There are a few film directors whose appeal splits people right down the middle. Some hate the work and some are devoted groupies. However, if the response to a particular director bridges the entire spectrum, then it is all the proof needed that this talented film artist's sensibility cannot be ignored. For myself, always a sucker for the sweeping operatic gesture in film, I find myself to be a disciple of the British director Ken Russell. Russell did not think small in hi...

BEST OF BAGHDAD – THE RESURRECTION OF IRAQI CINEMAat the 26th CAMBRIDGE FILM FESTIVAL (6th–16th July 2006, Cambridge Arts Picturehouse)www.cambridgefilmfestival.org.ukIraqi Cinema has had a chequered history – from all-singing all-dancing melodramas of the 40s to lavish vanity projects funded by Saddam Hussein in the 80s to total extinction during the Gulf Wars. Now amidst the tensions of the occupation the resuscitation of Iraqi Cinema has gradually begun, heralding a new phase in the slo...

12th Oldenburg International Film Festival(September 7th to 11th 2005)will play a Retrospective on Ken Russell.A celebration of the works of Britain´s groundbreaking director.The 12th Oldenburg International Film Festival honours Ken Russell, one of the outstanding personalities of British independent cinema. Eight films by the cinematic provocateur and role-model to the lives of Peter Greenaway will be shown an the Festival. Ken Russell will attend the Festival as a guest of honour and his lat...

Copenhagen International Film Festival honored Nicolas Roeg as president of this year’s jury.The Festival runs August 18 (opening with Life is a miracle from Kusturica) to the 28th.The director, cinematographer, producer and screenwriter Nicolas Roeg was born in London on August 15th 1928. He began his filmmaking career in 1947, when at the age of 19 he got a job at Marylebone Studio serving tea for film crews and assisting in the dubbing of French films.He moved to MGM’s London studios, whe...