Many cinemas in Africa also have a hard time simply staying open: expensive film rights, high rent and pirated copies of movies have caused a movie-slump on the continent. And the theatres which are in operation mostly show Hollywood productions. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), all cinemas were sold in the 1970s during the rule of former president Mobutu Sese Seko. Political unrest and armed conflict made it difficult for filmmakers to work freely and creatively over the next few decades. The situation only eased after 2010 and in 2014, the first international film festival took place in Kinshasa. Cinemas are now popping up again around the country.
Tag: 02.26.18
How Do We Teach Young People In The Theatre To Advocate For Themselves?
“Our industry cannot afford to keep sending the message to its actors that they must suffer in silence, and the change begins in theatre education. How can we train young actors to be advocates for their emotional, physical, and mental well-being? How can we empower students to recognize and respond to their intuition rather than ignoring it? What does it look like to teach self-protection and preservation as part of youth theatre curriculum?”
Filmmaker Kevin Smith Does Standup Comedy Gig, Has Massive Heart Attack
The director of Clerks, Mallrats, Dogma and other films had finished shooting the first of two comedy specials at a club near Los Angeles when he suffered a “widow-maker” coronary, with one artery fully blocked.
Comcast, Elbowing Murdoch And Fox Aside, Makes $31 Billion Bid For European Satellite TV Giant Sky
“U.S. cable giant and NBCUniversal owner Comcast has made an unsolicited $31 billion (£22 billion) takeover bid for European pay TV giant Sky, offering more than Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox. NBCUniversal’s parent company unveiled its all-cash offer of £12.50 per share ($17.48) to Sky’s shareholders early Tuesday London time. That marks a 16 percent premium to Fox’s existing bid of £10.75 per share.”
Humorist Cynthia Heimel, 70
“In her books” – among them Sex Tips for Girls and If You Can’t Live Without Me, Why Aren’t You Dead Yet? – “and columns, Ms. Heimel wrote about bad boys, bad dates, bad sex and bad birth control, with the occasional reminiscence of blissed-out pleasure thrown in. ‘God protects drunks, infants and feisty girls,’ she once observed, and in a tumultuous, three-decade writing career, she was feistier than most.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 02.26.18
Making Things Together
The Bebe Miller Company and Susan Rethorst share their processes and a program at New York Live Arts. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2018-02-25
Gray-Haired and Dying
I heard yet another talk about audiences last week that used two adjectives interchangeably to describe them: ‘gray-haired’ and ‘dying.’ I get it. The young demographic is a big prize: get listeners hooked in … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2018-02-26
Monday Recommendation: Magris In Miami
Roberto Magris Sextet Live in Miami @ the WDNA Jazz Gallery (J Mood) … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-02-26
Artistic Director Mark Baldwin To Leave Rambert Dance After 15 Years
“I have commissioned over 60 works, both new and revivals, for the Rambert dancers, who in my opinion have the richest embodied knowledge in the world. This is the beginning of my 16th year as artistic director which is the longest stint of any artistic director of this company, and I think it is the perfect moment to hand over. I arrived as a choreographer and my heart tells me it is time to return to that,” he said.
When Art Became A Commodity, Things Turned Ugly
As contemporary art is increasingly viewed as an asset class—alongside equities, bonds, and real estate—Georgina Adam sees artworks often used as a vehicle to hide or launder money, and artists encouraged to churn out works in market-approved styles, bringing about a decline in quality.
The Goal: Learn All There Is To Learn About Vermeer’s ‘The Girl With The Pearl Earring’
The method: Use every noninvasive technique known to art, and medicine (yes, medicine), in a two-week blitz of discovery. The paintings conservator at the Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery says: “The expertise and the scientific equipment are coming from the whole world, converging on this one painting, this one masterpiece. … We’ll see how much information we can gain with the technology at our disposal in a very short period of time — two weeks, working 24 hours a day, day and night.”
An Author Apologizes After Lambasting His Book’s Cover (And The Cover Artist) In A Public Facebook Post
Fantasy author Terry Goodkind definitely does not like the cover of his latest book. “Offering 10 randomly selected readers a chance to win a hardback copy in return for their thoughts on the cover, Goodkind published a poll that included the voting options ‘laughably bad’ or ‘excellent.’ While almost 12,000 readers took part in the vote, some pledged to never buy another book by Goodkind again.” Even his apology was … well, some might call it laughably bad.