Category Archives: Film

Documentary film: Battle for Brooklyn

Battle for Brooklyn explores the poorly understood phenomenon of eminent domain abuse. A feature-length documentary from filmmakers Michael Galinsky, Suki Hawley, and David Beilinson, this film investigates how real estate developers, local government, community activists, and the media have clashed over the largest single-source development project ever proposed in New York City.
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Widely known as the Atlantic Yards project, this undertaking has for the past four years been a major source of contention as local residents resist a billionaire developers attempt to use eminent domain to seize their homes and businesses. Done in the name of “development,” schemes such as this one eviscerate private property rights and make a mockery of the Fifth Amendment–and yet they freely exploit lucrative taxpayer subsidies, easements, and tax abatements.
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Documentary film – “Passione: A Musical Adventure” by John Turturro

Date:  June 22 — July 5
Venue: Film Forum (West Houston Street, West of 6th Avenue)
Time: daily at 1:00, 2:50, 4:40, 6:30, 8:20 and 10:10

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Little wonder that PASSIONE, John Turturro’s wild, colorful, sexy ode to the music and people of Naples, was “rapturously received” (Variety) and interrupted by “spontaneous outbreaks of applause” (Sight + Sound Magazine) in Italy, where it played for more than four months (its soundtrack on the charts for five). A brilliant actor in film, theater, and television, Turturro is also the director of three features (including the hilarious, irreverent ROMANCE & CIGARETTES, which premiered at Film Forum) and a man whose talents are fueled by an unquenchable zest for life. He describes PASSIONE as “a musical adventure that comes directly out of the people and the volcanic land they inhabit. Conjuring ancient stories and myths that still live — of love, sex, jealousy, and social protest — each song is a small screenplay, an emotional postcard. I tried to see if I could understand in a small way, a little bit of the soul of the city, while at the same time killing clichés about it. There are places you go and once is enough. Then, there’s Napoli.”

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Film screening: Nero’s Guests – The Age of Inequality – a film by Deepa Bhatia

Date: Saturday, June 11, 2011
Time: 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Ticket: free
Location: JujoMukti Tea Lounge (211 East 4th Street, New York, NY 10009)

The Association for India’s Development (AID), New York (http://www.aidnyc.org/) invites you to this film screening.
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Overview

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Film: The Film Society of Lincoln Center presents “The Green Wave” (German/Iran)

Presented in partnership with Alwan for the Arts and ArteEast

Film series: Human Rights Watch Film Festival

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Video: Another Brick In The Wall (Hey Ayatollah, Leave Those Kids Alone!) cover!

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Blurred Vision, a band of two young Iranian brothers, Sepp and Solh in Toronto used the Pink Floyed song  “Another Brick in the Wall“, which was written by the great Roger Waters in 1979, as a musical-political statement to express their support for the pro-democracy movement and revolution in Iran which started in the summer of 2009 in Tehran, Iran.

The famous line, “Hey. teacher, leave us kids alone” is replaced with “Hey, Ayatollah, leave those kids alone” which was approved by Roger Waters. The video shows a mullah and the security forces chasing after and beating the young protesters in Iran. The director of the  video is the Canadian/Iranian filmmaker, Babak Payami who lives in Toronto.

A great cover for a great cause! Continue reading