Arab Blues (Un divan à Tunis) 2019 comedy, drama, French and Arabic, with English subtitles Directed by Manele Labidi Running time 1 hour 28 minutes In Arab Blues, nearly ten years have passed since the self-immolation of Mohamed Read more…
Determined to Stay by Jody Sokolower Interlink/Olive Branch Press 2021 ISBN 9781623718886 Part travelogue, part journalism, and part educational primer, Determined to Stay is Jody Sokolower’s contribution to the Palestinian right to self-determined existence. A social studies teacher based Read more…
Breaking Bread, Building Bridges (2020) Directed by Beth Elise Hawk Running time 1 hour 25 minutes “Food may not be the answer to world peace, but it’s a start.” —Anthony Bourdain Breaking Bread, Building Bridges tells the story Read more…
Jaime Scholnick, a Los Angeles-based artist and adjunct professor at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona is under pressure from university administration as a result of unfounded accusations of “anti-Semitism” by a former student. In November 2021, Read more…
This was first published by Project Censored Politics As Sound: The Washington, DC Hardcore Scene, 1978-1983 Shayna L. Maskell University of Illinois Press (October 2021) ISBN 978-0-252-08622-9 Premised on the idea that the development, experience, Read more…
Mischa Geracoulis interviews political historian Maria Armoudian about her newest book, Lawyers Beyond Borders, Advancing International Human Rights Through Local Laws and Courts. Read her review. Maria Armoudian is the author of three books, Reporting from the Danger Read more…
“The human rights cases in these pages are among the most unlikely ones slated for victory.” Dismantled in a manner more dictatorial than democratic by the purportedly morally superior pulpit of the United States presidency, Read more…
This Is Not A Movie: Robert Fisk and the Politics of Truth (2019), the work of Chinese-Canadian filmmaker, Yung Chang, is, overarchingly, a study of journalism’s position in today’s corporatized media, amid weaponized language and fake news, Read more…
Article appeared in The Markaz Review 15 June, 2021 Mischa Geracoulis By the end of this account, I’ll relay how wasta in the speculative “housing empire of finance” — to borrow a phrase from Unequal Read more…
The Markaz Review May 24, 2021 I was a French Muslim, Memories of an Algerian Freedom Fighter, by Mokhtar Mokhtefi Translated by Elaine Mokhtefi Other Press (Sept. 2021) ISBN 9781635421811) From 1830, Algeria was France’s Read more…
The author’s grandfather Levon, circa 1965. TMR WeeklyColumn Armenian Eyes Mischa Geracoulis Though it had been on my reading list for years, I’d held off entering into Aram Saroyan’s Last Rites: The Death of William Read more…
by Mischa Geracoulis Apr 21, 2021 Sometimes, artistic testimony gives greater pause for reflection than in-your-face dramatics. Case in point: The Man Behind the White Guitar. The new documentary on the life of Brazilian-born and longtime Read more…
From Zahra to Yasmin, from the Islamic Revolution to the Green Movement and the Arab awakenings, Spring is inextinguishable Just as Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow on Groundhog Day 2021, and predicted another six weeks Read more…
Despite broad consensus that previously long-held beliefs about race that emerged from social, economic and political agendas rather than anthropological, historical or biological facts, and despite forward strides made in the American civil rights and Read more…
IT WAS LATE APRIL in the Capital, a time of blossoming cherries, daffodils, and other imported botanical cheer. The annual White House Easter egg hunt had recently passed — as, incidentally, had the 1996 Illegal Read more…
Mary Mazzio, attorney-turned-humanitarian documentarian, impassioned founder of 50 Eggs Films, and producer of such films as Underwater Dreams, The Apple Pushers, and Contrarian, spotlights another human rights issue — child sex trafficking — in her Read more…
San Francisco’s Temenos Catholic Worker house, the ministry founded by the Rev. River Sims, takes the Worker mission to the city’s front lines. Sims was ordained a priest in the Evangelical Anglican Church in America Read more…
The Latin adage Ex oriente lux, ex occidente lex (“from the East, light, from the West, law”) expresses a yin-yang-like balance, signifying that both Orient and Occident are needed for harmony to exist. Imbalances between Read more…
Greece is a microcosm of the world, complete with money problems and refugees. The EU should be doing more to aid those rendered most vulnerable by the crisis. Being of Armenian descent, I was born Read more…
Though diabetes is exploding worldwide, the tribes of the American Southwest take the lead. The ravages of diabetes in the U.S. Native American population are harder hitting than in any other ethnic group in the Read more…
We live on a rhythmic, vibrational planet where everything is energy, vibrating at frequencies that produce sound — even if imperceptible to the human ear. According to NASA, if humans had antennae instead of ears, Read more…
Immigration authorities raiding a shuttle business suspected of being used for human trafficking across the border in Tucson, Arizona, on April 15, 2010. (Photo: Monica Almeida / The New York Times) Human trafficking is the Read more…
Documentary and indie filmmaker, broadcast journalist, actress (with starring roles in more than 20 films), and writer (with two feature-length screenplays under her belt), Dina Demetrius has worked for ABC News, reported, written and produced Read more…
Julie Bertuccelli’s (Since Otar Left, 2004) The Tree (adapted from Australian writer, Judy Pascoe’s 2002 novel Our Father Who Art in The Tree) is centered around a family homestead something akin to a hippie compound Read more…
Reporters Without Borders brings international attention to the three month-plus imprisonment of Turkish investigative journalists Ahmet Sik, a reporter on human rights violations and alleged illegitimate Islamic networks in Turkey, and Nedim Sener of the Read more…
Literally translated, “The Four Times” (stages may be more accurate in English) is Michelangelo Frammartino’s homage to the Calabria of his heritage and the homeland of 6th century BC Greek philosopher, Pythagoras. Frammartino poetically interprets Read more…
As the first US bombs began dropping in Libya, I received an invitation to attend the Huffington (as in, infamous Arianna’s ex) Ecumenical Institute’s symposium on war and peace. The invitation read: “In a world Read more…
PBS – “Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone” from Tilapia Film on Vimeo. The several-decades strong pioneering spirit of the iconoclastic band Fishbone continues to break new ground as much as in music as in Read more…
The tightly-made biopic traces the formation, deconstruction, and reconstruction of the Los Angeles band Fishbone. Experimental and exceptional, Everyday Sunshine is a show of raw honesty and integrity of character that commands respect and admiration. Read more…
A glimpse into her odyssey from Greek-Cypriot émigré to musical emissary in Hollywood. Touted as one of Greece’s national treasures, Alexia is regarded as a gem internationally, too. Soulful and versatile singer, songwriter, performer, musician Read more…
Algerian-French filmmaker Rachid Bouchareb has said, “Cinema is a wonderful tool to converse with French society.” And beyond, I would add. As a filmmaker, Bouchareb is notorious for applying the art of cinematic storytelling to Read more…
Possessing a larger-than-life stage presence, Ilia Darlin is frequently touted as the “European Lady Gaga.” Though there may be some similarities between the two icons, Ilia has captured a worldwide fan base of her own. Read more…
Visually striking, Brides opens up with a little known, actual event that took place in 1920s Asia Minor— the transatlantic mail-order bride business. In the summer of 1922 a ship left port in Smyrna, Turkey Read more…
Los Angeles, California – Setting the precedent for the rest of the nation and the world, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 657 – authored by Sen. Darrel Steinberg – the “California Transparency in Supply Read more…
Clustering around the fictitious wedding between young, sweet, and narcoleptic Rym (Sarah Reguieg) and “a certain William Vancooten,” Masquerades lampoons Berber village life in mountainous Algeria. Although many of the characters are cartoonish, the cast Read more…
The annual Arpa International Film and Music Festival returned to Los Angeles in its 13th year with 50 films from 30 different countries. The festival’s namesake, Arpa, is the river that flows through Armenia and Read more…
We first meet Max (Sean Bones), the twentysomething, almost hip, Generation Y guy, playing street soccer in his Brooklyn neighborhood— the significance of which is later revealed as integral to gripping a foothold in a Read more…
Book by Mumia Abu-Jamal; 2009, City Light Publishers, San Francisco, 280 pp. To borrow from an old African-American proverb, Mumia Abu-Jamal “speaks truth to power” in his latest book on jailhouse lawyering, the American legal Read more…
Captain Paul Watson is a man on the mission of a lifetime: to protect our ecosystems and endangered species, and to stop the annihilation of sea life worldwide. Since founding the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Read more…
The Toltec Nation emerged some thousands of years ago throughout southern Mexico. A nation of scientists and artists, they lived in accordance with sacred, esoteric — yet universal — laws. In the ancient city of Read more…
Born in India in 1936, the monastic life of Khen Rinpoche Geshe Kachen Lobzang Tsetan began at the tender age of 7. At age 16, accompanied by his father, he trekked some 800 miles on Read more…