New Orleans Middle East Film Festival now accepts submissions
The 2010 New Orleans Middle East Film Festival is presented by Zeitgeist Multi-disciplinary Arts Center in New Orleans, and is currently accepting submissions.
Formats: all work in the festival is screened on DVCAM, Mini-dv, BLU-RAY, DVD, VHS, or 16mm. Multi-media installations and/ or performances are also welcome. Please send screeners along with all pertinent information before September 30, 2010. Arab, Persian or Middle Eastern musicians interested in performing during the festival are also welcome.
PRESS:
In any writing or screenwriting class you quickly learn that the most important element to any good story is conflict. In the Middle East, conflict is a more abundant natural resource than even oil. Presented by Zeitgeist Multi-disciplinary Arts Center and curated by Rene Broussard, this annual festival of films founded in 2007, explores the extremely rich and complex history, politics and culture of this volatile region.
Why the New Orleans Middle East Film Festival? Founded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, a city of refugees inside the United States, it soon became quite obvious the many parallels to our situation and the many conflicts of the Middle East. Issues such as class, racism, Human Rights, social justice, land grabs, Right of Return, environmental issues, etc. So with literally no money, partly as a diversion from our own problems and largely out of solidarity, the festival was born as a completely grassroots effort that continues to grow every year.
The 2009 festival featured 72 Acclaimed and Award-winning new films from or about Afghanistan, Anatolia, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Qatar, Syria, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates shown over eleven nights with food, music, visual art and visiting filmmakers. To see the schedules from our previous three festivals please go to http://nolamideastfilmfest.blogspot.com/.
This year's festival will coincide with the opening of the second INTERNATIONAL MUSLIM ARTISTS EXHIBITION 2010 in our gallery, being curated by Egyptian artist, Haithem Eid and will for the second year feature collaborative screenings with the Gaza International Documentary Film Festival.
The Festival is a grassroots effort and is currently looking for a Middle Eastern artist to help design posters and trailers, and also volunteers to help translate the festival schedule into Arabic and Farsi and to help promote the festival to the local Arab and Persian American communities and for Q & A’s with visiting filmmakers during the festival. To sponsor the festival or a film you can purchase advanced Festival passes, and make donations. Sponsors get free festival passes, their logo and/or name on all festival printed literature and merchandise, reserved VIP seating, ability to table or sell merchandise during the festival and acknowledgment on the festival trailer, website and t-shirt.
For more info visit the festival site, call (504) 352-1150, or email: rene@zeitgeistinc.net
