"Zone of Conflict: Contemporary Documentaries on Culture & Politics in the Middle East" at Main Building, IIC, Lodhi Estate > 18th-20th November 2010

Entry : Free, Call 011-24619431 ( IIC ) to re-confirm any last minute change or cancellation of the event. 

Place : Auditorium, Main Building, India International Centre ( IIC ), 40 Max Muller Marg, Lodhi Estate, New Delhi-110003

Venue Info : Events | About | Map | Nearest Metro Station - 'Khan Market'

Area : Lodhi Road Area Events

Event Details : India International Centre presents 'Zone of Conflict: Contemporary Documentaries on Culture and Politics in the Middle East'.
Curated and presented by Christopher Mitchell, award-winning filmmaker and Managing Director, ORTV
India International Centre presents Zone of Conflict: Contemporary Documentaries on Culture and Politics in the Middle East.
A weekend of documentaries about the Middle East
In January this year the IIC devoted a weekend to screenings of documentaries on historical themes. The season was so successful and the accompanying debates so lively that we have organised a similar event for the weekend of 18-20 November. Christopher Mitchell, the British film-maker and friend of the IIC who curated the January season, has programmed this follow-up weekend around the theme of the Middle East.
The films to be shown were made by directors both from the Middle East and elsewhere. All were produced in the last two years and many have already won awards at international festivals. Some were made for television while others were independently financed. They cover a span of subjects from historical individuals to current affairs, and are made in styles that range from the quirkily personal to the forthrightly political. This weekend of films will offer a unique set of creative perspectives on the contemporary world's most troubled and explosive region
Screenings will be followed by discussions.
Schedule : 
Thursday, 18th November : 
6 pm - 7:30 pm
 A Road to Mecca (Austria)

(93 min; 2008; dvd; English)

Director: Georg Misch

A Road to Mecca is about the spiritual journey of Leopold Weiss, a Viennese Jew who converted to Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Asad. One of the most important Muslims of the 20th century, Asad served as an advisor to the royal court of Saudi Arabia and was a co-founder of Pakistan and its Ambassador to the UN

7:40 pm – 9:16 pm

The Oath (USA)

(96 min; 2010; dvd; English)

Director: Laura Poitras

Awards: Sundance Film Festival, Excellence in Cinematography Award

True/False Film Festival, True Vision Award; Hot Docs, Special Jury Prize – International Feature; Edinburgh Film Festival, Best Documentary Award

Sarasota Film Festival, Best Documentary Award, etc.

This remarkable film tells the story of Abu Jandal, Osama bin Laden’s former bodyguard, and Salim Hamdan, a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Oath is a family drama about two men whose fateful encounter in 1996 set them on a journey that would lead to Osama bin Laden, 9/11, Guantanamo Bay prison, and the US Supreme Court.

Friday 19th November
5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Secret Iraq (BBCTV)

(120 min; 2010; dvd; English)

Directors: Sam Collyns & James Jones

Filmed on the ground in Iraq, Secret Iraq is a landmark two-part documentary series that sheds new light on the dramatic story of Iraq after the fall of Saddam.

6:35 pm – 8:35 pm
Panel discussion
Saturday, 20th November
10 am – 12:15
 Murder in Beirut (Al Arabiya/BBC World)

(135 min; 2010; dvd; English)

Director: Charlie Smith

Executive Producer: Christopher Mitchell

On 14th February 2005 a massive explosion in Beirut rocked the entire Arab world. Rafiq Hariri, the Prime Minister of Lebanon, had been assassinated. This is the gripping story of how one political murder has led to a battle for control of the Middle East. 

12:15 – 1 pm

Discussant: Christopher Mitchell

1 – 2 pm

Lunch break

2 pm – 3:15 pm
Chou Sar? (What happened?; Lebanon)

(74 min; 2009; dvd; English)

Director: De Gaulle Eid

This documentary tells the director’s own life story. On December 9, 1980, De Gaulle Eid’s parents, youngest sister and eleven other members of his family were gunned down in Edbel, Northern Lebanon. Eid left Lebanon to go to France, and now lives with his own family in Corsica. However, since leaving Lebanon, Eid has remained traumatized by the massacre.

3:30 pm – 5:08 pm
Fix ME (Palestine)

(98 min; 2009; dvd; English)

Director: Raed Andoni

Raed has a headache, both literally and figuratively. It stops him from working. A Palestinian, the film reveals the internal terrain of displacement and alienation that Raed reveals to his therapist which also mimics the lived reality of thousands of Palestinians who are themselves displaced from their history and homeland

5:15 pm – 5:45 pm
The Writer and the Flautist (UK/Palestine)

(30 min; 2010; dvd; English)

Directors: John Tchalenko & Luke Tchalenko

Featuring human-rights lawyer and popular writer, Raja Shehadeh (Orwell Prize, 2008); the idyllic West Bank landscape is contrasted with the devastating Arab-Israeli ideological divide. A remarkable player of the ancient Nye flute invokes the vanishing landscape as a Bedouin tribe struggles for existence.

5:45 pm – 6:15 pm : Discussion
6:30 pm – 6:40 pm
 Introduction:

6:40 pm – 8 pm

Al-Ghazali: The Alchemist of Happiness (UK)

(80 min; 2004; dvd; English & with subtitles)

Director: Abdul Latif Salazar

A subtle and moving account of the spiritual journey of one of the world's most influential mystics, the film examines Ghazali’s existential crisis of faith that arose from his rejection of religious dogmatism, and reveals profound parallels with our own times.

Related Links : Films at Cultural Places | Movies