Documentary film from Dubai filmmaker Olga Sapozhnikova promotes understanding of East and West through the stories of four extraordinary women, told in their own words, who have flourished in traditionally male dominated Arab culture.

For anyone seeking genuine, first-hand insight into the role of women in today’s Arab society, and what Arabic women can truly accomplish within Arabic society, “Hidden Beauty” is a powerful, must-see film.

The film begins by portraying the outward beauty of Arab women, but then transcends their physical beauty and enters the very soul of today’s Arabic women.

In only twenty-six minutes, filmmaker Olga Sapozhnikova profiles the lives of four beautiful, strong, resilient women who have proven themselves on their own terms within the traditionally male dominated Arab society. Shot in Dubai, the film reveals the lives of Sapozhnikova’s “heroes.” The first three women profiled are Arab women who have created impressive lives for themselves.

The first heroine is Jamilya, who is the only woman in UAE who works with four hundred men in an ambulance service, and who has saved many people from fires, accidents and collapsed buildings. Her story was so inspiring, that the ruler of Dubai, His Royal Highness Sheikh Mohammed Maktoum, came to her home to personally express his gratitude for her service to the country. Being the single mother of five children, she shares her opinions on the beauty of women, especially Arabian women.

The second is Rym, an accomplished journalist who has traveled the world, and dreams of someday sharing herexperiences with her children.

Next is Ahlam, from Saudi Arabia, who is now a successful investor who left Saudi Arabia with her three children; the youngest one was only two months old and was mentally challenged. She had very little money except for a small amount given to her by her parents for breakfast. She started her life from zero, but she was determined to help her daughter and she wanted to become a strong and independent woman. She fulfilled her dream and starting out as a secretary, she became a multi-millionaire. All the while, she felt that she missed the East, and so she came back from the West and shares her opinion of what is beauty to her after experiencing so many things in her life.

The fourth woman profiled is Joanna. Her story begins with her reasons for her decision to leave her native Finland, and move to the Gulf to find an Arabic man to marry, adopting and embracing Arabic culture in the process.

Many Arab women are hesitant to discuss personal issues with anyone, much less a documentary filmmaker, but Sapozhnikova earned each woman’s trust, and helped them to open up and share their true, inner feelings. In the West, women have re-examined and questioned the role that marriage plays in their lives. But in traditional Arab culture, it is still most important for a woman to be married and have children. One of Sapozhnikova’s “heroes” has five children, yet she is recognized as one of the most respected people in the country in her field. Sapozhnikova notes “Being a mother does not stop her from being successful. On the contrary, she receives extraordinary career and personal support from her children.”

Hailing from Russia, Olga Sapozhnikova served as a Russian diplomat in Japan. After a six year stint with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Russia, she developed an interest in filmmaking.

Her first film “Harem” was about famous UAE women and has been telecast on Russian television.

Sapozhnicova is intrigued by the roles of both men and women in contemporary Arab culture. “It is a privilege to be a woman in a society where the man assumes the responsibility of protecting the woman. So no matter how successful she becomes, she still knows she can fall back on someone.”

“Hidden Beauty” is a story she was compelled to tell. “My movie is an inspiration to those who feel they lack opportunities. My film will show them that anything is possible.”

Montreal-based Island Filmworks announces premiere of “American Savannah” documentary on Canada’s CBC: The Nature of Things.

Island Filmworks announces its film “American Savannah” will have its North American TV debut (in English), opening the season for CBC: The Nature of Things documentary strand, it was announced by Ian Boyd, President of Island Filmworks in Montreal.

“American Savannah”, takes a playful and witty look at the mystique of the coveted green lawn, cutting a wide and irreverent swath across urban and suburban landscapes, all manner of public places from baseball stadiums to golf courses, even deep into the Nevada desert, unearthing wherever it may lay, a passion for all things ‘turf’.

“The story began when coming home late one very rainy evening, the film’s director noticed how many lawns in his neighborhood had sprinkler systems triggered on autopilot despite the obvious downpour. What followed is a fascinating and well researched journey into not just a sub-culture, but a huge industry, which all fashionably call themselves green” said the film’s executive producer Ian Boyd.

“It seems environmental issues are in vogue right now, having been opened up quite a bit with Al Gore’s film, and more recently the success of “Earth” in North America which had the largest box office opening day for a documentary last month. “American Savannah” is attracting a lot of interest for foreign markets for us right now ” said Dan Shannon of ID Communications, the films international sales rep.

“American Savannah” will release a special edition DVD in the fall of 09.

This year’s Hollywood Black Film Festival (HBFF) will screen InsideOut, a documentary produced by The Mattie C. Stewart Foundation. InsideOut is currently being used in the nation’s classrooms to combat the high school dropout rate. The film is scheduled for screening at the Festival on June 6 in Beverly Hills, California.

InsideOut is a 26-minute documentary where prison inmates promote education as a way for youth to avoid a life behind bars. In the film, Mattie C. Stewart Foundation founder Dr. Shelley Stewart interviews prison inmates who hope to give others the chance they no longer have – to avoid the pitfalls of dropping out of school and not getting an education. All of the inmates in the film are either serving life sentences or life without parole.

“We never specifically set out to make InsideOut into an artistic work, so to speak. We meant for the movie to keep kids in school and out of jail, period,” Stewart said. “But if it’s true that the arts inspire us to greater heights, no matter what level we are in life, then let it be called the truest form of art. We are just amazed at the lives that are being changed as a result of this documentary in our nation’s schools, along with the other teaching tools that come with our program,” Stewart said. The documentary comes complete with a teacher’s guide and other materials that help bring the film’s lessons home to students. The InsideOut program is currently being used in schools in 39 states across the country.

The HBFF is in its tenth year. Often referred to as the Black Sundance, it draws together established filmmakers, industry leaders and Hollywood’s finest to celebrate achievements made by blacks in film. Its mission is to enhance the careers of emerging and established black filmmakers through a public exhibition and competition program. The festival’s goal is to play an integral role in discovering and launching independent films and filmmakers by bringing them to the attention of the industry, media and public.

Past festival features in the invitational program have included director John Singleton’s 2 Fast 2 Furious; The Hurricane starring Academy Award(R) winner Denzel Washington; director Kasi Lemmons’ The Caveman’s Valentine starring Samuel L. Jackson; Monster’s Ball starring Academy Award(R) winner Halle Berry; the Jam Master Jay documentary 2 Turntables and a Microphone; and director Reggie Rock Bythewood’s Dancing in September.

The Mattie C. Stewart Foundation is a national non-profit organization dedicated to reducing the dropout rate. The Foundation was established in honor of Dr. Shelley Stewart’s late mother, Mattie C. Stewart, in the summer of 2007 and is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. Its primary corporate partner is o2ideas, Inc., a corporate communications and brand relations firm also based in Birmingham. The mission of the Foundation is to create tools and resources to help educators, community leaders and parents effectively address the dropout rate and increase the graduation rate. The Foundation also partners with America’s Promise Alliance, the National Dropout Prevention Center and Communities In Schools.

In April 2004, at the height of the insurgency in Iraq, five female soldiers unwittingly found themselves fighting alongside Marines in the battle for Ramadi and Fallujah.

Their story is told in a documentary film bearing their unit name, “Team Lioness,” which has been shown in private and public screenings throughout the United States and Europe in the past year. The Center for Women Veterans hosted the film at the Department of Veterans Affairs headquarters here yesterday.

“These stories are important to us at VA, because women veterans are coming to VA in great numbers, and we need to make sure we understand their experiences,” Betty Moseley Brown, associate director of the VA’s Center for Women Veterans, said as she introduced the film to an audience of about 50 viewers. “They became the first female soldiers in U.S. history to be sent into direct ground combat.”

Since the American Civil War, women have played important roles in the U.S. armed forces during war time — as nurses, journalists, pilots, engineers, logisticians and much more. But what they’re not, still, is infantry, armor or artillery — combat-arms specialties.

Still, many female servicemembers have been wounded and killed as a result of enemy fire. But it wasn’t until the start of the Iraq war in 2003 that women began finding themselves engaged in direct fighting.

Team Lioness pioneered women in direct fighting, although somewhat unintentionally. The women were intended to augment combat-arms platoons to search Iraqi women for money, weapons and drugs smuggling at checkpoints and on patrols. But eventually, their new roles in the ranks of combatant units led to ground combat alongside infantrymen, cavalrymen and artillerymen on the frontlines.

The film opens in a wilderness setting with b-roll of trees and damp leaves lining a still-flowing creek. The only sounds for several seconds are crickets chirping in the background. The tranquil silence of Mena, Ark., is suddenly broken by the boom of several shotgun rounds fired at a turtle in the creek.

The documentary’s introduction of Shannon Morgan, a former Army mechanic and Lioness, shows her innocence as a country girl, but with an obviously troubled past. Much of the film follows her around her family’s farm as she hunts squirrels with her shotgun and shares emotional testimonies of her time in Iraq.

“I don’t watch the news. I don’t read newspapers,” Morgan says in the film. “But the memories of war never go away.”

Morgan and the other Lionesses said they never expected to have to fire their weapon. But they quickly found themselves performing combat patrols, raids and house-to-house searches with the Marines in what was considered the most dangerous region of Iraq during what was arguably the most dangerous period of the entire campaign.

The Lionesses talk about their first enemy encounters and the stress of seeing dead bodies for the first time, while fighting to stay alive. Morgan recalled battling with the darkest side of war just before shooting an insurgent in a firefight.

“It’s something you learn to deal with,” Morgan said. “I don’t regret what I did, but I wish it had never happened.”

The soldiers also talk about the difficulties of learning the tactics and vocabulary of the Marines they worked with. The transition from their Army ways, plus the frequency of enemy engagements, didn’t allow for much of a learning curve to make up for their lack of knowledge of various weapons systems, Army Capt. Anastasia Breslow, a signal corps officer and former Lioness, said in the film.

“If everyone [in the platoon] had been hurt, I would have had no idea how to get back to the forward operating base,” Breslow said. “I didn’t know how to use the biggest casualty-producing weapon we had. I felt we needed to know more.”

Although the film takes place primarily on the home front with Lioness and family interviews, it brings to light the realities today’s generation of military women, and all combat support troops, face in Iraq and Afghanistan. The line that separates the front from the rear is blurred by the urban and guerilla warfare troops encounter fighting terrorism within the Middle East.

The nature of modern warfare — fighting counterinsurgencies in random locations, as opposed to nation states on prescribed battlefields — has made it difficult to define what constitutes a combat-arms military specialty and what doesn’t.

Military women today still cannot legally serve in combat-arms positions, but they serve competently and are trained in a variety of roles and capacities in Iraq and Afghanistan because of the lessons learned from the original Team Lioness. Their experiences prompted training for women that was never done before. They learn infantry tactics, qualify on more weapons, and are better prepared for the chance they may have to engage the enemy.

“As a result of their experiences, now each military service trains female servicemembers to be Lionesses, training that was not offered whenever this documentary was actually filmed,” Brown said, referring to the weapons and tactical training female military members now receive.

By Army Staff Sgt. Michael J. Carden
American Forces Press Service

DVD Studio releases “The Biblical Dinner,” a 60-minute video that transforms you back in time … IMAGINE yourself transported to a time before electricity, before upright seating or silverware — to a place illuminated by ancient oil lamps, warmed by the laughter of friends who are prepared to give their lives for your safety. Imagine yourself reclining at a table where each bite or sip taken holds both ancient relevance and soul-level significance.

Pastor Jay McCarl (Calvary Chapel on the Georgetown Divide, CA) hosts an intimate, thought-provoking meal with customs dating back to the time of Abraham, and relevance stretching far into eternity. Pastor Jay explores a variety of subjects including:

– The remarkable historical events surrounding the Last Supper

– Ancient table manners including Gifts of Hospitality

– The Spiritual ramifications of a single piece of bread

– The unexpected significance of the seating arrangements of the Last Supper

“I’ve been a Christian for over 20 years, a pastor for over 10 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this. Pastor Jay’s ‘Biblical Dinner’ was an incredibly wonderful experience. A definite must ….” –Pastor Todd Gold, Calvary Chapel of Auburn, California

“Attending ‘The Biblical Dinner’ opened my eyes to the cultural significance of many of the Scriptures I had only casually passed by. It was a night of true spiritual ground breaking!” –Pastor Rick Hardesy

The inaugural Politics on Film, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit, bipartisan film festival showcasing political and policy-oriented film, will take place May 7-10, 2009, organizers announced today.

Politics on Film is US’s first juried film festival with a mission to highlight political film broadly, providing a platform for filmmakers who focus on government, the electoral process, or pressing public policy issues, and establishing an entertaining and educational opportunity for the community. The festival will award prizes in four categories: feature film, documentary film, international film, and political advertising. Festival programming will include panel discussions relevant to film topics, special screenings and events, and will conclude with an awards program.

Politics on Film is a project of the Washington Political Film Foundation and is made possible by an alliance with the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), an organization promoting discourse that seeks to unite the constructive center in the pursuit of viable policy goals.

Politics on Film and the Washington Political Film Foundation were founded and are managed by Lee Johnson of the Congressional Media Group, Gayle Osterberg of 133 Public Affairs, and Philip Dufour of Dufour & Company Productions, with support from McDermott Will & Emery LLP and Paras Productions. More than 100 volunteers are lending professional expertise.

The festival’s Honorary Chair is Mrs. Mary Margaret Valenti. “The intersection between Washington and Hollywood has always been a fascinating one,” Mrs. Valenti said. “The movies tell our nation’s political stories so well, and frequently provide some of the best educational moments for the public. It is only natural that a festival celebrating these important films be held in the Nation’s Capital and I am delighted to be a part of it.”

The BPC is dedicated to finding bipartisan solutions to the country’s most difficult public policy challenges. Currently, the BPC conducts projects that focus on energy, health care, transportation, national security, homeland security, and science policy.

BPC Executive Vice President C.M. Cameron Lynch underscored the substantive focus of the festival, noting, “Movies are more than entertainment, in an increasingly interconnected world, films educate, advocate, expose and examine crucial public policy topics. The BPC is dedicated to helping to solve those problems from the right and the left, and the festival’s panel discussions with policy experts and filmmakers will provide a unique forum to further the political discourse in Washington.”

Politics on Film Chairman and CEO Lee Johnson said, “As the new Congress assembles here in Washington and a new President prepares to take the oath of office, Politics on Film has arrived at just the right time and at just the right place. We are joined in this effort by many friends and colleagues who are excited to participate in what everyone hopes and believes will become one of the great film festivals. We are particularly excited about working with the Bipartisan Policy Center to build an event that will provide a fascinating new opportunity for important political themes and issues to be explored.”

Politics on Film is open for submissions today, January 7, 2009, at www.politicsonfilm.com. The early deadline for entries is January 31, 2009 (postmarked) and the final deadline is March 13, 2009 (postmarked).

Juried Categories

* Feature Films: Feature-length films produced in the United States not yet released in theaters.
* Documentary Films: Documentary films produced in the United States not yet released in theaters.
* International Films: Feature or documentary films produced outside the United States and not yet released in U.S. theaters.
* Political Ads: Political advertisements to be considered in various categories with winners packaged in a short reel to be run prior to festival screenings.

The Department of State is announced that renowned filmmaker and documentarian Michael Apted has joined the Democracy Video Challenge as co-chair of its independent jury.

Mr. Apted is currently serving his third term as President of the Directors Guild of America, which protects and extends the creative, working and economic rights of its more than 14,000 members in the United States and abroad. A veteran feature and documentary film director, Apted has directed an extensive list of feature films and documentaries, including Amazing Grace, Gorillas in the Mist, Coalminer’s Daughter, and Nell.

As co-chair, Apted will oversee the independent jury’s selection of 21 video finalists representing all regions of the world. The online voting public then will choose a winner from each region in the spring of 2009. The six Challenge winners will receive an all-expense paid trip to Washington, DC, New York, and Hollywood to meet leaders from top U.S. film schools, government and nongovernmental organizations.

The Challenge involves a unique partnership that includes the State Department as well as the film/entertainment industry (Directors Guild of America, Motion Picture Association of America, NBC Universal), and academia (New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts), pro-democracy organizations (Center for International Private Enterprise, the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute), as well as youth NGOs (International Youth Foundation, TakingITGlobal). YouTube is providing the video platform and the William Morris Agency is contributing part of the prize package.