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Volume 34
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SEATTLE SPOTLIGHT ON THE MIDDLE EAST - Arab-Iranian Film Festival, Hans von Sponeck, Simon Shaheen, and Bread and Puppet in Seattle this month

SEATTLE SPOTLIGHT ON THE MIDDLE EAST - Arab-Iranian Film Festival, Hans von Sponeck, Simon Shaheen, and Bread and Puppet in Seattle this month
by E. Joyce Glasgow - SGN A&E Writer ARAB-IRANIAN FILM FESTIVAL A feast of films will be presented at the 2006 Seattle Arab-Iranian Film Festival to be held March 31 through April 6th with the opening night at the Cinerama Theater in Downtown Seattle and then continuing at the Broadway Performance Hall on Capitol Hill. Many people are excitedly awaiting the opening night when local filmmaker James Longley will present Iraq in Fragments. His documentary just won three awards in January at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, winning best director, best editing and best cinematography in the documentary category. John Sinno, producer of Longley's film and the festival, said he was pleased with the variety and quality of this year's films and events, including a beautiful Omar Sharif film from 1959 called Struggle on the Nile and a lecture titled "The Angry Arab Goes Hollywood." There are a number of U.S. and Seattle premieres. Iraq, Iran, Morocco, Canada, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Yemen, Algeria, and Somalia are all represented in the lineup with several dual collaborations with Mexico, Italy and the U.S. For more information about the Festival, visit www.saiff.com. SIMON SHAHEEN Simon Shaheen and his Near Eastern Music Ensemble will be performing on March 25th at Town Hall at 8 p.m. Simon Shaheen is a Palestinian virtuoso oud player, violinist and academic music scholar. He is known for his versatility of repertoire from very traditional Arabic music to Eastern influenced Jazz. This concert will also initiate the launch of the Arab-Iranian Film Festival. A pre-concert lecture with Dr. Philip Schyler and post concert reception is planned. For tickets, contact www.ticketweb.com. HANS VON SPONECK Former United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, Hans von Sponeck, will present a talk entitled "Iraq: The Fate of a People and Tomorrow's United Nations" on March 24th at 7 p.m. at the University Temple United Methodist Church at 1415 NE 43rd Street in the University District. This event is free with donations accepted. BREAD AND PUPPET THEATRE Bread and Puppet is currently traveling with Daughter Courage, about and in memory of Rachel Corrie. Corrie was the Olympia, Washington, activist who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Palestine in 2003 as she was acting as a human shield to protect a Palestinian family's home from being demolished by the U.S. made Caterpillar bulldozer. Daughter Courage is poignant and moving and utilizes simple props and masks to make its points. Small scenes interspersed with the actual words of Corrie to her parents portray the humble agrarian lives of Palestinian women, performing tasks of seed planting, clothes washing, eating at a table, tending to their animals and other daily domestic activities. With each activity two giant bare feet on pulleys representing Israel are lowered, crushing the women at their work. The masks are so beautifully made that the shadows from the stage lights make them look very alive and full of emotion. Bread and Puppet asked for about 40 local volunteers to be in the piece. These participants activated parts of puppets, acted as Palestinian refugees being forced to move away and performed three dances led by Peter Schuman. The final dance, with a giant figure of the motherland Palestine made whole again raised overhead, had the dancers waltzing in a dance of hope wearing tunics colorful and effective flower paintings on them. On Saturday, March 11th, as part of the Daughter Courage performance weekend at ConWorks, Craig and Cindy Corrie, Rachel's parents from Olympia, gave an update on their latest trip to Palestine where they are continuing their daughter's work for justice for the Palestinians through the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice. For more information, visit www.RachelsFoundation.org. In April, the Foundation will present "A Conference Cultivating a Just and Enduring Peace for the People of Palestine and Isreal" featuring internationally known speakers, including Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. After the performance, they served the traditional "bread" of Bread and Puppet with a strong garlic aoili and a local activist who had just returned from Israel talked and answered questions about what is going on right now in that region. The Bread and Puppet Theatre has been creating powerful political theatre since it was founded in 1963 by Peter Schuman on New York City's Lower East Side. During the Vietnam War, they staged block long processions involving hundreds of people. The Theatre moved to its permanent home on a farm in Vermont in 1974. It was great to see Bread and Puppet, I think I may have only seen them once since their beginnings and I am glad they came to Seattle. For further information about Bread and Puppet, visit www.breadandpuppet.org. For more information about ConWorks, visit www.conworks.org.