Film Archives - Page 13 of 13

Sheema Kalbasi

Sheema Kalbasi is an Iranian American poet, writer, filmmaker and activist for women’s rights, minorities’ rights, children’s rights, human rights and refugees’ rights. Her work discusses these topics as well as other women’s issues, war, refugees, Sharia Law and freedom of expression. In additon to her artistic work, Sheema taught refugee children and worked for the UNHCR and the Center for Refugees in Pakistan, and UNA Denmark. Her poems have been anthologized and translated into more than 20 languages.

Ann Hui

Ann Hui On-wah, BBS MBE is a Hong Kong film director, producer, screenwriter and actress and one of the Hong Kong New Wave’s most critically acclaimed filmmakers. She is best known for her films about Hong Kong social issues in Hong Kong, with films ranging from literary adaptation, martial arts masterpieces and thrillers to topics of semi-autobiographical works, female issues, social phenomena, and political changes. She served as president of the Hong Kong Film Director’s Guild from 2004 to 2006.
Hui has won many awards for her films, including three Golden Horse Awards (GHA) for Best Director (1999, 2011, 2014); Best Film at the Asia Pacific Film Festival; and Best Director at the Hong Kong Film Awards six times (1983, 1996, 2009, 2012, 2015, 2018).
Only two films have ever earned a Grand Slam (winning best picture, best director, best screenplay, best actor, and best actress) at the Hong Kong Film Awards: Summer Snow and A Simple Life, both of which were directed by Ann Hui. She was honored for her lifetime accomplishments at the 2012 Asian Film Awards, and in 2017, the US’s Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) invited Hui to become a member.

Googie Withers

Googie Withers was an English entertainer who was a dancer and actor whose career spanned nine decades in theatre, film, and television. She was particularly well-known as a star of British films during the World War II and postwar years.
She emigrated to Australia in the late 1950s, where she became best known in theatre, although she played prison governor Faye Boswell in the TV series Within These Walls in the 1970s and continued to feature in films.

Mina Shum

Mina Shum is the writer and director of award-winning feature films and several short films. In addition to using a comedic approach to depict the Chinese-Canadian family in multicultural Canada, she often features ironic, discontented young women who want to leave home for something better. She had also created site-specific installations and theatre experiences. Her first feature-length film, Double Happiness, was released in 1994 and won several awards including the Wolfgang Staudte Award at the Berlin International Film Festival, the Audience Award at the Torino International Festival of Young Cinema, and Best Canadian Feature Film at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Shum’s second feature film, Drive, She Said, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1997 and was in official competition at the Turin Delle Donne Film Festival. Her third feature film, Long Life, Happiness & Prosperity was screened as part of the Canadian Perspective Program at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival and at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival.
Her feature documentary Ninth Floor was about the Sir George Williams Affair student protest (the largest student occupation in Canadian history, which resulted in $2 million of property damage). Ninth Floor premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, and earned Shum the Women in Film+Television Artistic Merit Award at the 2015 Vancouver International Film Festival.

Safi Faye

Safi Faye is a Senegalese film director and ethnologist who has directed several documentary and fiction films focusing on rural life in Senegal. She was the first woman from sub-Saharan Africa to direct a commercially distributed feature film, Kaddu Beykat (1975).

Jiang Qing

Jiang Qing was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, actor, and major political figure during the country’s Cultural Revolution (1966 to 1976). In 1938, she became the fourth wife of Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Communist Party and Paramount leader of China, and served as the inaugural “First Lady” of the People’s Republic of China. She was best known for playing a major role in the Cultural Revolution and for forming the political alliance known as the “Gang of Four”. In addition to her work as first lady, Jiang worked as Director of Film in the Central Propaganda Department, and as a member of the Ministry of Culture steering committee for the film industry. She was also known for using her political power to attack her rivals and enemies, including those who had personally slighted her.
In the 1930s, Jiang Qing was active in both the Communist Party and as an actor. She was jailed for three months in 1934 for her political activities in Shanghai. Taking the stage name “”Lán Píng”” (“”Blue Apple””, 蓝苹), she appeared in many films and plays, including Goddess of Freedom, Scenes of City Life, Blood on Wolf Mountain, Wang Laowu and a starring role in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. In 1937, Jiang joined the Lianhua Film Company and starred in the drama Big Thunderstorm (大雷雨).
At the beginning of China’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in 1967, Jiang declared eight performance works to be the new models for proletarian literature and art, called “”model operas””, or “”revolutionary operas””. These designed to glorify Mao Zedong, The People’s Liberation Army, and the revolutionary struggles. Jiang also directed operas and ballets with communist and revolutionary content as part of an effort to transform China’s culture. She dominated the Chinese arts, and in particular attempted to reform the Beijing Opera. She developed a new form of art called the Eight model plays or “”revolutionary opera”” which showed the world in simple, binary terms (i.e “”good guys”” vs “”bad guys””).

Aida Begić

Aida Begić is a Bosnian film director and screenwriter. She completed a degree in Film and Theater Directing at the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo in 2000. Her graduation film “The First Death Experience” was screened at more than 20 international film festivals, including the 54th Cannes Film Festival, where it was part of the Cinéfondation’s Selection. Aida Begić is an assistant professor in directing at her alma mater in Sarajevo. In 2004, she and Elma Tataragic founded the production company MAMAFILM. Her 2017 film Never Leave Me (Turkish: Beni Bırakma) was selected as the Bosnian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards. Her 2012 film Children of Sarajevo (Bosnian: Djeca) competed in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Special Distinction award; it was also chosen as the Bosnian entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards,