“This is going to be the best book fair we’ve had,” says Trevor Naylor about the Tahrir Book Fair that opens on Thursday at the Tahrir campus of the American University in Cairo (AUC). It certainly will be the biggest book fair AUC has ever organized, seeing that it takes its name from the site …

By Joseph Fahim CAIRO: A few days after former president Hosni Mubarak stepped down, a number of local publications invited some artists to discuss their thoughts about the future of culture after the revolution. On the one hand, skeptics like actress Elham Shaheen and scriptwriter Karam El-Naggar, said that local culture is heading towards major slump, …

With his open shirt and flowing dark mane, France’s most infamous public intellectual has adopted the cause of Libyan freedom, taking an outsized role in French foreign affairs in the process. Even his detractors — and he has many — acknowledge that Bernard-Henri Levy helped engineer France’s pathbreaking recognition of Libya’s fledgling rebel authority, a …

CAIRO: Troops and police have recovered five artifacts stolen from the Egyptian Museum during a revolt that toppled the country’s government, the antiquities council said on Sunday. The council said in a statement that four bronze statues of ancient Egyptian deities and a bronze scepter stolen on Jan. 28 have been restored to the museum. …

By Derrik J. Lang/ AP During the making of “Miral,” a coming-of-age tale about a teenaged Palestinian girl, a profound moment occurred for director Julian Schnabel as he was filming in a convent outside of Jerusalem. Sirens sounded and everyone on set — men, women, Palestinians, Israelis and otherwise — suddenly stopped for several minutes of …

Saudi Arabia’s cutting edge art collaborative, Edge of Arabia, opened its first major UAE exhibition last Monday. Terminal, a pop-up exhibition curated by Bashar Al Shroogi of Dubai’s Cuadro Fine Art Gallery, is on at the Dubai International Financial Center through April 15. Curated by a different person in each city, Edge of Arabia is …

One of the biggest dilemmas that have always bemused me is the evaluation of beginning filmmakers. Theoretically, the lack of experience automatically lowers expectations on first works; the imperfections are projected givens. I, however, constantly rebuffed this premise having seen remarkable first and second works from across the globe, including places with less experience, facilities …

  CAIRO: Egyptian officials said on Friday that 800 priceless artifacts were still missing after armed robbers raided a warehouse near the canal city of Ismailia in the unrest following a popular revolt. "An inventory of the East Qantara warehouse which houses antiquities from the provinces on the Suez Canal and Sinai has revealed the …

By Anna Malpas/ AFP A new drama film set in Chernobyl opens in Russian cinemas this week, recalling the trauma of the world’s worst nuclear accident just ahead of the 25th anniversary of the catastrophe. The Russian film’s release comes after the quake-damage to a nuclear power plant in Japan brought fears of a nuclear explosion …

The third Cairo Documentary Festival kicked off on Sunday evening the American University in Cairo’s Ewart Hall, with an impressive schedule of documentary films by local and international directors under the themes of “Egypt Rising” and “Neighboring Nations.” The opening program included three feature-length films by Egyptian directors. Given new context by recent events in …

Muddy Waters was looking for a new piano player when chain-smoking journeyman Pinetop Perkins showed off his aggressive keyboarding during a jam session. "He liked what he heard. The rest is history," said Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, who was a drummer in Waters’ band back in 1969. By then, Perkins, an old school bluesman with …

The Thai film "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives" was named best picture at the fifth Asian Film Awards on Monday in a ceremony overshadowed by the absence of Japanese filmmakers who stayed home in the wake of a deadly earthquake and tsunami. Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s mystical drama follows a dying man from Thailand’s …

Recent studies on reading in the Arab world have shown a drastic decline in those picking up books and newspapers in their free time, and Egyptians, young people in particular, have frequently come out near the bottom in Arab readership rankings. There’s nothing like a revolution to spark people’s thirst for knowledge, and nothing like …

Cairo and jazz have settled into a comfortable handshake. Opening at El-Sawy Culture Wheel on Thursday, the Cairo Jazz Festival saw audiences and artists — both local and international — intermingling in an air of warmth with understated jubilation and confidence. “People are celebrating freedom,” festival director Amro Salah told Daily News Egypt. It is …

  For 10 extraordinary days in June, Toronto’s stages, streets, and public spaces are illuminated with arts and creativity. Luminato is an annual multi-disciplinary celebration of theater, dance, music, literature, food, visual arts, fashion, film, and more. Luminato, Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity, has announced the Festival’s 2011 Literature and Illuminations programs, including the …

A half-billion-dollar effort to showcase Iraq’s holiest Shia city to the world is coming down to the wire as many contracts remain unsigned and funds are being hastily re-allocated. Preparations for Najaf to become the Arab world’s Islamic Capital of Culture next year are underway, but officials involved in its planning admit that time is …

In the long history of Egyptian cinema, experimental film has always been a rarity, overlooked by critics and ignored by art-house audiences. Produced in early 1970s, Nagy Shaker’s experimental film “Sayf Sab‘een” (Summer 70), was one of the few Egyptian attempts in the realm of avant-garde cinema and is now regarded as one of the …

PARIS: The United Nations cultural body UNESCO on Tuesday voiced growing concern for Egypt’s archaeological sites and museums, which it said were threatened by pillaging since the country’s revolution. "We’re getting new alarming reports from different sites and museums," UNESCO head Irina Bukova told a meeting on fighting the international illegal trade in artifacts at …

Acclaimed Polish film director Andrzej Wajda hailed the movie debut of Czech freedom icon and ex-president Vaclav Havel, saying it fitted in to a fine tradition. "Czech cinema has always been full of surprises for us," Wajda, 85, told AFP. "Right from the start, they didn’t make political films, but films about people who find …

Two young Libyans whose rap music is broadcast to the front line by rebel Benghazi radio hope they are helping to maintain the morale of fighters outgunned by Muammar Qaddafi’s forces. "Rap does not physically change things, but it invigorates the soul of people fighting and sends a message to all Libyans," said 16-year-old Imad …

Amro Salah is at Taboula restaurant shaking hands with local and visiting musicians during a pre-festival dinner. He is the organizer of the 2011 Cairo International Jazz Festival and the musicians he is welcoming are from Austria. Amro is better known as the leader of oriental jazz group Eftekasat and the Cairo Jazz Festival is …

Tom Waits went for laughs, Alice Cooper for shock value, Leon Russell was quietly humble and Neil Diamond may still be talking following their induction Monday into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The acts were joined by New Orleans piano maestro Dr. John and "Wall of Sound" singer Darlene Love at the annual …

Sean Penn and Robert De Niro joined stars who appeared at the UN headquarters for the US premiere of a contested movie on the Middle East conflict that Israel tried to get cancelled. Penn, De Niro, Josh Brolin and Steve Buscemi on Monday turned out to support award-winning American-Jewish director Julian Schnabel at the premiere …

By Caroline Curran The Jan. 25 Revolution made artists out of many, especially those who brought a camera along. Just weeks on, some of these photographs have been collected in an outstanding exhibition at the Cairo Opera House Art Gallery. Organized in just a week by curator and photographer Mohamed Mahran with support from donors including …

Legendary jazz drummer Joe Morello, whose virtuosity and command of odd time signatures made him an integral part of the Dave Brubeck Quartet on such classic recordings as "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo a la Turk," has died at age 82. Family members said Morello died Saturday at his home in northern New Jersey. A …

Censors have cleared Bob Dylan to make his China debut despite worries that the country’s authoritarian government would block his planned shows given the American folk icon’s antiestablishment reputation. China’s Ministry of Culture said in a notice posted on its website Thursday that Dylan will be allowed to perform in Beijing between March 30 and …

"Conversations with Scorsese" (Knopf), by Richard Schickel: Whether you agree that Martin Scorsese is the greatest filmmaker of his generation, there can be little argument that he’s the most loquacious. His presence in documentaries and on video commentaries about movies, his own and those of others, can seem as ubiquitous as that of film critic …

  In part two of our interview with Anne Consigny, the acclaimed French actress delves more into her career and a new collaboration with iconic French filmmaker Alain Resnais.   Consigny’s third César nomination came in last year with Lucas Belvaux’s gripping thriller “Rapt.” Based on a true story, the film charts the physical and …

She’s the patient secretary aiding the paralyzed editor of Vogue to write his memoir in Julian Schnabel’s “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly;” the conflicted, self-absorbed daughter of Catherine Deneuve in Arnaud Desplechin’s “Un conte de Noël;” André Dussollier’s sympathetic wife in Alain Resnais’ “Les herbes folles;” the courageous headmistress in Florian Gallenberger’s wartime drama …