

“We always said that BDS was not connected to the Palestinian issue or the settlements but was nothing more than Jew hatred,” spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said.

“And this demonstrates that.”

Matisyahu, Nahshon stressed, is not Israeli.

The 22-year-old music festival, which was founded in Italy but since 2009 takes place in Benicàssim, north of Valencia, canceled the scheduled appearance of Matisyahu following intense pressure from the BDS movement in Valencia to cancel the performance, saying the once-hassidic rapper has “participated in pro-Zionist festivals and has said that Palestine does not exist.”

Last Tuesday, the festival, facing a boycott by five of the 250 artists booked for the weeklong festival, wrote on its Facebook page that they contacted Matisyahu to determine his positions on Zionism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and that the singer said that despite his support for Israel, he has never inserted his political positions into his shows.

“We have never invited anyone to the festival who intends to spread hate messages, and this criteria has been used in exactly the same way when inviting Matisyahu here. In light of the controversy, we have contacted Matisyahu to find out his views on the Israel-Palestine conflict and on Zionism,” the organizers wrote.

They said Matisyahu made clear that “he has never been a political activist and does not bring his personal views to his performances or song lyrics. The fact that he supports Israel does not in itself mean he backs their policies of violence against the Palestinians, so we did not consider it necessary to exclude him from the festival on these grounds.”

By Saturday that all had changed, however, and the festival announced it was dropping Matisyahu from the program because he was unwilling to “clearly speak out against the [2014 Gaza] war and the right of Palestinians to have their own state.”

That statement also said the festival has “proven countless times a sensitivity to Palestine, its people and the occupation of its territory by Israel, particularly by holding multiple debates in the [festival’s] Social Forum.”
Among the programs it has sponsored over the years, it pointed out, was one last year called “Palestine: the failure of the international community” as well as panels in previous years with Haaretz columnist Amira Hess, representatives of Breaking the Silence, and another in 2011 called “Freedom flotillas from the Marmara to today.”

According to the festival’s website, “in addition to promoting a variety of music, throughout our history we have placed particular emphasis on the promotion of the values which make it possible for a society to advance in the most just and fair way possible.

From our very beginnings, the culture of peace has always been present in our way of understanding, not just in the festival, but in life in general.”
In addition, it said UNESCO has recognized its “efforts in promoting multiculturalism and dialogue as a fundamental tool for the peaceful resolution of conflicts.”

Born Matthew Miller, Matisyahu has been the most visibly Jewish artist in the hip-hop world since his debut album Shake Off the Dust... Arise was produced by JDub Records in 2004.

Although initially affiliated with the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, the artist later distanced himself from the movement and moved from JDub, which closed its doors this year. He shaved his signature beard and sidelocks and issued a statement saying “no more hassidic reggae superstar.”

His appearance in Spain is just one of a number of stops during his current European tour, which also includes stops in Poland, Belgium, Germany, Ukraine and the Czech Republic, before his return for a whirlwind tour of the US.

The following lyrics from his 2004 hit “King Without a Crown” will not be heard at the Spanish festival that boasts of promoting peace, harmony and understanding: “Say sometimes the world is dark and I just can’t see / With these, demons surround all around to bring me down to negativity / But I believe, yes I believe, I said I believe / I’ll stand on my own two feet / Won’t be brought down on one knee.”