Travelers’ eyes

Terakaft is one of the best saharan band from the “Ishumar” movement.
Terakaft is a gang of guitarists, in the same vein as Tinariwen. Nothing astonishing about that if you consider that Terakaft was founded by Kedou and Diara, two formative and historical guitarists from Tinariwen.
Moreover Kedou accompanied Tinariwen to the very first Festival with the Desert by Chock-Essako in January 2001, and contributes four songs on their first album The Radio Tisdas Sessions.
At that time Keddou decided to take a different path to Tinariwen, which is now famous in the four corners of the globe. He left to live for two years in Algeria, in Tindouf, Tamanrasset, and then for the same period in Libya, in the desert in the south of the country. Finally, he has returned to settle in Kidal, in Mali, to the great joy of his friends and Tuareg brothers.
Kedou is a celebrity in his own land, both thanks to his part in the history of the rebellion as to his songs. He has teamed up with Diara, one of the original members of Tinariwen, and one of the more “rock’n'roll” guitarists in the group, as well as two young guitarists, Sanou and Rhissa.
It was at the Festival with the Desert of Essakane, in January a 2007, that Terakaft performed their ifirst concert, following it with the Festival of the Camel of Tessalit, before going to Bamako, to record this first album, in four days, at the legendary Bogolan Studios.
Terakaft means “the caravan” in tamashek.

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A moment closed to the river in deep Amazonia, from the “Shiwiars Project”, by Valery Grancher.

“(…)I work mostly with media of all kinds, from video, photography, paintings, sometimes advertisement, marketing via Internet and this rebounding relationship with a reality of mediation perceived at the individual level triggers my interest, more than the one understood subjectively or in a phenomenological way, that is concomitant realities, whether collective or societal which intersect, their interactions with identity, memory, temporality, a given space. The Internet is a rather specific media because it allows strange situations as I said earlier which correspond to moments of 24hours, localized or global spaces confronted to a location and one individual experience. I certainly consider the Internet at a more symbolic level in relationship to our daily reality - I do not belong to a technological system which consists of generating new technologies to be grafted upon the Internet and thus supports the modern, progressive or positivist orders- I am only interested in the human experience brought up by this particular media. (…)

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Jupiter’s Dance, the acclaimed documentary by Renaud Barret & Florent de la Tullaye is now released on DVD.

Synopsis:

The ghettos of Kinshasa - the devastated capital of Democratic Republic of the Congo a country politically and economically adrift - are filled with many gifted, yet impoverished musicians. Their outstanding talent, humour and vital energy are their on means of survival. Amongst them, Jupiter Bokondji, the charismatic leader of the band “Okwess International”, acts as our narrator and guide. This local Don Quixote introduces us to the Kinshasa music scene - teenage rappers, handicapped bluesmen, street children, griots ans guitar craftsmen - and describe his 20-year struggle to bring his music out of the ghetto.

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I’ve been filming, working, shooting Marrakesh, Morocco, since 1994, but I think that’s my best sequence in the souks.
People were used to see me walking slowly, taking time, and they knew I would buy nothing. So they now let me film whatever I want.

This video has been presented in various art fair.

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FACE2FACE a project by JR:

“When we met in 2005, we decided to go together in the Middle-East to figure out why Palestinians and Israelis couldn’t find a way to get along together. We then traveled across the Israeli and Palestinian cities without speaking much. Just looking to this world with amazement. This holy place for Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This tiny area where you can see mountains, sea, deserts and lakes, love and hate, hope and despair embedded together.

After a week, we had a conclusion with the same words: these people look the same; they speak almost the same language, like twin brothers raised in different families. A religious covered woman has her twin sister on the other side. A farmer, a taxi driver, a teacher, has his twin brother in front of him. And he his endlessly fighting with him.

It’s obvious, but they don’t see that. We must put them face to face. They will realize.

We want that, at last, everyone laughs and thinks when he sees the portrait of the other and his own portrait. The Face2Face project is to make portraits of Palestinians and Israelis doing the same job and to post them face to face, in huge formats, in unavoidable places, on the Israeli and the Palestinian sides.

In a very sensitive context, we need to be clear. We are in favor of a solution for which two countries, Israel and Palestine would live peacefully within safe and internationally recognized borders. All the bilateral peace projects (Clinton/Taba, Ayalon/Nussibeh, Geneva Accords) are converging in the same direction. We can be optimistic. We hope that this project will contribute to a better understanding between Israelis and Palestinians.Today, “Face to face” is necessary.
Within a few years, we will come back for “Hand in hand”.”

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“More than 150,000 Central Africans had been internally displaced, conflict in the north had affected about a million people”. Toby Lanzer, United Nations Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator in Central African Republic. Press Conference, 16 January 2007.

Since October 2006, Central African Armed Forces (FACA) have burned more than 2000 houses in the only region of Kaga Bandoro. Atrocities, rapes, summary executions, burnings of villages, destruction of harvests, many witnesses accuse the Central African Armed Forces (FACA). The people run away from their villages and hide in the bush where the FACA doesn’t dare entering by fear of the rebellion that appeared as an answer to Francois Bozize’s access to power after the overthrow of President Patasse in 2003.
The villagers are caught between the rebels they are accused of supporting, and the Central African military. They survive near their fields wher they lack of food, care, and clothes. Only two NGOs are there, Caritas, and MSF.

According to an a 40 year old agreement, the Fench army is in Central African Republic and gives a logistical and technical support (equipment and soldiers transportation) to the Central African Armed Forces (FACA).

Frédéric Sautereau, photoreporter, realised in December 2006 in the heart of the current conflict in Central African Republic.

We collaborated together to make a film including the photographs and testimonies he brought from this “unexisting” conflict.

Produced by Oeil Public and À 360 Productions

You can also read some news about this conflict on a blog written by the humanitarian and development organizations in CAR: More +++