LOS ANGELES — Sean Baker, whose low-budget movie “Anora” is the front-runner for next weekend’s Oscars, delivered an impassioned plea to “keep indie film alive” as he won top prize at the Spirit Awards on Saturday. 

The annual Film Independent Spirit Awards ceremony, held in a giant tent at Los Angeles’ Santa Monica beach, only celebrates movies made for less than $30 million. 

Baker, long a leading figure of the U.S. independent movie circuit, who is now shooting to mainstream success, won best feature and best director for “Anora,” which was shot for $6 million.  

“Indie film is struggling right now more than ever,” Baker said. 

“I personally do not have children, but I know for a fact that if I did, I would not be able to make the movies that I make,” warned one of the United States’ most respected directors. 

His latest film “Anora” portrays Ani, a stripper and escort, whose whirlwind marriage to the son of a Russian oligarch rapidly unravels in disastrous circumstances. 

Mikey Madison, who plays Ani, won best lead performer honors at the Spirit Awards. 

Having launched at the Cannes film festival last May, where it won the Palme d’Or, “Anora” became an arthouse hit, grossing $40 million worldwide. 

It is widely tipped to win best picture at the Oscars. 

But Baker warned that the collapse of DVD sales, which once supported up-and-coming filmmakers, means creatives like him rarely make any money even when their movies succeed in theaters. 

He warned that major Hollywood studios swallow profits, refuse to “green light” movies tackling controversial subjects, and force directors to cast actors based on “how many followers they have on social media.” 

“I’m an indie film lifer … the system has to change, because this is simply unsustainable,” he said. 

Stars attending the low-key Spirit Awards gala included Emma Stone, Demi Moore, Michelle Yeoh and Jesse Eisenberg, who won best screenplay for “A Real Pain.” 

Kieran Culkin also won best supporting performance for the comedy about two polar opposite U.S. cousins retracing their Jewish heritage in Poland. 

“Flow,” a Latvian, dialogue-free animation about animals banding together to survive a mysterious flood, won best international film. 

Best documentary went to “No Other Land,” about the destruction of a village in the occupied West Bank. 

It is the favorite to win the same prize at the Academy Awards on March 2, yet still has not been able to find a distributor in the United States. 

“Nickel Boys,” another Oscar best picture nominee, about historic abuse at a Florida school and shot entirely from the first-person perspective, won best cinematography. 

“September 5,” about the terrorist massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, won best editing.  

The Spirit Awards will not affect this year’s Oscars, as voting has already ended for the season-capping 97th Academy Awards. 
…

your ads here!

Following the news of Jorge Bergoglio’s health, churches across the country are joining in prayer. In this video we visit the most emblematic places in his hometown. Argentine faithful share prayers and reflect on the importance of having an Argentine Pope.

Click here for the full story in Spanish. 
…

your ads here!

new york — Jerry Butler, a premier soul singer of the 1960s and ’70s whose rich, intimate baritone graced such hits as “For Your Precious Love,” “Only the Strong Survive” and “Make It Easy on Yourself,” has died at age 85.

Butler’s niece, Yolanda Goff, told the Chicago Sun-Times that Butler — whose show business nickname, “The Iceman,” was given to him for his understated style — died Thursday at his home in Chicago.

A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a three-time Grammy Award nominee, Butler was a voice for two major soul music hubs: Chicago and Philadelphia.

Along with childhood friend Curtis Mayfield, he helped found the Chicago-based Impressions and sang lead on the breakthrough hit “For Your Precious Love,” a deeply emotional, gospel-influenced ballad that made Butler a star before age 20.

A decade later, in the late ’60s, he joined the Philadelphia-based production team of Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, who worked with him on “Only the Strong Survive,” “Hey Western Union Man” and other hits. His albums “Ice on Ice” and “The Iceman Cometh” are regarded as early models for the danceable, string-powered productions that became the classic “Sound of Philadelphia.”

Butler was also a songwriter, collaborating with Otis Redding on “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” a signature ballad for Redding; and with Gamble and Huff on “Only the Strong Survive,” later covered by Elvis Presley, among others. His credits also included “For Your Precious Love,” “Never Give You Up” (with Gamble and Huff) and “He Will Break Your Heart,” which Butler helped write after he began thinking about the boyfriends of the groupies he met on the road.

“You go into a town; you’re only going to be there for one night; you want some company; you find a girl; you blow her mind,” Butler told Rolling Stone in 1969. “Now you know that girl hasn’t been sitting in town waiting for you to come in. She probably has another fellow and the other fellow’s probably in love with her; they’re probably planning to go through the whole thing, right? But you never take that into consideration on that particular night.”

Link to Mayfield

Butler was the son of Mississippi sharecroppers who moved north to Chicago when he was 3, part of the era’s “Great Migration” of Black people out of the South. He loved all kinds of music as a child and was a good enough singer that a friend suggested he come to a local place of worship, the Traveling Souls Spiritualist Church, presided over by the Reverend A.B. Mayfield. Her grandson, Curtis Mayfield, soon became a close friend. (Mayfield died in 1999.)

In 1958, Mayfield and Butler, along with Sam Gooden and brothers Arthur and Richard Brooks, recorded “For Your Precious Love” for Vee-Jay Records. The group called itself the Impressions, but Vee-Jay, eager to promote an individual star, advertised the song as sung by Jerry Butler and the Impressions, leading to estrangement between Butler and the other performers and to an unexpected solo career.

“Fame didn’t change me as much as it changed the people around me,” Butler wrote in his memoir, Only the Strong Survive, published in 2000.

One of his early solo performances was a 1961 cover of “Moon River,” the theme from the film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” Butler was the first performer to hit the charts with what became a pop standard, but “Moon River” would be associated with Andy Williams after the singer was chosen to perform it at the Academy Awards, a snub Butler long resented.

His other hits, some recorded with Mayfield, included “Find Another Girl” and “I’m A-Telling You.” By 1967, his formal style seemed out of fashion, but Butler was impressed by the new music coming out of Philadelphia and received permission from his record label, Mercury, to work with Gamble and Huff. The chemistry, Butler recalled, was so “fierce” they wrote hits such as “Only the Strong Survive” in less than an hour. 

“Things just seem to fall into place,” Butler told Ebony magazine in 1969. “We lock ourselves in a room, create stories about lovers, compose the music, then write the lyrics to match the music.”

By the 1980s, Butler’s career had faded, and he was becoming increasingly interested in politics. Encouraged by the 1983 election of Harold Washington, Chicago’s first Black mayor, he ran successfully for the Cook County Board of Commissioners in 1985 and was re-elected repeatedly, even after supporting a controversial sales tax increase in 2009. He retired from the board in 2018.

Butler was married for 60 years to Annette Smith, who died in 2019, and with her had twin sons. Many of his generational peers had struggled financially and he worked to help them. He chaired the Rhythm & Blues Foundation, which provides a wide range of assistance to musicians, and pushed the industry to provide medical and retirement benefits.

Butler considered himself relatively lucky, even if he did pass on the chance to own a part of Gamble and Huff’s Philadelphia International recording company.

“You know, I have lived well. My wife probably would say I could’ve lived better,” Butler told the Chicago Reader in 2011. “Did I make 40, 50 million dollars? No. Did I keep one or two? Yes. The old guys on the street used to say, ‘It’s not how much you make. It’s how much you keep.’ ”
…

your ads here!

MAYVILLE, NEW YORK — A New Jersey man was convicted Friday of attempted murder for stabbing author Salman Rushdie multiple times on a New York lecture stage in 2022.

Jurors, who deliberated for less than two hours, also found Hadi Matar, 27, guilty of assault for wounding a man who was on stage with Rushdie at the time.

Matar ran onto the stage at the Chautauqua Institution where Rushdie was about to speak on Aug. 12, 2022, and stabbed him more than a dozen times before a live audience. The attack left the 77-year-old prizewinning novelist blind in one eye.

Rushdie was the key witness during seven days of testimony, describing in graphic detail his life-threatening injuries and long and painful recovery.

Matar, sitting at the defense table, looked down but had no obvious reaction when the jury delivered the verdict. As he was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs, he quietly uttered, “Free Palestine,” echoing comments he has frequently made while entering and leaving the trial.

His public defender, Nathaniel Barone, said Matar was disappointed but also well-prepared for the verdict.

District Attorney Jason Schmidt played a slow-motion video of the attack for the jury Friday during his closing argument, pointing out the assailant as he emerged from the audience, walked up a staircase to the stage and broke into a run toward Rushdie.

“I want you to look at the unprovoked nature of this attack,” Schmidt said. “I want you to look at the targeted nature of the attack. There were a lot of people around that day but there was only one person who was targeted.”

Assistant public defender Andrew Brautigan told the jury that prosecutors have not proved that Matar intended to kill Rushdie. The distinction is important for an attempted-murder conviction.

“You will agree something bad happened to Mr. Rushdie, but you don’t know what Mr. Matar’s conscious objective was,” Brautigan said.

Matar had knives with him but no gun or bomb, his attorneys have said previously. And in response to testimony that the injuries were life-threatening, they have noted that Rushdie’s heart and lungs were uninjured.

Schmidt said while it’s not possible to read Matar’s mind, “it’s foreseeable that if you’re going to stab someone 10 or 15 times about the face and neck, it’s going to result in a fatality.”

Schmidt reminded jurors about the testimony of a trauma surgeon, who said Rushdie’s injuries would have been fatal without quick treatment.

He also slowed down video showing Matar approaching the seated Rushdie from behind and reaching around him to stab at his torso with a knife. Rushdie raises his arms and rises from his seat, walking and stumbling for a few steps with Matar hanging on, swinging and stabbing until they both fall and are surrounded by onlookers who rush in to separate them.

Rushdie is seen flailing on the ground, waving a hand covered in bright red blood. Schmidt freezes on a frame showing Rushdie, his face also bloodied, as he’s surrounded by people.

“We’ve shown you intent,” Schmidt said.

The recordings also picked up the gasps and screams from audience members who had been seated to hear Rushdie speak with City of Asylum Pittsburgh founder Henry Reese about keeping writers safe. Reese suffered a gash to his forehead, leading to the assault charge against Matar.

The judge set sentencing for April 23. Matar could receive up to 25 years in prison.
…

your ads here!

MUMBAI, INDIA — Even for the world’s most-populous nation, the scale of a Hindu religious festival being held in India’s northern city of Prayagraj since mid-January is staggering. Surpassing previous numbers, the Maha Kumbh Mela that wraps up Wednesday has drawn more than half a billion devotees in the last six weeks, according to officials.

The government of Uttar Pradesh, where the festival is being held, claims that this year’s event is the largest congregation in human history for a religious, cultural and social event.

Those who have taken a holy dip in waters that Hindus believe cleanses them of their sins and helps attain salvation include ordinary devotees from all walks of life, billionaires, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, politicians and Bollywood stars. Others went to simply witness the mesmerizing panorama of the religious spectacle that unfolds along the confluence of two rivers, the Ganges and the Yamuna, where Hindus believe a third, mythical river also exists.

Among the first rush of pilgrims to attend the Kumbh Mela when it began last month was Deepinderr Singh Bindra, a resident of Gurugram in North India. “It was the accumulation of my spiritual journey following my visit to several Hindu pilgrim sites in the last few years,” he said. He took an early morning dip on three consecutive days and “found it a surreal, deeply satisfying experience.”

The pull of the Maha or great Kumbh Mela, which is held every 12 years, became even greater for many devotees because this year’s event was considered special — it coincided with an alignment of the planets and stars that occurs once in 144 years.

The festival was marred by a stampede on Jan. 29 that killed 30 pilgrims who were trampled amid the rush to take part in the bathing on a day considered particularly auspicious.

That tragedy, however, failed to dampen the fervor as millions continued to pour into the vast temporary tented township that covers a stretch of 4,000 hectares, or 40 square kilometers, along the banks of the river. The tented township includes roads, hospitals, toilets and free community kitchens run by volunteers. A platform made of sandbags stretches along the Ganges riverbank for devotees to take part in the ritual immersion.

But for many like Mumbai resident Nikhil Shirodkar, joining the festival was not just about the dip in the river but a once-in-a-lifetime experience that offered a chance for a connection with age-old Hindu traditions.

“I went more as a spiritual seeker and not with the belief that the dip cleanses one’s sins,” he said.

He spent three days sleeping on the floor like an ascetic and helping serve meals to people.

“It was an eye opener. Everybody was reaching out to each other. On the roadside some would be serving tea, others biscuits, to the pilgrims who kept pouring in. It had an impact on my outlook,” Shirodkar said.

Others, especially overseas visitors, were drawn to it by a sense of curiosity. Twenty-one-year-old Lucinda Pernell, who had come from Australia to India to attend a yoga camp, decided to attend after learning from her photographer friend about the festival’s immense scale.

“It was overwhelming because there were just so many people, which a Westerner like me has never seen. But I found it amazing. It was a kind of organized chaos, but what I will take back with me is that people respected each other. There was a sense of belief,” she said, recalling the experience.

On one of the days that she was there, considered an especially auspicious day, an estimated 35 million took a dip in the waters in Prayagraj — that’s more people than the population of Australia.

She visited the camp for Naga sadhus, the ash-smeared, often naked Hindu ascetics, who armed with tridents lead the religious spectacle. It’s one of the most dramatic sights of the festival.

At this year’s festival, the sacred coexisted with high technology, as underwater drones and artificial intelligence systems were used to monitor the crowds and improve safety.

The Kumbh Mela also reflected the growing synergy between religion and politics since Prime Minister Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata party came to power 10 years ago, according to political analyst Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay. Giant billboards of Modi stood high at the festival site.

“The open, publicized participation of top political leaders at a religious festival is not something you witnessed in the past,” he said, pointing out that lines between religion and the state have been increasingly blurred. Besides Modi, who took a dip in the river, the Uttar Pradesh state government, led by a Hindu monk, held a Cabinet meeting at the site of the festival.

Reasserting a Hindu cultural identity has been part of the BJP’s agenda. Under the rule of the country’s erstwhile Mughal rulers, the city where it took place was earlier known as Allahabad. It was renamed Prayagraj in 2018 by the BJP state government in a bid to restore its identity as a Hindu pilgrimage center.

Mukhopadhyay also pointed out that the elaborate facilities built for the festival at a cost of over $8 billion, included upscale accommodations, airport and railway expansions and new roads. “With facilities like air-conditioned tents and roads, the rich and upper middle classes no longer had to trek for miles as devotees did in earlier days. So for many of them, attending the Kumbh transitioned from a purely religious pilgrimage into a social talking point,” he said.

Questions have been raised about the water in which the devotees immerse themselves. A report by the federal government’s Central Pollution Control Board earlier this month said that there were high levels of contamination in a key bathing place. But the Uttar Pradesh state government rejected the report, saying authorities were continuously monitoring water in the rivers to maintain its quality.

At last count provided by the state government, 550 million had attended the festival. With five more days to go until it culminates on Wednesday, which is considered another auspicious day, those numbers will rise.

Among those who plan to travel to Prayagraj on that day is Bindra, the resident of Gurugram. “I will be going again to take another dip,” he said. “It is a calling for me.”
…

your ads here!

Archaeologists in Egypt say they have unearthed the ancient tomb of King Thutmose II, the first discovery in 100 years of a tomb of an Egyptian royal.

The discovery near Luxor is the first of a pharaonic royal tomb since the treasures of Tutankhamun’s tomb were found over a century ago in 1922, Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said Tuesday.

Thutmose’s tomb was found west of the Valley of the Kings, one of the world’s most important archaeological sites and home to the burial sites of many ancient Egyptian royals and nobles, including Tutankhamun, also known as King Tut.

Thutmose, an ancestor of Tutankhamun, lived nearly 3,500 years ago. His wife, Queen Hatshepsut, was one of the few women known to have ruled Egypt. Her mortuary temple is on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor, not far from where her husband’s tomb was found.

Thutmose was a king of ancient Egypt’s 18th dynasty. His tomb was the last undiscovered tomb of that group.

An archaeology team found the entrance to Thutmose’s tomb in October 2022, according to the online magazine Archaeology News, but they thought it was likely the burial site of a queen. As they dug deeper, they found inscriptions referring to Thutmose II as the “deceased king” and Hatshepsut.

The tomb flooded soon after the king’s burial, damaging most of its contents, but some funerary furniture was recovered. Egypt’s antiquities ministry said Tuesday the discovery of the tomb is “one of the most significant archaeological breakthroughs in recent years.”

Professor Mohamed Abdel-Badel, who heads Egypt’s Antiquities Sector, told Archaeology News that the team “recovered and restored fallen plaster fragments” that had blue inscriptions on them, including from the Book of the Amduat, which the website described as “a key funerary text used in royal burials.”

Thutmose’s tomb can now be listed among the wonders of ancient Egypt that draw hordes of tourists to the country. Last year, Egypt hosted 15.7 million tourists and aims to attract 18 million visitors in 2025, according to Agence France-Presse. Egypt may reach that goal with the long-awaited opening this year of the Grand Egyptian Museum at the foot of the legendary pyramids in Giza.

Some information for this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
…

your ads here!

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan is ready to host the International Cricket Council Champions Trophy 2025 on Wednesday, with eight teams coming together for a major cricketing event in the country for the first time in three decades.

Pakistan last hosted a men’s Cricket World Cup in 1996 under the International Cricket Council.

The Champions Trophy will see players from Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand Pakistan, and South Africa compete over almost three weeks, with the final scheduled for March 9.

All the teams except India will play in three stadiums across Pakistan. All matches involving India will be staged in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, after the Indian cricket board refused to send the team to the archrival country, citing security concerns.

Afghanistan’s cricket team faced boycott calls from politicians in England and South Africa, who did not want their cricket boards to play the team because of the Afghan Taliban’s severe restrictions on women’s mobility, education and ability to work.

The cricket series begins in Pakistan’s biggest metropolis, Karachi, with the host team playing New Zealand.

Long wait for this opportunity

International cricket dried up in Pakistan after a 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan national team in Lahore injured six players. Six Pakistani police officers and two passersby were killed. The incident deprived Pakistan of the chance to host the 2009 Champions Trophy and the 2011 Men’s Cricket World Cup.

International cricket returned with Zimbabwe’s visit in 2015. Since 2019, several major foreign teams have played in Pakistan.

For the nation of cricket lovers, attending a large event at home after more than a decade is nothing short of a dream come true.

“It’s the biggest event for us since 2009, so we are very excited,” said Mohsin Ali. Ali told VOA he paid just over $10 for a ticket to see Pakistan face Bangladesh on Feb. 27 in Rawalpindi, near the capital, Islamabad.

“Pakistani team would play overseas, and we would watch it on TV, which wasn’t much fun,” said Ubaid Hassan, who was a child when international teams shunned Pakistan. Hassan, a captain of the cricket team in his village, has tickets to two matches.

Tight security for the event

Pakistan is deploying almost 20,000 police officials and personnel across Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi for security on game days, with snipers deployed on buildings surrounding the stadiums.

The security situation remains poor in Pakistan with near daily deadly militant attacks in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southwestern Balochistan provinces. However, the country’s eastern province of Punjab and the southern province of Sindh, where the matches will be played, remain largely calm.

Still, in Karachi, the capital of Sindh, paramilitary troops and the military will be on standby to respond to security emergencies during the event.

Players are receiving state guest-level security. That means a heavy police contingent at hotels where teams are staying, with their travel routes cleared of all traffic. Only personnel with security clearances are allowed to interact with them.

Muhammad Waqas, deputy inspector general of operations for the Punjab police, told VOA that since the 2009 attack, “sports security and security of international events has become very important for us.”

“Even the slightest administrative lapse will cause embarrassment at a very large level, and if we do a good job and manage things efficiently, the same positive impression will go to a billion odd people,” Waqas said. “That is why it’s extremely important and is being planned and monitored at the highest level.”

Fans coming to the stadium will go through several layers of security, including metal detectors and pat downs. Each ticket bears the name and national identity card number of the buyer.

Could be good for nation’s image

While it’s not clear how many visas have been issued to foreign fans, cricket experts in Pakistan say the event will help improve the country’s image, which has suffered partly because of a lack of international exposure.

“When you don’t have tourists, then people will not know how your country is and people will keep thinking poorly of Muslims and Pakistanis,” said Tauqir Zia, former chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board.

Although India’s absence from Pakistan’s grounds is a disappointment for many Pakistani cricket lovers who wanted to see the sport’s biggest rivalry play out at home, some say the arrival of other cricketing powers is a vote of confidence.

“Six countries coming to play here is a very big victory for Pakistan. If India doesn’t come, it’s not stopping cricket. The game is still happening,” said cricket journalist Umar Farooq.

The final will be played in Pakistan, unless India qualifies to play the last match, in which case the event will take place in Dubai.

Pakistan has spent millions of dollars in recent months to upgrade the stadiums in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi.

Former Pakistani cricketer Mushtaq Ahmed said he hopes the arrival of heavyweights will usher in a new era for international cricket in the country.

“It’s the first step,” said Ahmed, who is a spin bowling coach for Bangladesh. “I am very hopeful that this will open more doors.”

VOA Urdu’s Naveed Naseem contributed to this report.
…

your ads here!

“Saturday Night Live” has been a staple of American television comedy for 50 years, launching stars and shaping culture. On Sunday night, fans and famous alumni gathered in New York City to celebrate this milestone. Aron Ranen reports from the Big Apple.
…

your ads here!