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As the land reform programme of Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president, enters its endgame, and his government attempts to grab the last remaining farms still under white ownership, one white farm owner is standing against the forced seizure of the land he bought, legally, in the 1980s, from Mugabe's own government: Mike Campbell.
Despite the banning of most international media from Zimbabwe, British filmmakers Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson snuck into the country, at great physical peril, to film an extraordinary documentary about Campbell's quest to take Mugabe to an international court and to stop the dictator from stealing his land, handing it to political cronies, and further destroying the once-impressive agricultural base of Zimbabwe.
Lucy Bailey joins Al Jazeera's head of entertainment, Amanda Palmer, and the FPS audience for a Q&A about this widely acclaimed film, and the incredible, scary making-of story behind it.
Martin Scorsese and the World Cinema Foundation
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| Amanda Palmer with Martin Scorsese |
A few months ago, director Martin Scorsese made his first-ever visit to the Middle East.
He was not there to promote his latest blockbuster - he was there in support of the World Cinema Foundation (WCF), and the public, outdoor screening of the WCF's restored version of the 1969 Egyptian classic The Mummy at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival.
Scorsese talks to Amanda Palmer about The Mummy and the WCF, which he helped to establish in 2007 as an extension of his long-time efforts towards film preservation.
He also reveals the very personal reasons that led to his life-long interest in "spreading the word" about films not just from Hollywood but from around the world.
Garapa
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| Garapa |
Garapa is the sugar-water fed to starving children in Brazil to temporarily quell the pangs of hunger.
In a gritty, searing and intimate new documentary, acclaimed filmmaker José Padilha examines the huge problem of starvation from the most personal and human-sized level possible: by spending time with the residents of a small, cripplingly impoverished village and telling their stories with minimal editorial interference.
After the international success of his previous two features, Elite Squad and Bus 174, Padilha could have launched pretty much any film he chose. The fact that he chose this grim, uncommercial but important subject tells a lot about the man, and he talks to FPS about his passion for this project.
This episode of The Fabulous Picture Show can be seen from Thursday, January 28, at the following times GMT: Thursday: 0600, 1630; Friday: 0130, 0830; Saturday: 1130, 2330; Sunday: 0630, 2030; Monday: 1430; Tuesday: 1930; Wednesday: 0300.
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