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A year ago, I was just a fan of this movie. Now I work directly on the outreach and distribution. I am incredibly excited for the television premiere!

Did you know that Egyptians are the world’s leaders in recycling?

Check out the story of three inspiring Egyptian young men, their community of Zaballeen, and their amazing recycling work (the Zaballeen have achieved one of the highest recycling rates in the world)!

DON’T MISS GARBAGE DREAMS’ TELEVISION PREMIERE ON INDEPENDENT LENS/ PBS Tuesday, April 27th, 2010.

Independent Lens is broadcast on most PBS stations on Tuesdays at 10 PM. Dates & times may vary! So check the broadcast schedule in your area.

Invite your friends and family to this event on Facebook!

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Trigger: Garbage Dreams official website

Garbage Dreams follows three teenage boys born into the trash trade and growing up in the worlds largest garbage village, on the outskirts of Cairo. It is the home to 60,000 Zaballeen (or Zabbaleen), Egypt’s “garbage people.”

When their community is suddenly faced with the globalization of its trade, each of the teenage boys is forced to make choices that will impact his future and the survival of his community.

Filmmaker Mai Iskander made excellent character choices to tell the story of the Zaballeen. Sixteen year-old Osama (”I feel inferior in people’s eyes”) is especially compelling. He is not the type of documentary character who reveals dark secrets, or gets caught in private moments. Osama takes his role in the film very seriously. He seems to believe without question that there should be cameras on him documenting his life. For me, Osama provided both the most entertaining and the most heartbreaking moments of the film.

In her director’s statement, Iskander acknowledges how Osama inspired her to make Garbage Dreams:

“In 2005, I returned to [the garbage city on the outskirts of Cairo] and volunteered to help paint a mural at the Recycling School. I filmed a few of the students- applying vibrant colors and making whimsical pictures on a drab concrete wall- thinking that I could cut together a little film about their mural as a present for them.

And in front of the camera, they blossomed. They were uninhibited and really pleased that an “outsider” took such interest in them…One of the boys, Osama, started bragging that an “international film crew” (in actuality it was just me) was following him to document his incredibly charismatic self. Neighbors and friends started calling him ‘Tommy Cruise.’”

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Trigger: Garbage Dreams official site

 

I just got this photography book for my sister, but I’m having trouble letting it go…really beautiful stuff!

“Nazar is an Arabic word meaning ’seeing, insight, reflection.’

Nazar: Photographs from the Arab World offers a multifaceted view of photography from North Africa to Lebanon and Palestine, from Egypt to Iraq, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. Ranging from passionately documentary to aesthetically innovative, these images by fifty-six Arab and Western photographers- male and female- challenge preconceived views about the region.”

Hala Elkoussy, (Re)construction

Nadia Benchallal, From Shore to Shore

Denis Dailleux, Le Caire

Diana Matar, Veiled Woman in Cairo

Laura Junka, Happy in Gaza

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Trigger: Aperture Foundation’s Nazar: Photographs from the Arab World

I recently came across an old copy of Bidoun magazine: arts and culture from the Middle East. The issue features the Arab Image Foundation, an organization that collects personal photographs to be used in historical archives. The amazing images inspired me to track down some of my family. I love what I found.

 

 

 

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Trigger: Arab Image Foundation