Hear from TEATRO DEL PUEBLO's Artistic Director ALBERTO JUSTIANO talking about the 9th annual Political Theatre fest, FEB.25-MAR 13. (SEE Lydia's REVIEW below after program notes). More TEATRO DEL PUEBLO fest information: 1-800-838-3006
http://www.teatrodelpueblo.org
PART 1 of a conversation with MOHANNED GHAWANMEH, curator of MIZNA's 6th annual ARAB FILM FESTIVAL (He's a professor of communications & film at Dunwoody with a wonderful sense of cinma and politics). The festival is MAR. 11-14 @ THE HEIGHTS THEATRE in Minneapolis. Info: http://www.mizna.org/arabfilmfest10
(More details below)
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REVIEW:Teatro del Pueblo gender and geopolitics through Latino lens

by Lydia Howell

Teatro del Pueblo's ninth annual Political Theater Festival, Feb. 25-Mar. 13, has the theme “Across the Divide”, exploring gender and Latinos' geopolitical complexity: an immigrant displaced in a new land considers a surgical change; would-be immigrants struggle for visa;Latino women's face misconceptions of one another;a survivor of sex trafficking seeks justice; a multitude of characters living on one block.

Jerome and McKnight fellow, Dominic Orlando, Teatro's resident playwright, hits theatrical home runs for a fifth year. “American Civil Liberties” addresses international trafficking of women into sexual slavery.

“It's easier to to ignore this issue, consider these women numbers. Dominic puts a face on these women and what they've endured. Women are brought here from all over the world—Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa, Teatro's artistic director, Alberto Justiano observes.

Orlando's other new work, “The Free Market” is a disturbing confrontation between an undocumented immigrant and a businessman. It's one of the” interactive” plays that provokes the audience to decide who is the criminal and who is the victim. Orlando's 2007 “Embassy of the Americas” is reprise. You're powerfully drawn into a bureaucratic labyrinth of Orwellian proportions that immigrants face when trying to enter the U.S. legally.

“Whatever and Delicately” by Pia Wilson, an East Coast playwright with two full-length dramas and many short works, revolves around a chance encounter.. Fringe Festival and Teatro actor Yolanda Cotterall and Melanie Wehrmacher, recently seen in Theater Pro Rata's “Marisol” play immigrant women confronting misconceptions about each other.

Guillerno Reyes, Chilean playwright (who's “Dead Bolivians On A Raft” was part of a past Political Theater Festival) returns with “Sarita, The Frowning Immigrant”, an ironic look at U.S. culture through immigrant eyes. Another “interactive” play is Ignacio Solute's “The American Is Dreaming”, which addresses the process for U.S. citizenship, with audience input, making each performance different.

Collaborating with Pangea World Theater, Teatro brings a wonderful one-man show, “N.E. 2nd Avenue” (Mar. 11-13 at Intermedia Arts) written and performed by Teo Castellanos. Puerto Rican-born, he grew up in Miami and reveals the magnificent diversity of that city in 13 characters who are Cuban, Jewish, African-American, Gay/Lesbian, Haitian,Jamaican and Puerto Rican. Castellanos works as an actor, playwright, and director in Theater, film and television, having won multiple awards. Humor and drama with great writing and amazing acting make Castellanos a perfect capstone to the festival.

Divided into two series of three one-act plays each, Justiano says the plays are picked to “engage the audience to address an issue through improvisation and exchange.” But, instead of cable tv' polarized pundits , Justiano says he's aims for real discourse.

“We include all points of view. For example, the perceptions of the federal government and why they do what they do. We're really trying to create a forum after the plays so, questions are asked and that people feel free to have their own thoughts and feelings. It's a catalyst for thinking.”

Teatro del Pueblo's Political Theater Festival
Feb. 25-Mar. 7, 8pm Gremlin Theater
2400 University Avenue, St. Paul

Mar. 11-13, Intermedia Arts
2822 Lyndale Avenue South, Minneapolis
More information: 1-800-838-3006 http://www.teatrodelpueblo.org
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Mar 11-14: MIZNA's Sixth Twin Cities ARAB FILM FESTIVAL 2010,
Heights Theatre, Columbia Heights, MN
http://www.mizna.org/arabfilmfest10
(512)788-6920

(partial schedule below/MORE DETAILS at website above)

As always, Mizna's Twin Cities Arab Film Festival guarantees some excellent Minnesota premiers as well as a number of US premiers and at one world premier: twenty eight films from the Arab World and far beyond.

For the first time, Mizna's Twin Cities Arab Film Festival includes an Arab (Persian) Gulf film segment and a children's shorts segment.
OPENING NIGHT: THUR.MAR. 11, 7PM: GARBAGE DREAMS (Egypt) Documentary abot the Zabaleen, Coptic Christian peasents who ahve been cairo's garbage collectors for almost 100 years. A compelling drama of three Zabaleen young men who face class oppression and globalization with resillience and resourcefulness. (See related events next, with more of the film festival schedule after).

***SPECIAL RELATED EVENT: Garbage Dreams:
How One Community’s Zero Waste Practices Can Be Achieved Globally
March 11, 4:00 - 5:30pm, 180 Humphrey Center, U of M, West Bank campus,MINNEAPOLIS

On March 11th, the critically acclaimed film, Garbage Dreams will screen at the Sixth Annual Arab Film Festival. In conjunction, the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs and the Institute on the Environment, will host a conversation on Garbage Dreams. Join a discussion on the delicate balance between sustainability and modernization. Mai Iskander, Producer, Director and Cinematographer of Garbage Dreams; Ragui Assaad, Professor, Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs and former community development director for the Zabbaleen; Tim Smith, Associate Professor, Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering and Director of the NorthStar Initiative for Sustainable Enterprise, and Susan Hubbard, Chief Executive Officer and Co-President of Eureka Recycling, Minnesota's leading zero waste organization, will explore the social and environmental implications of this relationship.

Until the 1980’s, the city of Cairo and its 13 million residents had no formal municipal garbage collection system. Until then, most of the collection was handled by the Zabbaleen, an impoverished community of mostly Coptic Christians. Through their hand separation at the source and manual recycling programs in their own neighborhoods, the Zabbaleen process and reuse over 80% of the garbage they collect. The Zabbaleen depend on the garbage and the raw material that it produces for survival.

Starting the 1980’s city administrators began contracting with European owned companies to replace what they consider to be the Zabbaleen’s dated methods. These foreign companies recycle on average of only 20% of the refuse, land filling the rest. In addition to the environmental implications, the Zaballeen’s already impoverished conditions are being worsened by the competition.

Recently Mai Iskander, an Egyptian-American filmmaker went into Mokattam, the largest garbage city on the outskirts of Cairo and documented the challenges of the Zabbaleen. The film has become an international sensation, winning numerous awards at international film festivals and capturing the attention of former Vice President Al Gore who said of the film “Ultimately, Garbage Dreams makes a compelling case that modernization does not always equal progress.”
> This event will discuss the lessons that can be learned from the Zabbaleen and the implications for waste management and recycling efforts globally.
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MORE! ARAB FILM FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS

*****FRIDAY. MAR. 12:
1:30pm: LESH SABREEN? (Palestine) Drama & MY HEART BEATS ONLY FOR HER (Lebanon) Documentary
6:30 PM LES BARONS (Belgian/France) Comedy

9 PM: HEAT HARARA (Netherlands) Drama
******SAT. MAR. 13:
10 AM; CHILDREN'S FILMS
NOON: WE WILL LIVE TO SEE THSE THINGS (USA) Doc. & TEA ON THE AXIS OF EVILDocumentary
3 PM:9pm REMNANTS OF A WAR (USA)Documentary
5:30 PM: HENNA (UAE)Drama & ABSENCE THE GOOD OMEN (Sahrain) Fictions
8PM: POMEGRANATES AND MYRRH (Palestine) Drama HIghly recommended! Love story & occupation.

***SUN.MAR.,14:
10 AM: GAZA ON THE AIR (Palestine) Documentaqry. HIghly recommnded--an act of JOURNALISTIC COURAGE, breaking Israeli censorship of their "Operation Cast Lead" attack on Gaza from Dec. 27, 2008 until right before the inaugeration of President Barack Obama. (Disturbing images of war/This is MUST VIEWING as a crucial contemporary document).
NOON: HOLD ON, MY GLAMOROUS (drama) and other films by Arab women
2:30PM: FEATURED FILMMAKER. from Minneapolis HISHAM BIZRI (Lebanese-American) with several short films
5 PM: EIN SHAMS/Eye of the Sun (Egypt & Morroco) Drama & HYMEN (Egypt) Fiction short
7:30pm LAILA'S BIRTHDAY (Palestine) Drama***Highly recommended! Perfect performances! A day in the life of a tqaxi driver in occupied Palestine (with many unexpected events)

MORE DETAILS ABOUT FILMS AT: http://www.mizna.org/arabfilmfest10