World Leaders Forum Film Program: Seen from Abroad

Co-sponsored by Columbia's School of the Arts and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the three-day series of events will feature four full-length foreign films and a panel discussion featuring major international film critics moderated by David Denby, film critic for The New Yorker magazine. The critics will offer their views of American cinema today, and give their impressions of the current and possibly changing impact American films have on international audiences.

No other form of art or entertainment today could be said to have cast as wide a net or have had a greater impact than American cinema. It dominates 60 percent of the world's film market. The critics will each present clips of recent U.S. films, discuss their influence on their countries, and showcase new films from Brazil, Egypt, India and
Italy.

Register online at http://worldleaders.columbia.edu.

Friday, March 24, 2006
Rotunda, Low Memorial Library

6:00 PM
Seen from Abroad: International Film Critics Look at American Film Today

Lee C. Bollinger, President
hosts a panel discussion with

Moderator
David Denby, film critic and staff writer, The New Yorker

Participants
• Irene Bignardi, film and culture critic for La Repubblica and former Director of the Locarno International Film Festival, Italy
• José Carlos Avellar, noted Brazilian film scholar and critic for the Jornal do Brasil, Brazil
• Mohamed El-Assyouti, film critic for Al-Ahram Weekly and film teacher at the American University in Cairo, Egypt
• Pritish Nandy, chief film critic for The Times of India and founder of Pritish Nandy Communications, India

Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Roone Arledge Cinema, Lerner Hall

6:00 PM
In un Altro Paese / In Another Country
Marco Turco, 2005, Italy, 92m

Written by Vania Del Borgo and Marco Turco, in collaboration with US journalist and Columbia University Sao Paolo Professor of International Journalism Alexander Stille (author of the book Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian
Republic), the documentary examines the battle between the Sicilian mafia and Italian politics. The film follows the tragic story of the mega-trial in Palermo and two justices who made it possible Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

9:00 PM
Terra Estrangeira / Foreign Land
Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas, 1995, Brazil, 100m

The film is about a generation in crisis, lost in a country which is, itself, unsure of his identity. The story starts just after the election of Collor de Mello in Brazil and the economic policy of the new government (the freezing of bank deposits, among other measures) and follows Paco (Fernando Alves Pinto), a young man in his early twenties, the son of a Spanish immigrant, and Alex (Fernanda Torres), a young Brazilian woman, "an economic emmigrèe" living in Lisbon facing the crude reality of life in another country. Jumping back and forth between the stories of Paco in São Paulo and Alex and in Lisbon the film shows the deepening of their personal crisis until their destinies finally converge in a desperate attempt to find happiness.

Thursday, March 23, 2006
Roone Arledge Cinema, Lerner Hall

6:00 PM
Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi / A Thousand Dreams Such as These
Sudhir Mishra, 2004, India, 120m

An intense love story set against the backdrop of political turmoil during the Emergency period in the late 1960s to 70s in India. "Hazaaron Kwaishein Aisi" is the story of a romantic triangle between Siddharth Tyabji (KayKay Menon), Geeta Rao (Chitrangda Singh) and Vikram Malhorta (Roshan Ahuja). Geeta is in love with Siddharth but politics is Siddharth's first love. Vikram, however, is madly in love with Geeta.

9:00 PM
Muwatin, wa Mukhbir, wa Harami / A Citizen, a Detective and a Thief
Dawoud Abdel-Sayyed, 2001, Egypt, 135m

In the year 1980, a series of events brings an aspiring novelist in contact with a detective and a thief. They begin a relationship of interdependency.

* * *

World Leaders Forum at Columbia University
Launched in 2003, Columbia University's World Leaders Forum is an annual University-wide initiative that reflects President Lee C. Bollinger's vision of the University as a center for public debate on critical global issues. This year the focus is on global development.
The Forum convenes international leaders—from heads of state to leading economic, cultural and religious figures—to examine global challenges and explore cultural perspectives. Throughout the yearlong series of events, Columbia's students, faculty and alumni, along with influential members of the wider New York City community, gather to hear from and engage in an open dialogue with the distinguished world
leaders.

Columbia University School of the Arts
As one of the premier arts schools in the country offering M.F.A.'s in film, Theatre Arts, Visual Arts, and Writing, Columbia University's School of the Arts is committed to being as diverse and dynamic as both our students and the fields in which they will become leaders.
The Film Division at Columbia offers a uniquely integrated curriculum centered around film as a storytelling medium, an emphasis reflected to varying degrees in every course offered. The course of instruction combines directing, writing, and producing with technical training and history/theory to provide students with a deep understanding of the principles and practice of dramatic narrative. With the help of a distinguished faculty that combines veteran and new members of the New York and Hollywood film communities, our student works regularly win awards and recognition for their energy, honesty, clarity, and vision.
Likewise, our alumni produce, write, and direct films that help set standards for cinema around the world.

Film Society of Lincoln Center
Now celebrating its 36th year, the Film Society of Lincoln Center celebrates the art of world cinema through year-round series of screenings, education programs and high profile events. The Film Society showcases the best of US and international cinema through its numerous annual programs such as the world-renowned New York Film
Festival, New Directors/New Films (co-presented with the Museum of Modern Art) and the Film Society Gala Tribute, which each spring honors a notable member of the film community. A membership-based, non-profit organization, the Film Society presents its programs in the state-of –the-art Walter Reade Theater and publishes the prestigious
bi-monthly magazine Film Comment.