Alia Yunis

A charming multi-generational tale about a Lebanese-American family. When we join the story 85 year-old Fatima is 6 days away from the 1,001st day living with her gay grandson Amir in Hollywood after divorcing her husband Ibrahim in Detroit. Every night she tells a story to the spirit Scherezade, who visits far-flung members of Fatima's dysfunctional family to better understand them, while Fatima frets over who will inherit her mother's house in Deir Zeitoon, Lebanon. The tale has just enough comic relief and levity to keep the dysfunction from becoming overwhelming and depressing.… (mehr)

Twenty years ago, there were barely any movie theaters in the
United Arab Emirates, other than a handful of rundown theatres showing
Bollywood films for the Indian male population. Today, there are cutting
edge multiplex theatres playing to packed audiences.
Unfortunately, there are virtually no UAE films taking up that screen
time. But a huge unprecedented investment is being made into the film
industry by a rapidly expanding number of government and private film
production companies, such as the $1 billion-funded Imagenation. Just
who is training, educating, and developing the workforce to sustain such
an industry in a country that does not have a history in film, neither as a
mode of expression nor as a business? This article examines the
growing higher education visual communications education and programs
in the United Arab Emirates in light of the cultural, social and financial
opportunities and constraints that are a part of the UAE.
Download: http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwaus/Yunis&Picherit-Duthler.pdf… (mehr)