Monday, April 30, 2018
Saturday, April 28, 2018
Irish director invited to Cannes to meet producers By Cahir O'Doherty
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| Photo Credit: Imelda O'Reilly www.imeldaoreilly.com |
Irish writer and director Imelda O'Reilly has just been invited to the Cannes Film Festival where her latest project We're The Kids In America has been selected for development by the Cinefondation Atelier program
The invitation will allow O'Reilly to showcase her projects to producers and potential funding partners. We shouldn't be surprised. Ireland is having a major film moment, with writers, actors and directors making big waves world wide – to say nothing of the sought after location scenery - and the interest just seems to keep on growing. This week the Kildare born, New York based writer and director heard the welcome news that her latest film, We're The Kids In America, has been picked up for development in the Cinefondation Atelier program which runs as part of the Cannes Film Festival. Established back in 2005 with the aim of encouraging new films and fostering a new generation of filmmakers by helping them to secure necessary funding, to date the Atelier program has introduced 202 projects, of which 145 have already been completed and 28 are currently in pre-production. It's success rate stands at an impressive eighty percent for new features, in other words. Those are encouraging odds for the Irish writer and director. “The feature length screenplay of We're The Kids Of America is based on my short film Eggs and Soldiers (which has already played at forty seven different festivals across nine different countries). It has been accepted to the Cinefondation Atelier, part of the Cannes Film Festival, they accept 15 films internationally and I will representing Ireland in the competition this year. O'Reilly's new feature length screenplay is about three generations of Irish father's and son's. It's set in Ireland in 1950's, Ireland in the 1980's and then New York in the present day, exploring classic Irish themes of identity, exile and in this case abuse in relationship to the legacy of colonization. If she were to describe the film in one word she would say it is about culpability, O'Reilly says. “It's a relevant theme to today's world with the Me Too movement and the question of culpability has an Irish context. In terms of issues being handed down from generation to generation, Ireland still has a long way to go. There's a lot of great storytelling that's coming out of Ireland now and hopefully our generation will tackle thorny issues that have previously been ignored.” O'Reilly is currently working as an assistant professor at James Madison University after teaching at NYU Singapore in their graduate program for three years. “I teach screen writing and film aesthetics and directing down here in Virginia at the moment,” she says. Getting selected for the Cinefondation Atelier program is a big deal, but O'Reilly underplays it. “I think I'm the first Irishwoman to be selected for it. They basically endorse your project and set up meetings with producers for an international co-production. Eighty percent of the projects that go through this process get funded.” O'Reilly has the legendary Barbara De Fina attached as a co-producer for We're The Kids In America (Martin Scorsese's ex-wife and the name behind films like Goodfellas, Casino, The Color of Money, Kundun, The Last Temptation of Christ and The Grifters). “I'm looking for a European co-producer next, so I'm looking forward to the program,” O'Reilly concludes. Irish Central
Friday, April 27, 2018
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
Germany to give additional €1 billion in aid to Syria
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| Photo Credit: Euro Symbol-EU Flag/ www.shutterstock.com |
WhatsApp to raise minimum age limit to 16 in EU
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| Photo Credit: WhatsApp/BBC/Getty Images |
Saturday, April 21, 2018
Tens of thousands expected to attend as Los Angeles Times Festival of Books kicks off By Brittny Mejia
Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend this weekend's Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the largest event of its kind in the country. The
23rd annual festival, which celebrates reading and storytelling, got
underway at 10 a.m. Saturday at the USC campus near downtown L.A.
Authors participating in this year's event include Junot Díaz, Reza
Aslan, Maria Shriver and Leslie Odom Jr. In
addition to the author panels, there are hundreds of booths showcasing
the things that make L.A. a great literary city. Campus eateries are
open, and food trucks parked at four locations. There is also music, cooking demonstrations and other activities. More than 150,000 people attended last year's event. Novak, an Orange County resident, has been coming to the festival off and on for 10 years. "We're
big readers, so we love seeing all the booksellers and what they have
on sale," Novak said. "But we also love the opportunity to hear the
writers come and talk about their latest books and hear them talk with
other writers." Los Angeles Times
Le Big Mac: Emmanuel Macron’s rise and rise By Lara Marlowe
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| Photo Credit: French President Emmanuel Macron www.liberation.fr |
President Emmanuel Macron
likes to convince people. In manner and method, he is unlike his
predecessors. Nicolas Sarkozy cajoled and bullied. François Hollande
just gave up. Macron fixes interlocutors with his intense blue stare and
builds a Cartesian argument. If that doesn’t work, he starts over,
patiently, but with determination. The past week has tested the young
president’s powers of persuasion. Early in the hours of April 14th,
Macron used his constitutional power as commander in chief for the first
time, joining the US and Britain in launching cruise missiles against
three chemical weapons installations in Syria. The goal, Macron said
later, was to convince Bashar al Assad and Vladimir Putin that the
international community was more than a “nice” and “weak” body they
could push around. In a further exercise in
persuasion, Macron volunteered for a combative, 2½ hour live television
interview on Sunday night, during which he made the surprising claim
that, “Ten days ago, President Trump said the US would pull out of
Syria. We convinced him it was necessary to stay for the duration.” The White House later issued a
statement saying Trump’s view had not changed, and the French president
made an embarrassing climbdown on Monday, claiming he “never said” the
US or France would remain militarily engaged in Syria for the long term. Perhaps Macron, whose nickname is “Jupiter”, is threatened by hubris, the sin of pride that afflicted Greek gods. The rest of the week was one long
attempt to convince Europeans and the French of the rightness of his
positions. Macron – who has become the de facto leader of Europe
– received the heads of the three Baltic states who have teamed up with
five other northern EU countries, including the Netherlands and Ireland, to thwart his efforts to further integrate the euro zone. Then, before a more sympathetic
audience at the EU parliament in Strasbourg, Macron pleaded with
proponents of liberal democracy to wake up and oppose the populist
authoritarians who deny European values. Macron then travelled to Berlin
in yet another effort to enlist German chancellor Angela Merkel’s
support for his European reform agenda. On Monday, Macron will go to
Washington for a three-day state visit, the first of Trump’s
presidential term. Although the two men have clashed on climate change,
the Iran nuclear accord, trade protectionism and the rise of
Eurosceptical populism, Trump appears to have been charmed by the young
president, who says Franco-American co-operation is crucial in the fight
against terrorism. The Irish Times
Smyths Toys to buy Toys R Us in Germany, Austria and Switzerland By Mark Paul
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| Photo Credit: The Irish Times |
Smyths Toys, the Mayo family-owned retailing group, will almost double in size after agreeing to a huge deal to buy rival, Toys R Us, in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The deal will add a further 90 stores to the group’s network of 110 outlets which are located in Ireland
and, mostly, the UK. Smyths, which already had group sales estimated at
about €600 million, is now among the largest specialist toys retailers
in Europe. Smyths is now targeting further European expansion. The Irish Times
Wednesday, April 18, 2018
Caruso - Luciano Pavarotti & Lucio Dalla
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| Photo Credit: Luciano Pavarotti & Lucio Dalla www.apotis4stis5.com |
"Caruso" is a song written by Italian singer-songwriter Lucio Dalla in 1986. It is dedicated to Enrico Caruso, an Italian tenor. Following Lucio Dalla's death, the song entered the Italian Singles Chart, peaking at number two for two consecutive weeks. The single was also certified platinum by the Federation of the Italian Music Industry. Wikipedia
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
Austrian Max Hollein new head of New York's Met
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| Photo Credit: Deutsche Welle/Städel Museum |
A year-long search for the next director of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art has come to an end; Vienna-born art historian and former head of prestigious museums in Frankfurt, Max Hollein, has been chosen.
A gifted leader
The Met noted in a press statement that Hollein had been elected at a meeting of the Board of Trustees as he "has demonstrated exceptional skill at building collections, diversifying audiences, and broadening institutional development." During his tenure at Frankfurt's Städel, the museum had notably doubled its exhibition space. At the same time, Hollein oversaw the development of digital strategies and evidenced an uncanny ability at managing exhibitions and collections of artworks spanning centuries, even millennia.
"Max is a gifted leader and is exceptionally well qualified to serve as our next director," said Dan Weiss, the Met's president and CEO. "I am confident that ours will be a strong and fruitful partnership, and that Max will help advance the Met's role as a global leader for culture and the arts."
An appointment during difficult times
Hollein's appointment is the first in 60 years that did not come from within the museum's internal ranks. The 10th person to occupy the Met's top post, Hollein succeeds Thomas Campbell, a British tapestries expert, who had been in the role since 2009. He enters the position in a difficult era; the Met, which has some seven million visitors each year, has had to cut costs and curb hiring after running a $10 million deficit during the 2016-17 fiscal year. Most recently, the museum made headlines for its decision to charge an admission fee for visitors from outside New York state. Previously, the museum's entrance fee was a suggested donation only. ct/eg (AFP, kna) DW-Deutsche Welle
Friday, April 6, 2018
What is Germany’s dual education system — and why do other countries want it?
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| Photo Credit: Deutsche Welle April 6, 2018 Getty Images/S. Gallup |
Theory and practice
"The basic idea is duality," said Ralf Hermann, head of the German Office for International Cooperation in Vocational Education and Training (GOVET). "That means integrating school-based learning with work-based practice." Like most apprentices, Falke spends a few days a week at college learning foundation skills, such as math and language, as well as the theory underpinning her work. The rest of her time is spent mainly in the office designing products. The balance means she is able to produce technical drawings to industry standards and interact with her clients in English. "A broader education in school is necessary to provide the soft skills that make responsible young people," said Hermann, who points to the need for flexibility in a rapidly changing digital economy. "Occupations have a broader sense of skills than mere training for one particular job."
Outside interest
Vocational training exists in many countries, but such schemes are rarely as popular as in Germany. More young people follow VET programs than go to university, even though many are qualified for further study. Apprenticeships are standardized across the country — every product designer must study the same textbooks and be familiar with the same design tools — so employment prospects do not vary greatly by college or company. Most join their training company after three years of low-paid work and study. This is important for the German economy, which has one of the lowest youth unemployment rates in the EU, and also the largest trade surplus. In 2017 Germany exported €1.279 trillion ($1.571 trillion) worth of goods and imported €1.034 trillion. Some countries looking to balance their trade books are keen to learn from the German model. Ivanka Trump, adviser to protectionist US President Donald Trump, has expressed interest in bringing dual vocational training schemes to the US. Speaking to German weekly Wirtschaftswoche last year, Ms. Trump described Germany's apprenticeship system as "a great trailblazer." "The perception of our international partners is quite right," said Hermann. "Part of the economic stability in Germany is due to the core elements of the VET, in that we produce a workforce that is ready for the labor markets."
History of training
One reason for VET's success in Germany is a culture of apprenticeships that stretches back to the middle ages. The practical component of study is so pervasive in German education that many young people even opt for semi-vocational university courses. "This mixture you can't find in any other concept," said Marius Berger, a salesman at a German car manufacturer. The 27-year-old completed a dual study program in automotive retail, alternating 50/50 between three-month stints at university and internships at the company's headquarters. He graduated with a Bachelor's degree in 2012 and has stayed with the company since. "I searched for the possibility to combine my love for German cars with a good economic study program," said Berger. "For me it wasn't an option to do a normal Bachelor degree without any practical part." But feeding such systems into countries without a culture of vocational training poses problems. While Germany provides technical advice to countries looking to implement VET systems, such as Mexico and Russia, organizations such as GOVET are hesitant to describe vocational education as an export hit. "A system that has grown in Germany under very specific conditions cannot just be exported to another country under very different conditions," said Hermann. DW-Deutsche Welle
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
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