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Movies a passion for Emirati filmmaker Majid Abdulrazak
Movies a passion for Emirati filmmaker Majid Abdulrazak Dhanusha Gokulan / 17 October 2013 Majid Abdulrazak has written, directed, acted in and produced three movies since his first film, Eqaab Bitten by the movie bug For Emirati filmmaker Majid Abdulrazak, the turning point in his life was when he read The Count of Monte Cristo, the 1844 novel by French novelist Alexandre Dumas. “Everyone has a turning point in their life, mine was when I finished The Count of Monte Cristo. I read the comic version for the first time when I was 13 and since then, I have always kept a copy of it near me. Even now I have about 15 copies at home,” said Majid. Another turning point in Majid’s life was when he met British author Wilfred Thesiger, popularly known as Mubarak bin London among bedouins. Majid’s wife brought Thesiger to their house when he was visiting the country. “It was in the 80s. I was sleeping at home and he walked into our house. I felt I was dreaming and it took me a while to understand that he was really there. Back then, I did not even dream that I would be making a movie based on his travels,” said Majid. He got candid with Khaleej Times about his passion for cinema, his early inspirations, his chance meeting with Thesiger, the challenges he has had to face as a filmmaker, and his latest movie Bani Adam. He is the first Emirati to have made two full-length feature films, spending millions of dirhams on his movies. “I used to run a successful business making furniture in the 80s. But I was not happy doing that. I understood that my true calling was being a filmmaker,” said Majid. A self-professed loner and traveller, Majid takes time off and travels for over a month while conceptualising a movie. “Pre-production and post-production can be done at leisure, but shooting is when your time is most precious,” he said. The Emirati filmmaker has written, directed, acted in and produced three movies since his first film Eqaab, based on The Count of Monte Cristo, which released in 2006. The bug for a career in the film industry bit him at a very young age. However he forayed into the industry only recently. “Cinema is still young here. I come from a very orthodox family and I still face severe criticism from my family for being a filmmaker. In their eyes, being in this industry equals being an entertainer. My family does watch my movies, but they do not discuss or talk about it, and it is considered a taboo subject,” said Majid. However, he continued to pursue his dreams and went on to fulfill his biggest dream of being a moviemaker. A love triangle Bani Adam will be released in cinemas in the GCC on November 7. The film depicts the realities of life in the Gulf and portrays a dramatic love triangle. Sultan, a rich man, suffers from childhood guilt; Salem is from a low-income family; and Khalil, Sultan’s treasurer, ishes for his daughter Maitha to marry Sultan, who’s in love with Maha. To further complicate matters, Maha and Maitha are both in love with Salem. An interesting plot, Bani Adam promises to be a good watch, according to Majid. “The film has commercial elements and is also an intelligent movie. My only request to local people is that they take time and watch the movie. Only if there is support from the local public will movie makers like me be able to make more movies,” said Majid. Since Eqaab, he has made two other movies — The Arabian Sands, based on Thesiger’s travels across the Empty Quarter; and Bani Adams, which is a tragic love story. Eqaab, according to the director, was an ambitious project. Shot simultaneously in three different languages, it was to have been released in Urdu, Arabic, and Persian. “Finally we released the movie in Arabic and Urdu. I think it was due to lack of good publicity, that the movie did not do well,” he said. Majid believes that there is no dearth of talent in the country; however, there is a shortage of interest amongst local people. “People here still prefer watching Hollywood or Bollywood movies,” he said. “Bollywood movies today are not like how they used to be. I happened to see the new Hindi release Besharam, and I walked out of the theatre after 10 minutes. I grew up watching Hindi movies made in the 40s and 50s. I am still a very big fan of veteran actor Dilip Kumar. At that time, those were the only movies we had access to.” The uniqueness in Majid’s approach to filmmaking is that he understands the artistic value and hard work behind making good cinema. However, he said that pleasing the local audiences remains the biggest challenge for filmmakers because people prefer commercial cinema from Bollywood and Hollywood to cinema by local filmmakers. — dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
Cool Planet Announces Launch of Cool Terra™ Biochar Soil Amendment
Reduces Atmospheric CO2 and Increases Crop Yields Field trial opportunities available through the Cool Planet biochar team October 15, 2013 08:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Co. & AMHERST, Mass.–(EON: Enhanced Online News)–Cool Planet Energy Systems, a developer of small-scale bio refineries for the conversion of non-food biomass into biofuels and soil enhancing biochar, announced today the launch of their biochar soil amendment product “Cool Terra™” for commercial agricultural trials. Rick Wilson, Vice President of the Cool Planet Biochar Group, made the announcement at the 2013 US Biochar conference. Cool Planet has assembled one of the top biochar research teams in the world to develop and produce high-performance biochar soil amendments designed for specific applications. The company plans to continue expanding application opportunities with selected partners in the agricultural community leading to commercial product release in 2014. “We are excited about the opportunity to combine science with the real life practical experience of our agriculture industry partners to progress the use of biochar. This work will allow our Carbon Negative fuel technology to improve crop production while delivering environmental benefits” . “We are excited about the opportunity to combine science with the real life practical experience of our agriculture industry partners to progress the use of biochar. This work will allow our Carbon Negative fuel technology to improve crop production while delivering environmental benefits,” said Cool Planet CEO Howard Janzen. Cool Planet, a sponsor of the 2013 North American Biochar Symposium, will discuss the potential impact of the market-driven application of biochar in decarbonizing the atmosphere at the conference being held in Amherst, MA Oct 13 – 16. Cool Planet has shown yield improvements consistently averaging 60% and input reductions of 40%, combined with accelerated growth rates, in commercial field trials in California, enabling cost-effective farming in regions with structured drought such as California and Arizona. “We are already in commercial trials with our proprietary Cool Terra™ biochar soil amendment, and with this launch we plan to add new partners that will lead to large-scale commercialization,” said Rick Wilson of Cool Planet. “We are also making experimental quantities of our activated biochar available through our website.” About Cool Planet Cool Planet is deploying disruptive technology through capital efficient, small scale biorefineries, to economically convert non-food biomass into high-octane, drop-in biofuels. The process also generates value through biochar production, which can be returned to the soil, with the “Cool Terra™ product enabling fertilizer and water retention for increased crop productivity, and more robust plant health. The process can be carbon negative, removing over 100 percent of the carbon footprint for every gallon used, reversing the consequences of fossil fuels. Cool Planet’s technology has a broad portfolio of pending and granted patents. Global investors include BP, Google Ventures, Energy Technology Ventures (GE, ConocoPhillips, NRG Energy), and the Constellation division of Exelon. Connect with Cool Planet on Facebook at facebook.com/CoolPlanetEnergySystems, on Twitter at twitter.com/CoolPlanetFuels and at www.coolplanet.com. Contacts Cool Planet Energy Systems Mike Rocke, +1-940-584-0490 mr@coolplanet.com or Commercial Biochar Sales +1-888-564-9332 biochar@coolplanet.com Continue reading
85 dead as quake hits Philippine tourist islands
85 dead as quake hits Philippine tourist islands (AFP) / 15 October 2013 Authorities said the death toll could still climb, with authorities struggling to assess the extent of the damage in the worst-hit areas of Bohol where roads were impassable and power was cut. A powerful earthquake killed at least 85 people on Tuesday as it tore down modern buildings, destroyed historic churches and triggered terrified stampedes across popular tourist islands in the Philippines. Fifteen of the confirmed fatalities were in Cebu, the country’s second most important city and a gateway to some of its most beautiful beaches, the national disaster agency reported. The 7.1-magnitude quake killed another 57 people in the neighbouring island of Bohol, famed for its rolling “Chocolate Hills”, while one other person died on nearby Siquijor, which attracts tourists with its pristine white sands. “I was thrown to the ground by the strength of the quake. Broken glass rained on me,” Elmo Alinsunorin, a guard for a government tax office in Cebu, told AFP. “I thought I was going to die.” Authorities said the death toll could still climb, with authorities struggling to assess the extent of the damage in the worst-hit areas of Bohol where roads were impassable and power was cut. Nevertheless, they expressed relief the earthquake occurred on a public holiday, meaning there were fewer people than normal in many of the major buildings that suffered damage. The quake struck at 08:12 (0012 GMT) near Balilihan, a town of about 18,000 people on Bohol, at a depth of 20 kilometres (12 miles), the USGS reported. The town lies across a strait about 60 kilometres from Cebu. Cebu, with a population of 2.5 million people, is the political, economic, educational and cultural centre of the central Philippines. It hosts the country’s busiest port and the largest airport outside of the capital Manila. It also has a major ship building industry. A university, a school and two shopping malls, public markets and many small buildings sustained damage in the quake. Three of the people who died in Cebu were crushed to death in a stampede at a sports complex, where poor people had gathered to collect regular government cash handouts, according to the provincial disaster council chief, Neil Sanchez. “There was panic when the quake happened and there was a rush toward the exit,” Sanchez told AFP. He said two other people were killed when part of a school collapsed on a car they had parked in, while four others died at a fish market that crumbled. The Philippines’ oldest church, Cebu’s Basilica Minore del Santo Nino, was badly damaged, according to Balido, the civil defence spokesman. It was first built in the 1500s by Spanish colonisers, although its current stone structure dates back to the 1700s. A church on Bohol that was first built in the early 1600s also collapsed, according to Robert Michael Poole, a British tourist who was visiting the area. “It’s absolutely devastated… the entire front of the church has collapsed onto the street,” Poole told AFP by telephone. However he said there was nobody in the church at the time of the quake. Aside from its beaches, Bohol is famous for its more than 1,000 small limestone “Chocolate Hills” that turn brown during the dry season. One of the main tourist venues there, the Chocolate Hills Complex, was severely damaged and may be beyond repair, according to Delapan Ingleterra, head of a local tourist police unit. “There are huge cracks in the hotel and there was a collapse of the view deck on the second floor,” Ingleterra told AFP, adding that no-one was injured at the complex. There were no reports of foreign tourists being killed anywhere in the disaster zone. Tuesday’s quake was followed by at least four aftershocks measuring more than 5.0 in magnitude. The epicentre was 629 kilometres from Manila. The Philippines lies on the so-called Ring of Fire, a vast Pacific Ocean region where many of Earth’s earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur. More than 100 people were left dead or missing in February last year after an earthquake struck on Negros island, about 100 kilometres from the epicentre of Tuesday’s quake. The deadliest recorded natural disaster in the Philippines occurred in 1976, when a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 7.9 earthquake devastated the Moro Gulf on the southern island of Mindanao. Between 5,000 and 8,000 people were killed, according to official estimates. Continue reading
