T-shirt design contest

To celebrate our upcoming second International Yemeni Film & Arts Festival, the YPP is holding a t-shirt design contest! We're looking for creative designs that relate in some way to Yemen and the YPP's mission. T-shirts featuring the winning design will be sold at the 2016 Festival and on the YPP website. The winning designer will receive a cash prize of $100 and recognition on the website.

[big_text]Submissions will be accepted through February 7, 2016.[/big_text]

Details:

• Designs must be your own original work.
• Designs may include line art, text, and photographs.
• Designs may include the words "The Yemen Peace Project" or "International Yemeni Film & Arts Festival," or may be without text.
• Designs may use a maximum of three colors (not including background).
• You may submit no more than three designs per person.
• We reserve the right to make changes to submissions, such as image size and colors.
• By submitting a design, you grant us permission to use your design on the YPP website and promotional materials.

Submit your designs here!

Mafraj Radio Episode 10: Remembering al-Karamah, Panel Discussion

On this special episode, we mark the third anniversary of the day known as Jum‘at al-Karamah, or the Friday of Dignity, on which regime forces massacred unarmed protesters in San‘a's Change Square. The massacre, which is powerfully documented in the Oscar-nominated film Karama Has No Walls, became a turning point in the Yemeni Revolution of 2011. We're screening films about the Revolution as part of our inaugural International Film & Arts Festival. At last weekend's Festival event in Washington, DC, we invited a panel of expert special guests to join us for a discussion of the films, the Revolution, and its aftermath. This episode of the podcast features excerpts from that fantastic discussion panel.

About our guests:

Amal Basha is a prominent human rights activist, and the head of the Sisters' Arab Forum. She was a delegate to Yemen's National Dialogue Conference, and served as spokesperson for the NDC's technical committee. She is also the mother of activist-filmmaker Ammar Basha, whose documentary series Days in the Heart of the Revolution is featured in our Festival, and the aunt of Mohammed Albasha, below.

Mohammed Albasha is the spokesperson for the Yemeni embassy in Washington. He is one of the most visible--and controversial--public faces of the Yemeni state.

Sama'a al-Hamdani is a political analyst and researcher, based in Washington, DC. She writes one of the most respected blogs on Yemeni affairs, and tweets at @Yemeniaty.

Laura Kasinof is a freelance journalist, writer and researcher whose work focuses on the Middle East. She was the Yemen correspondent for the New York Times during the anti-government protests of 2011, as part of the Arab spring. Laura’s first book, Don’t be Afraid of the Bullets, about her experience in Yemen, is to be published in Fall 2014 by Arcade. She tweets at @kasinof.

Nabilah al-Zubair is a prominent Yemeni activist, and served as a delegate to the National Dialogue Conference.

Film Festival Preview, UCLA Library - Los Angeles, CA 1/12/2014

YPP director Will Picard and UCLA librarian David Hirsch host a screening of selected short films from the upcoming International Yemeni Film & Arts Festival. Following the screening, Picard and Hirsch will lead a discussion about the films' themes and their broader context in Yemeni society and the Yemeni diaspora.

Films will include:

Socotra: H’er wa Imshin, Felisa Jimenez. Yemen & Colombia, 2013, 36 minutes (World Premiere). This hauntingly beautiful documentary explores the social changes that have come to the remote Yemeni island of Socotra in recent years.

The Last Harvest, Jonathan Friedlander & Erik Friedl. USA, 2012, 23 minutes. This documentary, produced by UCLA researcher Jonathan Friedlander, explores the lives of Yemenis who settled in California’s San Joaquin Valley. At the peak of migration, some 5,000 Yemenis were employed in the fields of central California. Today only several hundred remain.

Karama Has No Walls, Sara Ishaq. Yemen, 2011, 30 minutes. Jumʻat al-Karama, the Friday of Dignity, on which pro-regime gunmen murdered over 50 revolutionary activists and wounded hundreds, marked a turning point in Yemen’s popular uprising of 2011. Filmmaker Sara Ishaq tells the story of the Karama massacre and its aftermath through the eyes of activists and their families. This film is currently on the short-list for an Academy Award nomination, the first such achievement for a Yemeni film.

A Stranger in Her Own City, Khadija al-Salami. Yemen, 2005, 29 minutes. In her first documentary, al-Salami shadows 13-year-old Nejmia, a girl who flouts custom by playing in the streets of Old Sanʻa “like a boy” and refusing to wear the hijab. Nejmia laughs off the taunts and curses of her neighbors, and captivates the viewer with her indomitable spirit.

The Big House, Musa Syeed. Yemen, 2013, 5 minutes. When a young boy finds a key to the empty mansion down the street, he lets himself and his imagination run wild in the big house.

Photo, Sawsan al-Areeqe. Yemen, 2012, 4 minutes. This simple but eloquent allegory celebrates the light women bring to Yemeni society despite all attempts at repression.

This event is free and open to the public, though UCLA charges for off-street parking. Light refreshments provided. Sponsored by the UCLA G.E. von Grunebaum Center for Near Eastern Studies.

Sunday 1/12, 3:00-6:00pm Charles E. Young Research Library, room 11360