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Kevin Lewis never had a chance. Growing up on a poverty-stricken council estate in London, beaten and starved by his parents, bullied at school and ultimately abandoned by social services, his life was never his own.
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| Actor Augustus Prew and director Nick Moran join Amanda Palmer, Al Jazeera's head of entertainment |
Even after he was put into care, he found himself on the streets, caught up in a criminal underworld of bare-knuckle fighting that knew him as "The Kid".
Nick Moran, an actor (Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels) turned director, adapts Lewis's best-selling account of his experiences into one of the more inspirational biopics of recent memory.
Along with Augustus Prew, who portrays Kevin as a brutalised teenager, Moran joins Amanda Palmer, Al Jazeera's head of entertainment, and the FPS audience to discuss this moving depiction of a young man's escape from a brutal upbringing to his emergence as a best-selling author of crime fiction.
Revolucion
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| Gael Garcia Bernal directs his segment of Revolucion |
September 2010 marks the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution against the dictator Porfirio Diaz.
To help celebrate the occasion, 10 of Mexico's top filmmakers have contributed revolution-themed short films to an omnibus called Revolucion.
The films run the thematic gamut, painting a portrait of modern Mexico in light of the events of a hundred years ago.
FPS talks to some of the filmmakers behind this historic production, including acclaimed director Carlos Reygadas and international stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna.
Cinema Jenin
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| Cinema Jenin finally opens after months of renovation |
When German filmmaker Marcus Vetter wanted to show his award-winning documentary Heart of Jenin to the people it was about, he learned that the West Bank town had no cinema.
The last cinema had closed in 1987, during the first intifada, and the pressures of living under occupation had halted nearly all cultural activity.
The Fabulous Picture Show goes to Jenin to tell the story of how Vetter, a local project manager Fakhri Hamad, and the subject of Vetter's film, Ismael Khatib, set about renovating the burnt-out shell of Cinema Jenin into a working cinema and cultural center.
We join the three of them in the hectic final days as they prepare the grand opening of their $1mn refurbishment. But how will their dream be received in this socially conservative community?
This episode of The Fabulous Picture Show can be seen from Thursday, September 16, 2010 at the following times GMT: Thursday: 0600; Friday: 0030, 0830; Saturday: 1130, 2330; Sunday: 0630, 2130; Monday: 1430; Tuesday: 0530, 1230; Wednesday: 0300.
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