Monthly Archives: February 2019

Cinema

Ambitious women can be seen as a threat: Monga

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By Anamika Chatterjee

It must feel great to be in Guneet Monga’s shoes at the moment. Her co-production, Period. End of Sentence, a film about a group of women in rural India learning how to operate a machine that makes sanitary pads, won an Oscar this week for Best Documentary (Short Subject). In a career spanning 10 years, the 35-year-old Monga has already set her own path to acclaim having backed critically lauded films, such as The Lunchbox and Masaan. In a conversation with Khaleej Times, Monga talks about her journey that has led her to become an influential voice in indie cinema.

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Personal

It rained this day, that year

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By Enid Grace Parker

Recently, a radio station I was  tuned into played a song dating back to 1989; that got me nostalgic and I wondered — what was I up to on this particular day 30 years ago? A quick Google check informed me that it had been a Saturday, which means I would have been in school (we had only Fridays off back then). Just for fun, and because I love going down memory lane, I tried to piece together what might have transpired on that day.

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UAE

An out-of-this world encounter with the UAE’s first astronauts

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By Sarwat Nasir

I still remember my first space-related news story. It was January 2014, I was an intern for a UAE-based tabloid newspaper and the (now infamous) Mars One programme was making headlines worldwide. I was able to break the story of an Emirati who was willing to move permanently to Mars as part of the programme.

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Travel

Airports: How do people still not get them?

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By David Light

I’m guilty of misremembering much of the 2009 George Clooney-Anna Kendrick-Vera Farmiga vehicle, Up In the Air. While liking the film upon its first and only viewing, as time passed, a scene which resonated during the picture’s debut in my lounge had been reprocessed as needlessly offensive. I’m sure you’re aware of the set piece to which I’m referring. Clooney and Kendrick are embarking on their trip out of a local airport and, at the security scanning point, the elder imparts his well-honed formula applied in order to breeze through. The pearls of wisdom include highlighting groups of travellers to avoid waiting in queues for the x-ray machines, ultimately settling on standing behind ‘Asians’ because they’re ‘efficient’.

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