“When the Taliban charged in to Afghanistan’s state-run film company in the mid-1990s intent on destroying all the movies, Habibullah Ali risked everything to save them. He hid thousands of reels of footage showcasing Afghanistan’s rich cultural history … Two decades later those reels, which include long-lost movies and documentary images of Afghanistan before it was ravaged by violence, are being made available to watch again through digitisation.”
Tag: 09.07.17
Preparing The Intricate, Ornate Artwork To Be Burned On The King Of Thailand’s Funeral Pyre
“Nine steel pavilions, rising several stories high, have already been erected at the centre of the royal cremation park, or Sanam Luang. The skeletal thrones that stood bare just weeks ago have now been adorned with gilded and carved cedar, teak and timber. … When it comes to crafting a royal funeral pyre the devil is in the detail. Every carving, flick of the paint brush, or wooden strut has been designed, excoriated and redesigned multiple times.”
An Earlier Generation Of Gay Plays Is Returning To The Stage – Are They Still Relevant? (Alas, Yes, Says Jesse Green)
“Many of us who arrived in New York in the last decades of the last century, looking to the theater for news about what it meant to be gay, found ourselves serially disheartened. … Yet, over the past 20 years, gay rights did expand, well beyond anyone’s imagining. This recently led me to wonder what a young gay man arriving in New York would find if he looked in the mirror of the mainstream theater today. Pretty much the same thing I did.”
Africa’s First Major International Museum Of Contemporary Art Opens In Cape Town
The 102,000-square-foot Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa is in a set of old grain silos on the city’s waterfront that have been cnverted by designer Thomas Heatherwick. Its art comes from Jochen Zeitz, a major collector of new work from the continent.
Tiny Italian Town’s ‘Poor Theatre’ Makes Community-Based, Populist Social Drama
“Although Monticchiello’s productions were originally lavish costume dramas, the town’s Teatro Pobre (‘poor theater’) – also known as the spettacolo (‘spectacle’) – has become another example of personal struggles fueling art.”
Canada’s Complicated Reconciliation With Its Past
“I wonder if English Canada has the strength to face the truth in the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report: that the evil inflicted on the indigenous populations of this country was not done by our worst people but by our best. The colonists believed that hope for the indigenous population meant stripping them of their language and culture and imbuing them with a spirit of thrift—they were trying to prepare them for the future, for progress. And the only future and the only progress that they could imagine was the one presented to them as an inevitable fact by Britain and America.”
Why Science Won’t Ever Squash Religion
Not only has secularism failed to continue its steady global march but countries as varied as Iran, India, Israel, Algeria and Turkey have either had their secular governments replaced by religious ones, or have seen the rise of influential religious nationalist movements. Secularisation, as predicted by the social sciences, has failed.
The Differences Between Amateurs And Professionals
Amateurs believe that the world should work the way they want it to. Professionals realize that they have to work with the world as they find it. Amateurs are scared — scared to be vulnerable and honest with themselves. Professionals feel like they are capable of handling almost anything.
What Would A New Version Of Voyager’s Golden Record Contain?
Some critics of the original say it was a poor representation of Earth because it was created by a small group of people who chose to present a rosy view of humans and leave out the terrible things they’re capable of. Lomberg, Ferris, and other Voyager members say the criticism is fair, but Lomberg said the tone of the message was appropriate for the job. The Golden Record was both a first impression and a final word. “You meet somebody, you don’t start by telling them all your flaws,” he said. “We presume this will be found after we’re all long dead. Isn’t it nice to be remembered for what’s best rather than what’s worst?”
Gold Medal Winner At Moscow Foto Awards Stripped Of Prize For Stealing Work
The photos, which show a series of portraits of people in Thailand, were changed slightly by Madeleine Fierze and entered into the competition under the title “I look at the world with the eyes of a child”. In July, she scooped the top award in the “Fine Art People Children” non-professional category, but her award was called into question when Sasin Tipchai noticed his photos had been copied at the end of August.