PriMed news Archives - Page 24 of 27

LIBYA, THE WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION

by Marie-Laure WIDMER BAGGIOLINI

27 minutes, 2011

Production : RTS / Suisse

Latifa, Ghalia and Asma. Wage-earner, student and mother at home, each in her own way has contributed to the revolution against Gaddafi, by helping refugees, protesting or simply sweeping streets. With open arms they welcomed the reporters from “Temps Présent”, foreigners with whom they shared their first moments of freedom in Benghazi, the rebel-held town.

Having graduated in television studies at the University of Quebec at Montreal (Canada), Marie-Laure WIDMER BAGGIOLINI has worked regularly for Télévision Suisse Romande. In 1998 she travelled through the Balkans as far as Iran, via the southern Caucasus. She sent live TV and radio reports from an Albania in the throes of revolution and made several news films for TSR, later shown at the Geneva Festival of North-South Media. From the end of 1998 to the summer of 2002 she was based in Tehran and filed frequent reports to TSR. She has also been sent to Iraq and Afghanistan. At the end of 2003 she set up a production company, Papilles Prod, with Annick Jeanmairet. Together they created “Pique-Assiette”, a series of 6-minute cookery programmes which won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Gourmet Voices Festival in 2006. In 2006 as an independent she made a current affairs film for Channel 4 on Somali refugees ship-wrecked off the coast of Yemen – images later used by Daniel Grandclément in his film “Les Martyrs du Golfe d’Aden”. Her film won an award at the FIGRA
festival in 2008. Marie-Laure continues to make 52-minute documentaries for the TSR programme “Temps Présent”.

WOLVES PLATE

de Mona IRAQI

30 minutes, 2011

Production : OTV Channel / Egypte

According to Egyptian law, dangerous waste material from hospitals must be burnt within the hospital itself, but in reality rubbish collectors steal most of it and recycle the items as new. Often these rubbish collectors are contaminated by the Hepatitis C virus – which is why Egypt has the fastest rate of increase in this virus in the world.

Mona IRAQI is an Egyptian investigative journalist. She began as a reporter for Sudanese television. In 2010 she produced and made her first documentary “Somalia, The Land of Evil Spirits”. “Wolves Plate”, her first investigative film, has won several awards, in particular the ARIJ Award for Investigative Journalism. She works currently for the Egyptian satellite channels (OTV Egypt, Alhayat).

TUNISIA, THE SHIPWRECKED OF THE REVOLUTION

by Alexandra DENIAU, François RENAUT and Christophe KENCK

45 minutes, 2011

Production : France Télévisions – France 2 Envoyé Spécial / France

Thousands of Tunisians emigrating secretly to Europe, hundreds of thousands fleeing the war in Libya. Should Europe dread this massive influx of illegal immigrants? Log book in France and Tunisia on board one of the overloaded boats trying to reach the Italian island of Lampedusa. Why are Tunisians fleeing their country? After 23 years of dictatorship why don’t they believe in the future of their revolution?

Alexandra DENIAU was born in 1975. She got her Masters in Information and Communication Studies in 1998. Since 1999 she has worked for television: Arte Info, Canal Plus and i-Télé, Capa and since September 2008 she has been a reporter on France 2’s “Envoyé Spécial”.
François RENAUT is a journalist and cameraman. Having studied Letters and journalism, he worked for several television channels as a journalist/photographer. Since 2010 he has worked for France2 and Canal Plus’ programme “Dimanche Plus”
Christophe KENCK is a journalist and cameraman. He has worked for several French television channels. Since January 2008 he has worked particularly for France 2 on news programmes, “Compléments d’Enquête”, “Envoyé Spécial” and “Stade 2”.

THE LAST BREATH

by Sameh MOUSSA

52 minutes, 2011

Production : 25TV / Egypte

A few years ago the Egyptian president, Hosni Moubarak declared he would serve his country until his dying breath. This documentary is about the last thirty years of tyranny in Egypt, and how the Egyptians have managed to pull themselves out of it.

Sameh MOUSSA is a musician and director. He works as a guitarist, composer, director and radio producer. These are some of his films: “Shisha” (1994); “Beni Sueif Dream” (2000); “Operation Trash” (2001); “Lamma Bada” (2010); “Zaar” (2010); “The Last Breath” (2011); “Dumafkat” (2011).

THE IMAMS GO TO SCHOOL

de Kaouther BEN HANIA

75 minutes, 2010

Production : Who’Z Prod, 03 Productions / France

They are apprentice imams at France’s biggest mosque, but now they have to learn secularism as well, to conform with the French state policy of modernising Islam. Of all the universities approached, only one volunteered to run such a course: the Catholic Institute of Paris. So, for the first time in the republic, in addition to their usual curriculum French student imams will be given a year’s training in secularism by Catholics.

Having done business studies, followed by training as a film-maker at the School of Arts and Cinema in Tunis, Kaouther BEN HANIA went to the Femis summer school in 2004 where she made her first documentary. In 2005 she did a continuing education course in script writing, also at the Femis. In 2006 she made “Moi, ma soeur et la chose”, a short film shown at many festivals. From 2006 to 2007 she worked for the Al Jazeera Documentary Channel at Qatar.

KADHAFI, OUR BEST ENEMY

by Antoine VITKINE

95 minutes, 2011

Production : Illégitime Défense, Les Films du Cabestan, avec la participation de France Télévisions, Planète, TV5 Monde / France

At the very moment when the long reign of Muammar Gaddafi is being undermined, this new documentary by director Antoine Vitkine shows some of the different deals the West has done with the Libyan leader over the years, for realpolitik, oil or terrorism. How has this godfather of international terrorism, the world’s enemy number one in the 1980’s, become rehabilitated? How has one of the most brutal dictators, a pariah placed under UN embargo after the Lockerbie bombings and the destruction of UTA’s DC10, managed, ten years later, to rub shoulders with European and American heads of state in Tripoli, Paris or New York? Interviewing some of the most important players, such as Tony Blair and Condoleeza Rice, this film looks back at forty years of relationship between the West and Gaddafi. It shows how Gaddafi used the greatest powers, but also how they used their “best enemy”.

Born in 1977, Antoine VITKINE graduated in Political Science and International Relations at IEP (Paris). He also has a doctorate at the Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Internationales. As a journalist he has made a series of interviews for INA “Mémoires de la Shoah” (2005-6). For television he has made “Mein Kampf, C’était Ecrit” (2008, 55 minutes), and “Les Esclaves Oubliés” (2008, 52 minutes) for Arte; for the French channel 13ème Rue Universal he has made “Tchernobyl, Un Mensonge à la Française” (2002, 26 minutes) and “Le Syndrome de Stockholm, Otages Sous Influence”(2005, 26 minutes).

UNFINISHED ITALY

by Benoît FELICI

38 minutes, 2010

Production : Zelig – School for documentary / Italie

A journey to discover Italy’s modern ruins: pieces of unfinished architecture. Symbols of both a doubtful period and the future, these structures, fruit of well-known political corruption, have been given a second life thanks to the inventiveness of the Italians. When the unfinished become a source of creativity .

Benoît FELICI was born in 1986 in France. His Italian origins and his passion for documentary made him decide to study at ZeLIG, the school for documentary cinema in northern Italy. Since then he has worked for several production companies, including EyeSteelFilm (Canada) in 2009.

PARADISE HOTEL

de Sophia TZAVELLA

54 minutes, 2010

Production : Agitpro / Bulgaria

Young Demir dreams of getting married. But there is not much room for dreams on the outskirts of the Bulgarian town where he lives with other Romany. 25 years ago the tower block he lives in had everything he needed: from the polishedwooden floor to the entry-phone, from the hot water to the light fightings, with benchesset round the apple trees. Someone called the place Paradise Hotel, and the name stuck.But as the years have gone by the wooden flooring has gone, water no longer flows fromthe taps and the lights don’t work.But each of the 1,500 inhabitants has their own plan of how to regain their paradise lost.The documentary is about integration, love, poverty, dreams – and a gypsy wedding.

Sophia TZAVELLA

is an author, director, journalist and script-writer. She has studiedjournalism, Greek linguistics, Balkan history as well as social sciences.For the past five years she has worked as a writer for Bulgarian national TV, and hasmade three documentaries.

DIARIES

by May ODEH

53 minutes, 2010
Production : Lillehammer University College / NORVEGE

“Diaries” is about three women in Gaza confronted with two forms of restrictive control: the Israeli occupation and the religious authority which has the wrecked town almost totally within its grip. The three young women share their fears, their memories, their thoughts and their hopes for a better life.

May ODEH was born in Birzeit, Palestine, in 1981. She studied radio and television in Palestine before working for several Arab television channels, including Al Jazeera’s Children’s Channel. She made two short films during her studies, followed by her first full-length documentary “Diaries”. She has also worked on the production of several films, particularly “Laila’s Birthday”, “Salt of this Sea” and “Rico in the Night”. She is currently doing a Masters in film directing in Norway.

JOKING A PART

by Vanessa ROUSSELOT

54 minutes, 2010

Production : éO Productions / France

Can laughter stand up to any tragedy? If yes, how? Very early on Vanessa Rousselot, ayoung French director, had the intuition that laughter has no frontiers. In 2005 she travelled across Palestine studying Palestinians’ sense of humour. Her method is simple: ask each new person you meet “Do you know a Palestinian joke?” The first answer unsettles: “Our whole situation is a joke”. Then tongues are loosened, humour rises to the surface, jokes abound…. The Palestinians’ favourite targets? The people of Hebron (like jokes about the Irish in Britain) and of course the Israelis. “Joking Apart” is a moving take on the forces of survival at the heart of a conflict. We discover a people’s humour, but also their infinite tenderness.

Vanessa ROUSSELOT, studied the languages and history of the Arab world then spent a year on the West Bank continuing her studies in Arabic. She is co-author and actor in a comic double-act “Duo des pâquerettes”, and has made current affairs films for television. “Joking Apart” is her first film.