Daily Archives: July 19, 2017

The Durban FilmMart, the industry development program of the Durban Intl. Film Festival and Durban Film Office, has wrapped its latest edition with an awards ceremony showcasing a range of works-in-progress from across the African continent, includinga documentary that follows the life of one of Kenyas leading political activists, a portrait of three women fighting for the rights of sex workers in South Africa, and an absurdist comedy set in an old-age home on the outskirts of Johannesburg.

Since its 2010 inception, the Durban FilmMart has become an important forum for helping to facilitate or launch film projects in Africa. So far, it has helped facilitate close to 100 African co-productions.

The journey of growing the Durban FilmMart over the past eight years has been remarkable, said Toni Monty, head of the Durban Film Office. What started as an idea to create a business networking hub all those years ago hasbecome an important platform for African filmmakers to connect to the global marketplace.

Recent success stories include The Wound, a South African-German-Dutch-French co-production, which opened the Berlinales Panorama section this year; The Dream of Shahrazad, a South African-French-Egyptian co-production that premiered in the Masters Section of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in 2014; and The Boda Boda Thieves, a South African-Kenyan-Ugandan-German co-production, which had its world premiere in the Berlinales Forum in 2015.

This year the Durban FilmMart (DFM) hosted 600 delegates from more than 30 countries. Twenty-two official projects in development were presented at the finance forum through the DFMs partnership with CineMart and the Intl. Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam.Four projects were hosted at the DFM by the Realness scriptwriting residency, while Frances Produire au Sud supported the Jumpstart Project, a mentoring program to introduce six emerging filmmakers to the art of the pitch. Two documentary projects were supported by Hot Docs, andsix CineFAM projects were rigorously mentored by Torontos CaribbeanTales.

Along with its finance and co-production forum, the DFM and its partners handed out a number of awardsMondaynight.

The Intl. Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam (IDFA) chose Lobola: A Brides True Price, produced by Sarah Basyouny and directed by Sihle Hlophe, as the most promising documentary project. The duo will have the opportunity to attend Novembers IDFA Forum, one of Europes top gatherings for documentary filmmakers, producers, commissioning editors, funds and private financiers.

AfriDocs, the broadcast stream that screens African and other international documentaries across sub-Saharan Africa, awarded a 3,000 ($3,460) grant to the Kenyan doc Uasi, produced by Matrid Nyagah and Linda Ogeda, and directed by Sam Soko. The projects creators will also have an opportunity to pitch the film at the Srfond Pitching Forum in Oslo later this year.

The CineMart Award, sponsored by the co-production market of the Intl. Film Festival Rotterdam, went to the South African feature Miles from Nowhere, produced by Bongiwe Selane and directed by Samantha Nell. The pair are invited to attend the Rotterdam Lab, a five-day training and networking event for producers from around the world.

Miles from Nowhere was also recognized by Produire au Sud, of the Festival des 3 Continents in Nantes, which has invited Selane and Nell to take part in its developmental workshop program.

Videovision Entertainment named The Dabulaphu (The Short Cut) the Best South African Film Project. Producers Zikethiwe Ngcobo and David Max Brown and director Norman Maake received a prize of R75,000 ($5,805), which guarantees the films release once its completed. The prize also includes marketing and distribution support from Videovision.

Publicity consultants Versfeld & Associates announced that they will develop publicity material and advise on publicity profiling through the development of two South African projects, Womxn: Working, produced by Tiny Mungwe and directed by Shanelle Jewnarain, and Richard Was Here, produced by Akona Matyila and directed by Jack Chiang.

The CineFAM-Africa Incubator Accelerator Programme award to pitch at the CaribbeanTales Film Festival in Toronto went to Mary Ann Mandishona for Mamba Kazi African Warrior Queens.

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Durban FilmMart Recognizes Works in Progress From Across Africa ... - Variety

While its still just a skeleton, the beachfront Embassy Suites at A1A Beach Boulevard is far enough along to see its great potential in one of the most scenic spots in the entire county.

The leaders of the hotel project, which is right next to the St. Johns County Ocean and Fishing Pier, were at the property Tuesday morning for the topping off ceremony. It was an opportunity to showcase the progress of the construction at a time when there was enough work done to give visitors a vision of what its going to be.

Speaking on what will be the floor of a meeting/ballroom looking out onto the ocean, St. Augustine Beach Embassy Suites general manager Justin Nels is clear about what he thinks the hotel will become once it opens in the first quarter of 2018.

This will be the nicest Embassy Suites in America, Nels said. I think people have been trying over the years to build something like this.

I think the owners had the foresight to say hey there was a hotel here before lets buy that land and build this beautiful resort. When you look up and down the coast, theres nothing like this.

Indeed, there is no beachfront hotel south of the Ponte Vedra Beach area that will be able to match the scale of the new hotel, which will contain 175 rooms and have 7,500 square feet of indoor meeting space as well as 10,000 square feet of outdoor meeting space.

Right in the heart of St. Augustine Beach, the Embassy Suites will replace the old Beachfront Hotel, which suffered from flooding damage and neglect. It was very poorly rated by travelers at the end of its lifespan and was demolished in 2014. The hotel started as a Sheraton Inn in 1974.

Replacing that unpopular hotel was not without some controversy, though. Some residents were upset that the St. Augustine Beach Planning and Zoning Board approved the hotel with a height of 53 feet, above the general guideline of a 35-foot height limit in the city.

Building officials argued that because the building must be elevated for flood insurance purposes, the starting point for measuring the 35 feet should be set at the first floor of habitable space rather than the ground.

But Diego Ardid, president of Key International, the company that bought the property, said hes heard mostly positive comments from the community.

I think its going to good for everybody, he said. I think its going to be an amenity that the city can enjoy.

Ardid also expects it to be extremely successful for his company. Hes been part of deals like the $350 million acquisition of the Eden Roc Miami Beach, and the company has also developed smaller hotels in places like Gainesville and New Smyrna Beach.

But the opportunity to build a new beachfront hotel in a market that has nothing like what the new Embassy Suites will be was a no brainer decision for Ardid.

Every time we come up here, we felt like it was lacking a great resort on the beach, he said. We had the opportunity that this property came up for sale and we didnt think twice. We said, Wow, what an opportunity. We moved on this and we couldnt be happier to be here.

A property of this scale in Florida, toes in the sand, is almost impossible to find.

The hotel will also be a boon for the Embassy Suites brand, said Alan Roberts, the vice president and global head of Embassy Suites by Hilton.

Roberts said the St. Augustine Beach property will be one of just five beachfront resorts in the brands portfolio of 234 current hotels.

You have to have these sexy resort beachfront places for people to want to (visit) to give your hotel brand the diversity that guests expect and want, he said. Im thrilled to see where this hotel is. You dont get locations like where this is every day.

Richard Goldman, president and CEO of the St. Johns County visitors and convention bureau, said having an upscale hotel like the Embassy Suites will help the area draw more affluent visitors.

He added that visitors here tend to come from households with incomes of $100,000 or more, and 65 percent of them have a college degree. With that level of income and education, those visitors tend to be discerning and are looking for the kind of classy hotel experience the new Embassy Suites is expected to offer.

As our visitors have become increasingly sophisticated, their expectations for unique experiences delivered dependably and with quality have risen accordingly, Goldman said.

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Embassy Suites celebrates its progress on St. Augustine Beach hotel - St. Augustine Record

Coach Brian Agler and the Sparks won eight consecutive games from June 10 through July 2.

Alana Beard had never experienced the elation and satisfaction of winning a championship until last October, but after more than a dozen years in professional basketball, she understood the reality.

At some point, after the celebration dies down, you have to get your team together and try to do it again.

The Los Angeles Sparks, who improved to 14-5 with Monday's home victory over the Indiana Fever, host the Chicago Sky on Thursday in their final contest before Saturday's All-Star Game in Seattle (ABC, 3:30 p.m. ET). As the midseason break approaches, Los Angeles has a solid grip on the No. 2 spot in the standings behind the league-leading Minnesota Lynx (15-2). The Sparks have hit a couple of rough patches -- a pair of two-game losing streaks, one early in the season and another earlier this month -- but are largely playing good, steady basketball on a path toward the playoffs.

The core of last year's championship team returned with Candace Parker, 2016 MVP Nneka Ogwumike, Beard and Jantel Lavender primed again for significant roles. But there was also substantial change: Point guard Kristi Toliver left for Washington and was replaced in the starting lineup by Chelsea Gray, a starter for the first time in her career; Riquna Williams, who missed 2016 with an injury, and talented, young guard Odyssey Sims were brought in.

No. 1 pick in the 2012 draft, 2012 WNBA rookie of the year, three-time WNBA All-Star, 2016 MVP and president of the WNBA Players' Association. This summer, Nneka Ogwumike adds another line to her resume: 2017 Body Issue athlete.

Brittney Griner is expected to miss a month. Tayler Hill is out for the season. And Elena Delle Donne missed Sunday's game and will be reevaluated this week. How will Phoenix and Washington cope while their stars recuperate?

Sue Bird of the Storm and five former MVPs headline the WNBA All-Star Game starters who will play in Seattle on July 22.

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Sparks coach Brian Agler admits he knew more about his team last year at this point than he does this season. But that is not a bad thing.

"We are moving in the right direction," he said. "It's a puzzle. Even though we had a lot of people back, we had several new people, and it's been an ongoing process to put it all together. But I didn't expect any different."

Neither did Beard.

"If you didn't understand that we were going to be a different team this season, you were not living in reality," Beard said. "But I don't mind not knowing, I'm confident about where we are."

Ogwumike said the Sparks have been going through a "spring cleaning" during the first half of the WNBA season.

"We are working on ourselves, focusing on what we can do better as a team and what individual people can do to contribute," Ogwumike said. "There are definitely some things that are a work in progress for us, but we are building off last year in our own way. In some cases, that requires starting from scratch."

Beard, who led Duke to consecutive Final Fours in 2002 and 2003, said she came into the season with an open mind and a big smile after winning the first title of her career. And with the awareness that it guarantees nothing going forward. If the Sparks want to become the first team in the WNBA to win back-to-back titles since Los Angeles did it in 2000 and 2001, they are going to need some of the same things that got them there last time -- and quite a few different ones. It is a message Agler has been preaching since training camp and continues to emphasize.

"Coach Agler talked to us just today again about the things that we can pull from last season," Beard said. "That knowing that we know how to win a title, there's no excuse for not getting things done. If they don't get done, it's because we choose not to do it. I feel like this team is 10 times better than last year, but there is so much more room for improvement."

Ogwumike said she had no expectations at the start of the season.

"It's been hard work to re-identify ourselves," she said. "I think we are playing well, we just need to be consistent. We really need that."

"If you didn't understand that we were going to be a different team this season, you were not living in reality. But I don't mind not knowing, I'm confident about where we are."

The Sparks are averaging 84.2 points a game, fourth in the league behind Minnesota, the Connecticut Sun and the Dallas Wings, and better than last season's 83.0 scoring average. L.A. ranks second in opponents' scoring average (77.8 PPG) behind the Lynx, a little behind last season's 75.9 points a game.

Gray has emerged as one of the league's most improved players and a very capable floor leader and scorer. Williams, who averaged more than 15.0 points a game for the Tulsa Shock in 2015, has scored in double figures in five of the past eight games. Sims, after opening the season with 20 points against Seattle, has struggled to find her role in the offense, averaging 5.5 points per game off the bench.

Beard, meanwhile, is having perhaps the best all-around season of her career, putting up her highest scoring average since 2009 at 12.6 points per game. And Parker and Ogwumike are still the most athletic, dynamic frontcourt tandem in the league. Ogwumike is tied for second in the WNBA in scoring (20.1 PPG), and Parker ranks among the top 15 scorers at 15.8 PPG.

Through the first half of the season, Minnesota might have taken back the mantle as title favorite, with MVP frontrunner Sylvia Fowles and the best start in franchise history. But Agler's arrival in 2015 -- he coached the Seattle Storm from 2008 to 2014 -- established a culture in Los Angeles, Beard said. The 2016 championship didn't define it as much as it cemented that the Sparks are doing the right thing.

"Championship teams are not about talent or players, they are about the leaders you have in your system and they are about culture," Beard said. "He built the foundation, and the rest is up to us."

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Defending WNBA champion Los Angeles Sparks remain a work in ... - ESPN

HUNTSVILLE English Language Learners in Decatur City Schools have made progress, but significant challenges remain and this is why administrators spent the second day of their administrative retreat Tuesday receiving training.

For almost 90 minutes, a group from the University of Alabama Huntsvilles College of Education talked with school officials about simplifying messages and using fewer words to deliver the same message.

Eudoxia Tsimika Chronis opened the retreat at Burritt on the Mountain talking to administrators in Greek. The point: She wanted principals to know what ELL students may be experiencing on the first day of school.

The result: We got the message, Brookhaven Middle School Principal Anita Clarke said. We get at least one student to enroll each week that speaks no English. The student and parent just stand there and stare.

Decatur has been aware of issues ELL students face, and last year the school system opened the EXCEL Center at Austin High. The site serves students who are not proficient in English and helps immigrant students who speak no English transition to their new schools, administrator Ressa Chittam said.

The center served about 170 students, and Chittam said 87 percent of the high school students had gains on the ACCESS (Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-State) test, while 84 percent of middle school students had gains.

ACCESS is a proficiency test designed to measure ELL students' social academic proficiency and to monitor their progress in mastering the English language.

While public attention has been directed toward Decaturs Hispanic student population because it increased from 1 percent in 1996 to about 25 percent last year, school leaders said the center is helping students from seven countries who speak various levels of English.

Spanish-speaking students receive the majority of the help, but the center has students from Japan, Vietnam, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Honduras and Yemen.

DCS testing coordinator Wanda Davis said students who have not reached proficiency on ACCESS have problems reaching proficiency on standardized state tests.

Its not that they can't do; we just have the language issues, she said.

Regardless of the language barriers, students who are not proficient in English are exempt for only one year from taking the states standardized test, which is why DCS, instead of having ELL teachers in every school, opened the EXCEL Center, Chittam said.

UAH professor Andrea Word said ELL students may not have access to academic content because of gaps in language. She told DCS administrators that they and teachers can use simple language without losing the message.

When Chronis was speaking in Greek, for example, she said: Good morning everyone. Welcome to our presentation.

Word said a simpler way to deliver the same message is to say: Good morning. Welcome.

ELL challenges for Decatur, however, go beyond the classroom, said DCS Director of Operations and Safety Dwight Satterfield. This is why the district went to centralized enrollment last year.

Satterfield said it was impossible for the school system to put interpreters in each school, so they send students to the central office to enroll if they come after school starts. Before school starts, students either enroll online or at the Central for Alternative Programs near Banks-Caddell Elementary.

If students check that they speak any language other than English, Satterfield said, the district does a home-language survey to determine which language is spoken in the home. Once the district knows this, he said, material is sent home in the native language.

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Decatur ELL students showing progress on state test - The Decatur Daily

Commuters walk across London Bridge against a backdrop of Tower Bridge during sunrise in London.

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Brexit negotiators acknowledged frustration on both sidesover the U.Ks divorce from the European Union, due to entrenched early positions. But signs of progress are also emerging.

The second day of the monthly negotiations in Brussels saw officials delve into the details of the main issues they want to make headway on before an October summit of leaders. Several hours weredevoted to how to keep a soft Irish border after Brexit, as well as the rights of European nationals in the U.K.

The past two days show that Britains divorce payment to the EU remains one of the biggest sticking points, people familiar with the talks said. Both sides are barely going further than trying to understand each others positions, quizzing each other as they seek to tease out common ground, according to people familiar with the discussions speaking on condition of anonymity.

With Theresa Mays government embroiled in infighting in London, nearly 100 civil servants are in the Belgian capital working to reach a deal by the end of next year with time on the side of the bloc. The risk for the U.K. is crashing out of the union in 2019 with tariffs awaiting and businesses fleeing.

Accused by EU negotiator Michel Barnier of wasting time, the U.K. has sought to regain some of the initiative this week by spelling out its stance on key issues.

British officials believe the government took a significant step last week when it acknowledged in writing for the first time that it owed the EU money. Analysts have said the amount, based on past commitments, could stretch to 100 billion euros ($115 billion). Yet the U.K. is unlikely to agree to a figure until the last minute, according to the people familiar with the discussions.

The EU has said it must be persuaded of sufficient progress in the negotiations on the U.K. payment, citizens rights and the Irish border before it will allow talks to move toward the crucial issue of future trade -- something both sides want to do in October.

If all goes well, the U.K. and EU will sign an agreement by the end of 2018 to allow ratification by the European Parliament, before Britain leaves the bloc the following March.

The U.K. governments latest position is that if it can convince EU negotiators that it has signed up to the principles of a financial settlement and that Britain wont go back on its word, that will be enough, according to the people familiar with the discussions.

But as the U.K. seeks to maintain leverage as long as possible, it wont make any legally binding commitment until an overarching Brexit agreement is signed, the people said.

Talks in Brussels are scheduled to last until Thursday, when U.K. negotiators will return to London, leaving the European Commission to brief officials from the 27 countries on progress. A third round of negotiations is planned for the final week of August.

Earlier in the day, European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas denied that it was a problem that Brexit Secretary David Davis only stayed a few hours on Monday before leaving the talks. We are not concerned about it, chief negotiators do not have to be present all the time, he told reporters in Brussels.

And on the U.K. having a team twice as large as that of the EU? His response: We dont feel that we have been invaded.

Although the negotiators are focused on the task at hand, both sides are making efforts to get along. On Tuesday, many of them spent their lunch hour together eating salad served in the European Commission. An issue over a lack of coffee for the two teams on Monday was rectified 24 hours later -- with the help of some chocolate biscuits.

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Brexit Talks Reveal Dashes of Frustration and a Hint of Progress - Bloomberg