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A photography exhibition titled Kickin’ up dust centred on Australian contemporary indigenous cultural festivals will be inaugurated today at 6:00pm at Bengal Shilpalaya in Dhanmondi. The Minister of State for Cultural Affairs, Begum Selima Rahman, will be present as chief guest while Dr Noazesh Ahmed and the Australian High Commissioner, Lorraine Barker will be special guests.
   The exhibition will remain open everyday from 12:00noon to 8:00pm till March 18. Bengal Shilpalaya has organised the exhibition with the cooperation of the Australian High Commission in Dhaka.
   There are 44 photographs by six Australian photographers, Peter Eve, Michael Hutchinson, Liberty Seekee, Jillian Mundy, Adam Thompson and Vernon Graham on four festivals which will be put on display. The exhibition will also present the lifestyles of Aussies and the varied landscape of Australia.
   Peter Eve, who lives in Darwin, has worked on the Garma Festival, held in August in Gulkula, Northern Australia. The photographer has worked in black and white on this festival, one of the oldest in the world.
   Michael Hutchinson, living in Broomes, focuses on the Stompem Ground Festival, which is held in Western Australia. According to the organisers, this festival is a meeting ground for the cultural activities of both the modern mainstream and aboriginal traditions.
   Liberty Seekee, who hails from an island named Mabuiag, has presented the cultural activities of the Torres Strait Cultural Festival, which is held in September on Thursday Island, a place which became inhabited ten thousand years ago. Though dance is the main element of this festival, islanders from different neighbouring islands gather here to join the festival and also to trade various articles, exchange opinions and share knowledge.
   Jillian Mundy, Adam Thompson and Vernon Graham have worked on the Larapuna Festival, which is held in Tasmania. When the European explorers passed by the Tasmanian coast, they saw numerous fires alight near the shoreline. They named the sea as ‘Bay of Fires’. Actually they had seen the fires lit to burn scrub and hunt kangaroos. Music, dance and storytelling are the major attractions of this festival.
   The organisers, at a press conference held at the Shilpalaya yesterday, hoped that this exhibition would be able to attract viewers. The centuries-old colourful cultures and lifestyles of different ethnic groups in Australia still draw the attentions of people across the world.
   The conference was followed by a screening of two documentaries on the festivals.

India’s oldest and most coveted cinema awards celebrated their 50th year in a glittering ceremony at the MMRDA grounds here on Saturday.
   The four main awards of the night were swept up by Shah Rukh Khan (Best Actor for Swades), Rani Mukerji (Best Actress for Hum Tum ), Kunal Kohli (Best Director for Hum Tum ) and Yash Chopra (Best Film for Veer-Zaara ).
   In keeping with the sepia hue, Lata Mangeshkar, Dilip Kumar and veteran composer Naushad, the first winners of the Filmfare awards in their respective categories, were felicitated by Amitabh Bachchan and CM Deshmukh.
   Farhan Akhtar and Ashutosh Gowariker gave away another special award—to Ramesh Sippy whose Sholay was adjudged the best film of the past 50 years.
   The Lifetime Achievement Award went to an actor who was discovered 40 years ago in a Filmfare-United Producers contest. Rajesh Khanna went on to become a rage after his first hit Aradhana — Khanna, dressed in flowing white kurta-pyjama accepted the award with customary ‘shairana andaz’, quoting a couplet.
   — Internet

A Bangla calligraphy exhibition organized by the daily newspaper Amar Desh and Shahjalal Islami Bank began on February 26, at the Novera Hall of the National Museum. The exhibition will conclude today at 6pm. The honourable Information Minister of the Bangladesh Government, M Shamsul Islam inaugurated the launching of the program. M Kamaluddin Ahmed, Managing Director of Shahjalal Islami Bank Limited and Alhaz Mohammad Hashmat Ali were also present at the opening. As part of the exhibition’s opening, director of Bangladesh National Museum, Prof Mahmudul Haque and Director of Charukala Institute, Abdus Sattar (PhD) discussed on the practice of Bangla calligraphy in our country.
   The exhibition held at the premises is claimed to be the very first one arranged on the month of the Language Movement and it displays some of the most fascinating Bangla calligraphy drawn, sketched and painted by the most renowned calligraphy artists of our country. Famous artists like Arifur Rahman, Ibrahim Mandal, Mahbub Murshid and Bashir Mesbah have their individual works of Bangla calligraphy in the exhibition. Besides, the young calligraphy artists also have got an opportunity to show their personal talent through this exhibition. Keeping in mind that our language fighters sacrificed their lives to earn us the right to speak in our mother tongue, the exposition exhibits the calligraphy form of all the popular sayings or slogans used in the actual movement of 1952. However, the regular theme of calligraphy art namely the holy verses of the holy Qu’ran also beautifies the presentation.
   More than twenty calligraphy arts are on display inside the exhibition arena which is open to all.

George W Bush won the ‘Razzie’ worst actor of the year award on Saturday for his performance as president in ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ but his moment in Hollywood’s dubious spotlight was eclipsed by Halle Berry, who actually turned up to receive her embarrassing accolade.
   Berry was named worst actress of 2004 by the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation for her performance in ‘Catwoman’ and she showed up to accept her ‘Razzie’ carrying the Oscar she won in 2002 for ‘Monster’s Ball.’
   Bush, beating such established Hollywood heroes as Colin Farrell and Vin Diesel, won the Razzie for worst actor of the year for his appearance in Michael Moore’s documentary ‘Fahrenheit 9/11.’
   ‘Catwoman’ tied with ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ by winning four ‘Razzies’––worst picture, worst directing, worst screenplay and worst performance by an actress for Berry and her ‘berry bad’ work.
   The president not only was named worst male actor in a leading role, he also won for being half of the year’s worst screen couple when paired with either Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice or ‘My Pet Goat,’ the book he was reading to schoolchildren on the morning of Sept. 11.
   Footage of Bush continuing to read after being given first word of the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon was one of the key scenes in Moore’s highly critical film.
   Winners receive a golf ball-sized figure of a ‘Raspberry’ atop a mangled Super 8 film reel that is spray-painted gold. It has an estimated street value of $4.97, although Wilson said costs were rising as Super 8 film reel cans are getting harder to find.
   — Reuters

Alohawa, a little magazine circle in collaboration with the University of Asia Pacific organised a little magazine conference and poetry festival at Bishwasahitya Kendra in Dhaka on February 22.
   The programmes included discussions, poetry reading and musical soiree. Young poet Shahed Quayes coordinated the total programme. More than hundred little magazine editors and poets from all over the country participated at the festival.
   Poets who spoke and read out their poems were Khondaker Ashraf Hossain, Muhammad Samad, Sarker Ashraf, Shamimul Huq, Ahmed Rashid, Mizan Rahman, Shahana Akter Mahua, Gazi Latif, Upayan Anam, Badrun Nahar Sujon Krishna Halder, Chowdhury Babul Barua, Tushar Gayen, Saikat Habib, Shamim Reza, Shihab Shahriar, Rahman HenriShamim Siddiqui, Sarker Amin, Abdur Razzak and Anisur Rahman.
   A good number of little magazine editors represented their respective magazines. The magazines are Charukantha, Lok, Nisorgo, Ekbingsho, Shojia, Natun Path, Moral, Somoy Kal, Korshon, Agragami, Mouthun, Sompriti, Alor Jagot, Bhumij, Main Road, Khorimati Shuddhaswar, Samujjal Subatas, Sporsha, Chhandos, Lekhabil, Jolpai, Mongosandhya, Songrag, Boitha, Protishilpa, Kantachamoch, Kalsrot, Durba, Dhaboman, Darkak, 1 Forma, Uchokra, Ullekh, Behula Bangla, Chorjapod, Protipordhporbo, Aynamohol and Boundule.
   A musical soiree by Kafil Ahmed and Sayeem Rana rounded up the programme. Vice Chancellor of Asia Pacific University, Dr Abdul Matin Patuari delivered the welcome speech. Shahnaj Munni conducted the programmes.

They came, they drank, they conquered. The wine-guzzling characters of ‘Sideways’ helped the acclaimed comedy sweep the Independent Spirit Awards, the Art-House world’s equivalent of the Oscars, on Saturday.
   The Oscar-nominated saga, in which two buddies get wistful about women and wine while touring southern California wine country, won all six categories in which, it was nominated, including best feature, director, screenplay and male lead.
   ‘Winning six out of six, it’s just kind a mind-boggling,’ said Michael London, who produced the $16 million film.
   The only other multiple winners among the competitive categories was ‘The Motorcycle Diaries,’ a road trip detailing the political awakening of Latin American revolutionary Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, which also won two prizes.
   –– Reuters

Nominated for 6 Academy Awards®, in this glowingly atmospheric comedy, Loretta (Academy Award®-winner Cher), a young Italian-American woman, bitter after having been widowed by a speeding bus, makes a practical decision to marry a long time friend for stability and security, even though her feelings for him are tepid at best. Until she falls in love with her fiance's younger brother Ronny (Nicolas Cage), a man who excites passion she thought she would never feel again. ‘Cher and Nicolas Cage are both solid and appealing… [The film has] an endearing spirit.’
   Moonstruck
   Star movies
   7:00pm
   Starring
   Nicholas Cage,
   Olympia Dukakis