Entries from The WIP Contributors tagged with 'Culture'
Climate Refugees: The Human Toll of a Changing Planet
by Jessica Mosby - USA - The world’s weather is changing and millions of people will be displaced. This tragic reality is captured in the new documentary film, Climate Refugees. Without engaging in the divisive global warming debate, director and...
In Search of the American Dream: Interview with Radical Homemaker Shannon Hayes
by Sarah McGowan - USA - If you’re one of the millions of Americans affected by the credit crunch – unemployed, uninsured and unsure of your future, or working yourself to death just to live - Shannon Hayes’ book Radical...
Of Art, the Sacred and the Secular: India’s Debate over Painter M.F. Hussain
by Aditi Bhaduri - India - A debate gripping much of India’s urban middle class has been the controversy surrounding renowned painter M.F. Hussain. Considered India’s Picasso, he received the country’s second highest civilian award – the Padma Vibhushan. But...
India’s Bikini Ban: Blaming Women for Rape
by Neeta Lal - India - The alleged rape of a nine-year-old Russian girl in January by two Indian men in Goa has ricocheted far beyond India’s resort state. Famous for its sun, sand and surf, since the assault this...
Mine: The Pets That Hurricane Katrina Left Behind
by Jessica Mosby - USA - The most emotionally and politically-charged documentary of the year is about a surprisingly original subject: the domestic pets that were lost or left behind in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Mine artfully portrays the...
Dancing The Divide: Interview with Pakistani Peacemaker Sheema Kermani
by Aditi Bhaduri - India - With her large flashing eyes rimmed with kohl and flowing hair, she is the quintessential dancer. Despite her chain-smoking, she is the picture of health and surprisingly agile. But then again, she has been...
If There is Something to Desire:
Interview with Russian Poet Vera Pavlova
by Anna Clark - USA - Why is the word yes so brief? It should be the longest, the hardest, so that you could not decide in an instant to say it, so that upon reflection you could stop in...
2010 Sundance Film Festival: A Cinematic Rebellion
by Jessica Mosby - USA - Rebel was the theme of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. The message was everywhere: On screen before every film; on the front cover of the film schedule, which read “This Is Your Guide to...
India's Women Find Empowerment in Exotic Dance
by Mandy Van Deven - India - Anyone who has ever sat through the frequent and painstakingly choreographed musical numbers in a Bollywood film can tell you that dance is an integral part of Indian culture. From Bhangra in the...
Proceed and Be Bold: Director Laura Zinger and Subject Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. on Art, Life, and Independent Filmmaking
by Jessica Mosby - USA - Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. is living the dream. After discovering his love of letterpress, Kennedy left his comfortable corporate job and devoted his life to his art. Today the self-described “humble negro printer” lives...
Stripping Burlesque of Whiteness: Brown Girls Burlesque Take Center Stage
by Mandy Van Deven - India - Known for its bawdy sexual humor, over-the-top characters, and underlying social criticism, Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales set the stage for the satirical theatrics which came to be known as burlesque. During its...
Coming of Age in 1960s London: Interview with An Education's Director Lone Scherfig
by Jessica Mosby - USA - Post-war London is at its most enchanting in director Lone Scherfig’s new film, An Education. Nick Hornby’s clever screenplay, Scherfig’s apt direction and a talented star-studded cast that includes Emma Thompson, Alfred Molina, Peter...
Art Imitating Life: Berlin Through the Eyes of Käthe Kollwitz
by Brittany Shoot - Denmark - This year marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Celebrations for the historic occasion have been planned for months, and next week, Angela Merkel – Germany’s first and now second-term...
India’s Domestic Violence Campaign Asks Men to Be Part of the Solution
by Shreyasi Singh - India - Sometimes, just asking for a small cup of milk to brew your tea can bring domestic violence to a halt. Sounds too simple a solution? Well, it need not be as a recent public...
Ethiopia: The “Cradle of Civilization” Struggles for Survival
Photoessay by Tammy Law - Australia - One of the oldest countries in the world, Ethiopia is often referred to as “the cradle of civilization” – a country with a tumultuous past, present and future, and yet at the same...
Burma VJ: Reporting From a Closed Country
by Jessica Mosby - USA - Burma (also known as Myanmar) is a closed country, literally. Since the 1962 military coup, few outsiders have even entered the Southeast Asian country. News reports are scarce and often unreliable because the news...
From Denmark with Love:
An Interview with Filmmaker Janus Metz
by Brittany Shoot - Denmark - Migrant communities in Denmark are a subject fraught with debate. As South Asian women increasingly immigrate to Scandinavia, stricter laws have been enacted to discourage the practice of convenience marriages. Rumors about abuse in...
Between Denmark and Thailand:
Two Films Explore Romantic Barter
by Brittany Shoot - Denmark - For the past two years, the buzz has grown increasingly louder about emerging Danish documentary filmmaker Janus Metz. In his complementary, almost sequential films, Love on Delivery (From Thailand to Thy) and Ticket to...
She Is the Matador: Blood Sport, Sexism, and Steadfast Ambition
by Jessica Mosby - USA - Maripaz Vega, currently the world’s only professional female matador, emerges triumphant from yet another death-defying bullfight. Her jeweled matador jacket and pants are covered with as much blood as sparkle while the crowd’s enthusiastic...
This Way Up: A Meditation on Growing Old Along the Israeli/Palestinian Border
by Jessica Mosby - USA - Growing old in a nursing home is rarely an enviable fate. For the Palestinian Christian residents of the Catholic–run Our Lady of Sorrows nursing home, old age is particularly disheartening. Located in East Jerusalem,...
Heart of Stone: Two Generations Unite to Confront Gang Violence in Urban Newark
by Jessica Mosby - USA - During its midcentury glory days, Weequahic High School was a prestigious public school located in a predominantly Jewish enclave of Newark, New Jersey. Students were expected to excel post-graduation, as evidenced by noteworthy alumni,...
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg: Director Aviva Kempner Documents the Life of TV Pioneer Gertrude Berg
by Jessica Mosby - USA - Gertrude Berg is the most famous cultural icon you’ve most likely never heard of. The Jewish-American writer and actress played her most famous character, Molly Goldberg, for over 25 years on radio and later...
India Says "I Do!"...to Divorce
by Shreyasi Singh - India - Divorce seems to have acquired a new label – Made in India! Data shows the country, known to be tradition-bound, conservative, and family-centric, is in the throes of a divorce spiral, with the number...
Saving the Grain of Culture: Historic Rice Terraces In Danger
by Imelda V. Abaño Philippines • A native farmer atop the Ifugao Rice Terraces. Photograph by Imelda V. Abaño •For centuries, rice has sculpted the culture of Asia. In fact, more than 2,000 years ago in the Philippines, tribal farmers...
Defiant Cont Mhlanga’s Latest Play Banned But He Vows To Continue with Protest Theater
by Constance Manika - Zimbabwe - Hopefully, readers may remember the piece I wrote for The WIP in May 2007 about prominent Zimbabwean playwright Cont Mhlanga, and the premiere of his most recent and controversial play yet, “The Good President.”...
Art Against Forgetting: stumbling over Germany's sordid past
By Vera von Kreutzbruck Germany Ever since the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe was inaugurated in Berlin two years ago, it has become a major tourist attraction. The vast monument consists of a sprawling field of 2,700 stone...
Body Tattooing - a lost tradition
by Imelda V. Abaño Phillippines Body tattooing is one of the world's oldest art forms having been widely practiced for thousands of Lagya Aturba remembers her mother who bore intricate tattoos all over her body. years in many cultures. By...
Riveting New Play, The Good President, Boldly Satirizes a Government That Victimizes Its Own People
by Constance Manika - Zimbabwe - Zimbabwean theatre lovers have had something to talk about for the past two weeks. Cont Mhlanga's riveting new play, The Good President, premiered here in Harare, Zimbabwe, on April 12. This politically charged satire,...
Burlesque is Back
by Laramie Glen - USA - Miss Delirium Tremens traipses on-stage. Her skin is white, her hair black, her lips red. Covered only by two scarlet feather fans, she begins a coy dance to music that is dedicated to the...
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