UNESCO Courier articles from October 2000

UNESCO Courier archives from October 2000

Shooting the Breeze.(photography program for minority youth)
October 1, 2000... Cub photographers from immigrant backgrounds take an unusually candid look at their troubled neighbourhood on the outskirts of the French city of Mulhouse You gotta be niii-ce to the reporter!" says 19-year-old Romain, who likes to make...

Chernobyl: the political fall-out continues.(conflicting opinion on dangers of lingering radioactive materials)
October 1, 2000... Just how bad was the world's worst nuclear disaster? The answer lies hidden within a web of politics and scientific uncertainty enmeshing the UN and eastern European governments A sigh of relief ripples across Europe as engineers prepare to...

BELARUS: FACING THE DISASTER ALONE.(health problems after Chernobyl disaster)(Brief Article)(Interview)
October 1, 2000... The Chernobyl nuclear disaster continues to threaten the survival of the Belarusian people, says Vasily Nesterenko, a local physicist [*] You maintain that the effects of the Chernobyl disaster have been played down not just by your own...

The bias behind nomadic education.(Western bias)
October 1, 2000... All too often, education has been touted as the key to transforming nomadic identity, which goes a tong way towards explaining its patchy record Life in the dry lands is harsh. There is no sheltering shade, the sun cracks the soil and...

SCHOOL, THE TUAREGS' NEW WEAPON.(nomadic people look to education to provide better opportunities)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2000... The Tuaregs have shed their longtime reticence towards schooling but questions remain over how the system chooses to deal with their nomadic lifestyle. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa have come up with different solutions "For the past few...

THE RAGE FOR Asian cinema.(innovative filmmaking with few resources)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2000... OPINION THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF FILMMAKING When you make films and are lucky enough to get one shown at a festival, you can then set off round the world taking your movie from one festival to another. It's a big opportunity, not just for...

Asia's magic lantern.(new wave of Asian and Iranian films challenge importance of American film industry)
October 1, 2000... Astonishing and moving films from Asia and Iran are giving cinema a fresh impetus and countering American attempts to dominate the world's film industry Cinema is alive and well, and filmmakers are still surprising and enthusing us. More...

Breathless West, brilliant East.(Eastern cinema is dynamic, Western cinema money-driven)
October 1, 2000... Economic value dominates everything in the West, and cinema is no exception. Made for profit, moulded by television, most movies have become pure entertainment. The results are a big turn-off Every film-buff in Europe knows the name of...

A giant among dwarves.(American film industry booming)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2000... On the whole, the film market has taken a nosedive as cinema admissions have fallen to a fifth of what they were ten years ago. There is one exception: the American film industry is making huge gains in the U.S. and worldwide PRODUCTION...

After the revolution: the cinema will carry us.(cinema flourishes in Iran)
October 1, 2000... Cinema was authorized by the Islamic Republic for propaganda purposes, but a new generation of directors is offering the world a very different image of Iran In Iran, cinema did not become legitimate (in the eyes of believers) until the...

Shooting on a shoestring.(Japanese directors' independent films)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 2000... Young Japanese producers are stretching tight budgets to produce a wave of often dark films while the big studios, fattened by prosperity, are falling on hard times The tiny bar in Tokyo's Shinjuku district has barely changed over the past...

South Korea: freedom or love?(Film industry)(Industry Overview)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 2000... The advent of democracy in South Korea and efforts to defend local film production against U.S. competition have spawned a new generation of filmmakers who are winning plaudits at home and abroad South Korea's filmmakers are in a...

The Chinese conundrum.(Film industry)(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 2000... Chinese-language films and directors have flourished in recent years even as they struggle at home against censorship and public indifference If garnering awards at major film festivals like Cannes is a sign of good health, then Chinese...

DON'T BLINK NOW, IT'S KAZAKHSTAN.(motion pictures industry)(Brief Article)(Critical Essay)
October 1, 2000... The Kazakh film industry was a ship in the night. It raised a few hopes, but now it's vanishing. At the end of the 1980s, cinema was the first cultural activity in Kazakhstan to feet the currents of freedom that Mikhail Gorbachev's policy...

Argentina's gritty resurgence.(Film industry)
October 1, 2000... A constellation of young directors is touching the "rawness of things in the street" with a bare narrative and a poetic eye The present is an absurd legacy of the past," says young Argentine filmmaker Pablo Trapero. "It's crazy that a guy...

BRAZIL: REVIVAL AT RISK.(motion picture industry)(Brief Article)(Critical Essay)
October 1, 2000... By the time Itamar Franca was elected president of Brazil in 1992, the country's film industry had virtually disappeared. A year later, a new broadcasting and cinema law lent filmmakers a Lifeline: firms that decided to invest in film...

Directors in exile.(Rithy Panh from Cambodia, Alejandra Rojo from Argentina and Abderrahmane Sissako from Mauritania)(Interview)
October 1, 2000... Rithy Panh (Cambodia), Alejandra Rojo (Argentina) and Abderrahmane Sissako (Mauritania) have all settled in France, but the pull of their home country permeates their artistic Lives How did you get into film? Rithy Panh: It wasn't...

Technology, the artist's ally.(Brief Article)(Critical Essay)
October 1, 2000... All filmmakers can profit from new technology, says Egyptian director Yousri Nasrallah. The only trouble is that it may turn distribution networks upside down I made my fourth and latest feature film, El Medina, in digital video on the...

U.S. death penalty: victims seize the high ground.
October 1, 2000... On the eve of the U.S. presidential elections, the death penalty--repudiated by almost all democratic nations--is notable only for its absence from debate. Abolitionists are changing their tactics to 'win over' a majority Though the legal...

Moving Africa with a dance rhythm.(choreographer and researcher Alphonse Tierou)(Interview)
October 1, 2000... Everyone dances in Africa: from this simple truth, Alphonse Tierou, a choreographer and researcher from Cote d'Ivoire, fashions his faith in dance's power to push society onwards Your last work is entitled "If Dance Moves, Africa Will...

TELL ME HOW YOU DANCE AND I'LL TELL YOU WHO YOU ARE.(dance in Africa)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2000... In Africa, dance and the economy are intrinsically connected: the origins of the doople, the first often basic movements in African dance, lie in the motion of using the pestle The great poet and president of Senegal, Leopold Sedar Seaghor,...

Digital disappearances.(archiving electronic records)
October 1, 2000... Obsolete machines and the ephemeral nature of web-based materials are just some of the hurdles confronting archivists as they struggle to preserve the world's digital heritage The wobble of Neil Armstrong's legendary leaps on the moon are...

Tuenjai Deetes: a bridge to the hill tribes.(interview with activist working with Thai hill tribes)(Interview)
October 1, 2000... With an iron will and a calm spirit, the activist continues her 25-year struggle with the hill tribes of Thailand for cultural and environmental preservation At a time when many Thai people viewed the hill tribes [1] in the north of the...