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Saudi Arabia Launches Film Fund for Arab Cinema With Slate Toplined by Biopic of Singer Umm Kulthum Played by Mona Zaki
- Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority (GEA) has launched a new film fund called Big Time Investment to boost production of quality Arabic movies and announced a slate of Egyptian feature films toplined by a biopic of Egyptian icon Umm Kulthum who is considered the Arab world’s greatest singer. Prominent Egyptian director Marwan Hamed, whose epic …
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- NewsVariety
Venice Days: Works by Chloe Sevigny, Canada’s Kim Nguyen, China’s Pengfei in Lineup
ROME – The Venice Film Festival’s independently run Venice Days section, modeled on Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, has unveiled a promising lineup mixing known auteurs and potential discoveries, with 11 of 12 competition titles slated for world premieres. New works from China’s Pengfei; Canada’s Oscar-nominated Kim Nguyen (“War Witch”); Thai auteur Pen-ek Ratanaruang (“Last Life in the... <a href="http://variety.com/2017/film/festivals/venice-days-chloe-sevigny-kim-nguyen-pengfei-1202505558/" tit
- NewsVariety
Berlinale: Match Factory Takes Sales on Artist Shirin Neshat’s ‘Looking for Umm Kulthum’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Berlin-based The Match Factory has taken world sales on New York-based Iranian artist and filmmaker Shirin Neshat’s “Looking for Umm Kulthum,” a feature film centered on Egyptian singer-actress and international icon Umm Kulthum, considered the Arab world’s greatest singer. Neshat said that the film is based on her obsession with how Umm Kulthum, “as a... <a href="http://variety.com/2017/film/asia/berlinale-the-match-factory-takes-sales-on-iranian-artist-shirin-neshats-looking-for-umm-kulthum-1
- NewsThe Atlantic
What Will the Sound of Jazz Be in 2016?
As Ornette Coleman, one of 2015’s most notable departures from the jazz world, memorably argued, tomorrow is the question. If jazz came back in 2015, as some observers have suggested, where will it go in 2016? The New York City Winter Jazzfest, an annual January event around Greenwich Village, has typically served as a good lodestone for where the music is going in the year ahead. And if this year’s festival serves that purpose, the jazz world can look forward to year of vitality and wide diffus
- NewsReuters
Lebanese singer Sabah dies at 87
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese singer Sabah, one of the leading Arab performers of her generation, has died at the age of 87, her family said on Wednesday. Born Jeanette Feghali and known to her fans as the "singing bird", Sabah recorded at least 4,000 songs in her lifetime, experts on her career say. In the mid-1970s, she became the second Arab singer after Egypt's Oum Kalthoum to perform at L'Olympia in Paris. She also performed at London's Royal Albert Hall and the Sydney Opera House. ...
- NewsHuffington Post
American Singer Jennifer Grout Could Win 'Arabs Got Talent,' Some Question Her Nationality
It has been nearly 40 years since the legendary Arab diva, Umm Kulthum, passed away. Now, the most unlikely candidate may follow in her footsteps: A 23-year-old American girl, who as it turns out, hardly speaks a word of Arabic. Born and raised in Massachusetts, Jennifer Grout was a student at Canada's McGill University when she fell in love with classical Arab music. "She sings from the heart. She loves the Arab music. She loves the rhythm, she loves the scales, the intonation. It's just incred
