Director, composer and actor appeared at event in Clarksdale attended by hundreds after community petition
Hundreds of people packed inside a local auditorium on Thursday to see the hit film Sinners, set in their community and steeped in Mississippi Delta culture.
The special screening of the blockbuster horror film included an appearance by director Ryan Coogler and was made possible by a community petition.
Continue reading...Kenyan writer’s death announced by his daughter, who wrote: ‘He lived a full life, fought a good fight’
The Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, who was censored, imprisoned and forced into exile by the dictator Daniel arap Moi, a perennial contender for the Nobel prize for literature and one of few writers working in an indigenous African language, has died aged 87.
“It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of our dad, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, this Wednesday morning,” wrote his daughter Wanjiku wa Ngũgĩ on Facebook. “He lived a full life, fought a good fight.”
Continue reading...Caleb Followill says shattered heel needed ‘significant emergency surgery’, which would stop him performing
The Kings of Leon frontman, Caleb Followill, has announced that the band have cancelled their UK and European shows this summer after he injured his foot in a “freak accident”.
The singer, who is part of the US rock group with his brothers Nathan and Jared Followill and cousin Matthew Followill, was scheduled to perform at Blackweir Fields, Cardiff and Lancashire’s Lytham festival over the next two months.
Continue reading...Letter also signed by Hanif Kureishi and Russell T Davies urges ceasefire and unrestricted distribution of aid
Three hundred and eighty writers and organisations including Zadie Smith, Ian McEwan, Russell T Davies, Hanif Kureishi, Frank Cottrell-Boyce and George Monbiot have signed a letter stating that the Israeli government’s war in Gaza is genocidal and calling for an immediate ceasefire.
“The use of the words ‘genocide’ or ‘acts of genocide’ to describe what is happening in Gaza is no longer debated by international legal experts or human rights organizations,” reads the letter, which was also signed by William Dalrymple, Jeanette Winterson, Brian Eno, Kate Mosse, Irvine Welsh and Elif Shafak.
Continue reading...Chronicle of the Years of Fire took the prize in 1975 for its portrayal of the Algerian war of independence, drawing on his own traumatic history
Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina, the first Arab and African director to win the coveted Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival, has died aged 91, his family said Friday.
The film-maker was awarded the prize in 1975 for Chronicle of the Years of Fire, a historical drama about the Algerian war of independence.
Continue reading...South African actor gained international recognition for his role in the drama which won best foreign language film
Presley Chweneyagae, the South African actor who gained international recognition for his leading role in the 2005 film Tsotsi, which won South Africa’s first ever Oscar for best foreign language film, has died. He was 40 years old.
His talent agency MLA on Tuesday confirmed Chweneyagae’s death and said South Africa had lost one of its “most gifted and beloved actors”.
Continue reading...Just $1.75m spent on genre across free-to-air networks as advocates warn of ‘broader erosion’ of cultural investment
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Australian commercial television networks have all but given up on creating local children’s drama, advocates say, with just $1.75m spent on the genre across all commercial free-to-air networks in 2023-24.
But that’s $1.75m more than the previous year, according to the latest report card by the communications regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma).
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Continue reading...The director of It Was Just an Accident was cheered by supporters as he arrived back in his home country, where his work has previously landed him in jail
Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi was given a hero’s welcome on his return to Tehran on Monday after winning the top prize at the Cannes film festival, footage posted on social media showed.
After being banned from leaving Iran for years, forced to make films underground and enduring spells in prison, Panahi attended the film festival in person and sensationally walked away with the Palme d’Or for his latest movie It Was Just an Accident.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Born With Teeth by Liz Duffy Adams, coming to West End, imagines rival dramatists working together
A Guardian report on William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe being literary rivals and collaborators has inspired a play that will be staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in London’s West End this summer.
The RSC’s co-artistic director Daniel Evans will direct Born With Teeth by Liz Duffy Adams, an Irish-American playwright, who has imagined two of the greatest dramatists of all time working together, wrestling creatively, both envious and admiring of each other.
Continue reading...The German-French documentarian, who fled the Nazis twice as a child, spent his career exploring wartime atrocities and conflicts around the world
Marcel Ophuls, the Oscar-winning French film-maker whose documentary The Sorrow and the Pity uncovered the truth of the Vichy government’s collaboration with Nazi Germany during the second world war, has died aged 97.
Ophuls “died peacefully” on Saturday, his grandson Andreas-Benjamin Seyfert confirmed on Monday.
Continue reading...Differing interpretations of public access rights are at heart of Brockwell case pitting campaign group against festival fans
Public parks have been a cherished part of British life since the 19th century; for the Victorians they represented a “commitment to cultivate public good within the public realm”.
But differing interpretations of this vision for municipal green space are at the heart of a debate over a very 21st-century issue: music festivals.
Continue reading...The drop in productions is causing alarm – can Tinseltown halt the exodus and reclaim its spot as the home of movie-making?
When Adam Scott was working on the hit TV show Parks and Recreation in the early 2010s, the Los Angeles studio where the show was filmed was packed – “every stage was filled and working”.
These days, he told his former co-star Rob Lowe in a much-discussed recent podcast conversation, “it’s quiet over there” – in part because “it’s just too expensive to shoot here”.
Continue reading...Brazilian photographer’s work highlighted injustice and introduced rainforest to the world
The Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, who is best known for his dramatic black-and-white photographs that highlighted injustice and introduced the Amazon rainforest the world, has died. He was 81.
His death was confirmed by the Instituto Terra, the environmental restoration non-profit he founded with his wife of six decades, Lélia Wanick Salgado. In a post on Instagram, the institute described Salgado as “much more than one of the greatest photographers of our time”.
Continue reading...Post on the pair’s Instagram page says ‘Eva returned to the future today’, having died at their home in Berlin after surgery on her spine
Eva, one half of the pioneering German performance art duo Eva & Adele, has died, her partner has announced.
“Eva returned to the future today,” a post on the pair’s Instagram page said on Wednesday. “She has left this world and stepped on to the eternal stage. Her faith in the power of art was never-ending.”
Continue reading...Director says his fifth movie with the actor will probably be their last project together as Washington ‘has been talking about retirement’
The collaboration between Spike Lee and Denzel Washington has spanned four decades and tackled many aspects of African American life. But Lee feels their latest venture, the kidnap drama Highest 2 Lowest, will probably be the duo’s swansong.
“This is the fifth one we’ve done together,” Lee said after the picture’s premiere at the Cannes film festival. “It has been a blessing, this body of work between us, doing films that people love. And I think this is it. He’s been talking about retirement. But five films together: that’s good, they stand up.”
Continue reading...Festival attendee was hospitalised by a falling tree on the celebrated Croisette boulevard
The producers of a Japanese film which screened at the Cannes film festival have called for an investigation and safety review after one of their team was struck and badly injured by a falling palm tree on the famous Croisette boulevard.
The incident occurred on Saturday as the team behind Brand New Landscape, which was selected for the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar, were walking along Cannes’ celebrated seafront road when a three-metre tree fell on to the pavement. Local authorities said a man in his 30s was injured.
Continue reading...Comments at Cannes come after US president’s social media posts against Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift
Pedro Pascal has sharply criticised Donald Trump’s attacks against artists, as the director of a conspiracy theory satire starring the actor said he feared the political messages of films could be weaponised by US border guards.
“Fuck the people that try to make you scared,” the Game of Thrones and The Last of Us actor said at a press conference at the Cannes film festival, promoting Ari Aster’s new film Eddington. “And fight back. And don’t let them win.”
Continue reading...Rebekah Shaman, of Protect Brockwell Park, took action against Lambeth council over number of large-scale events
A campaigner who argued that music festivals held in a south London park unfairly cut off large sections of the space and made it a “mud bath” has won a court case that could result in events being banned there this summer.
The Protect Brockwell Park (PBP) group, which includes the actor Mark Rylance, complained about walls being erected in the park, and noise and environmental damage, leading to a tense debate about the use of public space, nimbyism and the importance of summer cultural events.
Continue reading...Over the course of an illustrious career, Strouse composed music for Broadway shows such as Bye Bye Birdie and Applause but was best known for Annie’s evergreen songs
The composer Charles Strouse, a three-time Tony award-winner whose hits included Annie, has died at the age of 96. His death at home in New York on Thursday was announced by his four children.
Over the course of a long and illustrious career, Strouse composed music for the Broadway shows Bye Bye Birdie, Golden Boy, Applause, Rags and Nick & Nora. But he was perhaps best known for his score for Annie which opened in New York in 1977 and ran for almost six years. The story of the plucky red-headed orphan featured evergreen songs (with lyrics by Martin Charnin) including Tomorrow, You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile and It’s the Hard-Knock Life, which was sampled by Jay-Z in a 1998 single. Annie received seven Tony awards, including best musical and best original score, and won the Grammy for best cast show album. It was adapted as a film in 1982.
Continue reading...Ex-girlfriend details sexual and physical abuse as defense zeroes in on text messages about so-called ‘freak-offs’
Singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, a former girlfriend of Sean “Diddy” Combs and a key witness in the federal sex-trafficking and racketeering trial of the music mogul, is returning to the stand on Friday for further examination by Combs’s legal team.
Ventura, who is eight and a half months pregnant, has been on the stand since Tuesday afternoon, and has detailed years of sexual and physical abuse she alleges she endured during their decade-long relationship.
In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women’s Aid. In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org.
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