A New Step for Jordanian Cinema..

Read my article in my Arabic blog: "A new step for Jordanian cinema.. Jordan short film festival in its 3rd edition"

The Link: http://rifqiassaf.maktoobblog.com/?post=466867

Hope to see you all in the festival from 24 - 30 August 2007..

Preparing for a new film, help needed..

In the upcoming days I will be working on an important short film of mine, its preliminary title is: "The notebook on the table No.1", I need volunteers to work with me in some important positions, the positions are:

1. Co-Production Manager
2. Production Assistants
3. Actor: Abu Jawad's Role, Age: 60-65
4. Music Composer

Anyone interested in working in this project please contact me by sending me an Email on: rifqiassaf@gmail.com

Thank you all in advance

The Dream Journey Started..

Though of feeling really bad and frustrated lately because of not being able to start shooting two shorts i was planing to start, one is a comedy about children which was delayed because of end of school, and the other is my "Another Day" short film which is still waiting for shooting, despite of all that me and my friend Salah developed an idea for a feature film we were discussing earlier, and i finished writing a detailed preliminary outline of the script, and two days ago started writing the first draft of what is hopefully going to be my first feature film, this hard journey which i hope will and can only be rewarded by becoming a film on the screen in few years with god's well, has just started..

AC Milan did it !!! Maldini's Friends took the trophy home

I was so young when i started supporting Rossoneri Milan, watched them winning a championship after another, two years ago taking the lead 3-0 against the Reds of Liverpool in the final, then losing with penalty kicks, tonight AC had the chance to pay back, and really made me happy winning the UEFA Champions league. Away from films and poetry, soccer (football) is my beloved hobby, i play whenever i get the chance, wearing the black and red shirt of Milan. Supporting Paolo Maldini for twenty years now, can say nothing but that this player deserve it all, really does..

Jordan Short Film Festival 2007 Open For Film Submissions

The 3rd session of the Jordan Short Film Festival (JSFF'07) is now
accepting film entries.

The JSFF'07 will be held under the patronage of the Jordan Ministry of Culture and the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation. The festival is organized by the Amman Filmmakers Cooperative (AFC).

WEB: http://JordanFilmFestival.com

FESTIVAL DATES: 24 - 30 August 2007

FILM ENTRY DEADLINE: 25th July 2007

COMPETITIONS & AWARDS:

• International & Arab Short Film Competition: 3000 EUR (appx. 4000 USD) divided between two winners.
• Yaris-AFC Jordan Mobile Movie Competition: 3000 Euro (appx. 4000 USD) divided between 15 winners.
• Other honorary awards: Best Script, Best Actor/Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Student Film.

FESTIVAL JURY:

• Adnan Madanat (Jury Chair), Film Critic & Director of Shoman Cinema Center, Jordan.
• Jukka-Pekka Laakso, Director of Tampere Film Festival, Finland.
• Lars Henrik Gass, Director of Int'l Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Germany.
• Marta Agosti, Coordinator of Jordan Cultural Affairs, Spanish Agency for International Cooperation.
• Nadira Ardjoun, Board Member of Clermont-Ferrand Int'l Short Film Festival, France.

FILM ENTRY:

Entry form - Short Film Competition:
http://www.JordanFilmFestival.com/filmform.aspx

Entry form - Mobile Movie Competition:
http://www.JordanFilmFestival.com/mobile

Registration fee: no fee.

FESTIVAL TEAM:

Partner: Toyota-Jordan. Sponsors: Goethe Institute, French Cultural
Center, Play FM 99.6, Royal Film Commission, Municipality of Greater
Amman, Abdulhameed Shoman Foundation.

CONTACTS:

Hazim Bitar, Director, Jordan Short Film Festival (JSFF'07),
JSFF2007{at}gmail{dot}com, +962.776.400.434

AMMAN FILMMAKERS COOPERATIVE (AFC)
http://JordanianFilms.com

JSFF'06 ARCHIVES:
http://Festival2006.Alif.com

Source: Jordanian Indie Films

What Happened at Al Isra' University

Lately, and ironically one day before the world's labor day, the management of Al Isra Private University in Jordan made a decision not to renew the contracts of tens of its teaching crews, among them the most are PhD and MA holders, without a clear or acceptable justifications, i myself express my objection on such a step toward good Jordanian High education teachers, who passed all evaluations, and served that university for many years, you can read about this in more details in my Arabic blog here, i think everyone should know about this and say no to such a procedure.

Translation for my poem "Moon on the Sidewalks of the Wretched قمر على أرصفة الحزانى"

Here is a translation of my poem "Moon on the Sidewalks of the Wretched قمر على أرصفة الحزانى" translated by Munir Mezyed by the initiative of "From Ocean to Gulf" forums, the translation is not bad for such a complicated poem in Arabic, hope you enjoy reading it ..

p.s to read the original Arabic poem u can always visit my Arabic Blog and you can find that specific poem Here


_________
Moon on the Sidewalks of the Wretched
By Rifqi Assaf
Translated By Munir Mezyed


The space constricts me
And night looses breezes from its locks that never sleep.
In summer dreams gulls are the size of the memory of the spars and the sail...
As for the sun is kohl in the eye …and expatriate surging with its gray shadow
On the thresholds.
Perfume that blended with notion, if you know,
Has no pride.
The pavements are cold where the good ones gallivant
Death is pure, preserving vagina, protecting rain from the Narcissus slips
The Closed doors are homelands that have the color of groans of the transients
In the narrow streets
And Amman drinks its exhaustion at the door of an old bar in Al-Wabideh Mount

We were walking,
And Allah loved us…
We were carrying the wall on our shoulders to take refuge from the springs of perfume which hailing us
To execute the supreme virtue…
The poor were passing by under the trees
Bowing their foreheads
And saluting others…


Peace on the books lying on the floor, sick after it had forgotten their titles.
Conjunctivitis eat the eye of the stand’s owner who has not slept since a minaret passed by
Echoing from behind the Lord’s name
Exalting His name

In Raghadan main bus station
So many dead ones died..

The barefooted ones were scurrying over the hot asphalt
And sleeping on the same cold pavement
And wrapping themselves in a newspaper hardly they cared about its name
Or the news about Byzantine that fell because the monks were asking for sex of the angels
Or the news of "Nebuchad- Nezzar "
Or "Cyrus" or "Ahmadinejad" or "Wane Rooney"
Or the sand where the naked women from a different place sleep as the sun is no longer for free


The cafes are
Selling sleep
With the price of the cup of flavored tee
That chills like the chilling blood in the veins
Before they had been drunk by the lad embracing the black-pale bag like his soul
Which is full of metal and human’s limbs collected from gazes’ arrogance
And the Jeans- Buttocks
The sea is not blue
This is another lie
Color is but the reflection of the sky … and the refraction of light ..
And the breaking of the sad hearts at the doors of the hotels that have monopolized the beaches
And the Tears monopolized the salt
Here...
Even the seas die

The poor
Borrow a sea
A window
And a vast tomb
On a dull corner crowded with packed paces

Crowd has its solemnity
As ants have
You can not count the passersby nor can you scrutinize their faces
Nor can you perceive the reason why they appear one whose face keeps repeating
Why they are not well..

Cloud has no friends
Because the short friendship doesn’t last
It disappears in the sad memory of telephones’ book which thrown in worn pockets…
Or we live in the bosoms of those who can not keep a memory in their pockets beside food
And roam the asphalt that embellished with roses, embroidered with tires of a woman’s car who doesn’t truly deserve to walk on earth…
The night was betraying my image in the mirror a
And my voice echoed in the corridors
Deluding the Ghosts curtains into believing that heart is as white as a flock of white pigeons

At the door of the city
The prophets stood in the queue of leaving
And departed