Filmmaker Jehane Noujaim is free after spending 36 hours in a Cairo prison following her arrest while covering Egypt's political protests.
Filmmaker Jehane Noujaim is free this weekend after spending 36 hours in Cairo’s Tora prison on charges of throwing Molotov cocktails and destroying public property while covering Egypt’s political protests.
Noujaim, who co-directed the documentary Startup.com, about the rise and fall of a new media company, and directed Control Room, about the Al-Jazeera broadcast network, explains to NBC News why the Egyptian charges are false.
“If I throw a rock I’d hit the back of the head of the protestor in front of me,” Noujaim says via The Hollywood Reporter. “That claim was ridiculous and yet I was in prison for 36 hours because of it.”
Noujaim’s arrest by Egyptian authorities follows 10 months of on-ground reporting for a documentary about Egypt’s revolution. Noujain credits the extensive media coverage of her arrest for expediting her release.
“If that happens to me, imagine what happens to a kid who gets picked up off the street who doesn’t have all of these connections.”
More importantly, despite her arrest, Noujaim remains optimistic about Egypt’s chances at democracy.
Plans continue for the Tateuchi Center, a 2,000-seat performance hall scheduled to open in Bellevue, Wahsington in 2012. In addition to its state-of-the-art design and urban setting in downtown Bellevue, the Tateuchi Center is already attracting worldwide attention for its policy allowing patrons to use their smart phones in a “non-disruptive” manner.
“This is the wave of the future for the people we worry about attracting,” Tateuchi Center Executive Director John Haynes tells the New York Times, as reported by GeekWire.
Current policies will allow for visiting artists to request no smart phone usage during their performances. Tateuchi Center also plans to offer patrons screens to shield the glare from their smart phone during performances.
Between unwrapping Small Business Saturday purchases and preparing for Cyber Monday shopping, a quick shout out to the furniture makers, fashion designers and motorcycle mechanics who make up The Brush Factory, a renaissance artists co-op in Cincinnati’s Brighton neighborhood. Great finds make holiday shopping ring-a-ding brighter and the racks of Brush Factory clothes at High Street in Cincinnati may be the season’s coolest discovery.