Monthly Archives: December 2012

The Proust Questions

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“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

― Marcel Proust

The Proust Questions

At the end of the nineteenth century, when Marcel  Proust was still in his teens, he answered a questionnaire in an English-language album belonging to his friend Antoinette, entitled “An Album to Record Thoughts, Feelings, etc.” At that time, it was popular among English families to answer such a list of questions that revealed the tastes and aspirations of the taker.

Proust answered always with enthusiasm. The original manuscript of his answers of 1890, at the time of his volunteer internship or some little time afterwards, titled “by Marcel Proust himself,” was found in 1924. It was auctioned on May 27, 2003 for the sum of €102,000.

It seems like a good thing to do for the new year.     Here are my answers.  Try it and see how you do.

Your favorite virtue

my favorite virtue is integrity – whether in myself or in a place. I want it to be real and I want it to be honorable – not some overrun tourist spot.

Your favorite qualities in a man

He should be strong enough to be able to lift my suitcase and wise enough not to complain about it.

Your favorite qualities in a woman

Kindness  is  my favorite quality in human beings. You learn a lot about kindness as a traveler.

Your chief  characteristic

My chief  characteristic is honesty. What you see is what you get. (except when im going through customs – sometimes im a little over the allotted amount that you can bring in)

What you appreciate the most in your friends

Loyalty is what I appreciate most in my friends.- also that they listen to my travel stories and read my blog.

Your main fault

Fear.  I am always fighting it and going on trips  to places like Myanmar and Cuba.

Your favorite occupation

My favorite occupation is traveling.

Your idea of happiness

My idea of happiness is to be traveling with my family.

Your idea of misery

Twenty four hours in coach with crying babies,  loud drunk adults, air sick  and bored kids, plane bathrooms after 12 hours, and then waiting on the runway for a gate.

Favorite painters and composers

(Im going with Marcel Proust on these and adding some)  composers Beethovem Mozart,  Gershwin, Morricone, Rabin.

Painters, Davinci, Rembrandt, Titian the Impressionists, Monet Manet  Van Gogh, Renoir, Seurat,  Picasso,   all the pop and graffiti artists, like Basquiat (  I named my dog after him), new fave Osman Hamedi Bey- just because.

If not yourself who would you be?

I would like to be my best self – the one I aspire to be, with a lot of mileage and platinum  status. I have way too much anxiety to want to be anyone else.  I understand my stuff. Who knows what they have?

Where would you like to live?

I would love to live in a different country every year. Every year I could spend my birthday somewhere else.

Your favorite color and flower

My favorite color is black. It says so on a picture of me that my son drew when he was six . My favorite flower is an orchid.  There were so many beautiful ones in Thailand.

Your favorite prose author

Marquez, Kundera, Camus, Rand,

Your favorite poets

Frost, Neruda,  Silverstein.

Favorite heroes of fiction

Don Quixote de la Mancha, Howard Roarke, Atticus Finch, Jean Valjean.

Favorite heroines of fiction

Of course.

Your heroes in real life 

The CNN Heroes.

Favorite heroines in real life

My mom.

 What characters in history do you dislike?

The same ones everyone else does.

Your favorite heroines of world history.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Queen Esther, Leymah Gbowee , Rosa Parks, , Anne Frank.

Your favorite food and drink

Turkish and Japanese food, margaritas with extra salt,  sake.

Your favorite names 

Kyly, Landon, Basquiat.

What I hate the most

Rushing to make a plane, lines for security, the superiority of the French, the inferiority of everyone else.

World history characters I hate the most

same ones you do.

The military event you admire

The Military Tattoo in Edinburgh.

The reform you most admire

Compulsory education.

For what fault do you have no tolerance for?

Betrayal

The natural talent I would like to gifted with

The right words for every occasion  and perfect packing skills.

How I wish to die

In a conflict in a foreign country.

What is your present state of mind? 

A work in progress.

Your favorite motto 

“Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting an uphill battle.”

“I haven’t been everywhere but its on my list.”.

Happy New Year and Fly Safe,

JAZ

Holiday Traditions With Friends

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Holiday Traditions With Friends

“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.”Ralph Waldo Emerson

I was in the Bahamas one Christmas when I was nineteen.  The Monday after Christmas I needed to go to a pharmacy. They were all closed because it was Boxing Day. That was my first real experience with  a holiday that we don’t celebrate here.  You never think about that until you are in a country that is celebrating their holiday.  It gives you a little more insight into a place when you see them observing their traditions.

Boxing day is traditionally the day following Christmas Day, when servants and trades people would receive gifts from their superiors or employers, known as a “Christmas box”. Today, Boxing Day is better known as a bank or public holiday that occurs on 26 December, or the first or second weekday after Christmas Day, depending on national or regional laws. It is observed in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and some other Commonwealth Nations. I always remember that Dec 26 is Boxing Day though I don’t celebrate it. JZ, BAHAMAS

Cuban families in Miami have a delicious Cuban tradition that we carry on with zeal. Every Christmas Eve starting early in the morning, all the men in the family set up a ‘caja China’ (direct translation: Chinese box) in the front yard of the house. They sit outside, smoke their cigars, drink their rum and cokes and roast a full pig in this box for hours on end. When the whole family comes over for dinner, the pig is still cooking and the men cut off the skin to serve as ‘chicharron’ while the rest of the pig roasts. It’s undeniably good. Our ‘kosher’ Jewish neighbors will tell you the same.   MA, CUBA

All Saints Day on Nov 1 is big day. Croatia is a strongly Catholic country and November  1st – the day of the dead – is a big family occasion.  All Saints Day is the day that people go to  visit the cemeteries . They bring flowers , light candles and say a prayer. All the businesses are closed and it is a time for families to be together in peace and quiet. ( spirituality)  to celebrate the lives of their deceased relatives.  PV, CROATIA

In Colombia, the Christmas traditions come from Spain. They make nativity scenes  called Pesebre.  Columbia is deeply rooted in Catholic tradition. From the 16th till the 24th everyone gets together and prays to the Novena and sing Christmas songs called Villancicos.    On Christmas Eve, the families gather around the Nativity Scene    and eat pork or ham,  dulce de guayaba , dulce de guanabana,bunuelos  ( fried dough) and natilla  (special pudding dessert with sugar, cloves, panela and milk). They drink Aguardiente (fire water) and dance and sing all night. The kids write letters to Nino Dios ( baby Jesus) and wait for him to bring them presents. On Christmas Day everyone makes their own brightly colored balloons and fills them with hot air and lets them into the sky at the same time. Feliz Navidad. AN, COLOMBIA

Shavuot is a holiday that usually  occurs in May, fifty days after Passover. It is  the end of the harvest season for grain and wheat.  People brought  the first fruits  of the season to the temple to thank God. It is fun to celebrate Shavuot on a kibbutz in Israel. Everyone wears white . The girls braid their hair and  make crowns of greens and flowers .  Families bring blankets and carpets and sit out on the grass and have a picnic. They eat dairy food.  The kids bring decorated baskets of fruit. There is a “parade” of tractors and farm equipment decorated for the holiday. This is followed by a lot of dancing and singing to celebrate the day that the Torah was given to the Jewish People on Mount Sinai.   KR ISRAEL

Peruvians put up a nativity scene at Christmas, not a tree.  In the Andean city of Cusco they buy the pieces for their nativity on Christmas Eve at the festival of Santorantikuy  — “buying of saints”. The city fills up as people come to Cusco from all over the region to sell little figures they have made of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the Magi, the star and the stable animals, along with an array of ornaments, moss, lichen, ferns, bromeliads and other wild plants to create the backdrop. PF, PERU

One of the events I’m going to is Maha Kumbh Mela in February.  Maha Kumbh Mela held in Allahabad , India is the “ largest pilgrimage on earth.” It attracts between thirty and seventy million people.  The Maha Kumbh Mela comes every 144 years and will occur this Feb 2013.  Hindus gather at the Ganges for a purification bathing ceremony during the auspicious days. Other activities include religious discussions, devotional singing, mass feeding of holy men and women and the poor, and religious assemblies. The devout –including mystics, yogis and sadhus (in saffron sheets with powder and ashes on their skin), spend a month there. Kumbh Mela is the most sacred of all the pilgrimages in India- the Maha being the most important. DL, INDIA  (if you are interested, some of the other videos that appear at the end are fascinating)

People prepare their homes for Christmas. Dubrovnik  is covered in Christmas lights and a lot of Christmas trees on the Stradun. On Christmas Eve, lunch is traditionally fish. (codfish-usually)That is the same in many Catholic and Eastern European countries. In the afternoon we go to our first neighbors to wish them  a good Christmas Eve. We sing the traditional Christmas song from door to door. (Colenda song – a song that has been sung for centuries). In the evening most people go to confession to wait for Christmas in the best spirit. Then we go to midnight mass.On Christmas Day our families are altogether for lunch. It is a time of happiness and celebration. PV CROATIA

New Year is a special holiday in Japan. It is leaving of old and starting of new. At the end of the year, we clean the house and decorate the entrance gate with ornaments made of pine, bamboo and plum. Bonenkai parties (forget the year gathering) are held everywhere to leave the old worries behind, and on New Years Eve, just before the temple bells ring at midnight, we eat toshikoshi soba (end of year buckwheat noodle) wishing for another healthy new year to come.

Viewing the first sunrise of the New Year is the best way for a fresh start.  We visit the shrine or temple, buy o-mikuji ( random fortune written on strips of paper) and hope for another happy year. RH, JAPAN

Happy Holidays and Fly Safe,

JAZ

BYOB Bring Your Own Books

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BYOB    Bring Your Own Books

“For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.” Annie  Lamott

I love reading novels that take place in different countries. I like reading them when I travel to the countries. I enjoy getting lost in them at home.

I was fortunate to discover “Traveler’s Bookcase” in Los Angeles. The first thing I do after planning a trip is to go and get their book recommendations.  I’m either traveling somewhere they have been and loved or somewhere they want to go. They are always happy about my trips.  Sometimes when I am ambivalent (why did I pick that place?), I leave there with an armful of travel books and a lot of excitement..  They recommend the best and most recent guide books and their favorite novels .

The Traveler’s Bookcase ( www.travelbooks.com ) is owned by Natalie  Compagno and Greg Freitas . Natalie and Greg look like the cool kids that you wanted to be friends with in high school. They are good-looking, trendy and fun  –they do not look like book store owners. They love travel and books and will help in any way they can. If they don’t know something, they have a friend who does.  This list is based on their recommendations to me –they are always spot on.  If you live in Los Angeles, I strongly urge you to stop in . It is on the same block as Magnolia Cupcakes. You can’t go wrong. The first novel they recommended to me was the Master and the Margarita when I was going to Russia. .It is one of my favorite books and the first one I will recommend to you.

MASTER AND THE MARGARITA  by Mikhail Bulgakov 1937   Russia

This is an allegory based on the premise of a visit by the Devil to  the Soviet  Union. It is beautifully written and there are meanings within meanings. The novel alternates between two settings – 1930’s Moscow and the Jerusalem of Pontius Pilate. There is Professor Woland, a mysterious gentlemen of uncertain origin and his group of henchman including a gun happy fast talking cat named Behemoth.  They target the literary élite in Moscow. In the second part we meet the Master, an embittered author  and his lover Margarita. It is considered by many to be the greatest novel of the twentieth century.  (video is the Rolling Stones -Sympathy For The Devil which is based on the book Master And The Margarita, over the Russian miniseries of the book)

THE JUKEBOX QUEEN OF MALTA by Nicholas Rinaldi 1999 Malta

The story is about the Siege of Malta during World War Two. Rocco Raven an American radio operator posted in Malta and working closely with the British Intelligence, falls in love with Melita a Maltese woman who travels around the island repairing jukeboxes. It shows the reactions of the Maltese people and the military defense of the island during the destruction caused by the German bombing .

THE GLASS PALACE by Amitav Ghosh 2000 Burma

The novel is set in Burma  and spans a century from the fall of the Konbaung Dynasty in Mandalay, through the  Second World War to modern times. Focusing mainly on the early 20th Century, it explores a broad range of issues, ranging from the changing economic landscape of Burma and India, to pertinent questions about what makes up a modern society. I took it with me to Burma.

PURGE  by Sofi Oksanen 2008 Estonia

Purge is a story of two women forced to face their own dark pasts, of collusion and resistance, of rape and sexual slavery set against the backdrop of the Soviet occupation of Estonia. Purge was  based upon her original play of the same name, staged at the Finnish National Theatre in 2007.[ As of 2010, Purge is the only one of Oksanen’s novels which has been translated into English. I read it in one night. I could not put it down.

WHITE TIGER by Aravind Adiga 2008 India

This first novel tells the story of the journey of Bairam Halwai. He is  a boy from a village who goes to Delhi to work as a chauffeur and then to  Banglore where he kills his master.  He becomes a successful entrepreneur  and transcends his caste.The novel examines issues of religion, caste, loyalty, corruption and poverty in India

ELEGANCE OF A HEDGEHOG by Muriel Barbery 2006 France

This is the story of the events in the life of a concierge, Renée Michel, whose deliberately concealed intelligence is uncovered by an unstable but intellectually precocious girl named Paloma Josse. Paloma lives in the upper class Parisienne apartment building where Renée works.

The book is full of allusions to literary works, music, films, and paintings. It incorporates themes about philosophy, class conscience and personal conflict.

THE BRIDGE ON THE DRINA by Ivo Andric 1945 Bosnia-Herzekovina

The Bridge on the Drina revolves around the town of Visegrad and  the Mehmed Pasa Sokolovic Bridge over the Drina River. It is written beautifully.  The story spans four centuries during the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian regimes. It describes the lives, destinies and relations of the local villagers with a particular focus on Muslims and Orthodox Christians living in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Andric won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his entire literary work but mostly for this novel in 1961.

THE BERLIN STORIES By Christopher Isherwood 1945 Germany

The Berlin Stories is a book consisting of two short novels Goodbye to Berlin and Mr Norris Changes Trains. They are set in Berlin in 1931 just as Hitler was coming in to power. They depict  a life of cafes and quaint avenues, bizarre nightlife, dreamers, mobs and millionaires. It was the basis for the play I Am A Camera which went on to inspire the musical Cabaret.

HELIOPOLIS  by James Scudamore 2009 Brazil

Heliopolis is  set in São Paulo Brazil. It follows the story of Ludo dos Santos – a young man born in  a favela (slum community). He leaves and eventually returns to the favela . It is  a comic, violent, poignant, different kind of rags to riches story.

WHITE TEETH by Zadie Smith 2000 England

White teeth focuses on the later lives of two wartime friends – Samad Iqbal and Archie Jones and their families in London. The story mixes pathos and humor .  It describes the immigrant experience In Great Britain and also satirizes the middle and working class British cultures.

There are many more recommendations. I thought we would start with these. Let me know any of your favorite books that take place in a foreign country or your own.

Fly safe,

JAZ

Top Ten Meals In Turkey

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Top Ten Meals In Turkey

“So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being” .
Franz Kafka

“Turkish food is not about experimentation but about technique”. It is about enjoying the essential ingredient.  You can have fresh fish cooked in a bit of olive oil and served with lemon, a salad with a little bit of olive oil, Fresh cheese and a bit of honey or lamb cooked with spices in its own juice.  Turkey is known best for meze. Meze  are small dishes that start the  meal. The meze are based on the seasons and the locale.  There is  usually  some white  cheese  ( beyaz peynir  -similar to feta but not as strong) served with fruit or vegetables or just some honey;  yogurt dishes –like dips (cacik or heydari) or with vegetables (esme),  meat dishes like kofte (meatballs), salads and vegetable dishes. Near the sea there will be small fish dishes – sardines, fried calamari, stuffed mussels, octopus and shrimp. Desserts are dough based or puddings with fruit or dried fruits and honey and nuts.   It was hard to make this restaurant list because all the food was amazing, very fresh and flavorful.

KOSEBASI, ISTANBUL Kosebasi located in the Nisantasi area of Istanbul, is a high-end chain restaurant throughout Turkey and the Middle East.  It has a star-studded clientele and is said to have some of the best kabob in Turkey and I would have to agree.  It was one of our first and best meals.  The  Turkish bread   was fresh, hot, chewy and light. The lamb and chicken kabobs had been marinated in delicious  spices  and were very tender.  The meze ( starters) were delicious.,   We had pastrami hummus,  bulghur salad,  broiled eggplant with yoghurt, white cheese and barbecued eggplant.  I love eggplant and the fact that I could have so many different kinds of eggplant in a meal was amazing –Two weeks later  I took it for granted.  The dessert was a semolina cake made with olive oil and pistachio ice cream. I didn’t know  until I visited   Turkey that semolina desserts are one of my favorite desserts. http://kosebasi.com/en

NAR LOKANTA, ISTANBUL. Nar Lokanta is on the top floor of  the stylish  gallery like store  Armaggan.  It is located in the Sultanahmet area of Istanbul right near the Grand Bazaar and Starbucks. There is a beautiful vertical garden hanging down to the floor below outside. The menu changes daily as food is always seasonal.  It was at this restaurant that I had my first Turkish Pide and I was hooked.  Pide restaurants have wood fire ovens ( kind of like pizza ovens)  The dough is rolled and stretched into the boat shapes that form the pide.  The outside is rolled in to create a center for the filling We had many different kinds, – vegetable, cheese and lamb and cheese and olive.    Nar Lokanta uses their own olive oil which has a very low acidity and an almost sweet flavor.  It was never just pide for us in Turkey. Salads and cold vegetable dishes  are served as an open buffet – stuffed pumpkin flower, eggplant dishes, mung bean salad, artichokes with broad beans and seasonal wild herbs dressed with olive oil, lemon juice and sour pomegranate juice are a few of the many choices. There is also a large  dessert buffet which includes  pumpkin pudding, rice pudding, fig pudding, and baklava. There are many flavors of Turkish Delight.  (  homemade Turkish candy called Lokum). Turkish Delight was originally eaten after a meal for digestion.  This was not only a delicious meal but also very visually appealing.  narlokantasi.com/en/about.htm

ZIGGY, CAPPADOCIA.   Ziggy is an arty,  contemporary Turkish restaurant in the ancient city of Urgup.  The food is seasonal and they use the best quality ingredients so the menu changes daily.  I can tell you this for a fact  because it was so good we ate there two days in a row . I had the best chicken skewers of my life.  They are small pieces of garlic chicken cooked in a secret sauce and served on mini skewers.  Some of the mezze, were vegetables mashed into yogurt ,seasonal salads, vegetables cooked in olive oil and served cold called zeytinyagh (fava beans, eggplant artichoke and zucchini) and pastirma. Nearby Kayseri is known for its pastirma. Pastirma is the ancestor of pastrami and very popular in this part of Turkey. We also had an amazing dessert called borek ( which is made with layers of phylo dough) Boreks can also be filled with meat, cheese , potato and spinach.  This one was tiny boreks with cinnamon and sugar served with thin slices of green apple. ( like mini churros ) On a trip of my favorite desserts, this was my favorite.http://ziggycafe.com/about.htm

ORIENT, CAPPADOCIA.   Orient restaurant is located  at the beginning of Goreme, a beautiful village in Cappadocia. We had a salad of fresh organic herbs and vegetables.  Sealed clay pots were brought out  and broken open. Inside was steaming tender lamb cooked in these  clay pots with onion garlic and spices . This was a version of  the typical peasant dishes  cooked in those underground cities in Cappadocia. It was served over rice pilaf and  incredibly delicious.  For dessert, we had baklava. Not the sticky overly sweet version we have here,  but light and wonderful.

http://orientrestaurant.net/

BIZEM EV, SELCUK-IZMIR  Bizem Ev is a traditional Turkish restaurant  with an organic garden. It is not too far from Ephesus and has a pretty outside area in the garden.  Bizem Ev means “Our House.”  I drank my first Ayram here. Ayram is a yogurt drink that people drink all over Turkey. It is made with ice salt and yogurt and is very refreshing and delicious. (like  buttermilk which I happen to like.) This is a family run business and the mother cooks everything every day.  It is a huge buffet of fresh vegetable dishes from  their  garden as well as many Turkish specialties. Anytime the mother is cooking you know it is going to be great. You can also buy her cookbook and she will sign it for you.

UZUN EV, ASSOS – BEHRAMKALE.  Uzun Ev is located  in the small fishing harbor of Assos Behramkale , -a village near the ruins of Assos. The village is on the side of  a cliff and you have to go down a very narrow steep road  and walk part  of the way to get to the  restaurant on the sea.  It was a  beautiful day for a nice  walk.  The interior of the restaurant was very pretty but  we sat right on the water. We had a delicious lunch of fish stew with cooked greens sitting at a table  on the Aegean Sea.

http://uzunev.com/

RADIKA  CANNAKALE .  Radika is a seafood restaurant on the top floor of the Akos Hotel in Cannakale.  I had my first seafood in Turkey there. It was delicious bonito cooked perfectly. It was also my first salad. I have traveled to a lot of third world countries recently and  was in the habit of only eating cooked food. ( except pomegranate juice on the street)   The salad was so fresh and had just a bit of olive oil and lemon on it.  For dessert we had hot halvah with fresh fruit for dipping..  I was not allowed to have candy as a kid and we always had halvah in the house (the  store-bought Middle Eastern version – sugar butter and sesame paste.) I found it disgusting. Turkish halvah is made with semolina, butter and sugar  I was just planning to taste this dessert. It was amazing  and very different from the chewy, crumbly cardboard stuff of my childhood. .  It was another one of my most favorite desserts

http://www.hotelakol.com/en/restaurant.html

MEZE, ISTANBUL Meze is a contemporary Turkish restaurant located across the street from the Pera Palace Hotel. It is cozy and cool inside.  We were there during the Bayram and so I ate lamb in honor of the holiday. It was really tasty (from a not meat-eater)  – I don’t really like lamb except in Turkey. ( They say it is because they slaughter the lamb young and their diet is wildflowers.) Meze serves the traditional Turkish starters with a more sophisticated twist. Their mashed fava beans, stuffed grape leaves, and eggplant salad is slightly different  and really good. Their dessert with banana, cream , honey and pistachios  shouldn’t be missed.

http://www.mezze.com.tr/

MANICI KASRI HOTEL, YESILYURT.   I haven’t talked about all the fantastic hotel breakfast buffets  because I’m not a huge breakfast eater. The Turkish word for breakfast, kahvaltı, means “before coffee”. It was customary to drink tea for breakfast – not for me. This area ( at the base of Mt Ida where Zeus was born) has seen many civilizations such as Trojan, Leleg, Midilli, Persian, Roman, Selcuk and Ottoman  and you can feel the influence on everything. The village is known for its less ascetic  olive oil and honey. Most of the trees are olive trees.  I think being in a village made everything fresher.  Perhaps it was the extra oxygen in the air up there that made me hungrier.   I had my usual breakfast but it just tasted better here.  There was fresh Turkish yogurt  in a bowl with  honey, from the village.   I had delicious pomegranate juice. I had some cucumber and tomatoes with a bit of  their olive oil. and the sweetest Turkish melon.    My favorite things are fresh hot Turkish bagels.  They are rings of dough covered in sesame seeds. They are known by different names in different areas but mostly they are called simit. They are often sold by street vendors in trolleys. or carried on their heads. After, I took a walk through the village right after the sunrise. (local olive oil, hotel, sunrise)

http://www.manicikasri.com/english/manici-eng.html

SAGLAM, BERGAMA and ZERDALI, AVANOS . Saglam is near the ruins of Pergamon and the Asciepion ( ancient Greek Medical complex) Zerdali is in Cappadocia.   We covered a lot of ground on this trip and had two lunches at restaurants  attached to gas stations and one in the airport in Ankara. They were all good.  I remember hearing the real estate was high and it was easier to have a large restaurant attached to a gas station. One family owned the gas station, the other did not.  The pide was excellent. At Saglam we also had kabob which was good (I was full from all the meze and the pide before the kabob.   I didn’t have dinner that night.  At Zerdali I had really delicious lentil soup with the pide.  I had a lot of lentil soup in Turkey. It is usually made with red lentils . It was always delicious but the one at Zerdali was particularly good.

I could continue listing restaurants .  But when you go to Turkey and try any of these places,  you will have a great meal.   I will miss this food.

For more info on Turkey – Things I Learned In Istanbul https://havefunflysafe.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/things-i-have-learned-in-istanbul/

Iyi  Uguslar,

JAZ

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Favorite Foreign Documentary Films

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“In feature films the director is God; in documentary films God is the director. “  Alfred Hitchcock

Favorite Documentary Films in A Foreign Country

As I get older, photography and documentary films fascinate me.  It is capturing that moment in time that will never be the same.  Documentary films are like reality TV but with good editing and less manufactured drama.  Watching a  movie that takes place in a foreign country is a way of traveling for me.  I can see things  that I would  not see as a tourist. It is  learning the mentality, resilience and heart  of the people.  I am always amazed at how much I have in common with someone in a village in Africa, or a woman in a burka . At our core,  human beings are not very different.  Apparently we need to be reminded of this all the time.    They are in no particular order and you can probably get them on netflix or watch them on HBO.

Burma VJ  (Myanmar)

Director: Anders Ostergaard

Stars: George W. Bush, Ko Muang,  Aung San Suu Kyi

Using smuggled footage, this documentary tells the story of the 2007 protests in Burma by thousands of monks. Burma’s videojournalists risking torture and life in jail make undercover videos and news reports with small hand video cameras. They smuggle the tapes out of the country to the international media. I saw this film after I planned to go to Burma (Myanmar) and instead of frightening me, it made me feel that there were so many brave people in this country.  How many people would be filmmakers if it meant risking their life every day?

A Small Act (Kenya)

Director: Jennifer Arnold

Writers:  Jennifer Arnold, Thomas Schlesinger

A young Kenyan’s life changes drastically when his education is sponsored by a Swedish stranger. Years later, he founds his own scholarship program to replicate the kindness he once received. It is a true story of  the ripple effect of a single act of kindness. You always get back more than what you give.  It is my favorite documentary film. I gave it as Christmas gifts one year.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi  (Japan)

Director: David Gelb

Stars: Jiro Ono and Yoshikazu Ono

A documentary on 85-year-old sushi master Jiro Ono, his business in the basement of a Tokyo office building, and his relationship with his son and eventual heir, Yoshikazu. It is also a good insight into the Japanese mentality about family and obligation.

Buena Vista Social Club (Cuba)

Director: Wim Wenders

Writer: Nick Gold

Stars: Compay Segundo, Ibrahim Ferrer and Ruben Gonzalez

Aging  Cuban musicians who had performed at a music club in Cuba in the 1940’s and fifties,  were brought together to play with guitarist Ry Cooder on an album entitled Buena Vista Social Club. (the club’s name) Wim Wenders documented the performances and lives of these musicians. It was a resurgence of their careers and the golden age of Cuban Music. They only enjoyed it for a short time because they died soon after.

Born Into Brothels (India)

Director: Zana Briski, Ross Kauffman

Stars: Kochi, Avijit Hlader and Shanti Das

Born into Brothels follows the lives of seven children. Their mothers are prostitutes in the red light district of Calcutta. The children are given cameras and taught to see the world. It won the Academy Award for best documentary film  in 2005.  It is another example of how teaching the arts to underprivileged children can only help.  I love this movie.

The Desert of Forbidden Art (Uzbekistan)

 Writer -Directors: Tchavdar Georgiev, Amanda Pope

Risking being denounced as an ‘enemy of the people,’ Igor Savitsky rescues 40,000 forbidden fellow artists’ works and creates in a far desert of Soviet Uzbekistan a museum now worth millions.

Pray the Devil Back To Hell (Liberia)

 Director: Gini Reticker

Stars: Janet Johnson Bryant, Etweda Cooper and Valba Flomo

This film tells the remarkable story of the courageous Liberian women who came together to end a bloody civil war .

Thousands of women — ordinary mothers, grandmothers, aunts and daughters, both Christian and Muslim — came together to pray for peace and then staged a silent protest outside of the Presidential Palace. Armed only with white T-shirts and the courage of their convictions, they demanded a resolution to the country’s civil war. Their actions were a critical element in bringing about an agreement during the stalled peace talks.
 Pray the Devil Back to Hell honors the strength and perseverance of the women of Liberia

Wasteland (Brazil)

Director : Lucy Walker

Stars:  Vic Muniz, Zumbi,  Taio,  Sulo,  Isis

Wasteland is filmed in the world’s largest garbage dump Jardin Gramacho outside of Rio de Janeiro Brazil. It is here that artist Vic Muniz and the garbage pickers ‘catadores’ create art. The project evolves into photographic portraits of the garbage pickers out of the garbage.   It is a beautiful transformation story of art and the human spirit.

An African Election (Ghana)

Director: Jarreth J. Merz, Kevin Merz

Writers: Erika Tasini, Shari Yantra Marcacci

This political film follows the elections in Ghana in 2008. Anyone who takes their vote for granted should see this third world democracy struggle to have a fair election.

Koran by Heart (Egypt)

Director: Greg Barker

Koran By Heart follows two boys from Senegal and Tajikistan, and a little girl from Maldives – who go head-to-head with kids nearly twice their age in the pronunciation, recitation and  memorization of the Koran during Ramadan. It the oldest Koran competition and takes place in Cairo.  They are caught between fundamentalist and modern Islam. It shows  our similarities more than our differences.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams (France)

Director: Werner Herzhog

Writer: Werner Herzhog

Stars: Werner Herzhog, Jean Clottes and Julien Monney

The film ( shot in 3D) follows an expedition into the  Chauvet Cave in France, home to the most ancient cave drawings known to have been created by man. This pristine artwork dating back to human hands over 30,000 years ago  is almost twice as old as any previous discovery.

Beneath the Veil (Afghanistan)

Director: Cassian Harrison

Stars: Saira Shah

This is a documentary film made in 2001 about the conditions of women living in Afghanistan under the Taliban. It is brutal and barbaric and worst of all true.

Al Wei Wei Never Sorry (China)

Director: Alison Klayman

Al Wei Wei is China’s most famous artist. The film chronicles Weiwei’s struggle for human rights within his country and his use of art and social media to rally global audiences to his cause. I am a big fan of him and his work. When he was in jail, I  signed the petition to free him. Apparently because of the internet, it went on my permanent record. It was interesting for me to see this in depth film.

Let me know some of your favorite foreign documentary films.

also, see favorite foreign films.

https://havefunflysafe.wordpress.com/2012/09/23/favorite-foreign-films/

Fly safe,

JAZ