Author: Ohart

The Oscar for Asghar Farhadi’s “The Salesman” energized many of the filmmaker’s fellow Iranians, who saw the win for best foreign film Monday as a pointed rebuke to the Trump administration and its efforts to deny them entry into the U.S.

Farhadi refused to attend the Academy Awards, announcing after the temporary U.S. travel ban was initially imposed last month for citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries that he would skip it even if an exception was made for him. Iran was one of the seven countries affected by the measure, which has since been blocked from being carried out by a federal court ruling.

“The Salesman” – about a couple performing ArthurMiller’s “ Death of a Salesman” and their attempts to find peace and justice after the wife is attacked at their Tehran apartment – had become a rallying cry for immigrant rights after the travel ban.

The six nominated directors in the foreign language category had put out a joint statement ahead of the award decrying what they called the climate of “fanaticism” in the United States and dedicating the award to the promotion of “unity and understanding” regardless of who won.

Film critic Esmaeil Mihandoost, who wrote a book about Farhadi, told The Associated Press that thanks to the boycott, the film director has now “more influence on public opinion than a politician.”

“It created an exceptional opportunity for criticism” of Trump’s policy, he added Monday.

The award was the second Oscar for Farhadi, after his film “A Separation” won in the same category for 2012.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he saw the prize as taking a stance against Trump’s executive order. “Proud of Cast and Crew of “The Salesman” for Oscar and stance against #MuslimBan. Iranians have represented culture and civilization for millennia,” he tweeted in English.

Vice President Ishaq Jahangiri praised Farhadi both for the award and for boycotting the ceremony, calling it a “priceless action.”

State radio and television briefly reported on Farhadi’s Oscar, while Tehran film daily Banifilm ran an op-ed saying that Trump had “probably never imagined what contribution the travel ban would have for Farhadi’s film.” The trade paper said the executive order had likely propelled “The Salesman” to victory.

Trump’s victory has prompted concern among many in Iran, particularly in the wake of a 2015 nuclear deal with the U.S. and other world powers that led to the lifting of crippling economic sanctions. The Trump administration earlier this month said it was putting Iran “on notice” after it test-fired a ballistic missile.

Many Iranians learned of the Oscar win from social media.

“I am proud of this,” Mahbod Shirvani, a 19-year-old music student said outside the campus of Tehran University. “It shattered the U.S president’s stance on Muslim nations. It showed that American people and artists are against Trump’s policies.”

Davood Kazemi, 21, who studies painting, said the “award showed Trump cannot stop international figures and he cannot thwart artists’ solidarity that has formed, regardless of race, nationality and religion.”

Iranian news websites published cartoonist Bozorgmehr Hosseinpour’s sketch depicting Farhadi playing chess and using a small Oscar statue to knock out an unseen opponent’s last chess piece, a figure resembling Trump.

In a statement read out at the Oscars ceremony on his behalf by Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian-American astronaut, Farhadi said the empathy filmmakers can foster is needed today more than ever. Ansari was joined onstage by another accomplished Iranian-American, Firouz Naderi, a former NASA director.

“I’m sorry I’m not with you tonight,” Farhadi’s statement read. “My absence is out of respect for the people of my country and those of other six nations who have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the U.S.”

“Dividing the world into the ‘us’ and ‘our enemies’ categories creates fear,” it said.
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And the red carpet goes to … the women in red, for one, with equal accolades for shiny and shimmery gold worthy of the Oscars, this and all years.

 

Long sleeves and belts played major roles Sunday in Los Angeles at the Dolby Theatre, along with a beautiful Janelle Monae, transformed in Elie Saab Haute Couture into a busy but fabulous fashion city of black tulle, birds, lace, feathers, sequins, crystal stones and a head piece that served as the perfect topper.

 

There were some midnight blues, including Meryl Streep’s sparkly Elie Saab with trousers, and a smattering of blah black. Among the night’s trends were velvet, worn Old Hollywood style by Taraji P. Henson, Brie Larson and Michelle Williams, and metallics, including a fierce Charlize Theron, Emma Stone and Jessica Biel.

 

All in all, the clunkers were few.

 

Some highlights:

The Reds

 

Viola Davis rocked the color as she picked up a best supporting actress Oscar for her role in “Fences.” She wore silk Armani Prive in vermillion, with the perfect halter neck falling into a pleated capelet effect off the shoulders. Her short hair with bangs swept to one side let the dress shine and she kept jewelry to a minimum.

 

“It was a perfect shade of red on her,” said Adam Glassman, creative director for O magazine and a special correspondent for Extra TV. “The color red was a symbol of hope and optimism. We are living in dark times, and perhaps by choosing red she is symbolizing HOPE. The gown was sensual and elegant at the same time. The draped capelet detail was so flattering on her. Her body looked amazing in it. It was stylish without trying too hard.”

 

Ruth Negga wore her red Valentino Haute Couture by Pierpaolo Piccioli with a blue ACLU ribbon and Irene Neuwirth jewelry featuring Gemfields responsibly sourced Mozambican rubies. Her jewels included a head piece not all could pull off, but she did so effortlessly. The gown included a high lace collar and skimmed the ground, her makeup a perfect match on eyelids and lips.

 

“It proves you don’t have to be plungy and show lots of excess flesh to look sexy and beautiful,” said Avril Graham, the executive fashion and beauty editor for Harper’s Bazaar U.S. “The fact that she wore those rubies played into that sustainable trend and were a great modern take.”

 

Auli’i Cravalho, at 16, killed her first Oscars performance, singing “How Far I’ll go” from “Moana” in, yes, another standout red gown.

 

The Golds

 

Stone led the pack in a custom Givenchy Haute Couture by Riccardo Tisci. It was a long dress in all-over embroidered nude lace with fishnet detailing and gold and bronze crystals. It had tiers of fringe that lent a tad of flapper without going overboard. Her red lip color and swingy, matching earrings from Tiffany and Co. went a long way.

 

She was “finished with Old Hollywood worthy waves,” said Kerry Pieri, the digital fashion and features director for Harper’s Bazaar. “This was glamour at its best, finished with a subtle Planned Parenthood pin.”

 

Dakota Johnson took one of the night’s biggest risks. She wore a long-sleeve, strong-shouldered sweeping silk gown with a waist tie. The dress was Gucci and paired with a vintage Cartier necklace. “And it paid off,” Pieri said.

 

Gold turned Champagne hewed on Nicole Kidman, in Armani Prive, and Felicity Jones, in princessy Dior Haute Couture. Amy Adams wore plunging gold as a presenter.

 

Theron “knocked it out of the water, as always. The metallic moment was amazing,” Graham said.

 

Theron was Grecian Goddess meets Glamazon” in her pleated Dior Haute Couture that plunged at the neck and was set free to flow below the waist, Glassman said. And that’s not a bad thing.

 

“Charlize OWNS the red carpet,” he said.

 

Fashion and style expert Hal Rubenstein found Theron’s huge Chopard drop earrings in connecting pear and heart shapes distracting, and the dress a little much.

 

“There was almost six yards too much fabric in that dress,” he said. “It’s impossible for her to look bad but that was an awful lot of dress and an awful lot of jewelry.”

 

Jessica Biel was the definition of gold statuesque in a KaufmanFranco gown that hugged her body and included a metallic fringe-looking collar and liquidy train.

 

“She really scored well. It was cut really vavoom and close to show off her figure,” Graham said. “This was not frothy. This was a way of wearing metallics and sequins and embellishment in a contemporary way.”

 

Stone was on top of Rubenstein’s best-dressed list.

 

“For me it’s not about this being a fashion show. It’s about celebrating the movies and who looks like a movie star. They should look like Lauren Bacall and Lana Turner and people like that,” he said. “Emma looked the most like that. She looked sexy without being overt or redundant or trashy.”

 

The Confections

 

Hailee Steinfeld pulled one off. It was sheer white with back pleating and huge red and purple and blush floral embellishment. It had a heavy train and a dainty belt. It had a high collar. It was by Ralph & Russo, and it was one of those young-girl coups that might not have worked otherwise, not unlike Dakota Johnson’s look.

 

Speaking of confections, but with a fierce bite, Monae made her usual fierce fashion statement in Elie Saab Haute Couture. Her Forevermark jewels were valued by the company at $1.5 million and included multiple diamond rings.

 

“It wasn’t my favorite. I always like sleek lines,” Graham said of Monae.

 

Kirsten Dunst looked a bit swallowed-up by her black Dior Haute Couture. She was strapless with a corseted bodice and asymmetric hem that fell at the ankle at the front with a voluminous train behind.

 

“It was big, black, wide, sort of 18th century,” Graham said. “I just didn’t like the proportions.”

 

 Just Taraji

 

Henson, a co-star with Monae in “Hidden Figures,” earned praise from many for her deep navy blue Alberta Ferretti. It fell off the shoulder and her Nirov Modi diamond necklace pointed the way to ample decolletage. Henson left her hair loose with a sexy side part.

 

“From head to toe she was sophisticated, elegant and glamorous,” Glassman said. “The neckline was perfect for the Academy Awards. The navy velvet was so on point for the season and her hair was soft and cool. It was a modern take on the Old Hollywood look. Every detail worked on her.”

In Photos: Red Carpet Arrivals
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It was a big night for actress Viola Davis, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in “Fences”. Her crowning achievement comes after a long and illustrious career filled with numerous awards and three Oscar nominations. Her win also highlights Hollywood’s growing interest in complex minority characters. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more.
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It was a big night for actress Viola Davis, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for “Fences”. Her crowning achievement comes after a long and illustrious career of numerous awards and three Oscar nominations. The Oscar nod also highlights Hollywood’s interest in complex minority characters.

For those who watched Denzel Washington’s film drama “Fences”, about the intricate family dynamics in a 1950’s African American household, it is difficult to forget Davis’ powerhouse performance. She plays Rose, the introspective wife who stands by her man, aware of his imperfections. She perseveres next to him not with deference but with dignity. She is the balancing act between her explosive husband and her brooding son, and when her philandering husband, played by Denzel Washington, brings home a baby, she accepts it not because she has to, but because she chooses to.

This is not the first time Davis fleshes out complex characters; but, her Oscar win underscores the movie industry’s commitment to such characters.

 

Another example is Mahershala Ali, who won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance as Juan, a drug dealer in a poor Miami neighborhood, in the indie drama “Moonlight”. Juan finds himself taking care of a boy abandoned by his own mother, a drug addict. In this role,  Ali is both criminal and nurturer.

Giovanna Chesler, director of George Mason University’s film school, says this recognition was years in the making.

“I don’t think it’s an issue of there’s more films representing black experience in America. I think it’s great films that represent the black experience that are being pushed to the fore finally and being recognized,“ she says.

Chesler attributes the trend in part to audiences who, “were starving” for stories like that, she says. She also notes that actors and filmmakers such as David Oyelowo and Ava DuVernay who rolled out great work in previous years – but were not part of the Oscars conversation – laid the groundwork for this year’s awards.

DuVernay, who made the film drama “Selma” three years ago, and David Oyelowo, who starred as Martin Luther King, Jr., did not win accolades, but their work has passed into the annals of great acting and movie making. Now, DuVernay, who also directed the acclaimed documentary “13th” about incarceration in America, has been tapped by Disney studios to direct a big budget fantasy drama.

And then there is Oscar winner Denzel Washington. In a class of his own, Washington has for years been part of Hollywood’s mainstream, but still tries to push the envelope with contentious characters and projects. He directed and adapted August Wilson’s theater play Fences for the big screen, and portrays Rose’s conflicted husband, Troy.

When asked by VOA to analyze his character – a blistering man, dubious husband and unforgiving father – Washington replied, “Who is Troy? He doesn’t know. He’s working it out. That why there is great drama because it is drama, ’cause all the questions are not answered when the curtain goes up.”

And who didn’t love the film “Hidden Figures”, a heartwarming hit drama about three African American women who helped NASA in the ’60s send the first American into space and then on the moon? The movie has won the hearts and minds of fans, a reminder that audiences crave stories with non-formulaic characters in unconventional situations.

When these characters and stories win, we all do, because such narratives become the catalyst of equality in popular culture. So, the more such roles are awarded, the more the film industry is encouraged to push the envelope in casting.

WATCH: Penelope’s video report
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Neither Batman nor Dinesh D’Souza could finagle their way out of a Razzie. 

 

The annual Golden Raspberry Awards bestowed a tying four “honors” to both D’Souza’s documentary Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party and the superhero blockbuster Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

 

D’Souza’s film was named the worst picture of the year on Saturday, and the conservative author got both worst director (with co-director Bruce Schooley) and worst actor for playing himself. Worst actress went to Rebekah Turner who played Hillary Clinton. 

 

“This is absolutely fantastic,” said D’Souza in a video statement. “My audience loves the fact that you hate me. Thank you.” 

 

Not to be outdone, Zack Snyder’s $250 million Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice also picked up four “wins” including worst remake, worst screenplay and worst screen combo for its dueling stars Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill. Jesse Eisenberg was also singled out as the worst supporting actor for his over-the-top portrayal of Superman baddie Lex Luthor. 

 

Both films were widely panned by critics upon their release — D’Souza’s film for being biased and sensationalist and Snyder’s for its messiness. While D’Souza’s outing is likely a one-time deal, there is more to come in the DC Comic Book Universe from Snyder whose “Justice League” hits theaters in Nov. 

 

Another poorly received film, Zoolander 2, got away with only one award, which went to Kristen Wiig for worst supporting actress. 

 

The organization also bestowed the “redeemer” award to Mel Gibson, who was previously nominated for The Expendables 3 and this year has climbed back up to the ranks to more prestigious awards. Gibson is nominated for a best director Oscar for his World War II film Hacksaw Ridge.

 

The Razzie Awards are determined by around 1,000 voting Razzie members from 25 countries, while Worst Screen Combo was voted on by “thousands” through a Rotten Tomatoes partnership.
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Each year, the European Union names two cities as European Capitals of Culture, and they sponsor a year-long series of cultural events. Aarhus, Denmark is one of those cities, where a sculpture exhibition portrays real-life women from different cultures.
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This is Black History Month in the U.S. A dance school in the nation’s capital has been making history for more than 75 years with its commitment to high-quality dance training. The school, which started at a time when African-American dancers had few opportunities to study classical ballet, is thriving. VOA’s June Soh introduces us to Jones-Haywood Dance School in Washington. Carol Pearson narrates.
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“I wanted something that looked like a fairy tale,” says German-born Canadian filmmaker George Mendeluk, describing what compelled him to tackle one of the darkest chapters in Ukrainian-Russian relations.

Opening with a picturesque scene of a Ukrainian village in the 1930s, the historical juxtaposition is stark: Bitter Harvest, a historical drama that weaves a love story around cataclysmic events surrounding the Holodomor — the devastating state-sponsored famine in Ukraine that killed millions — can’t help but draw comparisons with today’s news coverage of nearby regions.

Released worldwide Friday, Mendeluk’s first full-length film sheds light on a tragedy that, concealed by Soviet authorities for decades, remains little-known outside of Ukraine today.

Watch: Past, Present Collide on Set of ‘Bitter Harvest’

Anchored by the fairy-tale romance of rural teens Yuriy and Natalka, played by Britain’s Max Irons and Samantha Barks, the script rapidly interweaves cruelties of a Soviet regime steamrolling the Ukrainian peasantry, leaving millions dead in its wake.

Striving for historical accuracy

Toronto-based producer and financier Ian Ihnatowycz says the film, shot on location in parts of Kyiv and in London on a budget of $20 million, aims for unflinching attention to historical detail.

“When [Canadian actor] Richard Bachynsky brought this script in 2011, I immediately was interested because of my background and knowledge of the Holodomor,” Ihnatowycz told VOA’s Ukraine Service. “I felt it was important to present a film with international stars in a style that would appeal to Western audiences.

“We focused a lot of effort on making sure that the film was historically accurate,” he added. “It was verified by many historians.”

The weight of coming to terms with finer details of the Holodomor wasn’t lost on the cast.

“We were quite embarrassed that we didn’t really know too much about it,” said British actor Tamer Hassan, who plays Sergei, a Soviet commissar who terrorizes Ukrainian peasants. “You know, people say ‘Stalin, Stalin! Horrible!’ We all know something was there, that there was some kind of a tragedy, but to the extent of how bad it was, we really didn’t know.”

Current events echo the past

“When you read the script, you understand that there is a reason you don’t know about it,” Barks said. “There is a reason that so many people don’t know about it.”

In a seemingly ominous turn of events, anti-government protests broke out as filmmakers were finishing portions of the film shot on location in Kyiv.

“When we were filming in Ukraine, we were obviously going through this really sad part of history, and then a couple of weeks later revolution started,” Barks said.

Historical events that gave rise to the film, its creators say, seemed to collide with current affairs, in a way that they hope can help Western audiences better understand the deeper context of tensions left in the wake of a Russian invasion.

Although the film’s first reviews are not all positive, director Mendeluk says such an epic undertaking would challenge even the most seasoned cinematographers.

“There is such a huge, huge canvas,” he told VOA. “We had a love story. We had Holodomor. We began with Bolshevik Revolution. We had so many things that we needed to explain, and we had to edit it down.”

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Ukrainian Service.
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Please excuse singer Phillip Sweet if he gets a little emotional when Little Big Town performs Friday night during the first-ever residency in the 125-year history of the Ryman Auditorium, a venue that helped popularize Country music.

 

“I know I am going to get so choked up that it’s going to be hard to sing,” Sweet said in an interview this week. “It’s a really emotional time for the band. It’s a lot to celebrate.”

 

Little Big Town marks a return to their roots with the album “The Breaker,” out Friday, with the No. 1 single “Better Man,” written by Taylor Swift. It’s the first single off their new record.

 

The four-piece Grammy-winning country group is also celebrating an addition to the family – singer Kimberly Schlapman recently announced that she has adopted a daughter, Dolly Grace.

 

Sweet said the timing of these milestone events has given him pause.

“It’s almost like this moment is marked by this beautiful little life that has come into our world,” he said. “And it’s so precious and special and I think it makes us truly stop and enjoy that moment in our real lives.”

 

Sweet and Schlapman, along with husband-and-wife Jimi Westbrook and Karen Fairchild, make up the vocal band that hit a career high in 2015 with the multiplatinum hit “Girl Crush,” which earned accolades at the 2016 Grammys. They also experimented outside the genre with a pop record “Wanderlust” produced by Pharrell Williams in 2016.

 

And the band didn’t let that momentum fade.

 

‘We didn’t want people to know who wrote it for a little while because we wanted everyone to hear the song with no subtext,” Sweet said of “Better Man.” “I feel like people listened with different ears because of that.”

 

In a departure from previous records, the band members only had a hand in writing three songs on the album. “Don’t Die Young, Don’t Grow Old,” co-written by Fairchild and Schlapman with “Girl Crush” writers Hillary Lindsey, Lori McKenna and Liz Rose after Westbrook’s sister Joyce died in 2015 due to cancer, has a poignant message for the band.

 

“It was kind of therapeutic for them obviously to write it,” Sweet said. “This is what you would say to someone you loved. Just a reminder to always live in the moment every chance you get.”

 

The group has a tradition on release week to play their entire album beginning to end. Friday’s show will be the first of at least nine dates they have booked at the Ryman throughout the year, with more dates likely to be added.

Built in 1892 as the Union Gospel Tabernacle, the building has become synonymous with country and bluegrass and served as the home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974. Musical icons from Elvis Presley, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, The Carter Family, Patsy Cline, Earl Scruggs and Bill Monroe have all graced its stage over the past 125 years.

 

Sally Williams, general manager of the Ryman Auditorium and vice president of concerts and entertainment at Opry Entertainment Group, said the Ryman wanted the first residency to reflect the diversity of the musicians who have performed there.

 

“We wanted to be working with someone who was genre bending, who was very firmly rooted in Country music, which is Nashville, but also very open and creative and inclusive of other genres,” Williams said. “And Little Big Town is so much that.”

 

Swift, who has said she’s not touring in 2017, performed “Better Man” during a special performance in Houston as part of the pre-Superbowl festivities, but Sweet said the band is ready if the pop star ever wants to perform the song with them.

 

“I mean, come on, Taylor,” Sweet said. “We would love to do it. If she’s up for it, we’re up for it.”
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The Librarian of Congress wants to upgrade its technology to make the eclectic mix of materials from books and photos to sheet music and baseball cards – available to people around the world. Carla Hayden became the new director of the world’s largest library five months ago, becoming the first woman and the first African-American to hold the job. VOA’s Deborah Block tells us more about the professional librarian and her plans to improve the prestigious national library in Washington, D.C.
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When the Academy Awards are handed out Sunday evening at Hollywood’s Dolby Theater, there’s a good chance that at least one of the honored films will have a protagonist of color. Four of the nine Best Picture contenders fall in that camp: “Fences,” “Hidden Figures,” “Lion” and “Moonlight.”

That’s different from just two years ago, when the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite began scolding the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for overlooking minorities in its nominations.

But Hollywood still falls short in terms of recognizing Latino talent, some observers say.  

“The Hispanic market in the United States is very important to the success or failure of a movie, but Hollywood does not pay attention to Hispanic people – either in front of or behind the scenes,” said Santiago Pozo, CEO of Arenas Entertainment, a Los Angeles-based firm that markets entertainment programing to U.S. Hispanics.

Only two Latinos are among this year’s Oscar nominees: Mexican cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, for the film “Silencio,” and American Lin-Manuel Miranda, of “Hamilton” fame, for a song (“How Far I’ll Go”) in the Disney animated movie “Moana.”

New diversity report

In their newly issued “2017 Hollywood Diversity Report,” researchers at the University of California Los Angeles found that Latinos – along with other minority groups – remained strongly underrepresented.

The researchers studied 168 theatrical films released in 2015 – the most recent year for which data could be analyzed. They also examined 1,206 television shows released during the 2014-15 season.   

The report found that though Latinos represented nearly one out of five Americans that year – almost 19 percent – they weren’t reflected proportionately in these films. It did not give a specific percentage for their representation.

Since the first annual report in 2014, “what we’ve found … is that there hasn’t been a lot of progress at all in film in terms of diversity,” said Darnell Hunt, who directs UCLA’s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies.

He noted television has done better.  

Reflecting power structure

Hunt attributed the limited film diversity to Hollywood’s power structure, in which white men run most studios and determine whether to approve a project.

“When they do decide to pursue diversity, the first thing that comes to mind as a white man is, well, African-American,” said Hunt, who is black. “They’re not thinking about Latinos in the same way. They’re not thinking about Asian-Americans in the same way. Maybe they don’t understand those communities or cultures as well as they think they understand African-Americans.”

He added that, too often, the resulting black-focused film is “stereotypical. … African-American often becomes the stand-in for diversity.”

“How many Latino names do you see in the movie credits?” echoed businessman Pozo of Arenas. “How many Latino names do you see as movie studio executives?”

One of those names in movie credits belongs to Gustavo Borner, founder and chief engineer at Igloo Music Studios, which worked on sound for “La La Land.” The musical has been nominated for Oscars in 14 categories. Borner himself has won multiple Grammys and Latin Grammys.

He downplayed discrimination in the Hollywood he knows.  

“In ‘La La Land’ alone, we already have three or four people who are Spanish speakers – Latinos,” said Gustavo Borner, a native of Argentina. “I haven’t seen any door closed to anybody because of a passport or [skin] color or whatever.”

Borner also worked on the dark comedy “Birdman,” which won several Academy Awards in 2015. The academy presented Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu with gold statues for best picture, best director and best original screenplay.

Demographics may affect films

The bottom line may push movie studios toward more diversity, Hunt said.

Films with more diverse casts do better at the box office, his study found. Minorities bought 45 percent of all movie tickets sold in the United States in 2015.

“Latinos were particularly well represented among minority ticket buyers, accounting for 23 percent of ticket purchases alone,” the study said. They “also accounted for 23 percent of all frequent moviegoers.”

“The American population is about 40 percent minority right now” and growing, Hunt pointed out. “People want to see their stories, they want to see characters that look like them, characters they can identify with.”
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Former president Barack Obama can not run again for president in the U.S., but that isn’t stopping a group of French fans who are trying to get him to run in their upcoming election.

Paris has been canvassed with “Obama17” signs, which urge people to visit a website to sign a petition for the former U.S. president to run.

According to the website, Obama is their choice “because he has the best resume in the world for the job.”

The site also alludes to the rising popularity of right-wing parties in France.

“At a time when France is about to vote massively for the extreme right, we can still give a lesson of democracy to the planet by electing a French president, a foreigner,” according to the website, which is in French.

According to ABC News, a spokesman for the group behind the website said, “We started dreaming about this idea two months before the end of Obama’s presidency. We dreamed about this possibility to vote for someone we really admire, someone who could lead us to project ourselves in a bright future.”

There’s just one catch to their plan: To be president of France, you have to be French.

The latest French polls show Marine Le Pen of the right-wing National Front party in the lead. The election will be held in April.
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The New York Times will air its first TV ad in seven years on Sunday’s broadcast of the Academy Awards on ABC, as the 166-year old newspaper looks to highlight independent journalism amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s attacks on the media as “fake news.”

The Oscars are among the pricier ad buys on television, with 30-second commercials going for between $1.9 and $2 million, according to ad-tracking firm Kantar Media. While ABC, owned by Walt Disney, does not comment on how much it receives from advertisers, a source with knowledge of negotiations said the Times’ ad buy was in that range.

The Oscars is traditionally the most-watched non-sports event broadcast in the United States.

Since Trump’s November 8 election victory, the Times has seen an uptick in digital subscribers and revenue even as its business on the print side declines. During the Times’ most recent quarter, the paper added 276,000 digital subscribers and grew digital ad revenue by nearly 11 percent, accounting for more than 40 percent of its overall ad revenues.

Building online readership

The New York Times, the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and Gannett are building on the online readership they gained during the 2016 presidential election by marketing unbiased reporting as a sales strategy.

Trump has repeatedly bashed the press. In a tweet last week citing The New York Times, NBC, ABC, CBS and CNN, he said the media was “the enemy of the American People!”

Last year’s Oscars broadcast attracted 34.4 million viewers, making it the third-lowest-rated Oscars since 1974. Still, only National Football League games and Fox’s airing of the final game of last fall’s World Series drew more viewers in 2016.

Ad a response to ‘fake news’

The New York Times commercial is part of a broader brand campaign, the paper’s first in a decade, that aims to position the newspaper as a reliable outlet in the face of the rise of the “fake news” epidemic.

The company’s 30-second commercial repeats the words “The Truth Is” on screen, with voices in background getting increasingly louder, with different endings including “our nation is more divided than ever” and “alternative facts are lies.”

The ad ends with: “The Truth is more important now than ever.”
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When people think of Cape Canaveral, Florida, they usually associate it with America’s space program. The Kennedy Space Center is where NASA launched the Saturn V rocket that put the first men on the moon in 1969.

The real Florida

Since then, the area has been the site of many more launches into space. But as national parks traveler Mikah Meyer recently discovered, there is also an abundance of wildlife and other natural wonders to explore and admire in the immediate vicinity.

At Canaveral National Seashore for example, almost 40 kilometers (24 miles) of undeveloped beach is home to more than 1,000 types of plants and more than 300 bird species.

Take a ride with Mikah

Since ancient times, this barrier island has provided sanctuary to many threatened and endangered species, including sea turtles who nest on its shores.

Mikah, who’s on a mission to visit all of the more than 400 sites within the National Park Service (NPS), found it fascinating that Canaveral National Seashore makes up the largest stretch of undeveloped beach on Florida’s East Coast.

“As somebody who drove down the entire coastline, I can tell you that there has been development along the entire Florida coast, such that everywhere either has a house or a condo or a hotel, and this is one stretch where you can go and there is no development,” he said.

That lack of development attracts many locals and tourists, who come to enjoy nature in its most primitive form. And without the pollutants that normally result from development, the water is cleaner too, Mikah noted. That, in turn, attracts fish… and fishermen.

Walking along the dunes during his recent visit, he noted how the waters were “just inundated with fishermen… as far as the eye can see… even though it was a weekday.”

Ancient landscapes

At the NPS sister park, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Mikah and his companion Andy Waldron traveled along the Black Point Wildlife Drive around several shallow marsh impoundments and through pine flatwoods.

“We saw a number of alligators of all sizes and sorts,” Mikah explained. “And a bunch of birds, not just hanging out but actively running across the water and dipping their heads in and eating and catching fish,” he added.

He also saw a wild boar in the distance, wading through the shallow water, but Mikah was most impressed with the ‘gators living so close to the ocean.

“It was very interesting the ecosystems that they live in, the natural versus salt water,” he remarked. “And just seeing a live ‘gator in the wild was so cool because so often we see them in zoos or contained areas.”

Mikah and Andy strolled along a wooded trail and a pristine, undeveloped shoreline, much like the first natives and early settlers must have done. They stayed just a short while, but long enough to imagine just how those lands and waterscapes must have seemed to all who came before them not too long ago.

Mikah invites you to learn more about his travels in Florida and all across America by visiting his website, Facebook and Instagram. natoi
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At 21, Shagofa Alikozay is a bright woman who isn’t far removed from childhood in Afghanistan, which she illustrates with her photos, sketches and poetry.

Her goal is to bring to light the challenges, problems and miseries of living in one of the world’s poorest countries, a place riven by war and religious extremism, where going to school can take a back seat to earning money and where women struggle for equality.

And now, hoping to foster change, she’s shining the light brightly, with one of her photos winning a national award and being displayed in Smithsonian museum in Washington, D.C.

The photo, of an 8-year-old boy named Pardes, was taken during a break in his work washing cars on the streets of Kabul. It is on display at the Smithsonian’s Turquoise Mountain exhibit, showing the youthful exuberance that even the drudgery of Pardes’ job can’t diminish.

“Kids are the future of Afghanistan, and that is why most of my work is focused on them,” Alikozay, who is from Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province, told VOA. “I do all this to bring a positive change in the lives of these kids.”

The photo simultaneously tells the story of the past, the present and the unknown future for the country. The cars in the background belonged to two former kings of Afghanistan, Amanullah Khan and Mohammed Zahir Shah.

Pardes, who accompanied Alikozay to the Smithsonian exhibit, hopes his flash of fame can help improve his life.

“I want to go to school and become a police officer,” he said. “I also want to do photography.”

Alikozay also is an accomplished sketch artist, has written several books, and has a blog where she publishes her own poetry and articles about Afghan kids and women. One of her poems won a BlogHer “Voices of the Year” award.

“I want back my happy homeland, my smiling faces. I want God to erase all this violence, these screaming mothers, this sky of smoke,” the poem says. “I have speech for those who would silence speech. My heart burns to explain these problems, this terror, with honesty.”
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The playwright who inspired the Oscar-nominated movie “Moonlight” has won a prize from PEN America, the literary and human rights organization.

 

Tarell Alvin McCraney received an award for best mid-career playwright, PEN announced Wednesday. McCraney’s “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue” is the basis for the acclaimed movie drama, which is up for eight nominations at Sunday night’s Academy Awards. McCraney is also known for his acclaimed “The Brother/Sister” trilogy.

 

Suzan-Lori Parks, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for her play “Topdog/Underdog,” received a PEN award for “Master American Dramatist.” Thomas Bradshaw, whose works include “Burning” and “The Bereaved,” was named best emerging playwright.

 

Other honors included the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction, given to Matthew Desmond for “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City.” The Bosnian-born Aleksandar Hemon won the Jean Stein Grant for Literary Oral History, for “How Did You Get Here?: Tales of Displacement.” Named for the author of “Edie” and other oral histories, the Stein grant is a $10,000 award “for an unpublished literary work of nonfiction that uses oral history to illuminate an event, individual, place or movement.”

 

The PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing went to Joe Nocera and Ben Strauss for “Indentured: The Inside Story of the Rebellion Against the NCAA.” British author Helen Oyeyemi’s “What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours” won the PEN Open Book Award for “an exceptional book-length work of literature by an author of color.”

 

“As global and national political discourse turn toward exclusion, PEN America continues to uphold the humanities’ place in fostering coherent dialogue,” the organization’s president, Andrew Solomon, said in a statement. “Many of this year’s honored books explore the social themes that are at the surface of our nation’s consciousness.” A dozen emerging writers received $2,000 prizes for outstanding debut short stories, including Angela Ajayi for “Galina,” Amber Caron for “The Handler” and Emily Chammah for “Tell Me, Please.”

 
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Croatian police have filed disorderly conduct charges against two people who allegedly used a racial slur to insult Hollywood actor Jamie Foxx in a restaurant.

Police said they acted after receiving reports Sunday of “particularly arrogant and rude” insults made against restaurant guests, including “one of the guests on racial grounds.”

The police statement did not name Foxx as the target, but the actor briefly posted comments about the incident on his Instagram profile before deleting them.

Foxx mentioned an offensive racial term among the examples of the vulgar language used.

Police said they are investigating whether to pursue other charges against the men.

Croatia, like other European countries, has seen a rise in far-right sentiments.

Foxx was in Dubrovnik, a resort on the Adriatic Sea, filming Robin Hood: Origins, in which he plays Little John. The Lionsgate retelling of English folklore stars Taron Egerton as the titular thief. Otto Bathurst is directing the action film, also starring Tim Minchin, Eve Hewson, Jamie Dornan and Ben Mendelsohn.

A day after the alleged racial slur, Foxx said on his Instagram profile he has his “mind blown” by the beauty of Dubrovnik.

“I’m out here in Croatia, it’s crazy,” he said.
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Nelba Marquez-Greene believes the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, which killed her 6-year-old daughter, could have been avoided if more had been done years earlier to address the social isolation and mental health problems of the shooter, Adam Lanza.

To help other vulnerable youths, Marquez-Greene, a family therapist, is working with a Connecticut school system on a program to help students connect with one another.

“I want people to remember that Adam, the person who did this, was also once 6 and in a first-grade classroom, and that if we had reached out earlier then maybe this could have changed,” Marquez-Greene said.

Marquez-Greene’s Ana Grace Project foundation, named for her slain daughter, is working with four elementary schools in New Britain, a city just west of Hartford, to teach empathy, combat bullying and help socially isolated children. Her Love Wins campaign, created with a local teacher, builds on the existing curriculum and also brings therapists and interns into the schools to help identify children who need extra help with social skills.

She is one of several people touched by the December 2012 shooting inside Sandy Hook who have become involved in the broader movement to incorporate social and emotional learning in American schools.

Scarlett Lewis, whose son Jesse was among the 20 children killed, was involved in pushing for a 2015 law that allows federal funds to be used by schools for such things as recognizing the early signs of mental illness and crisis-intervention training. She has a foundation that has developed its own social-emotional learning curriculum and is being used on a pilot basis in four schools: Rippowam Middle School in Stamford; Ka’elepulu Elementary School in Kailua, Hawaii; Washington Elementary School in Fayetteville, Arkansas and Mission Achievement and Success Charter School in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

“I believe this is an urgent matter,” Lewis said. “I believe it would have saved my son’s life, as well as the lives of other victims across the United States and reduce bullying.”

In the years before the 20-year-old Lanza carried out the massacre, he spent long stretches of time isolated in his mother’s home and had psychiatric ailments that went without treatment, according to investigators, who never pinpointed a motive for the shooting.

Marquez-Greene connected with the New Britain school district after she received a letter of condolence from Craig Muzzy, a teacher at Chamberlain Elementary School in New Britain.

Marquez-Greene and Muzzy developed the program for city schools. Muzzy already had been taking pointers from the Ana Grace Project’s website, making a reading-comprehension assignment, for example, about a student who moves into the area from a different country, and leading discussions about how to make people feel welcome.

On Valentine’s Day, Muzzy’s students took part in “Friendship Day” activities, which included making bracelets and cards to exchange. Marquez-Greene attended and helped introduce a new student, Jaden Garcia, to Muzzy’s class. She showed students how to get to know him better by asking about his favorite food (pizza), his pets (he has a cat) and his favorite sports (soccer).

Araceli Buchko, 10, made a bracelet for a friend she had made by using similar conversation starters.

“I wanted to try it out and see if they would like me,” she said. “I tried one person and it was good. We found out we had a lot in common, and she became my best friend.”

The charity has set up four Love Wins family resource centers in New Britain, including one at Chamberlain, geared toward developing the social skills of preschoolers.

In addition, it hosts a day of training for all New Britain teachers on issues such as how to deal with a child who may acting out in class because they are dealing with a divorce or a parent in prison.

The New Britain school district spends $48,000 per year to implement the Love Wins campaign in the four elementary schools. That money comes from a federal Safe Schools/Healthy Students grant. The Ana Grace Project and a private nonprofit agency provide another $40,000 per year.

School officials say they believe the Love Wins campaign is helping. They say there are fewer reports of bullying, and fewer office referrals for fights.

“But you really know it’s working when you see the children interacting with one another, when they spontaneously go over to a classmate and say, ‘How are you feeling? You look sad today,'” said Jane Perez, the Chamberlain principal. “You see it in how they work with each other now and collaborate with each other.”
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Lindsay Lohan claims she was “racially profiled” while wearing a headscarf at London’s Heathrow Airport.

 

The actress told a British talk show that she was stopped while traveling to New York.

 

She said an airport worker “opened my passport and saw ‘Lindsay Lohan’ and started immediately apologizing, but then said: ‘Please take off your headscarf.”’

 

She told “Good Morning Britain” on Tuesday that the incident made her wonder “how would another woman who doesn’t feel comfortable taking off her headscarf feel?”

 

Lohan was returning from Turkey, where she recently met President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

 

She said she wore a headscarf in Turkey out of “personal respect.”

 

Lohan, who has been photographed carrying a Quran, says she finds “solace” studying the Muslim holy book and other religious texts.

 
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Sofia Imber, who turned a garage into the Caracas Museum of Contemporary Art and became one of Venezuela’s most influential women journalists, died Monday in the capital. She was 92.

The former director of what was once among Latin America’s most important art galleries succumbed to complications due to old age, her biographer, Diego Arroyo Gil, told The Associated Press.

Imber’s television program Buenos Dias, which she hosted with her second husband from 1969 to 1993, was a landmark of Venezuelan journalism and politics. She became famous for her cutting interviews with global leaders such as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Israel’s Simon Peres and the Dalai Lama, as well as with writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

 

Social media was flooded by people lamenting her death. “Good journey, dear Sofia Imber. You gave us art, you gave us culture, you gave us an example of tireless work. That was your best piece,” humorist Eduardo Edo Sanabria said on Twitter.

In 1971, when Venezuelan authorities were looking for a place to display art, Imber famously said: “If you give me a garage, I will turn it into a museum.”

Three years after, she created a foundation to transform an auto parts garage into the first museum of modern art in Venezuela. In less than a decade, it had grown to hold pieces by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Henry Moore, Fernando Botero and many Venezuelan artists. At one point, it had more than 4,000 works and received more than 15,000 visitors a month.

Laid off by Chavez in 2001

Imber, a critic of the socialist government established by the late President Hugo Chavez, was laid off as the museum’s director by Chavez in 2001. She called her dismissal “one of the most painful moments” of her life.  

“The president forgot or did not want to recognize the courage and the dedication of this wonderful woman,” artist Jesus Soto told AP before his death in 2005.

 

Before being fired as museum director, she created a program to bring paintings and sculpture to suburbs and faraway places. In 1967, she became the first Latin American woman to win UNESCO’s Picasso Medal. She also received awards in Brazil, France, Chile, Colombia, Italy, Mexico and Spain.

“Sofia Imber took contemporary art to the most remote areas of the country,” Soto said.

Born in Soroca, Moldova, then in the former Soviet Union, she arrived in Venezuela in 1930 with her family. She later graduated from Central University of Venezuela.

Lived in Paris, Brussels

 

In 1944, she married Guillermo Meneses and they had four children. Meneses later held diplomatic posts in Paris and Brussels, where the couple met intellectuals and artists like Picasso, Andre Malraux and William Faulkner.

 

The couple divorced in 1964 and she later married journalist Carlos Rangel.

 

In a speech after being let go as director of the Caracas art museum, she said: “I want to be remembered as a worker and tireless woman.”
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The Vatican and Rome’s Jewish Museum have announced an unprecedented event  — a joint exhibit focusing on the menorah, the candelabra that is the ancient symbol of Judaism.

The exhibit will open May 15 and run through July 23, and will be simultaneously held in St. Peter’s Square and in the museum in Rome’s main synagogue.

The displays will include pieces of artwork and other exhibits from around the world, centering on the importance of the menorah in both Jewish and Christian history and culture.

Officials say the highlight will be tracing the fate of the solid-gold menorah taken by the emperor Titus when Roman soldiers destroyed the Temple of Jerusalem in the year 70 A.D.

Although paintings show the emperor carrying the menorah, it is still unknown exactly what happened to it, and there are numerous accounts of its fate.

But many historians believe it was stolen when the Vandals raided and sacked Rome in 455.

A newly found stone from the Galilee synagogue dating to the first century A.D. will be another highlight of the exhibit.

Ties between the Roman Catholic Church and world Judaism have improved immensely since 1965 when the Vatican repudiated Jewish guilt for the death of Christ.
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An agile thief nicknamed “Spiderman,” an antiques dealer and an art expert were sentenced to prison Monday and ordered to pay Paris for stealing five masterpieces from the city’s Modern Art Museum worth 104 million euros ($110 million.)

The paintings — by Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani, Braque and Fernand Leger — have not been seen since the dramatic 2010 heist.

The Paris court convicted “Spiderman” Vjeran Tomic of stealing the paintings and sentenced him to eight years in prison. Jean-Michel Corvez, the antiques dealer who orchestrated the theft, was sentenced to seven years.

Sentence ‘particularly severe’

Yonathan Birn, who stored the paintings and told the court he destroyed them out of fear of getting caught, screamed at the judge who sentenced him to six years in prison.

 

His lawyer, Caroline Toby, called Birn’s sentence “particularly severe.”

The court also jointly fined the men an eye-popping 104 million euros for the loss of the paintings, but the verdict did not detail how they might go about raising even a fraction of the fine.

Birn, a 40-year-old expert and dealer in luxury watches, previously told the court he threw the masterpieces in the trash and “made the worst mistake of my existence.”

Masterpieces smuggled out of France

Investigators think the paintings were smuggled out of France, although they were not able to prove that, court documents showed. Birn’s co-defendants testified he was “too smart” to destroy the masterpieces.

Tomic, a thief with 14 previous convictions, said before sentencing that he got a buzz from the May 20, 2010, overnight break-in. He took advantage of failures in the security, alarm and video-surveillance systems to move around the high-ceilinged museum near the Eiffel Tower.

“It’s quite spectacular. There is an adrenaline rush the moment you enter the space,” he said. “The sounds resonate from one side to the other.”

Authorities found climbing gear at his home: gloves, ropes, climbing shoes and suction cups. He removed the glass from a bay window without breaking it and cut the padlock of the metal grid behind it, allowing him to move from one room to another without raising the security alarm.

Tomic was there to steal a painting by Fernand Leger and possibly a Modigliani ordered by Corvez, the 61-year-old antiques dealer who confessed to being a receiver of stolen goods. Tomic said when he came across the Picasso, the Matisse and the Braque paintings, he decided to take them as well.

‘Totally stunned’

Several hours after the headline-making burglary, Tomic said he offered the five paintings to Corvez, who said he was “totally stunned” by them.

Corvez said he initially gave Tomic a plastic bag containing 40,000 euros ($43,000) in small denominations just for the Leger, because he was unsure he would get buyers for the other paintings.

Corvez then became worried about keeping the artworks in his shop after several months and showed them to his friend Birn, who agreed to buy the Modigliani for 80,000 euros ($86,000) and to store the others in his studio. The Modigliani was hidden in a bank safe, he said.

Birn said he panicked when police began investigating. He says one day in May 2011 he retrieved the Modigliani from the safe, returned to his workshop to break the stretcher bars on all the canvasses with fierce kicks and then threw them all into the building’s trash.
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During the most recent New York Fashion Week, several designers took the opportunity to make political statements with their clothing. Others, like Indonesian designer Anniesa Hasibuan, found that remaining true to her roots was a statement in and of itself. Tina Trinh reports from New York.
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Dry Tortugas is a chain of small islands about 113 kilometers (70 miles) west of Key West, Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico. To get there, national parks traveler Mikah Meyer took a sea plane from the southernmost city in the continental United States.

Dry Tortugas National Park

Part of the National Park Service, the 259 square-kilometer (100 square-mile) park is mostly open water with seven small islands, home to beautiful coral reefs, a vast assortment of bird and marine life, and a magnificent 19th-century fort.

Watch video report:

Mikah, who’s on a mission to visit all of the more than 400 NPS sites, says the journey to the remote islands was as much fun as his destination.

Picturesque journey

“It was really cool as we took off from Key West, first to be able to see the city of Key West … then to see all these really interesting different shades of blue.”

Flying over the shallow waters, Mikah also had an opportunity to spot a variety of wildlife.

“Our pilot told us in a lot of places it’s just 4 to 6 feet (1 to 2 meters), and so this makes it really great as you’re flying over because I saw sea turtles, I saw the shadow of a giant shark, and sometimes you can see dolphins.”

Dry Tortugas derives its name from the Spanish word for turtles, which the park is famous for. Hundreds of the endangered reptiles annually nest in the area. Its underwater treasures also include beautiful coral reefs and an abundance of marine life.

Fort Jefferson

Another popular feature of the islands is Fort Jefferson, a massive but unfinished coastal fortress built in 1847. Made with millions of bricks, it’s one of the most ambitious and extensive fortifications constructed in the United States. “It’s massive in size,” Mikah said. “Way bigger than most of the others I’d been to.”

The fort was never completed because during the 30 years it was under construction, advancements in rifled artillery developed and used during the Civil War meant that the unreinforced masonry walls wouldn’t stand up to a prolonged bombardment.

But even though it was never attacked, Fort Jefferson fulfilled its intended role: to protect the peace and prosperity of a young nation, through deterrence.

It was used as a military prison during the Civil War, mainly for Union deserters. And the conspirators who were involved in President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination were also held there.

 

Jailbird dreams

Its most famous prisoner was Dr. Samuel Mudd, the physician who set the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln’s assassin. Mikah relived a little history by walking into a space that was once the physician’s jail cell.

Mikah says the tour guide told him Mudd tried to escape once. “They made the prisoners do manual labor and he tried to sneak out on a boat.” But the prison environment was similar to the former Alcatraz prison off San Francisco, California, he explained, which is also surrounded by water. “Can you imagine being a prisoner and you’re 70 miles away across shark-infested waters from the closest town?”

Mikah said he felt lucky to be able to visit a remote area of the U.S. rich with history, and man-made as well as natural treasures.

“It’s another example of how the park service has multiple island locations that skirt the continent that you can really experience a wide array of sights when you go to the national parks.”

Mikah invites you to follow him on his website, Facebook and Instagram.
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This is the Top Five Countdown! We’re rewarding the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart, for the week ending February 18, 2017.

Welcome to our post-Grammy countdown, which sees “nearly” all the artists participating in the big weekend.

 

Number 5: The Chainsmokers Featuring Halsey “Closer”

The Chainsmokers and Halsey weaken two slots, as their former 12-week champ “Closer” falls to number five.  Grammy night proved turbulent for the duo: on the positive side, they won the Best Dance Recording trophy for “Don’t Let Me Down,” featuring Daya. They drew the wrath of some David Bowie fans, however, by accepting the Best Rock Song award for the late rock legend’s composition “Blackstar.”

Number 4: Machine Gun Kelly & Camila Cabello “Bad Things”

Holding in fourth place are Machine Gun Kelly and Camila Cabello, who marked a milestone on Sunday when Cabello made her solo red carpet debut at the Grammy Awards. It marked her first such appearance since leaving Fifth Harmony on December 18. She also presented the Best Country Solo Performance Grammy, which was won by Maren Morris for “My Church.”

One of Grammy’s biggest stars was missing in action Sunday…

Number 3: Zayn & Taylor Swift “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever”

Zayn and Taylor Swift climb two slots to third place with their Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack hit “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever.”

Last year, Swift took home three Grammy awards, including Album Of The Year for 1989. This year, she had no nominations – for the first time since 2011. Swift was one of the highest-profile Grammy no-shows, along with Justin Bieber, Drake and Kanye West.

Number 2: Migos Featuring Lil Uzi Vert “Bad And Boujee”

Grammy weekend didn’t go so well for our runner-up act: Migos and Lil Uzi Vert lose their singles lead as “Bad And Boujee” falls a slot to second place.

Grammy weekend was an adventure for the Atlanta rappers: it started when group member Offset was kicked off an airliner for refusing to stop talking on his phone. Hours later, police raided Migos’ pre-Grammy party in Beverly Hills. TMZ reports that a number of guests reportedly received citations, but it’s unclear whether Migos will face any legal action.

Number 1: Ed Sheeran “Shape of You”

Only one of our Top Five artists performed at the Grammys, and he turns out to be the one wearing the crown.  Ed Sheeran returns to the Hot 100 summit for a second total week with “Shape Of You.” He performed that song on Sunday at the Grammy Awards telecast. Last year Ed won two trophies; this year he failed to collect on his sole nomination: Song Of The Year, for “Love Yourself.”
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Two documentaries on the plight of refugees off the Italian coast and the Greek coast, respectively, have received Oscar nominations this year.

Fire at Sea by Gianfranco Rossi has been selected in the Documentary category and 4.1 Miles by Daphne Matziaraki has been nominated in the Short Documentary category.

Rossi’s stunning camera frames the island of Lampedusa as one of the characters in his film. Remote and rather desolate, its rocky shores are forbidding to any who would attempt to swim ashore. But over the past 20 years, this tiny Italian island, 120 kilometers off the Sicilian coast and 70 kilometers off the coast of Tunisia, has become a gateway to Europe for close to half a million refugees from Northern Africa and the Middle East. Twenty-seven thousand people have lost their lives there.

WATCH: Documentaries highlight refugee crisis

Constantly searching

The Italian Coast Guard is constantly searching the open sea for makeshift boats overflowing with hundreds of souls, most of them women and children.

Rossi’s documentary captures the drama. In one instance, one member of the Coast Guard receives a desperate call from a woman who is pleading for help. Time is of the essence; if the Coast Guard does not get to them immediately, they will drown.

Rossi’s documentary shows the migrant drama unfolding next to the quiet lives of unassuming islanders.

In an interview with VOA, Rossi said that these two communities, the islanders and the migrants, never meet.  He says he wanted to show Lampedusa not only as an actual place of migration but also as a metaphor of what’s happening in the world. “Two forces that barely touch each other, and they never meet,” he says.

Samuele is the focus

He centers his film on Samuele, a Sicilian boy living on the island. A professed hunter among seafaring people, Samuele is hunting birds, pointing his imaginary automatic rifle to the skies and shooting unseen enemies, training his expert slingshot on hapless cacti. Rossi likens him to a humanity that has not yet reached maturity. Samuele is exuberant and destructive but also tenacious and introspective when he is called to train his lazy eye by covering the good one.

“Samuele is a constant metaphor. The little kid is a coming-of-age film, the capacity of this little kid to face life. The anxiety of Samuele is our own anxiety. The wonder of Samuele is our own wondering. The lazy eye of Samuele is our lazy eye.”

Voice of reason

On the other end of the spectrum is a doctor, Bartolo. As the only physician on the island, Bartolo is the person in which the two worlds meet. He examines every single refugee coming to Lampedusa and confirms the dead. Bartolo is the film’s voice of reason and compassion. He decries the indifference of the world toward such humanitarian crises.

“All this leaves you so angry. It leaves you with emptiness in your gut, a hole,” he says.

The refugee crisis is also at the center of Matziaraki’s 4.1 Miles. The film chronicles around-the-clock rescue missions off the Greek island of Lesbos. Kyriakos, a member of the Greek Coast Guard and the main character in the story, says that he and his team are called to rescue 200 people per hour.

Kyriakos a quiet hero

According to the film, in 2015 and 2016, 600,000 migrants crossed the 6.1 kilometers — 4.1 miles — of water between Turkey and Lesbos.

Matziaraki’s documentary is visceral. Often shooting with cameras attached to rescuers’ heads so that we experience the moment-to-moment rescue, she conveys how every second of pulling someone out of the water makes a difference between life and death.

Kyriakos is a modern-day hero, quiet, collected, but also dismayed by what he has witnessed. The camera often closes in on his tired face, describing what we cannot see. 4.1 Miles is also more openly critical than Fire at Sea of the world community that, as the inhabitants of Lesbos say, has abandoned both islanders and refugees.

“I was proposing Lampedusa and Lesbos for the Nobel Prize, you know,” says Rossi during his VOA interview. “These two special islands in the middle of nowhere that welcome migrants from all over the world.”

Focus on refugees’ ordeal

He has arrived in our Los Angeles studio straight from the airport, after a 17-hour flight from Japan. Talking about the recognition of his film by the Academy, Rossi says, “The idea that we brought the Sea of Lampedusa to the desert of California was an incredible arrival for me because ultimately migration is a transverse tragedy. The Sea of Lampedusa is the desert of California. People here die in the desert as much as people die crossing the water in order to reach freedom.”

Rossi hopes Fire at Sea helps bring awareness about the refugees’ ordeal.

“There is a voice in my film, at a certain point, of migrants. They ask for help: ‘Please help! Help!’ They are dying in the middle of the sea, and the Coast Guard asks, ‘What’s your position? What’s your position?’ This is a very important moment. I wanted to reverse this and have people ask themselves, ‘What’s my position towards this tragedy? Where do I stand?’ This is what I want the film to do.”
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