NEWS: GLOBAL LENS KICKS OFF FIFTH SEASON

GFI launched the fifth season of Global Lens with a dynamic, multi-venue series-premiere of Global Lens 2008 in New York (January 10th-30th).

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) hosted opening night of the premiere, which featured a sold-out screening of THE BET COLLECTOR, and was preceded by a reception for the film's director, cast and crew at the Consulate General of the Philippines. MoMA also hosted week-long runs of both THE BET COLLECTOR and OPERA JAWA, and multiple screenings of six other films in the series.

left-right: Susan Weeks Coulter (GFI Board Chair), Josabeth Alonso (Executive Producer), Rogelio Rayalo (Executive Producer), Jeffrey Jeturian (Director), Consul Millicent Cruz-Paredes, Vice Consul Leandro Lachica.

The New York Film Academy, in conjunction with Cinema Tropical and the African Film Festival, Inc. (AFF) hosted screenings of South African film BUNNY CHOW and Argentine film KEPT & DREAMLESS as part of an ongoing partnership with GFI. AFF will host an additional screening of BUNNY CHOW during the 15th Annual New York African Film Festival at Lincoln Center on April 11, 2008.

Global Lens 2008 is currently on tour. Check our calendar regularly for details or use this live link at: www.globalfilm.org/calendar.php to discover when Global Lens will be in your city!

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NEWS: ASIA SOCIETY & GLOBAL LENS!

The Asia Society is launching a worldwide screening program this Spring using Global Lens films! The program will feature curated film-presentations at Asia Society centers in the U.S. and Asia, and will also include educational screenings in partnership with the Asia Society's International Studies School Network.

The inaugural screening of this ambitious program will be on June 25th, 2008 at the Asia Society headquarters in New York, and will feature OF LOVE AND EGGS (dir. Garin Nugroho) from Global Lens 2007. For more details, contact the Asia Society.

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PARTNERS: GLOBAL LENS NOW AVAILABLE VIA THE FILM CONNECTION

Global Lens films can now be purchased through the Film Connection website! This opportunity is exclusive to Film Connection members and also includes an option to rent Global Lens 2007, and learn more about GFI through the Film Connection's Partners & Affiliates page.

An initiative of the global humanitarian agency Mercy Corps, the Film Connection offers a growing library of DVDs that tackle the issues facing the world we live in. Membership is free, so click here and join the community!

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NOW PLAYING: GLOBAL LENS 2008

Global Lens 2008 is everywhere! Here's where the series is playing this Spring:

• Sedona, AZ: The Sedona International Film Festival (February-July)

• Denver, CO: Denver Film Society (March 3rd-May 14th)

• Seattle, WA: Seattle International Film Festival Group (March 23rd-April 4th)

• Tampa, FL: The Gasparilla Film Festival (April-September)

• Brookline, MA: Coolidge Corner Theatre (April-November)

• Jackson, MS: Crossroads Film Festival (April-November)

• Minneapolis, MN: Walker Art Center (May 7th-18th)

• Schenectady, NY: Proctors Theater (May-November)

• Aberdeen, SD: The Aberdeen Community Theater (May-October)

In addition, select films from Global Lens 2008 will be showing in the following locations:

• Montreal, QB, Canada: a GFI co-presentation of The Custodian (March 14th & 20th) and Kept & Dreamless (March 16th & 23rd) as part of Festivalissimo: Festival de Films Ibéro&LatinoAméricaines de Montreal. Both films were official selections and in competition for 4 different prizes at Festivalissimo.

• New York, NY: African Film Festival Inc. will be screening Bunny Chow at Lincoln Center (April 11th) as part of the 15th Annual New York African Film Festival.

Check our calendar for Spring scheduling details, and updates on where the series is screening this Summer and Fall.

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EDUCATION: GLOBAL LENS 2008 EDUCATION SCREENINGS

In March, The Seattle International Film Festival Group will host educational screenings of THE KITE (March 24th), THE BET COLLECTOR (March 25th), LET THE WIND BLOW (March 26th) and THE FISH FALL IN LOVE (March 27th) as part of their screening of Global Lens 2008.

The University of Cincinnati will kick off Global Lens 2008 during Worldfest (April 28th-May 3rd), a campus-wide event that celebrates cultural diversity and raises awareness about social issues impacting the world. The first Global Lens screening will take place on April 1st and screenings will continue through the month of May.

The Denver Film Society will host educational screenings of The Kite & The Fish Fall (March 20th and April 2nd) as part of their screening of Global Lens 2008.

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PERSPECTIVES: RANDA CHAHAL SABBAG

“Born to a Lebanese father and an Iraqi mother, I have lived my entire life engulfed in conflicts. I never could escape this state of alert, this feeling of constant danger...never could escape war. With this film, I wanted to learn how to put an end to my anger.”


- Randa Chahal Sabbag
Director of The Kite (Le Cerf-volant), Global Lens 2008

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GFI STAFF: SIMONE NELSON

The Global Film Initiative welcomes Director of Public Relations, Marketing and Development, Simone Nelson, to its staff!

Simone comes to the Initiative with extensive experience in the performing and media arts in the United States and Europe, and is President of the Board of Directors of Bay Area Women in Film & Television. She joins current staff in the San Francisco office, and will be leading the ongoing effort to expand awareness and support of GFI in the United States, and around the world! Click here to read this full Press Release Announcement.

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GRANTING: CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

The Global Film Initiative is currently accepting applications for consideration during its Spring Granting cycle. Click here to download Applications and to read Granting Guidelines, and click here to read more about our Granting Program and recent grant-recipients.

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NEWS: GLOBAL LENS IN CAIRO!

The Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art in Cairo, Egypt recently hosted screenings of Global Lens 2007 in January and February. This “global partnership” is an exciting innovation to our series and in the coming year, GFI hopes to extend the reach of Global Lens through similar partnerships with venues around the world. Stay tuned!

The Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art is one of the region's leading independent spaces for the arts, and provides an extensive program of visual arts, film, theatre and music, and also focuses on community development initiatives and educational programs.

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WATCH: GLOBAL LENS 2008 TRAILERS

The Global Lens 2008 trailer is now available to view on our website! Click here for a sneak preview of our 2008 series.

Trailers for individual Global Lens 2008 films are also available to watch on our YouTube channel! Click here to take a look, and remember to subscribe to our channel for all the latest in GFI video.

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FILMS & FILMMAKERS IN THE NEWS:

• Possible Lives (Las Vidas Posibles), by Argentine director Sandra Gugliotta, was an official selection of the 2007 Havana Film Festival (Cuba) and the 2008 Palms Springs International Film Festival (USA). Featured in Global Lens 2009, Fall 2006 GFI Grant-recipient.

• Let the Wind Blow (Hava Aney Dey), by Indian director Partho Sen-Gupta, was an official selection of the 37th International Film Festival Rotterdam (The Netherlands). Featured in Global Lens 2008.

• Huacho, by Chilean director Alejandro Fernandez Almendras, received a 2008 Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Award. Spring 2007 GFI Grant-recipient.

• 3 Days to Forever (3 Hari Untuk Selamanya), by Indonesian director Riri Riza, was an official selection of the 37th International Film Festival Rotterdam (The Netherlands). Spring 2006 GFI Grant-recipient.

•Before We Fall In Love Again (Nian Ni Ru Xi), by Malaysian director James Lee, was an official selection of the 37th International Film Festival Rotterdam (The Netherlands). Spring 2006 GFI Grant-recipient.

• Lamb of God (Cordero de Dios), by Argentine director Lucia Cedron, was selected as the opening film of the 37th International Film Festival Rotterdam (The Netherlands), and was in competition in the Tiger Awards. Spring 2006 GFI Grant-recipient.

• My Marlon and Brando (Gitmek), by Turkish director Hüseyin Karabey, was an official selection of the 37th International Film Festival Rotterdam (The Netherlands). Spring 2006 GFI Grant-recipient.



• Pure Coolness (Boz salkyn), by Kyrgyzstani director Ernest Abdyjaparov, was an official selection of the 37th International Film Festival Rotterdam (The Netherlands). Fall 2006 GFI Grant-recipient.

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RECENT REVIEWS: OPERA JAWA, THE BET COLLECTOR and KILOMETRE ZERO

“Kilometre Zero,”
IFC Film News - Tuesday, March 4, 2008
“...Kilometre Zero” (2005) is his inaugural return to Iraq, and in 86 lean, sand-blasted minutes he takes on the memories of the Saddam regime as experienced by a luckless Kurd during the Iran-Iraq War of the '80s....”
Click here for entire article

Unrest, a Love Triangle and Swinging Hips
New York Times - January 16, 2008
“Filled with shadow puppets, leaping villagers, animal carcasses and tinkly gamelan music, “Opera Jawa” places its lurid love triangle against a backdrop of social unrest and erotic fantasy.”
Click here for entire article

Opera Jawa is the Indonesian Morality Musical of The Year
Village Voice - January 8th, 2008
“...a surrealist Indonesian pomo-folkloric/funkadelic musical-slash-avant-
garde pop-and-lock revolutionary romance-slash-Hindu song-and-dance-
installation art extravaganza. It would be unseemly, so soon, to big-up OJ as one of the best films of 2008...”
Click here for entire article

MoMa Brings a World of Movies to The City - Review of: The Bet Collector and Opera Jawa
New York Sun - January 9, 2008
“...Kubrador is a handheld, digital video slice-of-life bearing a formal resemblance to Nicolas Winding Refn's 1996 gritty festival favorite “The Pusher,” ....Opera Jawa, a movie musical that's like a stage musical, and yet not really quite like anything else, and a film whose unique regional creative voice would remain silent were it not for production grants and distribution efforts undertaken by the Global Film Initiative.”
Click here for entire article

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GLOBAL LENS ON DVD: DAM STREET, FINE DEAD GIRLS, KILOMETRE ZERO AND LILI'S APRON

Two new films from the Global Lens collection are now available on DVD:


Kilometre Zero
Director: Hineer Saleem
Iraqi Kurdistan
During the Iran-Iraq war, a Kurdish soldier is ordered to return the body of a dead soldier to his family, revealing a brutal yet introspective image of ethnic conflict between Kurds and Iraqis, and life as an ethnic minority in the Iraqi army.



Lili's Apron
Director: Mariano Galperin
Argentina
During Argentina's economic crisis, a man loses his job and his wife has a nervous breakdown. In attempts to not lose their home, he accepts a job in his wife's name—and clothes—to serve as a maid to a rich family.


Save the date of April 22nd when two more Global Lens films will also be available for purchase on DVD:


Dam Street
Director: Li Yu
China
After years of being ostracized for a youthful indiscretion, a woman in a small town in China befriends a fiercely protective boy who forces her to confront her troubled past, and the limits of their friendship.



Fine Dead Girls
Director: Dalibor Matanic
Croatia
The investigation of a child's kidnapping uncovers the nightmarish conditions of a seedy apartment building, and a climate of mistrust between its residents that leads to hostility, violence and echoes of this nation's not-so-distant past.


Dam Street, Fine Dead Girls, and Kilometre Zero were featured in Global Lens 2007, and Lili's Apron was featured in Global Lens 2005. All films will be available for purchase, along with other GFI titles, through the First Run Features website!

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BUY: GLOBAL LENS 2008 MERCHANDISE

Click here to visit our online store and purchase new Global Lens 2008 merchandise!

Hats, mugs, shirts, bags, and much more!

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