Création aux Etats-Unis d'un Fonds Youssou Ndour

Le chanteur sénégalais Youssou Ndour a annoncé la création aux Etats-Unis d'un Fonds portant son nom, avec une vocation différente de celle de la fondation dont il est le parrain et qui opère au Sénégal.

Dans un entretien exclusif accordé au magazine ''Echos de la Banque mondiale'', à paraître mardi, l'intéressé rappelle que ce fonds a été crée avec IntraHealth International, une ONG américaine, en Pennsylvanie.

''Nous allons mobiliser des fonds pour être encore beaucoup plus présent et efficace dans le domaine de l'éducation, de la santé et la promotion des activités culturelles'', a expliqué l'artiste.

Le fonds sera d'abord basé aux Etats-Unis et va travailler sur toute l'Afrique, a-t-il signalé expliquant ainsi qu'une structure du Liberia ou du Mali pourra prétendre, au même titre que la Fondation Youssou Ndour, au Fonds Youssou Ndour.

Parlant de sa fondation dont il dit qu'elle ''fait d'excellentes choses'', dans la formation aux métiers de la musique, la lutte contre le paludisme, la scolarisation des filles, etc., Youssou Ndour a précisé qu'il ne la gère pas directement.

''Je suis simplement membre de son Conseil de gestion qui comprend également des personnalités venant d'horizons divers (banques, sport, sociétés privées, etc.). Quand ce conseil prend des décisions, je les assume et je ne peux pas les changer'', a-t-il poursuivi.

L'artiste sénégalais rappelle également ses participations, depuis cinq ans, au Forum de Davos en Suisse, pour y rencontrer des homologues.

''Moi-même, il m'est arrivé de représenter la Fondation qui fait beaucoup de travail au niveau international'', a-t-il dit, ajoutant que lui et sa structure ont obtenu ''une crédibilité certaine qui (leur) permet de travailler avec d'autres fondations''.

Interpellé sur l'engagement du leader du groupe U2 en faveur de l'annulation de la dette des pays pauvres, Youssou Ndour a répondu : ''je connais Bono (Bob Geldof) et je considère qu'il a vraiment du mérite''.

''Son engagement est totalement désintéressé. Son groupe est sans doute le plus connu du monde. Mais il sait que sa notoriété lui permet de parler avec tous les grands de ce monde comme Kofi Annan, le Secrétaire général de l'ONU, ou Tony Blair, le Premier ministre britannique'', a dit Youssou Ndour.

Il a souligné que Bono ''met tout cela au service des causes qu'il défend, en mobilisant toute une communauté d'artiste. C'est très important ce qu'il fait''.

Daphne Zuniga Produces a Film on TED Conference

Actress Daphne Zuniga Produces and Directs First-Ever Film Focused on World Renowned TED Conference

For the first time ever, a film about the exclusive, world renowned-TED Conference (http://www.tedfilm.com/) premieres on Netflix (http://www.netflix.com/) Tues., June 5, 2007. "The Future We Will Create: Inside the World of TED" is produced and directed by actress Daphne Zuniga (Melrose Place, American Dreams, Spaceballs) and filmmaker Steven Latham. Ms. Zuniga is also the host of the feature length documentary.

"The Future We Will Create: Inside the World of TED" provides an all-access pass to one of the world's most exciting gatherings. TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an invitation-only, annual event where an eclectic group of the world's most brilliant minds converge to share new ideas that will shape the future.

Daphne Zuniga takes us behind the scenes of every event. For Daphne, the TED experience turns out to be more than the sum of its parts. It's about realizing our own limitless potential.

"My experience with this group of people was so inspiring and energizing that I had to share it with the world," said Zuniga. "This is a film about the incredible TED conference, but it's also about the infinite potential in all of us. We captured exactly what happens at the conference. It makes you think how you can help the world long after you finish watching."

The film is being released to the more than six million Netflix subscribers who can rent the DVD or view online via the new "Watch Now" service at http://www.netflix.com/. Free two-week subscriptions are available at their site.

The film includes the world's innovators, artists and leaders, including former Vice President Al Gore, musician Peter Gabriel, environmentalist Majora Carter, aerospace engineer Burt Rutan, personal growth icon Tony Robbins, best-selling author Rick Warren, comedian Julia Sweeney, photographer Gregory Colbert, global health visionary Hans Rosling, creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson, sex anthropologist Helen Fisher, and many more.

The film was produced by Zuni Productions and Steven Latham Productions and acquired by Red Envelope Entertainment. It was made possible by physiological footwear company, MBT (http://www.swissmasai.com/) and the conservation housing development, Ameya Preserve (http://www.ameyapreserve.com/). More information about the TED Conference is at http://www.ted.com/. TED Conference

CONTACT: Steven Latham, info@TEDfilm.com, +1-310-452-3490 for TED
Conference.

Web site: http://www.tedfilm.com/

LOS ANGELES, May 31 /PRNewswire/

All This and World War II

If one ever needed a single example to show how different the movie industry is today compared to thirty years ago, one needs not look any further than Susan Winslow's baffling yet occasionally fascinating "All This and World War II," an ill-conceived documentary which has been practically, and wisely, buried since its 1976 release.

(It should be noted this review is being posted in advance of the film’s first public showing in more than thirty years, when it screens at Landmark’s Nuart Theatre in West Los Angeles on June 1, 2007, for a single show at midnight, and it being reviewed from a bootleg DVD sent to our offices years ago by an anonymous admirer of the site who thought I might be mesmerized by this unique film.)

A documentary about World War II in and of itself is not a bad thing. Over the past sixty years, there have been hundreds that have examined practically every imaginable angle of the conflict. A popular artist of the day redoing some of the best Beatles songs of all time in and of itself is not a bad thing either. Joe Cocker’s version of “With a Little Help From My Friends” is as indelible in modern musicology as the original. But a documentary about World War II that juxtaposes the music of the Beatles to assist in telling the story of The Good War? Not the best idea ever envisioned, as you can imagine. But how it came about is even stranger than the actual product.

Imagine if you will, two men sitting around one day, wondering how best to promote an album they are planning, with artists like the Bee Gees, Helen Reddy, Rod Stewart and Bryan Ferry doing their own versions of the songs of Lennon and McCartney. Spurred on by the then-current success of Phillipe Mora’s “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?,” which intermixed documentary footage of the Depression with music from the day, someone comes up with the brilliant idea of doing this with their music and both documentary footage and clips from dozens of Fox movies made during or about World War II.

The final product is often inconceivably irresponsible, yet like a horrific car crash on the side of the road, one you just cannot look away from. Yet even in the chaotic mess, there are moments of strangely inspired work. Imagine Helen Reddy singing “The Fool on the Hill” to footage of Hitler relaxing at his Bertchtesgaden retreat, Bryan Ferry’s version of “She’s Leaving Home” as the ladies of America prepare to go to war, or a filmic version of a DJ scratching with Rod Stewart singing “Get Back” as Nazi stormtroopers goose step back and forth over and over. Most of the sound and scene mix, however, borders on the painful and racist, such as when Tina Turner sings of “choo choo eyesballs” when images of Emperor Hirohito are shown.

Within the context of the movie, many of the songs are awkward fits. Away from the movie and listened to without the images they are shoehorned into, however, a number of the songs not only deserve to be remembered but should get a proper modern release, replete with historical context. Whilst it is true there are a number of songs that are rather painful to sit through (Leo Sayer’s caterwauling through “I Am the Walrus” anyone?), there are an equal number of songs that demand reintroduction into the musical lexicon. Peter Gabriel’s “Strawberry Fields Forever” was the first song he released as a solo artist, and is both a loving tribute to the original song and an interesting terminus a quo for what would come later, and is a must-have for any serious Gabriel aficionado. Ambrosia’s “Magical Mystery Tour,” Status Quo’s “Getting Better” and several of the Bee Gee’s contributions, along with the surreal Keith Moon version of “When I’m Sixty-Four” (recording just two years before he would pass on at half that age), are only a handful of songs from the project that warrant a second chance.

As a historical document, “All This and World War II” isn’t (pun somewhat intended) all that, and one that could have, and quite possibly should have, joined hundreds of other films from 1976 that have all but been forgotten. (Nobody is screaming for “Apple Pie” or “Hot Potato” or “The Yum-Yum Girls.”) Nostalgia often incurs when an item is kept from public consumption, and it is likely all wistful feelings for this film would disappear if it ever becomes available for mass consumption. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to the film in the coming months and years, but those expecting to find a lost gem will need to keep searching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SauoefwQrnQ

By EdwardHavens May 30th, 2007

Robert Lepage : ensemble vocal

Robert Lepage, qui a reçu le Prix d'Europe en avril à Thessalonique, en Grèce, signe Lipsynch , une pièce de cinq heures et vingt minutes dont la version finale fera... neuf heures ! (Photo AFP)

La fausse voix, la voix de Dieu, entendre des voix, la post-synchro, la traduction... Robert Lepage sillonne le vaste territoire de la voix, dans sa nouvelle création Lipsynch, présentée en première nord-américaine au festival TransAmériques. Une oeuvre en neuf histoires, où Lepage traite de musique rock, de tumeur au cerveau et de Léonard de Vinci.

Un Robert Lepage enroué décroche le combiné de sa chambre d'hôtel de Vancouver. La journaliste de La Presse, affligée d'une vilaine bronchite, n'a guère le ton plus cristallin. «Pour parler d'un show sur la voix, ça va mal», lâche-t-il, amusé.

Celui qui a reçu le mois dernier le Prix d'Europe, qui a travaillé avec Peter Gabriel et le Cirque du Soleil, qui a des antennes à Londres, Tokyo, Madrid, Paris, parle de la naissance de Lipsynch avec une simplicité déconcertante. Un peu comme si cette coproduction d'Ex Machina et du Théâtre sans Frontières de Newcastle - qui fait cinq heures 20 minutes et durera neuf heures dans sa version finale - était le résultat du banal remue-méninges d'une bande de copains qui se réunissent dans une caserne, lorsque les planètes sont alignées.

«On travaille là-dessus depuis un an et demi. Mais il arrive qu'on se rencontre pendant deux semaines pour ne plus se revoir avant six mois. C'est difficile de réunir tous ces gens de pays différents, de concilier les agendas.»

Rassembler en un même endroit des artistes de Berlin, de Newcastle, des îles Canaries, de Valence et du Québec est une entreprise colossale. Mais diriger des improvisations où l'on parle l'allemand, deux sortes d'espagnol, l'anglais, un dialecte écossais et le français québécois? Cela suffirait pour faire perdre son latin au commun des mortels. Or, tout le monde ne s'appelle pas Robert Lepage qui, lui, a sauté dans le chaos langagier comme un gamin dans un carré se sable. «Comme je connais toutes ces langues, j'arrivais à faire l'interprète.».......