Author: Ohart

The Library of Congress will begin presenting an award named for Ken Burns, who elevated the craft of historical documentaries.

Officials announced on Tuesday the creation of the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film. The annual award will recognize a filmmaker whose documentary uses original research and compelling narrative to tell stories about American history. The winner will receive a $200,000 grant to help with the final production of the film.

 

Burns says he’s been fortunate to spend his career “focused on our country’s history.” He’s hopeful a new generation can be engaged to understand America’s past by supporting the work of new filmmakers.

 

Burns’ works include “The Civil War,” “Baseball,” “Jazz” and “The Vietnam War.”

 

Filmmakers can apply for the award online at The Better Angels Society.
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After five years of imprisonment, prominent Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zaid was released and returned to his family Monday.

Zaid, popularly known as “Shawkan,” said he would continue his work as a journalist, despite harsh conditions to his release. Shawkan will remain under “police observation” for the next five years, required to check in with police every day at sunset and will be prohibited from managing his financial assets and properties during those five years.

Human rights groups, including Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists, welcomed his release but condemned the conditions.

“We are relieved to hear that Shawkan is finally free after spending over five years in jail and call on authorities to end their shameful treatment of this photojournalist by removing any conditions to his release,” said Sherif Mansour, Middle East and North Africa Program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Shawkan was one of hundreds of people arrested after Egyptian security forces stormed two Muslim Brotherhood sit-in camps in August 2013, several months after the military ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi after weeks of protests against him.

In September, an Egyptian court upheld death sentences against 75 of the over 700 defendants in the original mass trial. Shawkan, who was taking photos outside the sit-in camps in 2013, was given five years in prison — a term he had already served.

Last April, the United Nations’ cultural agency UNESCO awarded Shawkan the World Press Freedom Prize.

The mass trial and Shawkan’s imprisonment have elicited widespread criticism on the lack of press freedom in Egypt.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranks Egypt 161st out of 180 countries on its press freedom index. Over 30 journalists remain in Egyptian prisons, according to the rights group.
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Luke Perry, who gained instant heartthrob status as wealthy rebel Dylan McKay on “Beverly Hills, 90210,” died Monday after suffering a massive stroke, his publicist said. He was 52.

 

Perry was surrounded by family and friends when he died, publicist Arnold Robinson said. The actor had been hospitalized since last Wednesday, after a 911 call summoned medical help to his home in the Sherman Oaks section of Los Angeles.

 

“The family appreciates the outpouring of support and prayers that have been extended to Luke from around the world, and respectfully request privacy in this time of great mourning,” Robinson said in a statement. Those at Perry’s bedside included his children, Jake and Sophie; fiancee Wendy Madison Bauer; former wife, Minnie Sharp, and mother Ann Bennett.

 

Perry had played construction company owner Fred Andrews, father of main character Archie Andrews, for three seasons on “Riverdale,” the CW series that gives a dark take on “Archie” comics. A fourth season has been slated.

 

“90210” co-star Ian Ziering paid tribute to his co-star on Twitter, where fans and celebrities shared their memories of Perry and mourned him . “I will forever bask in the loving memories we’ve shared over the last thirty years,” Ziering said. “May your journey forward be enriched by the magnificent souls who have passed before you, just like you have done here, for those you leave behind.”

 

Born and raised in rural Fredericktown, Ohio, Perry gained fame on “Beverly Hills, 90210,” which ran from 1990 to 2000. In a 2006 interview with The Associated Press, he recounted being partly inspired to pursue acting by a photo of Paul Newman his mother kept on her mirror.

 

He played out the memory of hearing his mother say, “He’s the most beautiful man in the world, honey … he’s a movie star.”

 

“I thought, ‘OK, that’s cool.’ I watched him and, ‘Yeah, man, who didn’t want to be Paul Newman!'”

 

But Perry expanded his interests far beyond acting, identifying history as a passion and family a priority.

 

“When you are younger you can have only work, and I did for a long time,” he told the AP in 2006. “But it doesn’t command my attention that way anymore. A lot of the mysteries and the questions I had about it I’ve figured out, but life offers up mysteries every day.”

 

He had roles in a handful of films, including “The Fifth Element,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “8 Seconds” and “American Strays,” appeared in HBO’s prison drama “Oz” as a televangelist convicted of fraud, and voiced cartoons including “The Incredible Hulk” and “Mortal Kombat.”

 

The actor’s next big screen role will be in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time In Hollywood,” which is slated for release in July.

 

He made his Broadway musical debut as Brad in the “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” and starred on London’s West End in another stage adaptation of a film, “When Harry Met Sally.” In recent years he starred in the series “Ties That Bind” and “Body of Proof.”

 

The same day he was hospitalized, Fox TV announced that it would be running a six-episode return of “90210” featuring most of the original cast, but Perry was not among those announced.

 

On the original series, Perry’s character went from loner to part of a close-knit circle that included twins Brenda and Brandon Walsh (Shannen Doherty, Jason Priestley), but also endured a string of romantic, family and other setbacks, including drug addiction. Perry left the series in 1995 to pursue other roles, returning in 1998 for the rest of the show’s run as a guest star.

 

In a 2011 interview with the AP, Perry said he and his male co-stars were a “really good strong core group” while the show aired and maintained close ties. The friendship and trust he shared with Priestley created a sort of “shorthand” when it came to filming, Perry said.
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A floppy-eared pooch wearing a red crustacean costume rides in a wagon decorated like a shrimp boat, followed by another “boat” wagon occupied by a pug in a sailor hat.

Behind them, on a leash, strolls a white maltese in a Wonder Woman costume alongside canines in fluffy purple, green and gold tutus.

The dog-centered Krewe of Barkus is one of 50 walking Carnival clubs in New Orleans that parade throughout the Mardi Gras season, ranging from satirical and political to the cute and risque.

It’s the most walking clubs in the city’s long Carnival history, making the weekslong celebration more colorful and diverse than ever, says Mardi Gras historian Arthur Hardy, who publishes an annual guide with historical facts about Carnival, as well as parade schedules and route maps.

“It’s just amazing how many different ways there are to express yourself at Mardi Gras,” Hardy said. And the walking clubs have added “a new level of inclusion and diversity and participation that we have not seen before.”

Among the favorite walking parades drawing thousands of spectators yearly are the Star Wars-themed Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus, the satirical and sometimes downright raunchy adult-themed Krewe du Vieux, and Barkus.

While some groups put on choreographed dances or march between floats and bands in the larger parades, others take center stage in the French Quarter, strolling along the narrow streets of the historic neighborhood where large floats aren’t permitted.

Krewe of Cork members donning grape and wine-themed costumes sipped from goblets as they handed out beads with corks and grapevine emblems.

The “krewe,” the New Orleans name for a Carnival club, included women dressed in nude bodysuits covered with clear balls made to look like champagne bubbles.

Thousands of spectators turned out for the parade, watching from the sidewalks of the city’s famed Bourbon Street, where topless women held signs advertising colorful “nipple glitter” for revelers wanting to decorate their breasts.

Naughty or not, it’s all in good fun, and most parades are family-friendly, Hardy said.

“The best thing I like about it is the freedom of expression and the creativity,” said New Orleans native Cortney Sessum, donning a platinum blond wig as she took in the sights of Barkus. “I love seeing the costume ideas.”

Some walking clubs have already paraded and are done for the season, while others will parade more than once. And there’s still plenty to see between now and Fat Tuesday on March 5.

The Krewe of Red Beans, where members use red beans in place of beads to create elaborate suits and costumes, will parade on “Lundi Gras,” the Monday before Mardi Gras, in a nod to the city’s culinary tradition of eating red beans and rice on Mondays.

Among the groups parading on Fat Tuesday is Pete Fountain’s Half Fast Marching Club, which walks ahead of the Zulu and Rex float parades, as well as the masked revelers of the Society of St. Anne and several Mardi Gras Indian tribes donning elaborately beaded costumes and tall feathered headdresses.

“There’s something for everyone,” Hardy said. “I tell people, if you can’t have a good time at Mardi Gras, you better check your pulse. Something’s wrong with you, baby.”
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Artists James Terrell and Zsudayka Nzinga Terrell have been on a long quest to explore their identity and express it in their art works. The artists are both descendants of Africans who were brought to America and sold as slaves. Faiza Elmasry visited The Center for the Arts in Manassas, VA to see the artists’ latest exhibit, ‘Born at the Bottom of the Ship.’ Faith Lapidus narrates.
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Striving to improve behavior at soccer matches, FIFA President Gianni Infantino sees women as role models for male players.

There is less simulation and time-wasting in the women’s game, according to Infantino, and it’s time for men to clean up their act to improve the image of soccer.

“The men’s game has developed incredibly, positively, but a few maybe side effects have unfortunately developed as well that we are fighting now,” Infantino said Saturday. “Let’s take the example of the women’s game.”

Infantino’s admiration for the conduct of female players stands in contrast to predecessor Sepp Blatter, who urged them to wear tighter kits to make the game more popular.

“Women are nicer than men, probably, generally,” Infantino said. “Sometimes we men feel that we need to show how strong we are, probably in the human nature, and this is reflected as well in some of the behavior in society in general but also on the football pitch.”

On field behavior

Infantino was speaking after the game’s lawmaking body, the International Football Association Board, discussed ways of improving on-field behavior at its annual meeting, including treatment of referees. Yellow and red cards for misconduct by team officials are now entered in the laws of the game after successful trials.

“When it comes to behavior,” Infantino said, “if there’s something to learn from the women’s game … it’s certainly this: This is much less time lost and wasted on simulations or on other situations we criticize in the men’s game. We are intervening now.”

Such as ensuring someone substituted “doesn’t greet all the players before going out (leaving the pitch) and so on — wasting time,” Infantino said. “All the things you don’t see in the women’s game.”

Diving has been reduced by the introduction of video review, Infantino said, while announcing his support for VAR at the June 7-July 7 Women’s World Cup in France. The decision will have to be ratified by the FIFA Council at a meeting in two weeks in Miami.

“Players now know that it’s not just sufficient to have a look where is the referee, so if he doesn’t see me I can simulate, because he or she will be caught,” Infantino said. “That’s why VAR automatically helps the fight against simulation and diving in a very efficient way.”

Handballs

To reduce controversies, the handball law has been adjusted.

Referees won’t necessarily have to decide if there was deliberate handling, but judge the outcome and whether an unfair advantage was obtained by gaining possession or control of the ball.

It won’t be an offense if the arm or hand is very close to the body but it will be if they are in an elevated position when the ball is handled. But even if a player accidentally handled while scoring, the goal would be ruled out.

Kicks and penalties

Disruptive behavior around free kicks should be reduced from June. The attacking team will not be allowed within 1 meter (yard) of the defensive wall in an attempt to stop players jostling and matches being delayed by the necessary intervention of referees.

In two changes affecting goalkeepers, goal kicks won’t have to leave the penalty area and only one foot will have to remain on the line when facing a penalty.

Substitutes

To speed up the game, players being substituted must leave the field at the nearest point rather than at the halfway line.

“It’s a fairly standard time-wasting tactic that when a manager wants to make a substitution, he can send a player to be substituted to the opposite end of the pitch,” said Scottish Football Association chief executive Ian Maxwell, one of the eight IFAB members.

FIFA has four delegates and the British nations have the other four, with six votes required for a change to the laws which come into effect from June.
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A new dance style, born in Chicago, is recognized around the world. It’s called hiplet and combines hip-hop and ballet. Ksenia Turkova traveled to Chicago to meet the Godfather of hiplet, Homer Hans Bryant.
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Jason Cerda is a professional dancer and recording artist. He’s performed on stage with Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin and other big-name musicians and now uses his expertise to teach young performers how to dance. Maxim Moskalkov has the story.
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Musical virtuoso Andre Previn, who mastered almost every type of genre, died Thursday at 89. 

 

His manager gave no cause of death in making her announcement. 

 

The Berlin-born Previn was a child prodigy, but his family fled Hitler’s Germany when he was 9 years old. 

 

They eventually settled in Hollywood, where Previn launched his career orchestrating scores for films. His work can be heard gracing the soundtracks of such musicals as My Fair Lady, Porgy and Bess, and Gigi. 

 

While working in Hollywood, Previn became enamored with jazz, but may be best remembered as a classical composer and conductor, serving as principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. He also led the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Houston and Pittsburgh symphonies.  

 

Throughout his career, Previn won four Oscars and 10 Grammys. 

 

Previn was married five times, including to actress Mia Farrow, with whom he adopted three children.  

 

One of them, a Korean orphan named Soon-Yi, created a scandal when she married Farrow’s then-boyfriend, film director Woody Allen. 

 

Previn once said he would like to drive over Allen with a steamroller. 
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It was acting, not love, when Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper sang a duet Sunday at the 91st Academy Awards.

 

Gaga discussed the emotional performance of “Shallow” from their film “A Star Is Born” during an appearance Wednesday on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live .” The duet led online posters to say the stars are in love.

 

The artist rolled her eyes and called social media “the toilet of the internet,” saying it has hurt pop culture.

 

Gaga said, “Yes, people saw love and guess what, that’s what we wanted you to see.”

 

Gaga says it was a love song in a love story and they had “worked all week on that performance.”

 

She said, “I guess we did a good job. Fooled ya!”

 

Gaga brought her Oscar for “Shallow” to the show.

 

 
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On a clear, frigid night in a courtyard made of walls of ice, Bruce McCafferty and his young son stand mesmerized, bathed in the pulsating rainbow light emanating from a series of stout ice formations.

McCafferty and his son Dougie have come out to Ice Castles in North Woodstock, New Hampshire, a collection of ice tunnels, caverns and a 97-foot (30-meter) ice slide that cover an acre (half a hectare) of farmland that some have said are like something out of the movie “Frozen.”

The winter wonderland, one of six in North America, is built from scratch when the cold conditions allow the ice to sprout from the barren ground.

Other parks are located in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin; Excelsior, Minnesota; Dillon, Colorado; Midway, Utah; and Edmonton, Alberta. This year, the attractions will stand until early March in most locations.

At the center of the New Hampshire attraction stand six ice structures that are nearly four feet tall (more than a meter tall) and are lit from within by colored lights.

“It’s quite magical isn’t it?” McCafferty said. “It’s an amazing creation. I’d really like to know how they actually built it.”

The attraction starts small in December, when the site’s lead builder Matt Pasciuto and his team set up icicle farms: metal racks that are sprayed with water to allow icicles to grow on them overnight. The icicles are then harvested by “ice artists,” who place them around more than 70 sprinklers.

“Once we turn the sprinklers on, the water starts freezing to those icicles, making them grow together, bigger and bigger and thicker and thicker,” Pasciuto said. “We grow the castle about two to three feet [a half-meter to one meter] at a time.”

Within a few weeks, the icicles have managed to cover the entire park, and some reach heights of 20 feet (six meters).

On a recent sunny day, the massive ice walls shined with a glacial blue hue. After the sun went down, the castles seemed to burst with colors thanks to LED lights embedded in the ice. The astonishing visuals are complemented by a synchronized fantasy soundtrack playing throughout the venue.

The attraction, which moved to this year from neighboring Lincoln, draws tens of thousands of visitors each season.

“When the movie `Frozen’ came out, that was a huge boost because now everyone says, ‘Oh, we get to see an actual ice castle,'” Pasciuto said.

Three years ago, Adam Schellinger started bringing his girlfriend on annual dates to the Ice Castles in New Hampshire, a three-hour drive from their hometown of Brooklyn, Connecticut. On last year’s visit, Schellinger got down on one knee and popped the question. The crowd immediately began cheering. The couple was married in September.

“When I proposed, it was blue, and then it went to purple,” recalled Schellinger, who returned for a visit with his wife Ashley a couple weeks ago. “It was just awesome — a great backdrop for sure.”

After a mild start to the winter, the weather in New Hampshire this year has mostly cooperated with only a few days with above-freezing temperatures. But that isn’t always the case, according to Melissa Smuzynski, public relations director for Ice Castles. She said some locations occasionally have had to cut their seasons short due to warmer winters but that “we haven’t noticed a long-term pattern over the years of our seasons becoming shorter.”

But Pascuito says he dreads the warmer days.

“The last couple of years we’ve had some really bad warm spells in February where it gets to 60 degrees [Fahrenheit, 15 degrees Celsius]. This is New Hampshire — that shouldn’t happen,” he said. “We love the cold. We want a nice long winter.”
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Those fur-trimmed parkas so common on city sidewalks have become a boon to backwoods trappers.

Coyote fur pelts are in big demand to provide the lush, silvery or tawny-tinged arcs of fur on the hoods on Canada Goose coats and their many global imitators. A good western coyote, prized for its silky, light-colored fur, can fetch more than $100. The top price at a recent Colorado auction hit $170, a 40 percent increase from four years ago.

“Coyotes are hot,” said John Hughes, a longtime buyer at J and M Furs in Roundup, Montana, “and it’s all due to the trim trade.”

Fur market

Late fall and early winter are the prime trapping time, when coyote coats are at their fullest, but a lot of the selling happens in late winter. Fur is sold at big auction houses in Canada, by individual fur buyers across North America and at local auctions near where the animals roam. At one such auction in a VFW hall in the upstate New York town of Herkimer, tables were piled high with the furs of hundreds of muskrats, beavers, fishers, mink, red fox, gray fox, otters, bobcats and coyotes.

“They like the white-belly coyotes, something like this, the whiter belly,” said John Rutherford, a trapper and hunter, showing a lush, long-haired coyotes.

Fur experts say the uptick in coyote demand began with Canada Goose parkas, with their distinctive Arctic Circle patch, a brand that went big in 2013 when model Kate Upton famously wore one over her bikini on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit Issue. Over the years, more celebrities and their fashion-conscious followers began donning the parkas, which now can retail for more than $1,000 each.

“Canada Goose is always the name that people relate to, but there are so many other brands that make similar coats,” said Mark Downey, CEO of Fur Harvesters Auction Inc. of North Bay, Ontario. “Basically, it’s just a coyote trim ruff that goes around the hood of all those kinds of coats.”

Downey suspects the bull market for coyote will continue. North American Fur Auctions was similarly optimistic in a November web posting, saying the trim business continues to be in full fashion with Canada Goose being the major taker.

Toronto-based Canada Goose did not respond to requests for comment.

Trappers face competition

The hot market for coyotes comes as trappers deal with recent economic slumps in China and Russia, competition from ranched fur and the intense ire of animal welfare activists, who consider the popular steel leg-hold traps particularly cruel.

Coyote trappers see themselves as sportsmen helping control populations of a ubiquitous animal often considered a nuisance. Coyotes have been spotted from the streets of Los Angeles to Manhattan’s Central Park. Farmers view them as chicken poachers, and suburban residents see them as threats to their pets.

To trappers, coyotes are one of the few money-making animals, along with bobcats and a few others.

“It is the one bright spot in most of the country,” said Dave Linkhart, of the National Trappers Association.

Hughes will pay trappers an average of $75 to $105 and as much as $120 for a western coyote. He sells to operations that create trim strips, which sells to garment makers.

“The coyotes that we have here in Montana are probably the best coyotes in the world for trim,” Hughes said. “They’re heavy, so the hair stands up for the trim, and they’re pale.”

Western coyotes scarce

He handles an average of 10,000 coyotes annually, though the numbers are down for western coyotes this year. Some blame early-season snow in Canada and the western United States, which made it harder for trappers to get out. Others believe there are simply fewer western coyotes this winter.

Either way, Downey said, “there’s not enough western coyotes to go around,” increasing demand on eastern coyotes, which tend to have coarser fur.

At the Herkimer auction, eastern coyotes tended to sell for $19 to $46. Rutherford made more than $200 for seven coyote furs.

“Coyotes are going to move,” he said. “Good-quality coyotes are going to sell. “
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Water turns to ice when it gets cold enough, and that physical state change turns a splashing summertime fountain in front of one of Washington’s museums into a smooth surface for skaters. Valdya Baraputri takes us to the Sculpture Garden Ice Rink.
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The family of Michael Jackson had a feeling the years-old child molestation allegations against the pop superstar would resurface at some point. So they say they weren’t entirely surprised to learn that a forthcoming HBO documentary would feature two of his accusers.

“I thought, ‘Oh here we go again,’” Jackson’s oldest brother Jackie Jackson said Tuesday of the moment he learned of “Leaving Neverland” while on tour in Australia. “That’s the first thing we said,” Jackie Jackson said during an interview with The Associated Press seated next to his brothers Tito, Marlon and his nephew, Taj.

The documentary, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to a standing ovation , will starting Sunday air the abuse allegations of two men , Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who had previously denied Jackson molested them and supported him to authorities and in Robson’s case, very publicly.

“It was going to be the 10-year anniversary,” Taj Jackson said, referring to his uncle’s June 2009 death. “I remember a year ago I was like, ’This is too appetizing for the media. They’re going to do something. This is the time when everyone comes out of the woodwork, the same cast, the same characters that have been discredited throughout the years. They have a platform now to talk about Michael Jackson.”

It was the latest and most public pushback from the family and Jackson estate, which have repeatedly denounced the documentary in recent weeks through written statements, a lawsuit , and letters to HBO and Britain’s Channel 4, which plan to air the film. HBO announced Wednesday that it will air a special on Monday night in which Oprah Winfrey also interviews Robson and Safechuck.

Their central criticism has been the film’s failure to talk to family members or other defenders of Jackson, whom they insist never molested a child.

The brothers said they would have answered the allegations had the filmmakers asked them.

“Oh, we definitely would have come and talked to them about the situation … to protect our brother,” Tito Jackson said. “He’s not here no more. He’s passed, and, we’re his brothers, we’re supposed to do this.”

Marlon Jackson added, “I look at it as yes, you’re protecting your brother, but you’re telling the truth, and we want people to understand the truth. And I do not understand how a filmmaker can make a documentary and not want to speak to myself or some of the other families that were at Neverland.”

The documentary’s director Dan Reed has repeatedly defended his film, which uses only the voices of Robson, Safechuck and their families.

“It’s the story of these two families and not of all the other people who were or weren’t abused by Michael Jackson,” Reed told the AP the day after the film’s premiere. “People who spent time with him can go, ‘he couldn’t possibly be a pedophile.’ How do they know? It’s absurd.”

Robson, 36, and Safechuck, 40, both came forward as adults, first via 2013 lawsuits and later in the documentary, to talk about the alleged abuse, which Robson says started when he was 7, Safechuck when he was 10.

Both had previously told authorities there had been no abuse, with Robson testifying in Jackson’s defense at the 2005 molestation trial that ended with the superstar’s acquittal.

Jackson family members say they were especially stunned to first hear such allegations coming from Robson, a noted choreographer who has worked with Britney Spears and ’N Sync. Many Jacksons, including Taj, had known Robson and his family since he was a child. Robson had dated Jackie Jackson’s daughter for over seven years.

“I was like ’No that can’t be Wade Robson not the same guy that I knew, They must have got the names wrong,” Taj Jackson said. “Wade was the most adamant person when it came to 2005 and the trial. He was their first defense witness. He was the star witness. He was adamant that nothing ever happened.”

Taj Jackson said he remembers thanking Robson the day he testified, and Robson responding that it was the least he could do for Michael.

“To see that 180, it feels like the biggest backstab that you could possibly feel,” he said.

The film acknowledges and discusses the men’s initial denials of abuse. Both say they experienced trauma that emerged as adults when they started to accept what happened to them.

No one in the Jackson family has any memory of meeting Safechuck. They have focused their criticism on Robson, whose allegations, they say, have coincided with financial problems. They say in particular that being denied a job with a Jackson-themed Cirque du Soleil show prompted him to change his story.

Robson has said it had no bearing on the allegations, and that he actually removed himself from the Cirque du Soleil show because he was having nervous breakdowns. Those prompted him to talk to his therapist for the first time about the abuse.

The men’s lawsuits have been thrown out on technical grounds, but are on appeal.

The Jackson estate’s lawsuit , filed last week, alleges “Leaving Neverland” violates a 1992 contract agreeing the channel would not disparage Jackson in the future. HBO called the lawsuit a desperate attempt to undermine the film.

Jackson’s family urged those inclined to watch “Leaving Neverland” to look deeper into the situation.

“That’s all we’re worried about is just facts,” Marlon Jackson said. “The facts, which are public record, tell a totally different story than what this documentary talks about.”
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The first Iranian-American woman to win an Oscar, Rayka Zehtabchi, says she wants to build on Sunday’s triumph of her documentary about menstruation by producing several films with Iran-related themes.

“I’m very interested in telling Iranian stories as well as women’s stories,” the 25-year-old Los Angeles-based filmmaker told VOA Persian in a Skype interview on Monday. “I was raised in Southern California pretty much my whole life, but the older I get, the more I feel like I connect with and learn about my Iranian culture.”

WATCH: Rayka Zehtabchi discusses being connected to her culture

Zehtabchi won the award for best documentary short at Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood for “Period. End of Sentence.” The Netflix-produced film is about women in rural India fighting the stigma surrounding menstruation by manufacturing sanitary pads to enable adolescent girls to stay in school while managing their periods.

Los Angeles high school students inspired the film by raising money to buy pad-making machines for the villagers of Hapur district, 90 kilometers east of the Indian capital, New Delhi. “Just seeing that there are these young people who care so deeply about this cause that is affecting women all over the world, and being a young woman myself, I felt compelled to jump on board,” Zehtabchi said.

Zehtabchi directed the film and shared the Oscar with American producer Melissa Berton.

Iranian-born British-American actress Nazanin Boniadi congratulated Zehtabchi on Twitter for being the first Iranian-American woman to achieve such a feat.

Watch: Rayka Zehtabchi, on being first Iranian-American Oscar winner

“It didn’t even cross my mind that I’d be the first Iranian-American woman to win an Oscar, but I feel absolutely incredible,” said Zehtabchi, the daughter of Iranian immigrants to the United States. “My dad passed away three years ago from lung cancer, and I wish he could have been there to see it, because he would have been very proud,” she added as her voice filled with emotion.

Watch: Rayka Zehtabchi, on her family’s journey to U.S.

The filmmaker said one of her next productions will be a narrative feature about her family’s journey to the United States in the early 1990s. “I’m very interested in exploring the immigrant experience and how it could be devastating but also hilarious at times, being a foreigner in a new country and having to learn how to assimilate.”

Zehtabchi said she also is working on feature version of a 2016 short film that marked her directorial debut, “Madaran.” Based on a true story about an Iranian mother who must decide whether to end or spare the life of her only son’s killer at his execution, the original film qualified for Oscar contention in the Live Action Short category that year.

Watch: Rayka Zehtabchi’s message to other young Iranian women

Asked for her message to other young women of Iranian origin who have cheered her success, she said: “You are strong and you are beautiful and you can do anything if you put your mind to it.”

This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service.
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A library run by a volunteer group in New Delhi’s largest slum resettlement colony is helping underprivileged teenagers become writers. Some have had their stories published in India’s best-known Hindi language literary magazine as well as in other publications. For VOA, Anjana Pasricha reports from New Delhi.
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Smith is the most common last name in the United States, followed by Johnson, Miller, Jones, Williams, and Anderson, according to genealogy company Ancestry.com.

What the most common surnames in the United States have in common is that they all have English, Scottish, Irish or Welsh roots because people from those countries were among the first Europeans to settle in North America.

Last names were not commonly used in England until 1066, when population growth made it necessary. Inspirations for a second name, or surname, were generally inspired by the father’s name, where a person lived, their occupation, or even a nickname.

The name Smith was likely derived from blacksmiths. For example, over time, “Richard the smith” became simply “Richard Smith.” A person named Robertson may well be the descendant of a person once known as “Robert’s son,” and Mr. Appleby could have lived near an apple orchard or tended to one.

It would not be hard to guess what someone named Tom Carpenter did for a living. Other last names derived from the kind of work people did include Archer, Baker, Brewer, Butcher, Cook, Dyer, Farmer, Judge, Mason, Page, Potter, Taylor and Weaver.

Today, where you live in the United States can determine which name you hear the most. Northwesterners are more likely to meet an Anderson, while on the East Coast people named Brown are more common.

There’s much more variety in the American Southwest. Texas, California, New Mexico, and Arizona have large Latino populations and a variety of names such as Garcia, Hernandez, Martinez, and Chavez.

Overall, the 50 most common last names in the United States grew in numbers between 2000 and 2010, except for the name of “Hall” which dropped. The surnames that saw the largest jump in volume during that time period are Spanish in origin and include the names Hernandez, Ramirez, and Rodriguez.

The name Nguyen, which can be traced back to a Vietnamese royal dynasty, also saw a large increase, according to 24/7 Wall Street.

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The famed annual Venice Carnival is in full swing with revelers donning beautiful costumes and extraordinary masks. The masks range from historical classics, to modern, original creations. VOAs Deborah Block takes us to a shop in the city of canals that makes intricate masks by hand.
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There is more than a century of Iraqi history in Sheikh Yousif Akar’s house, a modest home in the holy city of Najaf which the retired teacher has crammed full of local antiques collected over 50 years.

Rifles dating back to when the city was run by the Ottomans or the British sit alongside drinking vessels, coins and historic photographs.

The small museum has attracted a few curious antique lovers, but he rarely advertises for visitors as his house is too small to receive guests.

The 80-year-old hopes the state will take over the collection when he is gone.

“At the end of my life, I wish they would allocate to a place for me to keep these antiquities … for Najaf, for Iraq” he said.
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Mexico’s president on Monday denounced racism in his country a day after the Mexican film Roma emerged as a big winner at the Academy Awards with a plot that highlighted prejudice and inequality.

Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron won the best director Oscar on Sunday for his semi-autobiographical film Roma, which told the story of an indigenous domestic worker who cares for a middle-class family in 1970s Mexico City.

The movie also won awards for best foreign language film and cinematography, and President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador fielded several questions about Roma at his regular morning press conference.

Asked if he agreed with Cuaron that Mexican society remains rife with racist prejudice, the veteran leftist did not mince his words.

“I completely agree. Unfortunately, there is a lot of racism in Mexico,” he said.

Lopez Obrador, who in the 1970s worked for the indigenous affairs bureau in his home state of Tabasco in southern Mexico, has pledged to give priority to the poor as president.

Cuaron noted that the film emphasized the divided nature of Mexico’s social structure, opening up a much-needed discussion on racism and domestic worker rights.

“It’s a moment in which the country has recognized itself as a racist country,” he said at an event in Los Angeles last week.

In his acceptance speech, he thanked the Academy for recognizing a movie centered around an indigenous woman, saying her character represents the “70 million domestic workers in the world without work rights.”

Lopez Obrador admitted that he has yet to see the movie, but said he will do so soon. He added that the success of Roma has become a source of pride for many Mexicans.

Named for the neighborhood in the Mexican capital where it is set, Roma stars Yalitza Aparicio as a maid named Cleo who becomes pregnant as she looks after a family with four children just as the parents are splitting up.

While cheers echoed through Roma when the film began collecting Oscars on Sunday, revelers were disappointed when Aparicio did not win the Best Actress award, the first indigenous woman to be nominated for the honor.

Reactions to her performance sparked a debate in Mexico over discrimination faced by darker-skinned indigenous or mixed-race Mexicans, a topic often relegated to the sidelines of political discussions in the country.
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Giving an Academy Award to a documentary about periods set in India will help shatter the monthly shame that impacts millions of women globally, with some even dying in isolation while menstruating, health campaigners said on Monday.

The Netflix film “Period. End of Sentence.,” set in a village in northern India, clinched the Oscar for best short documentary on Sunday, shining a spotlight on a topic rarely discussed openly in the country.

For many women in South Asia, especially adolescent girls, menstruation is shameful and uncomfortable.

From being barred from religious shrines to dietary restrictions to a lack of toilets and sanitary products that prevent them from going to school and work, they face many challenges when they have their periods, health experts say.

“Although this film shows a negative side of India, it will help trigger more conversation about periods – a natural bodily process that is usually talked about in hushed tones, if at all,” said Surbhi Singh, founder of Delhi-based Sachhi Saheli, a charity that raises awareness about menstrual health.

“This will help people look deep within themselves and, hopefully, make them realize how they treat menstruation.”

In rural areas, a lack of awareness and the high cost of pads mean many women instead use unsanitary rags, increasing the risk of infections and disease.

The problem is more dire in Nepal, where an ancient Hindu tradition that banishes women to animal sheds during their periods claims lives year after year as a result of suffocation, animal bites or cold.

Earlier this month, a teenager died sleeping in a hut, becoming the fourth victim in less than a month.

The 26-minute documentary, directed by Rayka Zehtabchi and produced by India’s Guneet Monga, focuses on rural women in Uttar Pradesh state who start a sanitary pad business after generations of limited access to basic hygiene products.

When a sanitary pad vending machine is installed in their village, they decide to make and sell their own brand.

The women follow the lead of Arunachalam Muruganantham, who invented a low-cost machine for manufacturing sanitary pads.

His story inspired Bollywood’s first film on menstrual hygiene, “Padman”, with the popular action hero Akshay Kumar wearing a sanitary pad and talking about periods.

It triggered a nationwide conversation.

“Now, the whole world will turn up and see what is happening. This will help more people to understand the perfect menstrual health hygiene,” Muruganantham, who features in the Oscar-winning film, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. 
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Green Book, the heartwarming drama about the friendship between an eclectic African – American musician and his uncouth white driver during the segregation era won three Academy awards including Best Picture. That most coveted award fit right in to the night of diversity at the Oscars. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more.
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The segregation-era road-trip drama “Green Book” was crowned best picture at the Academy Awards, handing Hollywood’s top award to a film seen as a feel-good throwback to some but ridiculed as an outdated inversion of “Driving Miss Daisy” by others. 

In a year where Hollywood could have made history by bestowing best-picture on Netflix (“Roma”) or Marvel (“Black Panther”) for the first time, the motion picture academy instead threw its fullest support behind a traditional interracial buddy tale that proved as popular as it was divisive. But Peter Farrelly’s “Green Book” weathered criticism that it was retrograde and inauthentic to triumph over more acclaimed films and bigger box-office successes. Spike Lee was visibly upset by the win. 

“Green Book” also won best supporting actor for Mahershala Ali and best original screenplay. 

Lee won his first competitive Oscar while the motion picture academy spread around awards for Ryan Coogler’s superhero sensation “Black Panther,” Alfonso Cuaron’s black-and-white personal epic “Roma,” and the Freddie Mercury biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” at a brisk, hostless Oscars awash in historic wins for diversity. 

Lee’s win for best adapted screenplay to his white supremacist drama “BlacKkKlansman” gave the Dolby Theatre ceremony Sunday its signature moment. The crowd rose in a standing ovation, Lee leapt into the arms of presenter Samuel L. Jackson and even the backstage press room burst into applause.

​Lee, whose film including footage of President Donald Trump following the violent white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, spoke about the upcoming election. 

“The 2020 election is around the corner. Let’s all mobilize. Let’s be on the right side of history,” said Lee, who was given an honorary Oscar in 2015. “Let’s do the right thing! You knew I had to get that in there.”

The biggest surprise of the night, was in the best actress category. Olivia Colman won for her Queen Anne in the royal romp “The Favourite,” denying Glenn Close her first Oscar. Close remains the most-nominated living actor never to win, with seven nominations. 

“Ooo. It’s genuinely quite stressful,” said a staggered Colman, who later turned to Close to say she was her idol, “And this is not how I wanted it to be.” 

“Bohemian Rhapsody,” which kicked off the ABC telecast with a performance by Queen, won four awards despite pans from many critics and sexual assault allegations against its director, Bryan Singer, who was fired in mid-production. Its star, Rami Malek, won best actor for his full-bodied and prosthetic teeth-aided performance, and the film was honored for editing, sound mixing and sound editing. 

“We made a film about a gay man, an immigrant who lived his life unapologetically himself,” said Malek. “We’re longing for stories like this. I am the son of immigrants from Egypt. I’m a first-generation American, and part of my story is being written right now.” 

The lush, big-budget craft of “Black Panther” won for Ruth Carter’s costume design, Hannah Beachler and Jay Hart’s production design, and Ludwig Goransson’s score. Beachler had been the first African-American to ever be nominated in the category. Beachler and Carter became just the second and third black women to win non-acting Oscars.

​”It just means that we’ve opened the door,” Carter, a veteran costume designer, said backstage. “Finally, the door is wide open.” 

Two years after winning for his role in “Moonlight,” Mahershala Ali won again for his supporting performance in the interracial road-trip drama “Green Book” – a role many said was really a lead. Ali is the second black actor to win two Oscars following Denzel Washington, who won for “Glory” and “Training Day.” Ali dedicated the award to his grandmother. “Green Book,” a film hailed by some as a throwback and criticized by others as retrograde, also took best original screenplay. 

The night’s co-lead nominee “Roma,” which is favored to hand Netflix its first best picture win, notched Mexico’s first foreign language film Oscar. Cuaron also won best cinematography, becoming the first director to ever win for serving as his own director of photography. Cuaron referenced an especially international crop of nominees. 

“When asked about the New Wave, Claude Chabrol said there are no waves, there is only the ocean,” said Cuaron, referring to the French filmmaker. “The nominees tonight have proven that we are a part of the same ocean.” 

The wins for “Roma” gave Netflix its most significant awards yet, while “Black Panther” – along with best animated film winner “Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse” – meant the first Academy Awards for Marvel, the most consistent blockbuster factor Hollywood has ever seen. 

Queen launched Sunday’s ceremony with a medley of hits that gave the awards a distinctly Grammy-like flavor as Hollywood’s most prestigious ceremony sought to prove that it’s still “champion of the world” after last year’s record-low ratings. 

To compensate for a lack of host, the motion picture academy leaned on its presenters, including an ornately outfitted Melissa McCarthy and David Tyree Henry and a Keegan-Michael Key who floated down like Mary Poppins. Following Queen, Tina Fey – alongside Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph – welcomed the Dolby Theatre audience to “the one-millionth Academy Awards.” 

Rudolph summarized a rocky Oscar preamble that featured numerous missteps and backtracks by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: “There is no host, there won’t be a popular movie category and Mexico is not paying for the wall.”

​The trio then presented best supporting actress to Regina King for her pained matriarch in Barry Jenkins’ James Baldwin adaptation “If Beale Street Could Talk.” The crowd gave King a standing ovation for her first Oscar. 

“To be standing here representing one of the greatest artist of our time, James Baldwin, is a little surreal,” said King. “James Baldwin birthed this baby.” 

The inclusivity of the winners Sunday stood in stark contrast to the (hash)OscarsSoWhite backlash that marked the 2016 and 2015 Oscars. Since then, the academy has worked to diversity its largely white and male membership, adding several thousand new members and opening the academy up internationally. 

More women won Oscars than ever before. Still, this year’s nominations were criticized for not including a female best director nominee or a best-picture nominee directed by a woman. 

Though the once presumed front-runner “A Star Is Born” appeared to flame out as awards season continued, it won, as expected, for the song “Shallow,” which Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper performed during the ceremony. As she came off the stage, Cooper had his arm around Gaga as she asked, “Did I nail it?” 

Best documentary went to Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s “Free Solo,” which chronicles rock climber Alex Honnold’s famed, free solo ascent of Yosemite’s El Capitan, a 3,000-foot wall of sheer granite, without ropes or climbing equipment. “Free Solo” was among a handful of hugely successful documentaries last year including the nominated Ruth Bader Ginsberg documentary “RBG” and the snubbed Fred Rogers doc “Won’t You Be My Neighbor.” 

“Thank you Alex Honnold for teaching us to believe in the impossible,” said Vasarhelyi. “This film is for everyone who believes in the impossible.” 

Adam McKay’s Dick Cheney biopic “Vice” won makeup and hairstyling for its extensive physical transformations. The category was one of the four that the academy initially planned to present during a commercial break and as its winners – Greg Cannom, Kate Biscoe and Patricia Dehaney – dragged on in a litany of thank-yous, they were the first to have their microphone cut off. 

To turn around ratings, Oscar producers pledged a shorter show. In the academy’s favor is a popular crop of nominees: “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “A Star Is Born” and, most of all, “Black Panther” have all amassed huge sums in ticket sales. Typically, when there are box-office hits (like “Titanic”), more people watch the Oscars. 
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Mexico’s “Roma” is the winner of the best foreign language film at the Oscars.

Other films of director Alfonso Cuaron have won Academy Awards, but “Roma” now becomes the first film from Mexico to win the Oscar for best foreign language film. The movie’s dialogue is in Spanish and Mixtec.

It is Cuaron’s second win of the night. Earlier in the ceremony, he won the best cinematography award.

“Green Book”

Mahershala Ali is the winner of the Academy Award for best supporting actor. The win comes for his performance in “Green Book.”

It’s the second Oscar for Ali, who won in the same category in 2017 for “Moonlight.” In “Green Book” he plays Don Shirley, an African-American classical pianist, who tours the Deep South.

He thanked Shirley at the outset of his acceptance speech, saying telling Shirley’s story pushed him as an actor.

Ali dedicated his win to his grandmother, who he said is always pushing him to remain positive.
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Some fun and interesting facts about Tuesday’s nominations for the 91st Academy Awards:

 

-After more than 30 years and some two dozen films, Spike Lee received his first Academy Award nomination for best director for “BlacKkKlansman.” It’s also the first time one of his movies has been nominated for best picture.

-Glenn Close’s best actress nomination for “The Wife” is her seventh, and could finally mean her first Oscar. She has more nominations without a win than any other living actor or actress.

 

-“Black Panther” is the first Marvel movie – and the first superhero film of any kind – to be nominated for best picture. Its $700 million box-office take is more than the earnings of the other seven best-picture nominees combined.

 

– “Roma” is the first Netflix film to be nominated for best picture.

 

– Sam Elliott’s first Oscar nomination – for best supporting actor in “A Star Is Born” – comes 50 years after his first acting credit, on the TV series “Judd, for the Defense.”

-Rami Malek, nominated for playing Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in “Bohemian Rhapsody,” is the only first-time Oscar nominee among the men up for best actor. He’s up against multiple nominees Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Viggo Mortensen and Willem Dafoe.

 

– Yalitza Aparicio’s nomination for “Roma” comes in her first role as an actress.

– This is the second of Hollywood’s four versions of “A Star Is Born,” to get a best picture nomination, along with the 1937 original. The 1954 and 1976 versions each got several Oscar nominations, but not for best picture.

 

– No women were nominated for best director this year. The number of female directorial nominees in the 91-year history of the Oscars remains five.

 

– Eighty-seven countries submitted movies to be considered for best foreign language film. Five got nominations : Germany, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico and Poland.

 

– Bob Hope hosted the Oscars a record 19 times. No one is scheduled to host this year’s ceremony.
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The United States has a long tradition of recognizing foreign figures by naming streets after them. Often that’s done at the request of an immigrant community with a significant presence in the area. That’s the case along of stretch of Brooklyn’s Coney Island Avenue in New York City, which has been renamed after the founder of modern Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. VOA reporter Aunshuman Apte attended the naming ceremony and has this report.
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