ANCHORAGE:
An Oscar-nominated filmmaker who directed and produced a documentary
detailing a 1925 sled dog run in Alaska to deliver life-saving serum has
died.
Daniel Anker died Monday at age 50. His wife, Donna Santman, says her husband died of pneumonia, a complication of his lymphoma.
Anker´s
film, "Icebound," details the five-day run to Nome following a deadly
diphtheria breakout. The film opened the Anchorage International Film
Festival in December.
Santman says her husband most recently was working on a documentary about late director Sidney Lumet.
Anker was nominated for an Academy Award in 2001 for another documentary, "Scottsboro: An American Tragedy."
The New York filmmaker is survived by his wife of 12 years and their two children. (AP)
JERUSALEM — Ever wonder what it feels like to be nominated for an Oscar — not once, but twice?
It feels pretty damn good, according to Hany Abu-Assad, the director of the movie Omar, who is in exactly that position.
"It's a funny thing," he said, in a phone interview from Los
Angeles, where he is preparing for the ceremony. "It's exactly like the
first time you make love. The first time you don't really know what you
are doing and you feel some responsibility, but the second time you
know what's coming, and you get more joy in making love."
"Few people have been nominated twice," he added, "So it is quite an honor."
Hany Abu-Assad, who holds Israeli and Dutch
citizenship, is the only Palestinian ever nominated for an Oscar —
first for his 2005 film Paradise Now and now for Omar, which was
released in 2013, both in the category of Best Foreign Film.
Omar has already won the "Un Certain Regard" special jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Paradise Now followed two young Palestinian men as they prepare for a suicide mission in Tel Aviv.
Omar tells the arc of another young Palestinian man, the almost
impossibly noble Omar, (played by the almost impossibly handsome Adam
Bakri) caught in a treacherous and very sticky web of nationalism,
desire, and self-discovery. The humanity of suicide bombers isn't a
topic most directors would touch, but in both films, Abu-Assad tackles
tough topics with a surprisingly delicate hand.
Much has been made of the fact that an Israeli film also
released last year, Bethlehem, tells a similar story, both films
portraying an Israeli secret service handler and his Palestinian
informant.
Abu-Assad saw Bethlehem. "It is good to see the matter from
an Israeli point of view, even though politically we are not on the same
page,” he said. “But films are about the quality of the movie. This is
how you learn about others. The acting was great and I appreciate it
because it is well done."
The films actually differ in most respects. Non-actors act
in Bethlehem, giving it a gritty, hard-knuckle realism, whereas
experienced professionals grace the screen in Omar. But they both touch
on eerily similar themes of the corrosive effects of the Israeli
occupation of Palestinian areas. The two films also come to almost
identically explosive ends.
So it is rather shocking to hear, in a GlobalPost exclusive, that Abu-Assad's next film will be a romantic comedy.
What?
"Yes, it's not a joke," Abu-Assad laughs, enjoying the surprise. "Set in Nazareth, where I was born."
A romcom set in Nazareth: now there’s a thought to give the local archbishop agita.
But it turns out Abu-Assad’s project is a Romeo and Juliet
story involving a poor boy and a girl with a rich father. "I call them
the new generation," Abu-Assad explains, "more interested in themselves
than in others. But the most important obstacle in the way of any love
story is our inability to understand the other."
"I like movies that keep a space in which the audience can
think, and not to give them all the answers. I like movies that open
questions, and I try to do what I like. I want you to be engaged and be
part of the story and I want to manipulate your emotions — but not your
thinking. I want it to be your thinking."
