Month: January 2006

Christa Case visits Jerada, Morocco, and profiles Aziz Hammouin, a young man looking to immigrate to Europe in search for a job.

Literary Arts is hosting novelists Paul Auster and Siri Hustvedt, as part of its Portland Arts and Lectures series. The event will take place on January 24th. Details and tickets here.

I finally watched the Golden Globes yesterday. (I usually tape award shows and then fast forward through all the boring stuff, all the better to savor idiotic moments–like when Dennis Quaid said that “Brokeback Mountain” was the kind of movie that rhymed with “chick flick,” or when Harrison Ford handed his vodka to Virginia Madsen, as if she were his cocktail waitress.)

There were few surprises, of course, except for this: The Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film went to Hany Abu-Assad for Paradise Now. I’ve written about this great film before, and if you haven’t seen it yet, look for it on DVD starting March 21st.

Those of you in L.A. may be interested in a panel discussion with the director that will take place tonight at the University of Judaism on Mulholland Drive, in Bel-Air. Details here.

If you’ve come to Moorishgirl through the Times of London mention, welcome. Take a look around at the archives: book reviews, the petri dish, book recommendations, news & politics, personal stuff, etc. And, of course, feel free to write me and let me know what you think.

The National Book Critics Circle has announced finalists for its award. In the fiction category, the shortlist includes:

• E.L. Doctorow, The March
• Mary Gaitskill, Veronica
• Andrea Levy, Small Island
• Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go
• William Vollman, Europe Central

In general non-fiction, the finalists are:

• Svetlana Alexievich, Voices From Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster
• Robert Fisk, The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East
• Ellen Meloy, Eating Stone: Imagination and the Loss of the Wild
• Caroline Moorehead, Human Cargo: A Journey Among Refugees
• Anthony Shadid, Night Draws Near: Iraq’s People in the Shadow of America’s War

In the “autobiography” category, Joan Didion was, of course, nominated, as were Orhan Pamuk (for Istanbul) and Vikram Seth (for Two Lives).

If you’ve been to the movies recently, you may have noticed trailers for Something New, a romantic comedy starring Sanaa Lathan and Simon Baker that will be released February 3rd. What you may not know is that the film is directed by a young Moroccan-American filmmaker, Sanaa Hamri. Hamri came to the United States at age seventeen to start college. Shortly after graduating, she began working in the music video industry, making a name for herself by directing videos for Mariah Carey, Prince, India.Arie, Dr. Dre, Jay Z., Jadakiss, Sting, Destiny’s Child, and others. “Something New” is her feature film debut. You can watch the trailer here.

Related:
Wikipedia: Sanaa Hamri
Wafin: Sanaa Hamri