BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//The Sanctuary For Independent Media - ECPv6.17.1//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for The Sanctuary For Independent Media
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/New_York
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20070311T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20071104T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20080309T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20081102T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20090308T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20091101T060000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080411T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080411T223000
DTSTAMP:20220401T163217Z
CREATED:20220401T163216Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220401T163217Z
UID:10001601-1207944000-1207953000@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:African Film Festival Presents Mamadou Diabate Ensemble
DESCRIPTION:As part of the African Film Festival\, we present a live performance by Grammy-nominated kora master Mamadou Diabate from the West African country of Mali with his ensemble as part of the 2008 African Film Festival. The Mamadou Diabate Ensemble includes Mamadou Diabate on kora\, Balla Kouyate on balafon\, Baye Kouyate on talking drum and calabash\, and Noah Jarrett on bass. Mamadou Diabate is a master of the kora\, the ancient 21-string West African harp. He was born in 1975 in Kita\, a Malian city long known as a center for the arts and culture of the Manding people of West Africa. As the name Diabate indicates\, Mamadou comes from a family of griots\, or jelis as they are known among the Manding. Jelis are more than just traditional musicians. They use music and sometimes oratory to preserve and sustain people’s consciousness of the past\, a past that stretches back to the 13th century when the Manding king Sunjata Keita consolidated the vast Empire of Mali\, covering much of West Africa.  \n\n\n\nBecause The Sanctuary for Independent Media has been shut down by the City of Troy in an action currently under investigation by the New York Civil Liberties Union\, historic A.M.E. Zion Church at 189 Fifth Avenue (corner of 103rd Street in north Troy) has offered sanctuary to the Sanctuary. \n\n\n\nLocal presentation of the Mamadou Diabate Ensemble is co-sponsored by the AME Zion Church and made possible by volunteer labor\, small financial contributions from hundreds of patrons of The Sanctuary For Independent Media. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMamadou Diabate. Photo by Johndan Johnson-Eilola.\n\n\n\nAbout Mamadou Diabate:\n\n\n\nMamadou Diabate is a master of the kora\, the ancient 21-string West African harp. He was born in 1975 in Kita\, a Malian city long known as a center for the arts and culture of the Manding people of West Africa. As the name Diabate indicates\, Mamadou comes from a family of griots\, or jelis as they are known among the Manding. Jelis are more than just traditional musicians. They use music and sometimes oratory to preserve and sustain people’s consciousness of the past\, a past that stretches back to the 13th century when the Manding king Sunjata Keita consolidated the vast Empire of Mali\, covering much of West Africa. The stories of these glory days and the times since remain important touchstones for people today\, not only for the Manding\, but for many citizens of Mali\, Guinea\, Gambia\, and Senegal. So to be born to a distinguished jeli family in Kita is already an auspicious beginning. \n\n\n\nMamadou’s father Djelimory played the kora\, the jeli’s venerable 21-string harp. He was widely known as N’fa Diabate\, performing in the Instrumental Ensemble of Mali and recording on the National Radio of Mali. At the age of four\, Mamadou went to live with his father in Bamako\, where the Ensemble was based. When it came time for him to return to Kita and go to school\, Mamadou knew that the kora was his destiny. His father had taught him how to play the instrument\, and from there he listened and watched and devoted himself to practicing the kora\, to the point that his mother worried that he was not concentrating enough on school. When she took it away\, it only reduced his interest in studying\, and he quickly resorted to making his own kora so he could continue. \n\n\n\nBefore long\, Mamadou left school and began playing kora for local jeli singers\, and traveling throughout the region to play at the ceremonies where modern jelis ply their trade\, mostly weddings and baptisms. When he was fifteen\, Mamadou won first prize for his kora playing in a regional competition and instantly became something of a local celebrity. The next year\, he went to Bamako\, and under the tutelage of his famous kora playing cousin\, Toumani Diabate\, he worked the jeli circuit\, backing singers at neighborhood weddings and baptisms and entertaining the powerful at the city’s posh Amitié Hotel. Toumani gave his cousin the nickname “Djelika Djan” meaning “Tall Griot\,” a reference to Mamadou’s impressive physical stature. The name has stuck. \n\n\n\nIn 1996\, a touring group from the Instrumental Ensemble of Mali offered Mamadou the chance to travel to the United States with a group of Manding musicians and cultural authorities. Following a successful tour\, Mamadou decided to continue his work in the United States and\, since then\, he’s made his home in and around New York. Mamadou gets frequent invitations to perform with visiting Malian stars including Ami Koita\, Tata Bambo Kouyate\, Kandia Kouyate\, and Babani Koné. He has performed at the United Nations\, Lincoln Center\, the Metropolitan Museum\, and at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington. In addition\, he’s delved into uncharted waters\, jamming with all manner of expert musicians\, including jazz luminaries Donald Byrd and Randy Weston\, Zimbabwean legend Thomas Mapfumo\, and blues masters Eric Bibb and Guy Davis. Mamadou’s recording credits have expanded as he has laid tracks with artists ranging from Irish soloist Susan McKeown\, jazz bassist Ben Allison\, and Benin’s celebrated Angélique Kidjo. \n\n\n\nMamadou says that his father advised him to listen to all the best kora players and to learn from each one. The kora itself came to Mali from Gabu\, the region centered between Gambia\, Senegal\, and Guinea Bissau\, and the Malian kora tradition has always put a premium on holding onto the old ways while constantly innovating and developing the art. \n\n\n\nHe recorded his debut\, “Tunga” (Alula Records\, 2000)\, where he was joined by an impressive cast of handpicked musicians and friends who helped him show both reverence for the traditional sounds of his craft and to display an adventurous spirit in keeping with the practice of always furthering the griot’s art. \n\n\n\nMamadou Diabate’s solo kora recording ‘Behmanka’ (World Village\, 2005) was nominated in the 2005 48th Annual GRAMMY Awards 2005 World Music category. \n\n\n\nMamadou Diabate’s kora recording “Heritage” (World Village\, 2006) showcases his ensemble work with trio. Heritage features Mamadou’s touring band\, Guinean guitarist Djikoryam Mory Kante\, balafonist Bala Kouyaté\, Baye Kouyaté on calabash and talking drum\, and on bass\, American jazz musician Noah Jarrett. \n\n\n\nAbout the AME Zion Church of Troy\, NY:\n\n\n\nThe location of this event in north Troy has special significance. \n\n\n\nDevoted to religious\, educational and social causes\, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and its members have been instrumental in many of the freedom struggles of this nation\, dating back to the days when former slaves Frederick Douglass\, Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman led the first wave of Black social activism. Since that time\, A.M.E. Zion members have made other significant contributions. AME Zion Bishop Alexander Walters\, along with Dr. W.E.B. DuBois\, helped to found the NAACP. Bishop Walters was also a pioneering member of the Pan-African Congress\, and many of the denomination’s clergy and lay people were active participants in the Civil Rights Movement of the ’60s. \n\n\n\nA.M.E. Zion Church made the salvation of the whole person–mind\, body and spirit–its top priority. At the crux of its ministry lay racial justice\, peace and harmony\, thus earning it the title\, the Freedom Church. \n\n\n\nAs the ministry expanded\, so did the denomination’s emphasis on education. “In order to succeed in American society as productive citizens\, we [the newly freed slaves] need to become an educated citizenry\,” an early AME Zion member once said. In keeping with that goal\, the Church maintains four colleges and universities today\, which are Livingstone College in Salisbury\, N.C.\, Clinton Junior College in Rock Hill\, S.C.\, and Lomax-Hannon Junior College in Greenville\, Alabama\, and A.M.E. Zion University in Monrovia\, Liberia. Additionally it maintains two theological seminaries\, Hood Theological Seminary in Salisbury\, NC and Hood Speaks Theological Seminary in Akwa Ibom State\, Nigeria. \n\n\n\nAlong with its emphasis on ministry and social change here in the United States\, the denomination has focused much of its attention and energies on outreach abroad. To date\, the A.M.E. Zion Church has member churches on all continents except Australia. In West Africa\, in particular\, the denomination has set up numerous schools and clinics throughout Ghana and Nigeria. The Church also has facilities in Liberia\, though some of its main structures have been destroyed by civil war. Overseas missions are a crucial component of the A.M.E. Zion Church’s outreach\, but the denomination believes in charity starting at home. That is why\, over the years\, several individual churches have implemented programs to help families to find low-income housing\, jobs\, financial planning assistance\, health care and day care services. “Our concern is for the whole person\,” says Bishop Cecil Bishop\, the (retired former) senior bishop of the A.M.E. Zion Church. “We have a holistic approach and a holistic gospel. We don’t feel that we live in a kind of compartmentalized sense\, but that life is a complete whole. So we have to be concerned about all of those amenities of life that help make up wholeness in an individual.” \n\n\n\nAbout The Sanctuary for Independent Media:\n\n\n\nThe Sanctuary for Independent Media is a telecommunications production facility dedicated to community media arts\, located in an historic former church in north Troy\, NY. The Sanctuary hosts screening\, production and performance facilities\, training in media production and a meeting space for artists\, activists and independent media makers of all kinds. On March 11\, 2008 the City of Troy closed The Sanctuary for Independent Media for alleged code violations just hours after the opening of a controversial series focusing on government intimidation and censorship under the guise of counter-terrorism. While the matter is being investigated by the NY Civil Liberties Union\, public events are being presented at Sanctuaries-in-exile throughout the Capital Region.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/african-film-festival-presents-mamadou-diabate-ensemble/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:African Music,Performance
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080410T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080410T200000
DTSTAMP:20220330T154505Z
CREATED:20080410T154200Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220330T154505Z
UID:10001000-1207850400-1207857600@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Be The Media! Workshop with Penny Lane: Editing Basics\, Part Two
DESCRIPTION:A continuation of the editing workshop. Have great footage\, but need to put it all together? This basic editing class is for you. Participants work individually and in groups over two lab sessions to learn the basics of audio and video editing. Bring any footage shot over the course of the workshop series; if you have a laptop\, bring it! Includes the fundamentals of selecting material\, planning the sequence of a story\, and setting up a basic editing project. (Track: Documentary.)
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/be-the-media-workshop-with-penny-lane-editing-basics-part-two/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080409T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080409T213000
DTSTAMP:20220415T155441Z
CREATED:20220401T160430Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220415T155441Z
UID:10001602-1207767600-1207776600@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:African Film Festival Featuring "Clouds Over Conakry\," plus "Mama Put"
DESCRIPTION:Part of the African Film Festival\, a screening of Clouds Over Conakry (2007) by Cheick Fantamady Camara. At the age of 25\, the artist-caricaturist BB finds himself faced with an impossible choice. Son of Karamo\, the inflexible imam (who is also the guardian of his village’s ancestral traditions)\, BB is chosen to be his father’s worthy successor. But he refuses to accept his destiny\, preferring to fight to exert his trade freely and to live his love for the beautiful young computer scientist\, Kesso\, to the full. Presented with Seke Somolu’s Mama Put  (2006). The power of food to transform\, rescue\, and wreak revenge is eloquently demonstrated in this Nigerian film.  \n\n\n\nBecause the Sanctuary has been shut down by the City of Troy in an action currently under investigation by the New York Civil Liberties Union\, historic A.M.E. Zion Church at 189 Fifth Avenue (corner of 103rd Street in north Troy) has offered sanctuary to the Sanctuary. \n\n\n\nLocal presentation of the African Film Festival is made possible with volunteer labor and hundreds of individual donations from patrons of The Sanctuary for Independent Media\, co-sponsored by the Arts Department at RPI\, A.M.E. Zion Church and the New York State Council on the Arts. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFilm still from Clouds Over Conakry.\n\n\n\nAbout the Films:\n\n\n\nClouds Over Conakry (Cheick Fantamady Camara\, Guinea. 2007\, 113″). A romantic twist on the standby theme of African cinema\, traditionalism vs. modernism\, as a lovestruck cartoonist learns the spirits have chosen him instead of his religious older brother to succeed his father as imam of Guinea’s capital\, Conakry. But he refuses to accept his destiny\, preferring to fight to exert his trade freely and to live his love to the full. \n\n\n\nMama Put (Seke Somolu\, Nigeria. 2006\, 26″). The power of food to transform\, rescue and wreak revenge is eloquently demonstrated in this Nigerian film. A single woman\, who makes and sells street food\, is struggling to bring up her family. Her young son desperately needs kidney treatment\, and just when it seems things can get no worse\, a gang of armed youths break in to the house. The mother decides that the gang must go\, and prepares a meal to send them on their way. \n\n\n\nAbout the African Film Festival\n\n\n\nThe African Film Festival (AFF) is a New York non-profit arts organization. The organization\, established in 1990\, began as an ad hoc committee of African and American artists and scholars. In the 1950s and ’60s\, African filmmakers began to create images of post-colonial Africa with nuanced understanding of Africa’s cultural diversity. Over the last half a century\, having sliced through stereotypes with exacting social critique\, African cinema has become a unique blend of aesthetic experimentation\, history\, and politics. As African nations have constructed modern identities from traditional and colonial experiences\, the role of visual culture in communicating these new transitional identities has immediacy for audiences around the world. The impetus for themes such as colonialism\, post-independence corruption\, and chronicles of “tribal” customs often erupts from the ironies of contemporary life. But African filmmakers also draw from springs of myth\, fantasy\, humor\, and magic to nourish a narrative sensibility in which tradition and modernity encounter each other. The oral traditions\, unique pacing\, and non-linear style of African story-telling have in fact become classifying characteristics of African filmmaking. This kind of art is a powerful intellectual and emotional force for social change.  \n\n\n\nAs the twenty-first century begins\, we are witnessing a great revolution in mass communications capabilities that drastically reduces the distances between cultures. Images\, sounds\, and ideas are being exchanged almost instantaneously\, creating dynamic hybrid cultures. As Western consumer culture has influenced global society\, so it has been invigorated by the differing sensibilities\, traditions\, and styles of other cultures. Likewise\, African film has evolved from its early exploration of colonialism into a new\, diasporic\, and international consciousness. For the past decade\, the African Film Festival has bridged the divide between post-colonial Africa and the American public through the medium of film. AFF’s unique place in the international arts community is distinguished not only by leadership in festival management but a comprehensive approach to the advocacy of African film and culture. We are particularly mindful of the many ways in which cinema is as much a medium of cultural exchange as an educational gate-way. \n\n\n\nAbout the AME Zion Church of Troy\, NY:\n\n\n\nDevoted to religious\, educational and social causes\, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and its members have been instrumental in many of the freedom struggles of this nation\, dating back to the days when former slaves Frederick Douglass\, Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman led the first wave of Black social activism. Since that time\, A.M.E. Zion members have made other significant contributions. AME Zion Bishop Alexander Walters\, along with Dr. W.E.B. DuBois\, helped to found the NAACP. Bishop Walters was also a pioneering member of the Pan-African Congress\, and many of the denomination’s clergy and lay people were active participants in the Civil Rights Movement of the ’60s. \n\n\n\nA.M.E. Zion Church made the salvation of the whole person–mind\, body and spirit–its top priority. At the crux of its ministry lay racial justice\, peace and harmony\, thus earning it the title\, the Freedom Church. \n\n\n\nAs the ministry expanded\, so did the denomination’s emphasis on education. “In order to succeed in American society as productive citizens\, we [the newly freed slaves] need to become an educated citizenry\,” an early AME Zion member once said. In keeping with that goal\, the Church maintains four colleges and universities today\, which are Livingstone College in Salisbury\, N.C.\, Clinton Junior College in Rock Hill\, S.C.\, and Lomax-Hannon Junior College in Greenville\, Alabama\, and A.M.E. Zion University in Monrovia\, Liberia. Additionally it maintains two theological seminaries\, Hood Theological Seminary in Salisbury\, NC and Hood Speaks Theological Seminary in Akwa Ibom State\, Nigeria. \n\n\n\nAlong with its emphasis on ministry and social change here in the United States\, the denomination has focused much of its attention and energies on outreach abroad. To date\, the A.M.E. Zion Church has member churches on all continents except Australia. In West Africa\, in particular\, the denomination has set up numerous schools and clinics throughout Ghana and Nigeria. The Church also has facilities in Liberia\, though some of its main structures have been destroyed by civil war. Overseas missions are a crucial component of the A.M.E. Zion Church’s outreach\, but the denomination believes in charity starting at home. That is why\, over the years\, several individual churches have implemented programs to help families to find low-income housing\, jobs\, financial planning assistance\, health care and day care services. “Our concern is for the whole person\,” says Bishop Cecil Bishop\, the (retired former) senior bishop of the A.M.E. Zion Church. “We have a holistic approach and a holistic gospel. We don’t feel that we live in a kind of compartmentalized sense\, but that life is a complete whole. So we have to be concerned about all of those amenities of life that help make up wholeness in an individual.” \n\n\n\nAbout The Sanctuary for Independent Media:\n\n\n\nThe Sanctuary for Independent Media is a telecommunications production facility dedicated to community media arts\, located in an historic former church in north Troy\, NY. The Sanctuary hosts screening\, production and performance facilities\, training in media production and a meeting space for artists\, activists and independent media makers of all kinds. On March 11\, 2008 the City of Troy closed The Sanctuary for Independent Media for alleged code violations just hours after the opening of a controversial series focusing on government intimidation and censorship under the guise of counter-terrorism. While the matter is being investigated by the NY Civil Liberties Union\, public events are being presented at Sanctuaries-in-exile throughout the Capital Region. \n\n\n\nAbout Rensselaer Polytechnic Department of the Arts:\n\n\n\nThe Department of the Arts at Rensselaer was founded in 1972. It is built around a world class faculty and is dedicated to interdisciplinary creative research in electronic arts\, offering a unique environment in which to develop and realize innovative art within a technological university. iEAR Presents! is a series of public performances\, exhibitions\, screenings and lectures. Curated by artist faculty\, iEAR Presents! seeks to bring artists into a creative dialogue regarding integrated electronic arts practice and theory with a participatory community of faculty and students from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and members of the general public.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/african-film-festival-featuring-clouds-over-conakry-plus-mama-put/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Screening
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080408T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080408T210000
DTSTAMP:20220404T152143Z
CREATED:20220331T181251Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220404T152143Z
UID:10001350-1207681200-1207688400@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:African Film Festival Featuring "Bling\, A Planet Rock\," with Filmmaker Raquel Cepeda and "Growing Stronger"
DESCRIPTION:Filmmaker Raquel Cepeda presents Bling A Planet Rock (2007)\, a feature documentary by Raquel Cepeda\, takes a hard-hitting look at how “blinging” in the flashy world of commercial hip-hop played a role in the 10-year civil war in Sierra Leone. This film takes U.S. hip-hop celebrities Paul Wall\, Latin hip-hop artist Tego Calderon\, and Raekwon from Wu-Tang Clan on a journey to Sierra Leone’s diamond mining communities\, introducing them to former child soldiers\, refugees\, and local hip-hop artists.  \n\n\n\nIncluded in this screening is Growing Stronger (2005) by Tsitsi Dangarembga. After living a high profile life as a model and wife to the coach of the Zimbabwe national football team\, Tendayi Westerhof stunned the nation by becoming the first high profile person to go public about her HIV-positive status in 2002. Part of the African Film Festival program. \n\n\n\nBecause the Sanctuary has been shut down by the City of Troy in an action currently under investigation by the New York Civil Liberties Union\, historic A.M.E. Zion Church at 189 Fifth Avenue (corner of 103rd Street in north Troy) has offered sanctuary to the Sanctuary. \n\n\n\nLocal presentation of the African Film Festival is made possible with volunteer labor and hundreds of individual donations from patrons of The Sanctuary for Independent Media\, co-sponsored by the Arts Department at RPI\, A.M.E. Zion Church and the New York State Council on the Arts. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nProduction still from Bling: A Planet Rock. Photograph by Irena Mihova.\n\n\n\nAbout the African Film Festival at the Sanctuary for Independent Media:\n\n\n\nThe Sanctuary for Independent Media’s annual African Film Festival begins in Troy on Tuesday\, April 8\, 2008. We will be presenting four feature films (including\, on the opening night of the festival\, Bling: A Planet Rock director Raquel Cepeda)\, four short subjects and an evening of African music with Grammy Award-nominated kora master Mamadou Diabate and his quartet. \n\n\n\n“From Egypt to South Africa\, veteran filmmakers are using film to address the issues changing the face of the African continent today\,” said Mahen Bonetti\, founder and executive director of the AFF. “Additionally\, technology is empowering emerging filmmakers to add their voices to those telling Africa’s stories.” \n\n\n\nEach evening of the Festival features one full-length film and one short: on Tuesday\, April 8; Wednesday\, April 9; Tuesday\, April 15 and Wednesday\, April 16. Films begin at 7 PM. In addition\, the music of Malian kora great Mamadou Diabate and his ensemble will be featured live in a concert at 8 PM on Friday\, April 11. The film lineup includes: \n\n\n\nBling: A Planet Rock (Raquel Cepeda\, Sierra Leone/USA. 2007\, 90″) A documentary about American hip-hop culture’s obsession with diamonds—“blinging”—and all its social trappings\, and how this infatuation correlated with the ten-year conflict in Sierra Leone\, West Africa. The film follows three rappers—Paul Wall\, Tego Calderon\, and Raekwon—as they trek to the country to meet the survivors\, perpetrators and diamond miners in the country. The film also features Kanye West\, Juelz Santana\, Jadakiss and former child soldier/author Ishmael Beah. \n\n\n\nGrowing Stronger (Tsitsi Dangarembga\, Zimbabwe. 2005\, 30″) After living a high profile life as a model and wife to the then-coach of the Zimbabwe national football team\, Tendayi Westerhof stunned the nation by becoming the first high profile person to go public about her HIV positive status in 2002. Her enemies increased\, some going to the extent of calling her disclosure a publicity gimmick. This beautiful woman has gone on to become a public figure in a very different way\, as an elegant and glamorous AIDS activist in the world of modeling and the public media. \n\n\n\nAbout the Filmmakers:\n\n\n\nRaquel Cepeda is an award-winning editor and multi-media journalist\, producer and filmmaker\, as well as a multi-cultural media consultant specializing in translating news and social/global issues into an authentic language that is palatable to younger generations—18-34 years of age—stateside and abroad. Cepeda is the director and writer Bling: A Planet Rock\, co-produced with a19\, VH1\, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). She also served as a creative consulting producer on From Mambo to Hip-Hop\, directed by Henry Chalfant (Style Wars) for PBS (2007). \n\n\n\nCurrently\, Cepeda is in production on BLOW US UP!\, a wartime concert documentary starring platinum selling rapper Paul Wall and TV Johnny who will journey into the past to see the future—in Iraq and Johnny’s homeland\, Vietnam. Following in the tradition of the highly acclaimed Bling: A Planet Rock\, BLOW US UP! uses the medium of hip-hop to engage a new audience in the history of two American wars\, a generation and musical genre apart from each other. \n\n\n\nMalian kora musician\, Mamadou Diabate is a member of the Mandinka West African jeli (musician caste) family. His musical lineage goes back seven centuries to the time of Sunjata Keita\, the conqueror of the Malian empire. Now based in the United States\, Mamadou performs around North America and Europe. Interested in bringing the kora to new audiences\, he has played with jazz and other contemporary artists\, however he remains rooted in the traditions of the Manding kora and his griot heritage. He is one of a handful remaining kora players that are keeping alive the kora tradition. \n\n\n\nAbout the African Film Festival\n\n\n\nThe African Film Festival (AFF) is a New York non-profit arts organization. The organization\, established in 1990\, began as an ad hoc committee of African and American artists and scholars. In the 1950s and ’60s\, African filmmakers began to create images of post-colonial Africa with nuanced understanding of Africa’s cultural diversity. Over the last half a century\, having sliced through stereotypes with exacting social critique\, African cinema has become a unique blend of aesthetic experimentation\, history\, and politics. As African nations have constructed modern identities from traditional and colonial experiences\, the role of visual culture in communicating these new transitional identities has immediacy for audiences around the world. The impetus for themes such as colonialism\, post-independence corruption\, and chronicles of “tribal” customs often erupts from the ironies of contemporary life. But African filmmakers also draw from springs of myth\, fantasy\, humor\, and magic to nourish a narrative sensibility in which tradition and modernity encounter each other. The oral traditions\, unique pacing\, and non-linear style of African story-telling have in fact become classifying characteristics of African filmmaking. This kind of art is a powerful intellectual and emotional force for social change.  \n\n\n\nAs the twenty-first century begins\, we are witnessing a great revolution in mass communications capabilities that drastically reduces the distances between cultures. Images\, sounds\, and ideas are being exchanged almost instantaneously\, creating dynamic hybrid cultures. As Western consumer culture has influenced global society\, so it has been invigorated by the differing sensibilities\, traditions\, and styles of other cultures. Likewise\, African film has evolved from its early exploration of colonialism into a new\, diasporic\, and international consciousness. For the past decade\, the African Film Festival has bridged the divide between post-colonial Africa and the American public through the medium of film. AFF’s unique place in the international arts community is distinguished not only by leadership in festival management but a comprehensive approach to the advocacy of African film and culture. We are particularly mindful of the many ways in which cinema is as much a medium of cultural exchange as an educational gate-way. \n\n\n\nAbout the AME Zion Church of Troy\, NY:\n\n\n\nDevoted to religious\, educational and social causes\, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and its members have been instrumental in many of the freedom struggles of this nation\, dating back to the days when former slaves Frederick Douglass\, Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman led the first wave of Black social activism. Since that time\, A.M.E. Zion members have made other significant contributions. AME Zion Bishop Alexander Walters\, along with Dr. W.E.B. DuBois\, helped to found the NAACP. Bishop Walters was also a pioneering member of the Pan-African Congress\, and many of the denomination’s clergy and lay people were active participants in the Civil Rights Movement of the ’60s. \n\n\n\nA.M.E. Zion Church made the salvation of the whole person–mind\, body and spirit–its top priority. At the crux of its ministry lay racial justice\, peace and harmony\, thus earning it the title\, the Freedom Church. \n\n\n\nAs the ministry expanded\, so did the denomination’s emphasis on education. “In order to succeed in American society as productive citizens\, we [the newly freed slaves] need to become an educated citizenry\,” an early AME Zion member once said. In keeping with that goal\, the Church maintains four colleges and universities today\, which are Livingstone College in Salisbury\, N.C.\, Clinton Junior College in Rock Hill\, S.C.\, and Lomax-Hannon Junior College in Greenville\, Alabama\, and A.M.E. Zion University in Monrovia\, Liberia. Additionally it maintains two theological seminaries\, Hood Theological Seminary in Salisbury\, NC and Hood Speaks Theological Seminary in Akwa Ibom State\, Nigeria. \n\n\n\nAlong with its emphasis on ministry and social change here in the United States\, the denomination has focused much of its attention and energies on outreach abroad. To date\, the A.M.E. Zion Church has member churches on all continents except Australia. In West Africa\, in particular\, the denomination has set up numerous schools and clinics throughout Ghana and Nigeria. The Church also has facilities in Liberia\, though some of its main structures have been destroyed by civil war. Overseas missions are a crucial component of the A.M.E. Zion Church’s outreach\, but the denomination believes in charity starting at home. That is why\, over the years\, several individual churches have implemented programs to help families to find low-income housing\, jobs\, financial planning assistance\, health care and day care services. “Our concern is for the whole person\,” says Bishop Cecil Bishop\, the (retired former) senior bishop of the A.M.E. Zion Church. “We have a holistic approach and a holistic gospel. We don’t feel that we live in a kind of compartmentalized sense\, but that life is a complete whole. So we have to be concerned about all of those amenities of life that help make up wholeness in an individual.” \n\n\n\nAbout The Sanctuary for Independent Media:\n\n\n\nThe Sanctuary for Independent Media is a telecommunications production facility dedicated to community media arts\, located in an historic former church in north Troy\, NY. The Sanctuary hosts screening\, production and performance facilities\, training in media production and a meeting space for artists\, activists and independent media makers of all kinds. On March 11\, 2008 the City of Troy closed The Sanctuary for Independent Media for alleged code violations just hours after the opening of a controversial series focusing on government intimidation and censorship under the guise of counter-terrorism. While the matter is being investigated by the NY Civil Liberties Union\, public events are being presented at Sanctuaries-in-exile throughout the Capital Region. \n\n\n\nAbout Rensselaer Polytechnic’s Department of the Arts:\n\n\n\nThe Department of the Arts at Rensselaer was founded in 1972. It is built around a world class faculty and is dedicated to interdisciplinary creative research in electronic arts\, offering a unique environment in which to develop and realize innovative art within a technological university. iEAR Presents! is a series of public performances\, exhibitions\, screenings and lectures. Curated by artist faculty\, iEAR Presents! seeks to bring artists into a creative dialogue regarding integrated electronic arts practice and theory with a participatory community of faculty and students from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and members of the general public.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/african-film-festival-featuring-bling-a-planet-rock-with-filmmaker-raquel-cepeda-and-growing-stronger/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Screening,Speaker
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080406T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080406T213000
DTSTAMP:20220331T174926Z
CREATED:20220331T174926Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220331T174926Z
UID:10001349-1207504800-1207517400@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:"Promised Paradise: How Can One Believe That Terrorism Leads To Heaven?" with Filmmaker Leonard Helmrich
DESCRIPTION:Leonard Retel Helmrich is an internationally recognized Indonesian filmmaker. His featured documentary The Eye of the Day (2001) made him famous in the documentary film world. The follow-up\, Shape of the Moon (2004)\, was selected for many important festivals and won the top documentary award at the Sundance Film Festival. In Helmrich’s Promised Paradise: How Can One Believe That Terrorism Leads To Heaven?\, the Jakarta-based Indonesian puppeteer and troubadour Agus Nur Amal travels to Bali to call to account the people who were responsible for the bomb attack on a nightclub there on 12 October 2002. Come early for a 6 PM potluck with the artist! \n\n\n\nCo-Sponsored by the Department of the Arts at RPI.  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nStill from Promised Paradise: How Can One Believe That Terrorism Leads To Heaven?\n\n\n\nAbout the Film:\n\n\n\nIn Promised Paradise: How Can One Believe That Terrorism Leads To Heaven?  the Jakarta-based Indonesian puppeteer and troubadour Agus Nur Amal travels to Bali to call to account the people who were responsible for the bomb attack on a nightclub there on 12 October 2002. Like in his theatre shows\, humour is his main weapon. Before an audience of children\, we see him enact the attack on the Word Trade Center inside a gigantic “TV set.” The doll of Osama Bin Laden swaying his hips gets his audience roaring with laughter. But people stop laughing when his shadow play about the WTC disaster changes into images of new bomb attacks in Indonesia–first on the Australian Embassy in September 2004\, and later in Bali in October 2005. Director Leonard Retel Helmrich\, the 2004 winner of the Joris Ivens Award with The Shape of the Moon (De Stand van de Maan)\, uses ingenious editing to have Agus talk with the brain behind the attack in a “TV interview.” Agus also consults a paranormal advisor and asks him where the perpetrators of the suicide attack are now. “Their heaven is our hell\,” is the conclusion. But while Agus is in Bali\, his friend Endang\, who is still in Jakarta\, falls prey to intolerance and violence. (Source: IDFA catalogue) \n\n\n\nAbout Leonard Retel Helmrich:\n\n\n\nLeonard Retel Helmrich’s work includes the short fiction film De Drenkeling (The Drowning Man)\, the feature-length film The Phoenix Mystery\, and the multiple award-winning documentary Moving Objects (1991). He shot several short documentaries before\, during and after Suharto stepped down as president of Indonesia. With his feature documentary The Eye of the Day\, he instantly became famous in the documentary film world and won many international awards. Shape of the Moon\, a follow-up to The Eye of the Day\, was selected for many important festivals including the top documentary award at the Sundance Film Festival.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/promised-paradise-how-can-one-believe-that-terrorism-leads-to-heaven-with-filmmaker-leonard-helmrich/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Screening,Speaker
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080406T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080406T170000
DTSTAMP:20230626T144250Z
CREATED:20080406T173100Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230626T144250Z
UID:10001348-1207486800-1207501200@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Be The Media! Workshop with Leonard Helmrich: Single-Shot Cinema
DESCRIPTION:In the afternoon workshop Leonard Helmrich will be explaining his “single-shot cinema” theory\, a way of filming using one fluid shot with multiple angles.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/be-the-media-workshop-with-leonard-helmrich-single-shot-cinema/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Workshop
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080404T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080404T210000
DTSTAMP:20220722T154749Z
CREATED:20080404T172900Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220722T154749Z
UID:10000998-1207335600-1207342800@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:"Strange Culture" Screening with Steve Kurtz
DESCRIPTION:Lynn Hershman Leeson’s Strange Culture (2007) is a brilliantly conceived documentary that breaks conventional rules to tell a story of post-9/11 paranoia and the risks artists face when their work questions government policies. The subject of this film- artists and college professor Steve Kurtz- has been charged as a suspected terrorist and faces up to 20 years in prison. He will be in attendance for this benefit event. NEW LOCATION: Christ Church\, 35 State St. \n\n\n\nCo-sponsored by the Department of the Arts at RPI. \n\n\n\nStill from Strange Culture.\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nAbout the Film:\n\n\n\nArtist and college professor Steve Kurtz was preparing for a MASS MoCA exhibition that lets audiences test whether food has been genetically modified when\, days before the opening\, his wife tragically died of heart failure. Distraught\, Kurtz called 911\, but when medics arrived\, they became suspicious of his art supplies and called the FBI. Dozens of agents in haz-mat suits sifted through his home and impounded his computers\, books\, cat\, and even his wife’s body. The government held Kurtz as a suspected terrorist\, and\, nearly three years later\, the charges have not been dropped. He still faces up to 20 years in prison. \n\n\n\nBecause Kurtz cannot legally talk about the case\, Leeson enlists actors\, including Tilda Swinton\, Josh Kornbluth\, and Peter Coyote\, to interpret the story. Leeson skillfully weaves dramatic reenactment\, news footage\, animation\, testimonials\, and footage of Kurtz himself into a sophisticated documentary about post-9/11 paranoia and the risks artists face when their work questions government policies.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/strange-culture-screening-with-steve-kurtz/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Screening,Speaker
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080403T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080403T200000
DTSTAMP:20220330T154419Z
CREATED:20080403T235500Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220330T154419Z
UID:10000996-1207245600-1207252800@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Be The Media! Workshop with Penny Lane: Editing Basics Workshop\, Part One
DESCRIPTION:Have great footage\, but need to put it all together? This basic editing class is for you. Participants work individually and in groups over two lab sessions to learn the basics of audio and video editing. Bring any footage shot over the course of the workshop series; if you have a laptop\, bring it! Includes the fundamentals of selecting material\, planning the sequence of a story\, and setting up a basic editing project. (Track: Documentary.)
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/be-the-media-workshop-with-penny-lane-editing-basics-workshop-part-one/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Workshop
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080325T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080325T210000
DTSTAMP:20220614T170955Z
CREATED:20080325T171900Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220614T170955Z
UID:10000898-1206471600-1206478800@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:"State of Fear" with Filmmaker Pamela Yates
DESCRIPTION:Filmmaker Pamela Yates presents a screening of her award-winning film\, State of Fear\, bringing a new level of documentary storytelling to an epic tale of one nation’s journey through a war on terror. How can an open society balance demands for security with democracy? State of Fear dramatizes the human and societal costs a democracy faces when it embarks on a “war” against terror\, a “war” potentially without end\, all too easily exploited by unscrupulous leaders seeking personal political gain.  The film follows events in Peru\, yet it serves as a cautionary tale for a nation like the United States.   \n\n\n\nThe Truth Commission granted Skylight Pictures access to its extensive testimonial evidence from 20 years of violence\, as well as hundreds of hours of rarely seen archival material and thousands of exquisite still photographs that will help bring this timely story to an international audience. \n\n\n\nStill from State of Fear.\n\n\n\nAbout the Film:\n\n\n\nHow can an open society balance demands for security with democracy? State of Fear dramatizes the human and societal costs a democracy faces when it embarks on a “war” against terror\, a “war” potentially without end\, all too easily exploited by unscrupulous leaders seeking personal political gain. The film follows events in Peru\, yet it serves as a cautionary tale for a nation like the United States. \n\n\n\nFilmmakers Pamela Yates\, Paco de Onís and Peter Kinoy masterfully blend personal testimony\, history and archival footage to tell the story of escalating violence in the Andean nation and how fear of terrorism was used to undermine democracy\, making Peru a virtual dictatorship where official corruption replaced the rule of law. \n\n\n\nTerrorist attacks by Shining Path guerrillas provoked a military occupation of the countryside. Military justice replaced civil authority\, widespread abuses by the Peruvian army went unpunished\, and terrorism continued to spread. Nearly 70\,000 civilians eventually died at the hands of the Shining Path and the Peruvian military. Old-fashioned police intelligence finally subdued the terrorist threat but Peruvian leaders continued to use the fear of terrorism to gut the democracy\, making Peru a virtual dictatorship where a vast web of corruption replaced the rule of law. \n\n\n\nIn 2000 this autocratic regime collapsed beneath the weight of its own corruption\, and the new democratic government established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission that opened a door to the past\, throwing light on the relentless violence that had engulfed this Andean nation for twenty years. \n\n\n\n“A brilliant and moving film\, which is both a portrait of Peru and a chronicle of terror and response–fanaticism\, bravery\, heroism\, abject fear and the way everyone is affected by such events. It is what Orwell called the aim of great art\, which was both imaginative in craftsmanship and politically committed at its heart.” –Paul Theroux\, author
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/state-of-fear-with-filmmaker-pamela-yates/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Screening,Speaker
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080318T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080318T210000
DTSTAMP:20220518T162404Z
CREATED:20080318T171000Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220518T162404Z
UID:10000895-1205866800-1205874000@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:The Yes Men Live!
DESCRIPTION:Anti-corporate pranksters give the inside scoop on their latest impersonations\, from representing Halliburton at a Gulf Coast reconstruction conference to being Exxon at Canada’s largest petroleum industry gathering. The Yes Men agree their way into fortified compounds of commerce\, ask questions\, and then smuggle out the stories of their hijinks to provide the public a glimpse at the behind-the-scenes world of business. The Yes Men are team players… but they play for the opposing team. \n\n\n\nEver wondered what makes The Yes Men tick? Check out this live-in-person presentation by The Yes Men and see clips from their upcoming film! NEW LOCATION: Christ Church United Methodist\, 35 State St. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHighlights of Yes Men Adventures:\n\n\n\nVivoleum: Exxon’s Climate-Victim Candles (June\, 2007). Imposters posing as ExxonMobil and National Petroleum Council (NPC) representatives delivered an outrageous keynote speech to 300 oilmen at GO-EXPO\, Canada’s largest oil conference\, held at Stampede Park in Calgary\, Alberta. \n\n\n\nWharton: WTO Proposes Slavery for Africa (November\, 2006). At a Wharton Business School conference on business in Africa\, World Trade Organization representative Hanniford Schmidt announced the creation of a WTO initiative for “full private stewardry of labor” for the parts of Africa that have been hardest hit by the 500 years of Africa’s free trade with the West. \n\n\n\nHUD: HUD Secretary Jackson Announces New Direction for Agency (August\, 2006). Mayor Ray Nagin and Governor Kathleen Blanco speak. After pitching his administration’s policies in the usual way\, Nagin tells a long story in which truth and lie go skinny-dipping; lie steals truth’s clothes\, and truth chases after. “What you have is truth running naked after well-clothed lie.” \n\n\n\nSurvivaball: Halliburton solves global warming! (May\, 2006). “The SurvivaBall is designed to protect the corporate manager no matter what Mother Nature throws his or her way\,” said Fred Wolf\, a Halliburton representative who spoke today at the Catastrophic Loss conference held at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Amelia Island\, Florida. “This technology is the only rational response to abrupt climate change\,” he said to an attentive and appreciative audience.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/the-yes-men-live/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Screening,Speaker
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080310T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080310T200000
DTSTAMP:20220512T181313Z
CREATED:20080310T165200Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220512T181313Z
UID:10000893-1205172000-1205179200@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Wafaa Bilal's "Virtual Jihadi"
DESCRIPTION:Wafaa Bilal was on hand for a reception at 6 PM followed at 7 PM by a presentation about his installation Virtual Jihadi which was to have been displayed at The Sanctuary for Independent Media. The installation was scheduled to be open to the public through Friday\, March 15 from noon to 2 PM as well as before and after regularly scheduled events through April 4\, 2008. The exhibit was shut down–along with The Sanctuary for Independent Media itself–on trumped-up code violation charges by City of Troy officials on the morning of Tuesday\, March 11\, just minutes before the show was to open to the public.  The Sanctuary remained closed until a grand re-opening celebration on April 26 capped off two months of fundraising and renovations. Another version of this installation had opened on March 5\, 2008\, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute but as reported by a Times Union story it was abruptly closed the following day.  Coverage of the controversy has spread around the country.  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAbout the Controversy:\n\n\n\nThe exhibit was shut down–along with The Sanctuary for Independent Media itself–on trumped-up code violation charges by City of Troy officials on the morning of Tuesday\, March 11\, just minutes before the show was to open to the public. The Sanctuary remained closed until a grand re-opening celebration on April 26 capped off two months of fundraising and renovations. \n\n\n\nAnother version of this installation had opened on March 5\, 2008 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute but as reported by the Times Union it was abruptly closed the following day. Coverage of the controversy has spread around the country\, with stories appearing in the Washington Post\, Chicago Tribune and NY Newsday. Writing from Paris\, France cultural critic Brian Holmes offered his analysis of the art panic at RPI and Inside Higher Ed wrote about the episode in the broader context of campus censorship\, followed by another story when the show opened at the Sanctuary. \n\n\n\nA local Republican operative on the payroll of the City of Troy\, Rensselaer County and NY State called for protests at the Monday\, March 10 show opening at the Sanctuary in an article in the Troy Record. \n\n\n\nIn the widely marketed video game “Quest for Saddam\,” players fight stereotypical Iraqi foes and try to kill Saddam. Al Qaeda did its own take\, creating an online video game using the structure of “Quest for Saddam” but adding a new “skin” to turn the game into a hunt for Bush: “The Night of Bush Capturing.” Now artist Wafaa Bilal has hacked the Al Qaeda version of the game to put his own more nuanced spin on this epic conflict. \n\n\n\nIn The Night of Bush Capturing: A Virtual Jihadi\, Bilal casts himself as a suicide-bomber in the game. After learning of the real-life death of his brother in the war\, he is recruited by Al Qaeda to join the hunt for Bush. This work is meant to bring attention to the vulnerability of Iraqi civilians to the travesties of the current war and racist generalizations and stereotypes as exhibited in games such as Quest for Saddam\, along with vulnerability to recruitment by violent groups like Al Qaeda because of the U.S.’s failed strategy in securing Iraq. The work also aims to shed light on groups that traffic in crass and hateful stereotypes of Arab culture with games like Quest for Saddam and other media. \n\n\n\nWafaa Bilal was named 2007 Chicagoan of the Year by the Chicago Tribune\, which wrote\, “No artwork created in Chicago in 2007 received as much attention as Wafaa Bilal’s ‘Domestic Tension\,’ an interactive performance piece that subjected the Iraqi-born artist to a month of bombardment by paintballs from Internet viewers.” \n\n\n\nAccording to Wafaa Bilal:\n\n\n\n“My art is most influenced by the pain and suffering of growing up under Sadaam Hussein’s repressive rule from 1968 to the recent “Iraqi Freedom War”. I experienced violence on a daily basis\, and visions of death and terror together with the anguish to the Iraqi people are irrevocably etched in my memory. My generation in Iraq is defined by decades of war. Since coming to the United States I have also seen great injustice and suffering in the forms of poverty\, racism\, and many other forms of discrimination and hatred. From this point of departure\, through art I strive to uncover an overarching human condition while creating a space for provocation\, dialogue\, and contemplation. As my friend and colleague Gregg Bordowitz has written\, when we are exposed to violence on a daily basis\, how can we\, as political artists\, convey this experience clearly to the viewer and leave a lasting impression that is fresh and solid in its conclusions\, not cliché? \n\n\n\nA constant negotiation must take place in order to embrace the aesthetic pleasure of the image’s surface\, which is so necessary to capture the imagination\, and to convey the aesthetic pain of the content. The failure of this negotiation can easily result in the alienation of the viewer\, while a successful negotiation may result in active engagement and an opening of the viewer’s perspective. While I do not wish to impose narrow interpretations of my work but struggle to create complex and muli-dimensional images\, I also do not feel we currently have the privilege to enjoy art purely as aesthetic pleasure. It is a misconception that art has ever been pure; historically it has been a means of expressing personal and societal realities and interpretations. We must actively employ the tension and incongruence produced by the coexistence of aesthetic pleasure and aesthetic pain to attract and jolt the viewer in a thought-provoking manner. As an active player in society and as both educator and agitator\, the artist must keep pushing these boundaries. \n\n\n\nThe photographs I create are highly symbolic\, “hyper-real” landscapes\, landscapes of possibilities existing just beyond reality\, expressing emotions and conditions that permeate reality. They equally could be called “interior landscapes\,” representative of the psychology of human suffering in a society ruled by oppression\, domination\, and fear. Figures exist in equal balance with the landscapes\, the images drawing their complexity from this dramatic polar tension. Within the frame\, time and place loses specificity to become transcendent and expressive of a broader human condition. \n\n\n\nVideo installations provide another level of impact besides the content of the image: we observe movement\, a physical language the body understands. I play with the viewer’s presence and engagement or lack thereof\, allowing this to directly impact the action and outcome of the piece. As the viewer may be far removed from the conflict addressed within the work\, it is important to communicate to the viewer through a recognizable visual language\, and so I filter the subject through historical and psychological contexts of the subject’s specific locale. The frame acts as a historical window to the past\, while the moving image exemplifies a persistent-present\, a current condition influenced by internal or external circumstances that inhibit change. The moment something is done to change a situation\, the persistent-present becomes a progressive present where change can occur. \n\n\n\nMy memories of Iraq and my disenchantment with politics have not left me cynical\, nor drained of hope for humanity. On the contrary\, I am filled with belief in the power of the people to control their own destinies\, and I continue to believe in social justice. I hope to foster a sense of self-empowerment in my audience and to counter the sense of powerlessness people feel in the face of inhumanity.” \n\n\n\nAbout Wafaa Bilal:\n\n\n\nWafaa Bilal was born in Iraq on June 10\, 1966. Because a member of his family had been accused of disloyalty to his country\, Wafaa was denied the opportunity to pursue his dream of being an artist. Instead\, he was to attend college to major in geography. While in college\, he continued to pursue his art and was arrested and tortured for his political art work against Sadaam Hussein. \n\n\n\nShortly after the Gulf War\, Wafaa was inspired by President Bush’s message to the Iraqi citizens that if they attempted to overthrow Sadaam\, the US would stand behind them. He became involved in organizing opposition to the government and was scheduled for arrest and execution when he escaped into Kuwait. There he was accused of being a spy and was close to being shot when his student ID convinced them he told the truth. \n\n\n\nWafaa was sent to a refugee camp on the Kuwaiti border. In the camp\, people laughed when rather than accept life in a tent he began forming brick that he dried in the sun and fashioned into a home. The adobe served a practical purpose\, for it provided relative safety from abduction by Kuwaiti soldiers who sneaked into tents in the middle of the night to kidnap young people for sale to Iraqi soldiers who tortured\, raped and executed them or the Turkish soldiers themselves would rape and kill them. \n\n\n\nFor two years\, Wafaa lived in limbo not knowing if each day would be his last. Still Wafaa worked to improve his art\, cleaning toilets in the camp to earn the money for art supplies\, buying supplies for children for art therapy to help them to work through the horrors witnessed. His experiences developed within him an abhorrence of violence and oppression and strengthened his inner resolve. \n\n\n\nIn 1992\, Wafaa came to the United States and took classes to learn English. Then\, he began art studies at the University of New Mexico where he excelled. His art is of a political nature that speaks to oppression of the human spirit\, including that of women who are bound by the rules of culture. He has won many awards for his art as well as a scholarship to the Chicago Institute of Art for post graduate study. He is now teaching at that institution. \n\n\n\nIn addition\, Wafaa travels to give lectures on the oppressive nature of Sadaam’s regime in the hope of informing people of the complexities of the situation as well as the atrocities committed and the importance of nonviolent means of ending conflict. It has been 14 years since he was last able to see his mother and younger siblings. He speaks to them on the phone to hear how they flee from one war torn city to another in an effort to find safety. His 21 year-old brother who was staunchly apolitical lost his life to stray American gunfire. His father died when his health deteriorated after the death of his youngest son.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/wafaa-bilals-virtual-jihadi/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Gallery Show,Speaker
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080310T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080310T180000
DTSTAMP:20220404T161713Z
CREATED:20080310T164000Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220404T161713Z
UID:10000892-1205168400-1205172000@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:The Great "Virtual Jihad" Controversy with Wafaa Bilal
DESCRIPTION:The Sanctuary gives refuge to artist Wafaa Bilal after he is banned from the RPI Campus.  On Monday\, March 10\, Iraq-born video artist Wafaa Bilal will be on hand for a reception at 6 PM followed at 7 PM by a presentation about his installation Virtual Jihadi which was to have been displayed at The Sanctuary for Independent Media. The installation was scheduled to be open to the public through Friday\, March 15 from noon to 2 PM as well as before and after regularly scheduled events through April 4\, 2008. For full details\, watch this 22 minute video documentary about the controversy produced by the Hudson Mohawk Independent Media Center. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAbout the Controversy:\n\n\n\nThe exhibit was shut down–along with The Sanctuary for Independent Media itself–on trumped-up code violation charges by City of Troy officials on the morning of Tuesday\, March 11\, just minutes before the show was to open to the public. The Sanctuary remained closed until a grand re-opening celebration on April 26 capped off two months of fundraising and renovations. \n\n\n\nAnother version of this installation had opened on March 5\, 2008 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute but as reported by the Times Union it was abruptly closed the following day. Coverage of the controversy has spread around the country\, with stories appearing in the Washington Post\, Chicago Tribune and NY Newsday. Writing from Paris\, France cultural critic Brian Holmes offered his analysis of the art panic at RPI and Inside Higher Ed wrote about the episode in the broader context of campus censorship\, followed by another story when the show opened at the Sanctuary. \n\n\n\nA local Republican operative on the payroll of the City of Troy\, Rensselaer County and NY State called for protests at the Monday\, March 10 show opening at the Sanctuary in an article in the Troy Record. \n\n\n\nIn the widely marketed video game Quest for Saddam\, players fight stereotypical Iraqi foes and try to kill Saddam. Al Qaeda did its own take\, creating an online video game using the structure of Quest for Saddam but adding a new “skin” to turn the game into a hunt for Bush: The Night of Bush Capturing. Now artist Wafaa Bilal has hacked the Al Qaeda version of the game to put his own more nuanced spin on this epic conflict. \n\n\n\nIn The Night of Bush Capturing: A Virtual Jihadi\, Bilal casts himself as a suicide-bomber in the game. After learning of the real-life death of his brother in the war\, he is recruited by Al Qaeda to join the hunt for Bush. This work is meant to bring attention to the vulnerability of Iraqi civilians to the travesties of the current war and racist generalizations and stereotypes as exhibited in games such as Quest for Saddam\, along with vulnerability to recruitment by violent groups like Al Qaeda because of the U.S.’s failed strategy in securing Iraq. The work also aims to shed light on groups that traffic in crass and hateful stereotypes of Arab culture with games like Quest for Saddam and other media. \n\n\n\nWafaa Bilal was named 2007 Chicagoan of the Year by the Chicago Tribune\, which wrote\, “No artwork created in Chicago in 2007 received as much attention as Wafaa Bilal’s ‘Domestic Tension\,’ an interactive performance piece that subjected the Iraqi-born artist to a month of bombardment by paintballs from Internet viewers.” \n\n\n\nAccording to Wafaa Bilal:\n\n\n\n“My art is most influenced by the pain and suffering of growing up under Sadaam Hussein’s repressive rule from 1968 to the recent “Iraqi Freedom War”. I experienced violence on a daily basis\, and visions of death and terror together with the anguish to the Iraqi people are irrevocably etched in my memory. My generation in Iraq is defined by decades of war. Since coming to the United States I have also seen great injustice and suffering in the forms of poverty\, racism\, and many other forms of discrimination and hatred. From this point of departure\, through art I strive to uncover an overarching human condition while creating a space for provocation\, dialogue\, and contemplation. As my friend and colleague Gregg Bordowitz has written\, when we are exposed to violence on a daily basis\, how can we\, as political artists\, convey this experience clearly to the viewer and leave a lasting impression that is fresh and solid in its conclusions\, not cliché? \n\n\n\nA constant negotiation must take place in order to embrace the aesthetic pleasure of the image’s surface\, which is so necessary to capture the imagination\, and to convey the aesthetic pain of the content. The failure of this negotiation can easily result in the alienation of the viewer\, while a successful negotiation may result in active engagement and an opening of the viewer’s perspective. While I do not wish to impose narrow interpretations of my work but struggle to create complex and muli-dimensional images\, I also do not feel we currently have the privilege to enjoy art purely as aesthetic pleasure. It is a misconception that art has ever been pure; historically it has been a means of expressing personal and societal realities and interpretations. We must actively employ the tension and incongruence produced by the coexistence of aesthetic pleasure and aesthetic pain to attract and jolt the viewer in a thought-provoking manner. As an active player in society and as both educator and agitator\, the artist must keep pushing these boundaries. \n\n\n\nThe photographs I create are highly symbolic\, “hyper-real” landscapes\, landscapes of possibilities existing just beyond reality\, expressing emotions and conditions that permeate reality. They equally could be called “interior landscapes\,” representative of the psychology of human suffering in a society ruled by oppression\, domination\, and fear. Figures exist in equal balance with the landscapes\, the images drawing their complexity from this dramatic polar tension. Within the frame\, time and place loses specificity to become transcendent and expressive of a broader human condition. \n\n\n\nVideo installations provide another level of impact besides the content of the image: we observe movement\, a physical language the body understands. I play with the viewer’s presence and engagement or lack thereof\, allowing this to directly impact the action and outcome of the piece. As the viewer may be far removed from the conflict addressed within the work\, it is important to communicate to the viewer through a recognizable visual language\, and so I filter the subject through historical and psychological contexts of the subject’s specific locale. The frame acts as a historical window to the past\, while the moving image exemplifies a persistent-present\, a current condition influenced by internal or external circumstances that inhibit change. The moment something is done to change a situation\, the persistent-present becomes a progressive present where change can occur. \n\n\n\nMy memories of Iraq and my disenchantment with politics have not left me cynical\, nor drained of hope for humanity. On the contrary\, I am filled with belief in the power of the people to control their own destinies\, and I continue to believe in social justice. I hope to foster a sense of self-empowerment in my audience and to counter the sense of powerlessness people feel in the face of inhumanity.” \n\n\n\nAbout Wafaa Bilal:\n\n\n\nWafaa Bilal was born in Iraq on June 10\, 1966. Because a member of his family had been accused of disloyalty to his country\, Wafaa was denied the opportunity to pursue his dream of being an artist. Instead\, he was to attend college to major in geography. While in college\, he continued to pursue his art and was arrested and tortured for his political art work against Saddam Hussein. \n\n\n\nShortly after the Gulf War\, Wafaa was inspired by President Bush’s message to the Iraqi citizens that if they attempted to overthrow Saddam\, the US would stand behind them. He became involved in organizing opposition to the government and was scheduled for arrest and execution when he escaped into Kuwait. There he was accused of being a spy and was close to being shot when his student ID convinced them he told the truth. \n\n\n\nWafaa was sent to a refugee camp on the Kuwaiti border. In the camp\, people laughed when rather than accept life in a tent he began forming brick that he dried in the sun and fashioned into a home. The adobe served a practical purpose\, for it provided relative safety from abduction by Kuwaiti soldiers who sneaked into tents in the middle of the night to kidnap young people for sale to Iraqi soldiers who tortured\, raped and executed them or the Turkish soldiers themselves would rape and kill them. \n\n\n\nFor two years\, Wafaa lived in limbo not knowing if each day would be his last. Still Wafaa worked to improve his art\, cleaning toilets in the camp to earn the money for art supplies\, buying supplies for children for art therapy to help them to work through the horrors witnessed. His experiences developed within him an abhorrence of violence and oppression and strengthened his inner resolve. \n\n\n\nIn 1992\, Wafaa came to the United States and took classes to learn English. Then\, he began art studies at the University of New Mexico where he excelled. His art is of a political nature that speaks to oppression of the human spirit\, including that of women who are bound by the rules of culture. He has won many awards for his art as well as a scholarship to the Chicago Institute of Art for post graduate study. He is now teaching at that institution. \n\n\n\nIn addition\, Wafaa travels to give lectures on the oppressive nature of Saddam’s regime in the hope of informing people of the complexities of the situation as well as the atrocities committed and the importance of nonviolent means of ending conflict. It has been 14 years since he was last able to see his mother and younger siblings. He speaks to them on the phone to hear how they flee from one war torn city to another in an effort to find safety. His 21 year-old brother who was staunchly apolitical lost his life to stray American gunfire. His father died when his health deteriorated after the death of his youngest son.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/the-great-virtual-jihad-controversy-with-wafaa-bilal/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Screening
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080309T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080309T170000
DTSTAMP:20220330T153347Z
CREATED:20080309T231900Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220330T153347Z
UID:10000890-1205067600-1205082000@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Be The Media! Workshop with Andrew Lynn: Media Literacy for Educators
DESCRIPTION:We live in the most media-saturated time in history\, with messages aimed at youths beginning at a very early age. As educators\, we have a responsibility to help our students become aware of their ability to read between the lines. This session is intended to enhance teachers’ toolkits by providing resources and methods for using social media in the classroom: attend for both practical skill and brainstorming with other regional educators. (Track: Youth Media.)
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/be-the-media-workshop-with-andrew-lynn-media-literacy-for-educators/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Workshop
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080305T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080305T210000
DTSTAMP:20230626T143256Z
CREATED:20080305T172900Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230626T143256Z
UID:10001346-1204740000-1204750800@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:People to People in Iran\, Dinner and Talk
DESCRIPTION:Cultural travelers Priscilla Fairbank\, Jonathan Hill\, and Barbara Spring share visuals and experiences from their December 2007 tour of Iran with Fellowship of Reconciliation. You are invited to join the group for a casual dinner.  \n\n\n\nCitizen diplomats Priscilla Fairbank\, Jonathan Hill and Barbara Spring share stories and pictures from their December 2007 tour in Iran with Fellowship of Reconciliation. They met everyday people of all ages and walks of life: casual bazaar shoppers\, high school and college students\, children and parents on the street or in public parks\, clerics in mosques. \n\n\n\nCome for an evening of enlightenment about present day Iran and its rich history and culture. \n\n\n\nPresented by Iran Working Group of Upper Hudson Peace Action. Co-sponsored by Troy Neighbors for Peace and Women Against War.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/people-to-people-in-iran-dinner-and-talk/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Community Event,Speaker
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080227T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080227T203000
DTSTAMP:20220331T162723Z
CREATED:20220331T162722Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220331T162723Z
UID:10001344-1204135200-1204144200@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Adam Rudolph’s Moving Pictures Octet Performance
DESCRIPTION:This group’s collective background spans a wide range of musical experiences\, including performances with world music ensembles\, 20th century chamber groups and leading artists in the jazz and rhythm & blues fields. Featuring Hamid Drake\, percussion; Graham Haynes\, horns; Ned Rothenberg\, winds; Kenny Wessel\, guitars; Adam Rudolph\, percussion; Steve Horn\, winds; Brahim Fribgone\, our; Shanir Blumenkrantz\, contrabass. This evening’s concert coincides with the release of Rudolph’s new CD Dream Garden on Justin Time records. Interpretations of the compositions from the CD will be performed\, as well a newly commissioned works. \n\n\n\nThe new compositions performed this evening were created with support from Chamber Music America’s New Works: Creation and Presentation Program funded though the generosity of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Presented with support from the Arts Department at RPI and the Performance program at the New York State Council on the Arts. \n\n\n\nLive Performance of Adam Rudolph\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n Dream Garden features: Adam Rudolph: handrumset (congas\, djembe\, tarija) bendir\, talking drum\, thumb pianos\, udu drums\, cajon\, gongs\, percussion\, sintir\, vocal; Brahim Fribgane: oud\, dumbek\, vocal\, udu\, cajon\, sintir\, percussion; Graham Haynes: cornet\, flugelhorn; Hamid Drake: trap drum set\, bata\, frame drums\, congas\, percussion\, vocal; Kenny Wessel: electric and acoustic guitar; Ned Rothenberg: shakuhachi\, bass flute\, bass clarinet\, alto saxophone; Shanir Blumenkranz: contrabass\, oud and sintir; Steve Gorn: bansuri bamboo flute\, soprano saxophone\, clarinet. \n\n\n\nSince 1991 Adam Rudolph’s Moving Pictures has performed at many major festivals and concert venues in both Europe and the United States. In addition\, each member has concertized extensively throughout North and South America\, Europe\, Asia\, Africa\, and Australia: their collective background spans a wide range of musical experiences\, including performances with world music ensembles\, 20th century chamber groups and leading artists in the jazz and rhythm & blues fields. The concert repertoire consists of original compositions by Mr. Rudolph that serve as a basis for improvisational dialogue. \n\n\n\nAbout the Music\n\n\n\nAdam Rudolph writes: \n\n\n\n“I compose forms\, which serve as thematic material to provide an orchestrated context for improvisational dialogue. Music materials consist\, among other things\, of original melodies\, textural gestures\, sound languages\, tone rows\, traditional and synthetic scales\, diadic and intervallicaly generated harmonies\, call and response\, polyphony\, dynamics\, and the coloration of silences. \n\n\n\nUnique forms are generated through my concept of “Cyclic Verticalism”\, whereby polyrhythms\, as used in African music\, are combined with rhythm cycles\, as used in Indian music. When combined with the above-described tonal materials\, larger forms can be generated. In my compositions these materials are utilized to serve emotional coloration; what in India is called Rasa. Performers are given the freedom to use their imagination and listening ability to develop the compositions within their own individual motion and timing\, while still relating to the overall form and to their aesthetic and musical functions. The concept is to generate unusual relationships of sound against sound\, form against form\, and rhythm against rhythm in a non-linear\, ever shifting kaleidoscope of music images. \n\n\n\nAbout Adam Rudolph\n\n\n\nOriginally from Chicago\, composer and handrummer/percussionist Adam Rudolph has been hailed as “a pioneer in world music” by the New York Times and “a master percussionist” by Musician magazine. He has released over twenty recordings as a leader and appeared on numerous albums. For the past three decades he has performed extensively on concert stages and music festivals throughout North & South America\, Europe\, Africa\, and Asia. \n\n\n\nSince the 1970’s Rudolph has been developing his unique syncretic approach to hand drumming in creative collaborations with outstanding artists of cross-cultural and improvised music\, including: Don Cherry\, Jon Hassel\, Sam Rivers\, Hassan Hakmoun\, L. Shankar\, Omar Sosa\, Wadada Leo Smith\, and Pharaoh Sanders. In 1988 Rudolph began his association Yusef Lateef\, with whom he has toured worldwide and recorded over 15 albums. \n\n\n\nRudolph is artistic director of and composes for several performing ensembles: Adam Rudolph’s Moving Pictures Quartet and Octet\, Hu: Vibrational with Hamid Drake\, and Vashti International Percussion Ensemble. He performs as half of the Wildflowers Duo with Butoh dance innovator Oguri. Rudolph also conducts and composes for the Go: Organic Orchestra\, a 30-piece woodwind\, brass\, strings and percussion ensemble\, which he founded in 2001. \n\n\n\nRudolph recently premiered his first Opera\, The Dreamer\, based on the text of Friedreich Nietzsche’s “The Birth of Tragedy”. His rhythm methodology book\, Pure Rhythm was published by advance music\, Germany in 2006. He has received grants and compositional commissions from the Rockefeller Foundation\, Chamber Music America\, Meet the Composer\, Mary Flagler Cary Trust\, the NEA\, Arts International\, Durfee Foundation and American Composers Forum. \n\n\n\nAbout the Musicians:\n\n\n\nRegarded as an emerging force in contemporary electronic and world music\, GRAHAM HAYNES has redefined and deconstructed that genre some still call jazz. He has recorded seven critically acclaimed CDs as a leader and has worked with Steve Coleman\, Roy Haynes\, Ed Blackwell\, Abbey Lincoln\, Pharaoh Sanders\, Vernon Reid\, Cassandra Wilson\, Butch Morris\, David Murray\, Karl Berger\, Brice Wassy\, Cheick Tidiane Seck\, George Russell\, George Adams\, Jaki Byard\, Bill Laswell\, Sting\, Sekou Sundiata\, Tracie Morris\, Talvin Singh\, Will Calhoun\, Don Byron\, Greg Osby\, and Geri Allen\, among others. \n\n\n\nSTEVE GORN has performed Indian classical music and new American music on the bansuri bamboo flute and soprano saxophone in concerts and festivals throughout the world. A disciple of the late bansuri master\, Sri Gour Goswami of Calcutta\, he has recorded and performed with a wide range of artists including Paul Simon\, Tony Levin\, Jack DeJohnette\, Glen Velez\, and Simon Shaheen. He has composed for film\, television\, dance and theatre\, and performed in concerts and festivals throughout the world. \n\n\n\nHAMID DRAKE has toured extensively throughout North America\, Europe\, Africa and Japan with many of today’s outstanding artists in improvisational and world music’s\, including: Don Cherry\, David Murray\, William Parker\, Pharaoh Sanders\, Dewey Redman\, Jim Pepper\, Marylyn Crispell\, Peter Brotzman and A.A.C.M. co founder Fred Anderson. He also performs as leader of his own ensemble Bindu. \n\n\n\nA virtuoso on both the oud and dumbek\, BRAHIM FRIBGANE was born and raised in Morocco\, where he grew up surrounded by North African\, Gnawa\, Berber\, Arabic and Andulusian music. Brahim tours and performs extensively with Club D’elf\, Medeski\, Martin and Wood\, Hassan Hakmoun\, Vashti Percussion Group\, and Leni Stern. He is a composer of dozens of songs on the oud. \n\n\n\nComposer/Performer NED ROTHENBERG has been internationally acclaimed for both his solo and ensemble music\, presented for the past 25 years in North and South America\, Europe and Asia. Recent recordings include Intervals\, a double-cd of solo work\, Ghost Stories\, Power Lines and Port of Entry with his trio Sync. Other collaborators have included Sainkho Namchylak\, Paul Dresher\, John Zorn\, Marc Ribot\, Yuji Takahashi and Evan Parker. \n\n\n\nSHANIR EZRA BLUMENKRANZ is one of the NYC downtown scenes’ most in demand bass players. He has collaborated with Ikue Mori\, Bill Laswell\, John Zorn\, Ravi Coltrane\, Roy Campbell Jr.\, Tony Malaby\, Jenny Scheinman\, Avishai Cohen\, Marty Ehrlich\, Sylvie Courvoisier\, Susie Ibarra\, Min Xiao-Fen\, Michiyo Yagi\, Marc Ribot\, Kenny Wollesen\, Mark Feldman\, and Louie Belogenis among others. \n\n\n\nKENNY WESSEL worked with revolutionary jazz artist Ornette Coleman for over 12 years (1988-2000)\, touring the world as a member of Prime Time\, during which time he performed “Skies of America\,” Ornette Coleman’s seminal work for symphony orchestra and jazz ensemble\, with Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic and London’s Philharmonia Orchestra. Kenny has also worked with Steve Turre\, David Leibman\, Pat Metheny and Johnny Hartmann\, and with North Indian musicians V.M. Bhatt\, Debashish Bhattacharya\, Karaikudi Mani\, and Samir Chatterjee. Ken has toured South Asia and South America. He is currently on the faculties of the Music Conservatory of Westchester and Rutgers University.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/adam-rudolphs-moving-pictures-octet-performance/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Jazz Music,Performance
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080222T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080222T203000
DTSTAMP:20230320T154714Z
CREATED:20220331T161545Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230320T154714Z
UID:10001341-1203703200-1203712200@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:"A Love During the War" Screening with Filmmaker Osvalde Lewat-Hallade
DESCRIPTION:What are the consequences when rape is used as a weapon of war? Osvalde Lewar-Hallade’s moving documentary A Love During the War (2005) explores the question from the perspective of women in Africa\, where this tragedy is witnessed again and again. One of the emerging voices of feminist African filmmaking\, the Cameroonian director Osvalde Lewat-Hallade is well on her way to becoming her continent’s Kim Longinotto or Barbara Kopple\, forging direct cinema with activist power. Osvalde Lewat-Hallade will be present for audience questions at a screening of her film. Part of the African Film Festival program.  \n\n\n\nThis presentation is co-sponsored by the Arts Department at RPI and made possible by volunteer labor\, hundreds of small donations from patrons of The Sanctuary for Independent Media\, and support from the Electronic Media & Film program at the NYS Council on the Arts. \n\n\n\nStill from A Love During War.\n\n\n\nAbout the Film:\n\n\n\nA Love During the War is a docudrama following the experiences of a journalist who is separated from her husband when the Democratic Republic of Congo erupts into civil war. She reunites with her husband in Kinshasa\, but the memory of the horrors suffered by other women during the war still haunts her. Despite her husband’s protests\, she returns to Eastern Congo to find that the legacy of violence continues to infect the lives of women young and old. However\, not everyone remains a victim as women have started denouncing the abuses they suffered. \n\n\n\nA Love During the War manages a remarkable feat\, telling an uplifting story of love that is utterly uncontrived\, while situating it within the context of a bloody war and the horrifying phenomenon of systematic rape committed by militias and armies in the Congo. \n\n\n\nThe two lovers in question are journalist Aziza and her husband Dedier\, who are separated by the outbreak of the Congo-Kinshasa war in 1996\, a conflict that eventually claimed the lives of three million people. Direct\, riveting interviews reveal the angst Aziza and Dedier endured throughout their six-year-long severance. \n\n\n\nThrough the actions of Aziza\, who takes an interest in the brutal experiences of a young girl who was gang-raped by several uniformed men\, director Osvalde Lewat-Hallade seamlessly synthesizes a personal story with an examination of the use of rape as a tool of war. The result is stirring and ultimately galvanizing\, as one cannot help but feel awed by the courage and resilience of women who have overcome stigma and trauma to speak out. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAbout the Director:\n\n\n\nOsvalde Lewat-Hallade started her career as a journalist. She produced her first documentary\, Upsa Yimoowin (The Pipe of Hope) in Toronto in 2001. That film denounces the sidelining of Native Americans. Her second film\, Beyond the Pains\, was made in 2003 and is based on the life of a prisoner who was sentenced to four years in jail for a minor crime and ends up being imprisoned for 33 years. Beyond the Pains was the recipient of the TV Film Prize at the Avanca City Festival and of the Human Rights Prize at the Vues d’Afrique Festival in Montreal. A Love During the War\, her latest documentary film\, won two jury mentions in Fespaco and the Montreal Film Festival. She has just completed a feature film\, “Black Business.”
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/a-love-during-the-war-screening-with-filmmaker-osvalde-lewat-hallade/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Screening
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080217T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080217T170000
DTSTAMP:20220330T153127Z
CREATED:20080217T230700Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220330T153127Z
UID:10000889-1203253200-1203267600@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Be The Media! Workshop with Elizabeth Press: Citizen Journal Primer
DESCRIPTION:Digital media tools are more accessible to amateur journalists and community organizers than ever before. In this workshop\, participants will examine a variety of examples of citizen journalism\, and learn research and production tips from a seasoned professional as well as a Democracy Now! producer\, Elizabeth Press. (Track: Growing the Grassroots.)
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/be-the-media-workshop-with-elizabeth-press-citizen-journal-primer/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Workshop
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080215T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080215T210000
DTSTAMP:20230109T030552Z
CREATED:20080215T152200Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230109T030552Z
UID:10000886-1203098400-1203109200@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:"King Corn" Screening with Panel
DESCRIPTION:Director Aaron Woolf’s entertaining feature-length documentary about the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation raises troubling questions about how we eat and how we farm. Complimentary organic popcorn and corn-free sodas for all.  \n\n\n\nCo-sponsored by Honest Weight Food Co-Op as well as Roots and Wisdom. \n\n\n\nKing Corn movie still\n\n\n\nKing Corn is a feature film documentary about the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. Almost everything Americans eat contains corn: high fructose corn syrup\, corn-fed meat\, and corn-based processed foods are the staples of the modern diet. Ready for an adventure and alarmed by signs of their generation’s bulging waistlines\, college friends Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis know where to go to investigate. \n\n\n\nEighty years ago\, Ian and Curt’s great-grandfathers lived just a few miles apart\, in the same rural county in northern Iowa. Now their great-grandsons are returning with a mission: they will plant an acre of corn\, follow their harvest into the world\, and attempt to understand what they—and all of us—are really made of. \n\n\n\nThey move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors\, genetically modified seeds\, and powerful herbicides\, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America’s most productive\, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system\, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat—and how we farm. \n\n\n\nKing Corn movie poster\n\n\n\n“Genetically engineered corn can be ‘hidden’ in everyday grocery items ranging from bread\, to soda\, to the ramen noodles you had for lunch\,” Karisa Centanni\, Education Coordinator at the Honest Weight Food Co-op\, comments. “The same genes that comprise this ‘corn’ are showing up in our hair and skin\, believe it or not\, yet we have no idea about the kind of biological and environmental changes this may cause over a long period of time.” Immediately following the screening a panel comprised of two local\, organic farmers—Leslie Herd and Chris Kemnah—and Louise Maher-Johnson\, a non-GMO activist who has coordinated two statewide lobby days (2005 and 2006) to inform legislators about transgenic food\, will be available as part of a panel discussion and to answer audience questions and concerns. \n\n\n\nYouth gardeners from Roots and Wisdom will serve corn-free\, New-England-made sodas and organic popcorn during a pre-screening reception\, beginning at 6 PM\, and following the film. They will talk with attendees about the important role they are playing to recover the local foods system through farming themselves. All sales of concessions will go directly to programming for Roots and Wisdom. \n\n\n\nRoots and Wisdom is a youth agriculture and community service program bringing together Schenectady County residents to grow organic vegetables for donation to local food pantries and for sale locally. Participants learn about sustainable agriculture\, nutrition\, hunger\, and diversity. Roots and Wisdom creates genuine change by helping county residents in need and providing youth with opportunities to work hard and grow. \n\n\n\nThe Honest Weight Food Co-op\, founded in 1976\, is open to the public seven days a week. A member-owned and -operated organization\, Honest Weight Food Co-op is committed to providing the community with affordable\, high quality natural foods and products for healthy and ecologically sustainable living. The store offers a full line of brand-name grocery products\, more than 500 domestic and imported cheeses from rBGH-free dairies\, an extensive selection of bulk foods\, and the area’s widest selection of locally produced food products. Honest Weight Food Co-op is centrally located at 484 Central Avenue\, between Partridge and Manning\, in Albany\, NY. \n\n\n\nThis presentation is made possible in part by volunteer labor and hundreds of small donations from patrons of The Sanctuary for Independent Media.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/king-corn-screening-with-panel/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Screening
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080209T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080209T213000
DTSTAMP:20230310T162636Z
CREATED:20080209T150100Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230310T162636Z
UID:10000885-1202583600-1202592600@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Free Jazz from the Sanctuary prsents Kahil El’Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble
DESCRIPTION:Kahil El’Zabar formed the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble in 1973 to combine concepts of African American music making with traditional African music and make something new. After 35 years\, this legendary band is still serving people worldwide with their special brand of 21st century Griot music. El’Zabar’s last performance at the Sanctuary was named one of 2007’s ten best by Metroland. Don’t miss this one! Corey Wilkes\, trumpet; Ernest Khabeer Dawkins\, saxophone; Kahil El’Zabar\, composer\, percussion\, vocals.  \n\n\n\nCo-sponsored by the Department of the Arts at RPI\, and made possible in part by the NYS Music Fund. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAbout Ethnic Heritage Ensemble:\n\n\n\nThe Ethnic Heritage Ensemble was formed 35 years ago. Kahil El’Zabar is the founder of the band and led its first performance at Child City Arts Center\, in Chicago\, in 1973. This was a year after he had returned from the University of Ghana. His goal was to combine concepts of African American music making with the earlier roots of traditional African music and make it something new. After 35 years\, this legendary band is still serving the people worldwide with their special brand of 21st century Griot music. The current band consists of the young trumpet titan\, Corey Wilkes\, along with Chicago saxophone legend\, Ernest Khabeer Dawkins and the award winning multi percussionist\, vocalist\, and composer\, Kahil El’Zabar. \n\n\n\nThe Ethnic Heritage Ensemble\, is now in the pantheon of jazz history. Few bands have lasted more than three decades and there are no signs of this illustrious ensemble slowing down. Their music conjures a spiritual journey to the inner self. It spans time through multiple expressions that transcend styles and genres. There is an extremely personal virtuosity to the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble’s way of making music. It appears simple on the surface\, yet when one goes deeper in the music they are amazed at the density of form. \n\n\n\nWe are reaching out to our community worldwide in 2008\, to collectively celebrate the triumph of the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble\, in staying true to their mission. It is rare to witness such conviction and commitment in these times. This music has enormous history and incredible love. We are all here to make a difference; we must be about the work of our hearts. Living out your dream is the greatest honor one can express. The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble is the real deal and they have truly done it their way! Let us celebrate the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble’s 35th Anniversary now and forever. Aluta Continua!!
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/kahil-elzabars-ethnic-heritage-ensemble/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:African Music,Community Event,Jazz Music,Performance
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080201T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080201T210000
DTSTAMP:20230320T154850Z
CREATED:20080201T202600Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230320T154850Z
UID:10000883-1201892400-1201899600@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Brian De Palma's "Redacted"
DESCRIPTION:The exclusive Capital Region release of Brian De Palma’s fictional documentary\, Redacted (2007). De Palma (Carrie\, Dressed to Kill\, The Untouchables\, Mission Impossible) won the Silver Lion for Best Director at the 2007 Venice Film Festival for this movie\, a fictional story inspired by true events in Iraq. “The only Iraq film I would rank alongside No End in Sight in the category of essential viewing.” (Scott Fondas\, LA Weekly). Screenings will take place on both February First and February Second\, 2008. \n\n\n\nCo-sponsored by Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace\, Women Against War and Chatham Peace Initiative. \n\n\n\nRedacted Poster\n\n\n\nAbout the Film:\n\n\n\nDe Palma won the Silver Lion for Best Director at the 2007 Venice Film Festival for this film\, a fictional story inspired by true events. Redacted is a unique cinematic experience that pushes viewers to radically reconsider the filters through which we see and accept events in our world\, the power of the mediated image and how presentation and composition influence our ideas and beliefs. \n\n\n\nCentered around a small group of American soldiers stationed at a checkpoint in Iraq\, Redacted alternates points of view\, balancing the experiences of these young men under duress and members of the media with those of the local Iraqi people\, illuminating how each have been deeply affected by the current conflict and their encounters with each other. The charged apotheosis of Brian De Palma’s filmmaking career\, Redacted caps off a body of work which has explored the politics of image-making and reception more fully than any living filmmaker.  \n\n\n\n“Once again a senseless war has produced a senseless tragedy\,” says De Palma. “I told this story years ago in my film ‘Casualties of War.’ But the lessons from the Vietnam War have gone unheeded. How to tell the story today? And how did it all begin? Last year at the Toronto Film Festival I was approached by a representative of HDNET films who asked if I would be interested in making a film using high definition video. I said I would if I could find a subject matter that would be best explored in the medium. Then I read about an incident in the Iraq War where members of a US army squad had reportedly raped a 14 girl\, slaughtered her family\, shot the girl in the face and set her body on fire. How could these boys have gone so wrong? In searching for the answers\, I read soldier’s blogs\, books\, watched soldier’s home made war videos\, surfed their web sites\, and their ‘YouTube’ postings. It was all there\, and all in video. “To redact is to edit\, or prepare for publishing. Frequently\, a redacted document or image has simply had personal (or possibly actionable) information deleted or blacked out; as a consequence\, redacted is often used to describe documents or images from which sensitive information has been expunged. The true story of our Iraq War has been redacted from the mainstream corporate media. If we are goings to cause such disorder then we must face the horrendous images that are the consequences of these actions. Once we saw them in Vietnam our citizens protested and brought that misguided conflict to an end. Let’s hope the images from this film have the same effect.” \n\n\n\nAbout Brian De Palma:\n\n\n\nBrian De Palma/Scott Wintrow: Getty Images\n\n\n\nWriter/director Brian De Palma has showcased his filmmaking talents in diverse films ranging from thrillers such as “Sisters\,” “Obsession\,” “Dressed to Kill\,” “Body Double” and “Snake Eyes\,” to the blockbuster action film “Mission: Impossible\,” the acclaimed police dramas “Scarface\,” “The Untouchables” and “Carlito’s Way” to the unique visions in “Carrie” and “Phantom of the Paradise. “De Palma has also directed war films\, comedies and science fiction.  \n\n\n\nBorn in Newark\, New Jersey on September 11\, 1940\, De Palma grew up in Philadelphia where his father was an orthopedic surgeon. Early on\, De Palma became fascinated by physics and went to Columbia College to study the subject. He soon changed paths and began studying first theater\, then cinema.  \n\n\n\nIn 1960\, he made his first mid-length feature\, “Icarus\,” followed by “6601224\, The Story of an IBM Card” and “Wotan’s Wake\,” for which he received several awards. De Palma undertook his first full-length feature\, “The Wedding Party\,” while studying at Sarah Lawrence College. “The Wedding Party\,” a semi-improvised comedy\, would be Robert De Niro’s and Jill Clayburgh’s film debuts. After this first film\, De Palma went on to do several documentaries and short films\, including “The Responsive Eye\,” and put on an exposition of Op Art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.  \n\n\n\nIn 1967\, he made his second full-length feature\, “Murder à la Mod\,” a sophisticated thriller packed with Hitchcockian references. The anti-establishment fever of the sixties led him to make the satirical comedies “Greetings” (Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival) and “Hi Mom\,” which lifted him into the ranks of young American filmmakers. The big Hollywood studios began paying attention to De Palma\, but it was his modest independent production “Sisters\,” which brought his first big success. Breaking away from the semi-improvisational style of his previous films\, he made apparent that his talent for writing\, his sense of construction\, his framing and rhythm were worthy of the best Hollywood directors.  \n\n\n\nTwo years after his success\, De Palma made the musical thriller “Phantom of the Paradise” which came away with the Grand Prize from the 1975 Avoriaz Film Festival. In 1976\, he (with Paul Schrader) wrote and directed “Obsession\,” a romantic thriller starring Cliff Robertson and Genevieve Bujold\, followed by “Carrie\,” which triumphed worldwide and earned Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie Oscar nominations. The film\, which also featured Nancy Allen\, John Travolta and Amy Irving\, remains one of the most brilliant adaptations of a Stephen King novel. Its famous last scene\, as well as others\, has been widely imitated over the years.  \n\n\n\nIn 1977\, De Palma directed Kirk Douglas\, John Cassavetes and Amy Irving in “The Fury\,” a spy film that combined the occult with political fiction. In 1978\, he made “Home Movies\,” a semi-autobiographical comedy starring Kirk Douglas and Nancy Allen\, with the assistance of fellow film students from Sarah Lawrence.  \n\n\n\nIn 1980\, De Palma returned to suspense with “Dressed to Kill\,” starring Michael Caine\, Nancy Allen and Angie Dickinson\, then went on to write and direct “Blow Out\,” which explored two of his major themes: voyeurism and politics.  \n\n\n\nIn 1982\, Brian De Palma directed a baroque\, hyper-violent remake of “Scarface” from an Oliver Stone screenplay\, starring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer.  \n\n\n\nIn 1984\, he made “Body Double\,” which gave Melanie Griffith her breakthrough role. Leaving behind the film genre which had made him famous\, Brian went on to direct “The Untouchables\,” a huge spectacular saga about prohibition which earned its star\, Sean Connery\, an Oscar\, and launched the careers of Kevin Costner and Andy Garcia.  \n\n\n\nIn 1989\, Brian directed Michael J. Fox and Sean Penn in the war film “Casualties of War” and in 1990\, he adapted Tom Wolfe’s satirical novel “The Bonfire of the Vanities\,” which starred Tom Hanks\, Melanie Griffith and Bruce Willis.  \n\n\n\nIn 1992\, De Palma returned to thrillers with “Raising Cain\,” which starred John Lithgow and Lolita Davidovich\, as well as directing Al Pacino in “Carlito’s Way.” \n\n\n\n In 1996\, he brought together Tom Cruise\, Jon Voight\, Emmanuelle Beart and Jean Reno in “Mission: Impossible\,” a tribute to the cult television series.  \n\n\n\n“Mission: Impossible” became an enormous international success and was followed by “Snake Eyes\,” starring Nicolas Cage and Gary Sinise\, as well as his first science fiction film\, “Mission to Mars\,” which starred Gary Sinise\, Tim Robbins\, Don Cheadle and Connie Nielsen.  \n\n\n\nMost recently\, De Palma directed Josh Hartnett\, Hilary Swank\, Aaron Eckhart and Scarlett Johansson in the 2006 film noir thriller\, “The Black Dahlia\,” an adaptation of the popular novel by James Ellroy. \n\n\n\nPress: \n\n\n\n“An amazingly vigorous work and De Palma’s strongest cinematic statement since ‘Casualities of War’” — Richard Corliss\, Time \n\n\n\n“The only Iraq film I would rank alongside ‘No End in Sight’ in the category of essential viewing” — Scott Fondas\, LA Weekly \n\n\n\n“A sensational film. De Palma’s filmmaking skills have seldom been a razor sharp” — Ray Bennett\, Hollywood Reporter \n\n\n\n“De Palma’s anger and frustration with the media course through ‘Redacted’ like an electrical current” — Stephanie Zacharek\, Salon
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/brian-de-palmas-redacted/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Screening
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR