The Global Film Initiative Launches Global Lens Series On Link TV
Critically acclaimed world cinema series to broadcast on Peabody Award-winning network
San Francisco, CA – November 5, 2008 - The Global Film Initiative announced today the launch of its acclaimed Global Lens film series on television network Link TV. The broadcast series will feature 12 award-winning feature-length selections from the annual Global Lens touring film series, and will premiere during primetime hours on November 6, 2008. Program information is available online at www.linktv.org/globallens.
“Global Lens on Link TV is an important expansion of our series,” says Santhosh Daniel, Director of Programs at the Global Film Initiative. “In joining forces with Link, the series will now reach 30 million homes and add to the network’s outstanding cultural programming, of which we are excited to be a part.”
The Global Lens film series was launched in 2003 to support the distribution of unique and critically acclaimed cinematic works from around the world. Films in the series are selected for their distinct cultural perspectives and strong storytelling, and can be seen in more than 35 non-theatrical and theatrical locations across United States and Canada. Global Lens on Link TV will be the first television broadcast of the series, and will complement Link’s innovative lineup of news, arts, culture and world cinema programming.
“Over the last two years Link TV has become one of the most important outlets in American television for world cinema,” says Steven Lawrence, Link’s Vice President of Music and Cultural Programming. “The Global Lens series is an interesting and rich addition to our regular slate of world-class, award-winning international cinema. Now more than ever, Link is a prime resource for viewers who love foreign films and are looking for recent gems of world cinema.”
Complete series details, including an exclusive 25% discount on the purchase of Global Lens films is available to viewers at www.linktv.org/globallens, and educational resources for select films are available for download through www.globalfilm.org.
Series airdates and times:
Thursdays at 8:06 p.m. PT / 11:06 p.m. ET
Saturdays at 3:00 p.m. PT / 6:00 p.m. ET
Global Lens films airing on Link TV:
-BUNNY CHOW (John Barker, South Africa, Global Lens 2008)
Three up-and-coming comedians head out on a road trip, abandoning rules, reason and girlfriends to find music and the meaning of life in the “new” South Africa.
- DAM STREET (Li Yu, China, Global Lens 2007)
A young woman’s indiscretion and subsequent ostracism causes tremendous suffering for herself and her family in a small, riverside town in China.
-DAUGHTER OF KELTOUM (Mehdi Charef, Algeria, Global Lens 2005)
After being raised in urban Switzerland, a young woman returns to a remote part of Algeria where she must confront her past and culture.
-THE FISH FALL IN LOVE (Ali Raffi, Iran, Global Lens 2008)
A group of resourceful women use food to convince a stubborn businessman to allow them to continue operating a restaurant in a building he owns.
-KEPT & DREAMLESS (Vera Fogwill and Martín Desalvo, Argentina, Global Lens 2008)
Set during Argentina’s economic crisis of the nineties, a drug-addicted mother struggles to keep her life afloat with the aid of her fiercely affectionate nine year-old daughter.
-KILOMETRE ZERO (Hiner Saleem, Iraqi Kurdistan, Global Lens 2007)
A Kurdish soldier, under orders to return the body of a dead soldier to his family, must contend with an Iraqi taxi driver driving them cross-country.
- THE KITE (Randa Chahal Sabbag, Lebanon, Global Lens 2008)
On the eve of her marriage, a Lebanese girl realizes she is in love with the Israeli solider guarding the border checkpoint that separates her from her fiancé.
- LUXURY CAR (Wang Chao, China, Global Lens 2008)
A man travels to the city to visit his daughter-a karaoke bar escort-hoping to fulfill his wife’s last wish of finding their missing son.
- MAX AND MONA (Teddy Mattera, South Africa, Global Lens 2006)
A young man travels to Johannesburg to study to be a doctor and, through a series of mishaps, lands at the doorstep of his notorious uncle, with a sacred goat and nowhere to sleep.
- NADA + (Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti, Cuba, Global Lens 2003/2004)
A postal worker dreams of joining her parents in Miami even as she enlivens her own drab existence by opening and rewriting the very letters she is responsible for processing.
- RACHIDA (Yamina Bachir-Chouikh, Algeria, Global Lens 2003/2004)
A vivacious Algerian schoolteacher refuses to buckle under to intimidation, despite her anguish at living under the constant threat of terror coming from unexpected places.
- WHISKY (Juan Pablo Rebella & Pablo Stoll, Uruguay, Global Lens 2005)
A Montevideo sock factory owner and his employee, who have barely communicated over years of working together, are suddenly forced to pose as a long-married couple.
About The Global Film Initiative
The Global Film Initiative is a U.S.-based, 501(c)3 organization specializing in the acquisition, distribution and support of independent film from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Founded in 2002 with the mission of promoting cross-cultural understanding through the universal language of cinema, each year the Initiative awards numerous grants to deserving filmmakers from around the world, and supports a touring film series entitled Global Lens. For more information about the Global Lens film series and Global Film Initiative programs, please visit:
http://www.globalfilm.org.
About Link TV
Link TV provides Americans with a colorful window to a changing, multicultural world. Link TV aggregates the best content from around the world and provides Americans with diverse global perspectives on news, current events and world culture not readily available in the U.S. media.
In addition to Peabody-winning original news programming, Link TV broadcasts award-winning films and documentaries from around the world. These global films explore the tragedy and comedy of the human condition and celebrate the triumph
of human ingenuity and our cultural diversity and idiosyncrasies. Most of Link’s films are being broadcast to American audiences for the first time.
Link TV is a nationwide television network and multimedia website. The channel is available in more than 30 million U.S. homes as basic service on DIRECTV channel 375 and DISH Network channel 9410. Select programs are shown on cable systems in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Link TV’s original programs, music videos, documentary clips and artist interviews are streamed on the Internet at LinkTV.org.
THE ARAB FILM FESTIVAL PRESENTS:
The Environs of Seeing: new documentary video from Lebanon, Syria, and the UK, curated by Peter Limbrick. Co-presented with Kino21 (http://www.kino21.org)
The work in these programs is marked by an interest in place, perception, and the relationship between them-the environs of seeing. The videos in the first program, all made around Beirut, reflect on the sensed experience of war, everyday life, and the videomaker’s role in documenting it; those in the second program show how place mediates artistic expression and even identity itself.
YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS, SAN FRANCISCO, TUES OCTOBER 28
Introduced by Peter Limbrick
6:30 pm
Program 1: In the Real of the Senses – Videos from Lebanon
Nights and Days, Lamia Joreige (Lebanon, 2008, 17min)
Posthumous, dir. Ghassan Salhab (Lebanon, 2007, 28min)
Merely a Smell, Maher Abi Samra (Lebanon, 2007, 11min)
Roundabout Chatila, Maher Abi Samra (Lebanon, 2005, 50min)
(Total Running Time 106 min)
9 pm
Program 2: Immediacy of Place – Videos from Lebanon, Syria, and the UK
Against the Light, dir. Koutaiba al Janabi (UK/Czech Republic, 2007, 15min)
Waiting for the Day, dir. Meyar al Roumi (France/Syria, 2003, 50min)
Refugees for Life, dir. Hady Zaccak (Lebanon, 2008, 48min)
(Total Running Time: 113)
PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE, BERKELEY, TUES NOV 4, 7.30pm (part of the Alternative Visions series).
Introduced by Peter Limbrick
In the Real of the Senses – Videos from Lebanon (see title listing above)
