Human Rights Watch, in cooperation with The Film Society of Lincoln Center, presented the 23rd edition of its film festival from June 14 – 18.  Headquartered in New York City the Human Rights Watch is a global non-governmental independent organization considered to be the leading force in   protecting human rights and identifying their violations. By shifting the focus of media and policy makers to violations and to the need for corrective actions HRW prepares the ground for effec...

  EYES WIDE OPEN (Israel)  After a mercilessly cold and snowy winter, spring has finally sprung in New York, with its explosion of flowers, smells and colors. Amidst the ruby reds, the dazzling yellows and the intoxicating shades of green, there is a distinct shade of lavender, as gay and lesbian films make their annual pilgrimage to the city and its environs in the run-up to the area's gay pride celebrations in June. First out of the starting gate is the Jacob Burns Film C...

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans (LGBT) PRIDE celebrations around the world serve as a time for communities to reflect upon past accomplishments, revel in present successes, and strategize for a prosperous future. In this spirit of progress that coincides with New York PRIDE, Engendered, a transnational arts and human rights organization focused on exploring gender, sexuality, ritual, and religion in South Asia, organizes the country’s first-ever South Asian Queer Leaders Summit on Thursday, ...

 For AFI online dailies By LANE KNEEDLER, AFI FEST Senior Programmer   "I liked the idea that I could use this as a medium for making a (sort of) narrative video, and at the same time it is a document of a very particular online culture. I mean here I am having "sex" and this guy is talking about how his computer is "lagging" -- I think that's hilarious but it's not like, as a society, we weren't having disconnected sex before Second Life." Valerie Brewer d...

There are very few words in our contemporary culture that are as charged as the word "jihad". It has been used as a kind of talisman for conjuring up the fears of Western society for the resurgence of political, economic and ideological influence of the Muslim world. Indian-born Muslim director Parvez Sharma uses the word in the title of his debut documentary film in its more literal Arabic meaning. Rather than simply being equated with "holy war", Sharma unfolds a story of its literal meaning.....

Why was Heath Ledger (Ennis) nominated for Brokeback Mountain for the Golden Globes, and not Jake Gyllenhaal (Jack)? The Hollywood Foreign Press managed to nominate all the Desparate Housewives! But not the desparate ones from Brokeback Mountain (Michelle Williams, Anne Hatheway), their roles not really fleshed out. If 'love is a force of nature', as the film poster states, why not equal awards to both actors? Could it be that it is assumed that it is harder to play someone coming to terms wi...

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN – MAKING A MOLEHILL OUT OF A MOUNTAIN The outraged attack by some people on Brokeback Mountain for being a ‘gay Western’ is based on blind ignorance, reducing a complex relationship mountain to a gay molehill. Not surprising, since most of the bigots haven’t even seen the film. Andrew L. Urban puts them straight (as it were).In Australia, famous Fred Nile, leader of the narrow minded, is agitating for some way of blocking screenings of Brokeback Mountain because he’s...