Bristol Silents celebrates ten years

It has been ten years since the Arnolfini hosted Bristol Silents’ first event - a Louise Brooks Double Bill. Back then, it seemed as if Bristol Silents might be a club for ageing, mostly male geeks with a small projector in a garage; but it has grown hugely. Supremo Chris Daniels looks as pleased as he is amazed; although of course, it didn’t just happen by magic. Once or twice a year Bristol’s enormous Colston Hall sells out for old-fashioned black-and-white silent film shows.

Friday 29th October 2010: To mark the anniversary, Bristol Festival of Ideas in collaboration with Arnolfini presented an evening celebrating the life and work of the incomparable Miss Brooks. Despite Hollywood's ill-use and her own best efforts to remain invisible after her first flowering, Brooks became a powerful face in cinema - indeed in our culture, her legacy shaped by her mesmerising work in a handful of European films, more than her appearances in a few 'girlie' comedies in Hollywood.
Diary of a Lost Girl confirmed Pabst as one of the great pre-talkie directors and established Brooks as an "actress of brilliance, a luminescent personality and a beauty unparalleled in screen history." (Kevin Brownlow). Brooks plays Thymian who, raped by her father's assistant, gives birth to an illegitimate child. When she refuses to marry the obnoxious assistant she is forced to leave the baby and is sent to a strict reform school for ‘wayward’ girls. It’s the second of two major films made by G.W. Pabst in Germany. The other, Pandora’s Box – with Brooks playing the part of Lulu – is usually considered one of the great films of the silent era. I would say that Diary, though not shown as often and not as highly regarded, doubtless because of its complexity and subtle sophistication as much as for its sordid story-line and full-frontal attack on society’s hypocrisies, deserves a higher ranking than Pandora.

The trouble with popularity ratings is that once a film, tune, picture, any work of art, becomes listed as being slightly popular, or even only well-known, its “popularity” can only increase, while others not listed remain off the ladder. Mentions engender yet more mentions, and so do listings.

The music for Diary was provided by pianist John Sweeney. It’s always difficult to write about - silent accompaniment - as it has to be dynamic, emphasising the sturm und drang and delicately floating over the flowery times, while being, ideally, completely unnoticeable. Of course, John Sweeney does it well. A one-man orchestra.

The night started with by a rare and slightly chopped about 1986 Arena documentary by Richard Leacock - a study broadcast shortly after Brooks' death, including one of her champions, Kenneth Tynan, while she talked of her days in Paris and Berlin and her experiences of Hollywood, with extracts from her films. This was one of these one-night only events, as the documentary is not out on DVD and we may well have seen the only copy; again, Diary of a Lost Girl, although it deserves all the praise it can attract, might only come your way once in a lifetime.

Gaza cartoonist meets fellow artists by video

الفنان الفلسطيني ماجد بدرة يلتقي فناني كاريكاتير من فلسطين وأمريكا

Palestinian cartoonist Majed Badra meets American and Palestinian cartoonists: his report -

Through visiting of Cartoonist (Josh Neufeld) to Palestine with coordination with the American consulate, artist Neufeld meets Palestinian cartoonists in west bank ( Bahaa El bokhary, Khalil Abu Arafa, Mohammed sabaaneh, Abu noon and Ramzi el taweel ) and from Gaza strip by the video conference, cartoonist (Majed Badra).

Artist (Josh Neufeld) present his artistical experience and his last work the book of A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge that tells the real stories of seven New Orleans residents and their experiences during and after Hurricane Katrina.

Neufeld focus in his work on economic crisis,social issues,Hurricane Katrina, but he never draw political cartoons.

Palestinian cartoonists present their artistical experience and their accomplishments that they achieved through their artistical work, and show how they suffer from closing borders and siege that prevent artistical and cultural exchanges .

Cartoonist Majed Badra thank the American cartoonist (Neufeld) for his coming to land of Palestine , and he regret for his inability to meet the cartoonist (Neufeld) and his colleagues (Palestinian cartoonists) in west bank due to the closing borders by the Israeli occupation.

Badra assure that the Palestinian cartoonists seek to achieve values of freedom, equality, progress ,social justice, liberation, peace, democracy in order to preserve world peace, and to protect human rights and the environment.

Also they do their best to eliminate underdevelopment and subordination on a global perspective.

Beside working to raise the awareness of the concepts of social justice, democracy, freedom, and human rights.

Badra considers the Cartoonists are the conscience of the world.

الفنان الفلسطيني ماجد بدرة يلتقي فناني كاريكاتير من فلسطين وأمريكا

رسامو الكاريكاتير الفلسطينيين يلتقون رسام الكاريكاتير الأمريكي (جوش نيوفيلد)

خلال زيارة لرسام الكاريكاتير الأمريكي (جوش نيوفيلد), للأراضي الفلسطينية , بالتنسيق مع القنصلية الأمريكية

التقى الفنان (نيوفيلد) برسامي الكاريكاتير الفلسطينيين في الضفة الغربية ( بهاء البخاري , خليل ابو عرفة ,محمد سباعنة , أبو النون , رمزي الطويل) وعبر الفيديو كونفرنس في قطاع غزة الفنان (ماجد بدرة) .

وقد استعرض الفنان (نيوفيلد) تجربته الفنية وآخر أعماله كتاب الرسومات الكرتونية بطريقة قصصية حول الفيضان الذي خلفه إعصار كاترينا في ولاية نيوأورليانز في الولايات المتحدة الامريكية, بعد لقاءه مع سبع مواطنين عانوا أزمة الإعصار والفيضان وتجربتهم بعد وخلال هذه الكارثة.

ومن المعروف عن الفنان(نيوفيلد) أنه يركز في أعماله حول الأزمة الاقتصادية , وإعصار كاترينا والقضايا الاجتماعية... وغيرها , ويبتعد في أعماله عن القضايا السياسية.

وقد استعرض كل فنان فلسطيني تجربته الفنية والانجازات التي حققها في مشواره الفني والمعاناة التي يعيشونها والمشاكل التي تواجه الفنان الفلسطيني من إغلاق المعابر ما يؤدي الى عدم التواصل المستمر بين الفنانين وعدم وجود تبادل ثقافي وفني .

وقد رحب الفنان (بدرة) برسام الكاريكاتير الأمريكي (نيوفيلد) على ارض فلسطين , وأعرب عن أسفه لعدم قدرته مشاركة الفنانين في اللقاء وجها لوجه في الضفة الغربية لان الاحتلال الإسرائيلي دائما يحول دون لقاء الأصدقاء.

وأكد (بدرة) أن رسامي الكاريكاتير الفلسطينيين يتطلعون لتحقيق قيم الحرية والمساواة والتقدم والعدالة الاجتماعية والتحرر والسلام وحماية حقوق الإنسان والبيئة.

ويبذلون جهود حثيثة من اجل انهاء التخلف والتبعية ومواكبة التطور العالمي , وان رسامي الكاريكاتير يمثلون ضمير العالم.

Gaza: A treasure house under threat

*ancient church and mosque in Gaza City [photo by Emad Badwan]

Oct 22, 2010 (IPS) – Few outside of Gaza would consider its history much beyond the decades of Israeli occupation. But Gaza is a historical treasure house. Many of those treasures are now in Israeli museums, and those that remain are becoming difficult to preserve due to the Israeli siege.

Gaza, set along the historical silk road and on the bridge between Africa and Asia, was host to civilisations, including the Pharaohs, Canaanites, Philistines, Crusaders, Mamluks, Romans and many following. Alexander the Great invaded Gaza; Napoleon Bonaparte passed through.

*photo: Abeer Jamal

“Throughout Gaza, you find pottery and carved columns and capitals, and the remnants of civilisations past, including artifacts from early human presence like the iron and bronze ages,” says Asad Ashoor from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in Gaza.

“There are visible relics in Gaza,” says Ashoor. These have survived civilisations and more recently, Israeli bombings.

In the Deir al Balah region, the vast excavated remains of the Monastery of Saint Hilarion, the first church in Palestine, include surprisingly intact floor mosaics and structural pillars.

*ruins of Hilarion monastery [photo: Abeer Jamal]

*ruins of Hilarion monastery [photo: Abeer Jamal]

In southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, one wall — with an entrance gate and tower — of a Mamluk era inn (“khan”) and fort which served trade caravans stands today in the centre of the city.

Gaza City hosts the Pasha Palace, now a museum, where Napoleon is said to have stayed. The Omari mosque, used today by worshippers, was built on the site of a pagan temple-turned-Byzantine church, and still has a bell tower after it was used as a church again during the Crusader period.

Hammam al-Sammara, the Ottoman bath house, still attracts customers today.

“Recently, workers digging to repair water lines in the Tuffah region of Gaza City discovered an old house from the Mamluk period,” says Abeer Jamal, secretary at the Gaza museum.

*photo: Abeer Jamal

“Above it was cemetery from a later period. But we were not able to excavate because it is an important road for traffic and there are many people living in that area.”

“Roughly eight months ago,” Jammal says, “excavations began on Tel Rafah, an archaeological site from Greek and Roman times, rich with artifacts but in a dangerous area near the Palestinian-Egyptian border. The Israelis dropped leaflets saying not to approach within 300 metres of this specific site,” she says.

But workers continue to excavate, and according to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, have found various important artifacts, including Roman era pots and dishes, pottery and the lid of a coffin from the Byzantine period, and Greek era silver coins.

“The other main discovery was over 40 bronze coins from the Greek era, with the image of Athena, the Emperor, and Greek symbolism including owls, and Greek gods,” says Jammal.

Discoveries and extant antiquities aside, Gaza’s archaeology faces serious obstacles.

Jammal says many of Gaza’s treasures have ended up in museums outside Gaza. “Since my work also entails giving visitors Gaza tours, I’ve met many who say they have seen artifacts like ours in Israeli museums in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem,” she says.

Gerald Butt, in his ‘Life at the crossroads: A History of Gaza’ notes, “The Israel Museum has among its collection a broad-based painted chalice taken from Tell al-Ajjul,” one of Gaza’s most important archeological sites. He later writes, “Pottery manufactured by the Philistines during this period can be seen in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem,” mentioning that Philistine artifacts were largely unearthed in the Wadi Gaza region.

“Most international visitors that enter Gaza enter via Erez and are given by the Israelis ‘a tourist guide to Israeli territory’,” says Abeer Jamal.

Aside from the former problems of looting, and the current Israeli disinformation campaign, archaeology in Gaza faces further obstacles of sporadic Israeli bombings and a lack of specialised equipment and preservation chemicals needed to excavate and maintain relics.

“We urgently need materials, particularly for cleaning and maintaining artifacts,” Jammal says.

Like most daily items Gazans need, the chemicals needed for the preservation of artifacts are banned entry to Gaza under the Israeli-led siege.

“The occupation and siege prevents not only Devcon and Ethanol, the chemicals we need for maintaining our relics, but also outside expertise to help in excavation and restoration,” says the Ministry’s Asad Ashoor.

“Given the circumstances, we do our best to conserve these pieces,” Ashoor says. “Some we can place inside glass tanks, but even these break or crack. And anyway, that doesn’t solve the problem of needing controlled ventilation and temperature.”

According to Ashoor, attempts at gaining United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) approval for historical sites and items have not succeeded.

“We contacted UNESCO, but they have refused to address our archaeological goods,” he says.

“Israel’s goal is a blackout on Palestine’s history and culture,” says Ashoor. “Israel wants outsiders to think only that Gaza is a depressing, dangerous place devoid of culture, history and beauty, and that the main theme here is humanitarian aid.”

Jammal agrees. “This is not just an economical siege, it’s a cultural siege, a siege on everything that is Palestinian.”

*inside one of Gaza’s churches [photo by Emad Badwan]

*Omari mosque, formerly a church [photo: Eva Bartlett]

*Omari mosque detail [photo by Emad Badwan]

*old roofs in Gaza [photo by Emad Badwan]

*the old city, in Gaza City [photo by Emad Badwan]

*old city lanes [photo: Eva Bartlett]

*Khan Younis inn [photo: Abeer Jamal]

Originally published at:

http://ingaza.wordpress.com

A fish? Dada's hangover

"All is going well at the meeting. The exquisite André Salmon recites his unobjectionable poems and the public is pleased, convinced that it is to be presented with the Art which it loves so very much. But its fatuous self-satisfaction, the smug congratulations to one another upon being seen at a cultural event, is soon destroyed. We enter wearing masks. Behind the masks we shout out a bad poem by Breton, the Big Balled Bastard. Now the audience is no longer happy. A certain anxiety can be felt as citizens look at one another, their expressions uncertain. Is this still art?May they congratulate themselves again?
... This time, I am happy to report, it concludes very decently in riot. Several pieces of furniture are broken and, in the noise, Picabia's last words are missed by many. I believe he is saying something he honestly believes it is important for them to know. He has mentioned this fact of artistic appreciation before. 'If you read literature aloud for ten minutes, you will develop bad breath,' But the audience will not listen to this extremely valuable advice. Most of them are here only because of our announcement that Charlie Chaplin will be the guest of honour. Many others have come merely to bombard the performers with small change from their pockets. They are beginning to realise that Dada must cost them money."

In his 'historical' work of 1990, Exquisite Cadaver, published just before he retired to Ireland to work on making collages, Wolf Mankowitz left us a brilliant picture of the origins in subversion for what is now State/Big Business Academia, as well as reminding us of what today's audiences have forgotten about: namely, informed scepticism. At this time, as the latest cherry-picked Turner Prize 'nominees' are lined up and cuts to the Arts are in the news, we should remember.

In a recent Guardian article, Laura Cumming, who has previously covered the Turner circus without blushing, stood up to declare she no longer believes in it; although with her own kind of reservations:
"Not any more. It has long since outlived its most useful function, which was to raise awareness of contemporary art in a society that often found it strange, forbidding, arcane or just plain laughable.
Consciousness-raising was the Turner's founding aim in 1984. The prize created hoopla, especially when broadcast on national TV with a panel of critics, commentators and artists in violent disagreement. But you cannot manufacture dissent like this without passionate opinions. And while there may be no consensus among the judges – or at least that's what they always insist when publishing their accounts of the experience – I strongly doubt that the issue of who wins the prize nowadays raises anybody's blood pressure.
The world has changed since 1984. Contemporary art is everywhere: bought, sold, debated, displayed, televised, mediated, thoroughly and ubiquitously exposed."

She is right on the ball when she speaks about manufacturing dissent. But the dissent she referred to was that purportedly among the ‘judges’ rather than between the competing artists and the public. And since the late nineteen-seventies, the kind of stuff that is most often referred to by art critics as contemporary art has been, when not pure “conceptualism”, Dadaist pranks recycled by successive generations of art students thinking that no one else knows about Duchamp. In much the same way that, every now and then, a new angry young rock guitarist will smash his axe onstage, doing the Sixties.

And contemporary art was doing pretty well, thank you, before the Turner Prize. I write as one whose first one-man show sold out (in Glasgow) in 1964. Laura Cumming praises with faint condemnation.

Iwona Blazwick spoke up unequivocally in favour of the Turner. She said, "From a public perspective the Turner prize is like the Booker, or the Orange, it guides you, narrows the field. For anyone wanting to know what's happening in contemporary art it's a great starting point.
From an industry point of view it presses a pause button, makes us stand back and take a more focused position. For me it raises questions like: why have these four been picked out of the huge panoply of activity?"

I can answer that, easily. Only those lucky few who are contracted to or shown by that tiny group of specialist galleries like the White Cube, manage to blag a show at one of the state-sponsored galleries like the Glasgow CCA and the Birmingham Ikon, or are championed by the speculative collector Charles Saatchi are added to the short list. No one who has been nominated by ordinary members of the public will even get considered. And, of course, what is happening in contemporary art has absolutely nothing to do with this self-serving party.

Hayden Smith of Metro covered the opening of this year’s Turner collection - yet to be judged, which the Press "threatened" to boycott after they were told to sign contracts agreeing not to publish images resulting in ‘any adverse publicity’ for the Tate. He blotted his copy a little, though, by calling the Award "Britain’s most prestigious - and controversial". That prestige is surely recognised only by the earnest workers in the Arts Council, the leap-frog culture joining the Tates and the Cubes and the Serpentines; and the publishers of a few glossy but vapid art mags.

Brian Sewell summed it up pretty well, and I can thank Mr Smith for this quote: "Most of the art that gets into the Turner Prize is some kind of extremely contemporary rubbish - assemblies of rubbish masquerading under important names."

And Dada is costing us! Now, after all these years, the British taxpayers are funding its idiot children. I propose a government bill to wind down the Arts Council, as a subclause in the Bill to outlaw masturbation while wearing hats.

'Exquisite Cadaver' Wolf Mankowitz
248pp ISBN 0 233 98547 6
André Deutsch 1990

Trio Joubran play Bristol

The Palestinian ‘Asylum’ Oud musicians Trio Joubran resurrected Nazareth at St George’s Hall

by Iqbal Tamimi

Director for Arab Women Media Watch Centre in UK

The fine Oud music did not need a crutch of words to explain its mission to the British music lovers. For the first time campaigning and praying for justice and peace in Palestine took the shape of music at St George’s Hall, where the senses kneeled in the presence of glorious art.

On Wednesday night 29th September the Palestinian musicians ‘Trio Joubran’ and the brilliant Palestinian Percussionist Yousef Hbeisch held a concert at the marvellous St Georges Concert Hall in the city of Bristol, that is dedicated to promoting high quality by hosting almost 200 events every year.

Le Trio Joubran, Samir, Wissam and Adnan are the fourth generation of a Palestinian family of « Oud » makers.

Samir told us that their last night’s Concert was the 11th in a series of performances within a tour. Even though the group is called Le Trio Joubran, the fourth member, the percussionist master, the son of Palestine’s’ Galilee, Youssef Hbeisch is not a member of the Joubran family but he is a main pillar in the Trio's compositions. His rhythms and notes were the magic that made the packed concert Hall of St George, echo with applauds while the Ouds of the Trio were creating a marvellous dialogue with his drums and tambourines.

Le Trio Joubran, Oud masters, are three brothers from the city of Nazareth, north Palestine. Samir, the leader of the band was introduced to Oud by his father at the age of five, and by the age of nine, Samir joined the Nazareth Institute of Music. In 1995 he graduated from the highly prestigious Muhammad Abdul Wahhab Conservatory of Cairo in Egypt.

Samir’s first album, Taqaseem, came out in 1996, followed by his second album Sou'fahm (Misunderstanding) in 2001. Until this date, Samir was the only Palestinian musician performing outside the borders of his country. He is also the first musician to be awarded, a two-year scholarship to Italy in 2003-2004 through the Writer's Asylum Program organized by the International Parliament of Writers.

Last night, Samir, who is now based in France, expressed his sorrow that a large number of talented musicians and creative Palestinian colleagues of his, are suffering the oppressive policies of Israel, denying them the right to travel to participate in international activities. The Trio themselves suffered all sorts of harassments including cancellations of their performances in their own home city of Nazereth by Israeli arbitrary orders. Samir said " we want to be known as musicians from Palestine not as Palestinian musicians".

On the stage, Samir gave tribute to the renowned great Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish who contributed to his musical poetic understanding, by saying ‘ I learned from Darwish what no collage can teach me’.Samir’s Music allied itself with the spoken word bringing back to life the traditional Palestinian tune of the well known song of ‘Hal Asmar Eloun’ that revived the audience at the back seats who found themselves humming along with him; the British enthusiasts just hummed the tunes, while the Arab expatriates sang along with his music for the homeland that has a moon made of silver, ‘Ya-boo Qamar Faddah’.

The Trio played some tunes that must have been tailored for a great documentary production back tracks. This was not surprising since Samir has good experience in this field. He composed the original sound track for Rashir Masharawi's Ticket to Jerusalem and three tracks from his albumTamaas were included in the sound track of Inguélézi. Three titles from Randana were also used in Parvez Sharmas' documentary ‘A jihad for love.’

Samir said ‘we will travel the world with our music for it is our weapon against oppression and no one can take our music or our Palestinian heritage away from us’. He also said: ‘We are fighting for peace, we are campaigning to end the occupation in Palestine and this is our message to the world’.

Samir Joubran, the eldest brother, started his music career in 1996, nearly a decade before the formation of the Joubran Trio. He released two albums,Taqaseem in 1996, and Sou'fahm in 2001 before inviting Wissam, to join him on the third album, Tamaas released in 2003. Adnan. Joined his brother’s band in August 2004, and at the Parisian' Luxembourg garden, the Joubran Trio came to life.

The second son of Hatem Jubran is Wissam whose father signed him up for violin lessons at the Nazareth conservatory and gave him a small Oud for his ninth birthday. Wissam performed in local Palestinian concerts and played on the theatre stage the role of a singing Oud player in a play about the life of the renowned Iraqi poet Moudaffar El Nawab. When Wissam was twelve, he seized the opportunity to take his dreams and talent all the way to Paris' Arab World Institute, where he shared the stage with his brother Samir. In 2005, Wissam was the first Arab graduate from the Antonio Stradivari Conservatory, in Cremona, and at the same time he followed his father’s footsteps by becoming a master luthier making the Joubran Trio's Ouds, carrying his four-generation’ family legacy into the future.

The third brother, Adnan, wanted to become a percussionist since he was young. Yet, he was captivated by the Oud. By the age of fifteen, he took part in Oud-playing contests, and he was one of five winners of a contest held in Palestine. Adnan provides musical accompaniment for the Fattoumi-Lamoureux dance company, in addition to his work with the Trio and performing for the Parisian audiences the combined music and circus show called EKO DU OUD (the Oud's echo). I have asked Adnan why their mother Ibtisam Hanna Joubran who is known for her mastery of singing the Mowashahat, (a form of singing that originated in Arab Spain) is not joining them. He said that it is not easy for her to leave Nazareth and travel abroad besides the difficult nature of their long tour which is not an easy option for her.

The Trio are haunted, like all Palestinians by exile and by the feeling of being forced to keep on the move searching for a home away from home like almost 6 million Palestinian refugees. This can be felt by the titles of their Albums. At the end of the successful concert, the four Palestinian musicians played a piece called Asfar which means ‘travels’, then signed a number of their albums for the audience. But what was interesting, is as Adnan said, we are Palestinians and we identify ourselves as such, no one even notices that we are Christian Palestinians, because for us Palestinians it does not matter what faith we are, we are campaigning for the freedom of our country through our heritage and music. The Trio got the biggest applause when Samir said " our instruments were the only weapons we picked up in our fight for Palestinian freedom and identity".

For me as a Palestinian in exile, the Joubran’s concert was a dream that brought my home country right to where I was. When the audience started stamping their feet, applauding the musicians and demanding more music, the sound of Palestinian Dabkeh sounds was brought back to life, I could swear that I can visualize the seasons of harvest in Palestine’s’ summers and smell the toasted wheat in its fields.