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February 25, 2011 AFGHAN STAR Film 7PM
MINERAL POINT � Fri., Feb. 25, 7 p.m. FRIDAY NITE AT THE MOVIES: Afghan Star -- The story of the wildly popular Afghan TV show, a take-off on the American Idol, and the courageous people behind it. Mineral Point Opera House. Discussion to follow. Donations welcome.
Mineral Point Opera House will be showing AFGHAN STAR film as part the Uplands "Stones into Schools" All Community Read Project.
In Afghanistan there was time when you risked your life to sing. When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 1996, popular music, dancing and television were considered corrupting and sacrilegious and were banned. In the few years since the removal of the Taliban, music and other joyful expressions of art and culture have begun to re-emerge. Afghan society, particularly in liberal Kabul, has strived to move forward and to enjoy once denied freedoms in the shadow of war, despite suicide bombers and those who wish to reassert the repressive controls of the Taliban
Now, after 30 years of war and Taliban rule, even �pop culture� has returned to the country�and since 2005, millions have been tuning in to Tolo TV�s wildly popular American Idol-style series Afghan Star. Two thousand people audition, including three extremely brave women... The television phenomenon, "Afghan Star" stands in direct opposition to those Islamic militants and subverts the stereotypical outsider's view of Afghanistan as a primitive and superstitious nation with nothing in common with the West. And when viewers vote for their favorites via cell phone, it is, for many, their first encounter with the democratic process
Two thousand people audition, including three extremely brave women. And when viewers vote for their favorites via cell phone, it is, for many, their first encounter with the democratic process. Winner of the Directing and Audience Awards in Sundance�s 2009 World Documentary competition, Havana Marking�s timely and moving film follows the dramatic stories of four young finalists�two men and two women�as they hazard everything to become the nation�s favorite performer. By observing the Afghani people�s relationship to its pop culture, Afghan Star is the perfect window into a country�s tenuous, ongoing struggle for modernity. What Americans consider frivolous entertainment is downright revolutionary�and more human�in this troubled part of the world.
We thank the UW's CREECA (Center for Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia) and Center for South Asia for their insights and ongoing support, learn more about them at http://www.southasia.wisc.edu/ and http://www.southasia.wisc.edu/!
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