Arab, Mena, SWANA, visual artists

BANG? BLOG! As bombs bombard his hometown of Beirut, thus begins the online diary of Mazen Kerbaj, a Lebanese painter, jazz musician, and cartoonist. Throughout the summer of 2006, during the Israeli attack on Lebanon, Kerbaj published drawings, comics, and writing giving a first-hand account of someone creating during a time of intense everyday brutality. Drawn and written in English, French, and Arabic, Beirut Won't Cry shows us how an artist views...

"In the fourth volume of The Arab of the Future, little Riad has grown into a teenager. In the previous books, his childhood was complicated by the pull of his two cultures -- French and Syrian -- and his parents' deteriorating relationship. Now his father, Adbel-Razak, has left to take a job in Saudi Arabia, and after making a pilgrimage to Mecca, turns increasingly towards religion. But after following him from place to place and living for years...

Director Nabil Ayouch (Razzia, Horses of God) drew on his own experience opening a youth cultural center in Casablanca for this story of a former rapper named Anas who takes a job teaching hip hop in an underprivileged neighborhood. Despite differences in identity, religion, and politics, Anas encourages his students to bond together and break free from the weight of restrictive traditions in order to follow their passion and express themselves through...

A Beirut beauty salon becomes a treasured meeting place for several generations of women who meet there daily. The women come from various walks of life, to talk, seek advice and confide in one another. Each has their own quirks and problems that they must deal with.

"In striking, virtuoso graphic style that captures both the immediacy of childhood and the fervor of political idealism, Riad Sattouf recounts his nomadic childhood growing up in rural France, Gaddafi's Libya, and Assad's Syria--but always under the roof of his father, a Syrian Pan-Arabist who drags his family along in his pursuit of grandiose dreams for the Arab nation. Riad, delicate and wide-eyed, follows in the trail of his mismatched parents;...

The documentary explores and celebrates the great richness of Islamic art and architecture throughout the world by inviting viewers to peer into extraordinary palaces and mosques decorated with exquisite gardens, ceramics, and paintings, to watch the play of light and space, and to sense the sheen of delicate textiles, of gold and silver work, and of rock crystal and precious gems.

This documentary looks at the life and work of Iranian artist Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, who first garnered attention in the 1970's when she pioneered contemporary forms of geometric mirror works. Monir created an artistic language that was informed by traditional Iranian craft and architecture; formative years spent in New York in the 1940's and 50's and ongoing conversations with some of the 20th century's most experimental artists were also...