Saturday 3 March 2012

Sharmilas Annual Dance Show




Date: Apr 2012 (TBC)
Sharmilas Annual Dance Show, held at the Dubai Community Theatre and Arts Centre, brings together over 160 dancers of all ages for a dancing extravaganza. Watch them performing passionate Latino, soul, Indian and hip hop moves.
Dubai Community Theatre and Arts Centre, Mall of the Emirates Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

UAE Desert Challenge




UAE Desert Challenge
Date: Mar - Apr 2012 (TBC)
The UAE Desert Challenge in Dubai is a rally across some of the most dramatic and demanding terrain. Drivers from all over the world race their cars, trucks and motorbikes on a thrilling journey through the desert.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Dubai International Boat Show





Dubai International Boat Show
Date: 13 - 17 Mar 2012
The largest of its kind in the Middle East, Dubai International Boat Show is a classic showcase of leisure boats, marine equipment and service. Trade and private visitors browse the luxury display at Dubai International Marine Club.
Dubai International Marine Club, PO BOX 24883, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Dubai International Jazz Festival kywards Dubai International Jazz Festival


                                                           
Offering quality music and spectacular performances, the Skywards Dubai International Jazz Festival attracts more than 25,000 visitors every year. Since its first edition in 2002, the festival has been held at Dubai Media City.
Dubai Media City, Dubai Media City, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Dubai Shopping Festival




Date: 5 Jan - 5 Feb 2012
Dubai is currently the hot place to shop, and the best time for shopaholics is during the huge, sprawling Dubai Shopping Festival. Reductions are offered across a vast range of must-haves, from jewellery to fashion, electrical goods and carpets.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Dubai film fest announces 2012 edition


DUBAI - The ninth Dubai International Film Festival (Diff) will be held from December 9 to 16, 2012, announced on Sunday at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival.
The festival, held under the patronage of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, recorded strong growth in 2011 across parameters including number of films, number of premieres, number of Arab films, capacity, attendance at galas, sales, admissions, industry activity and the number and quality of industry and media delegates.
Additionally more than four of the Diff 2011-supported films, including Death for Sale by Morocco’s Faouz Bensaidi, Diff-award winner The Last Friday by Jordan’s Yahya Alabdallah, “Gate #5” by Lebanon’s Simon El Habre and “The Rif Lover” by Morocco’s Narjiss Nejjar are currently at the 62nd Berlinale, one of the world’s leading festivals.
The latter three films were supported by the Dubai Film Market’s post-production support programme, Enjaaz; the first by its co-production market, Dubai Film Connection. Other films screened at Diff, including Egypt’s ½ Revolution and Palestine’s Cinema Jenin, are also included in the festival’s Panorama, Forum or European Film Market sections, highlighting Diff’s success in developing its talent.
As part of its commitment to nurturing talent, the festival also awarded more than US$600,000 to filmmakers from the UAE, the Arab world, Asia and Africa via its competitions, in addition to hundreds of thousands of dollars in co-production  and post-production support to Arab filmmakers via its Dubai Film Market

Persian International Film Festival

28.02.2012 - This weekend, the inaugural Persian International Film Festival took place in Sydney, Australia, creating a unique local showcase for films from Iran, Dubai, Afghanistan and Tajikistan – nations that share the same Persian language, history and heritage. The four-day event brought large audiences from the local Persian communities as well as fans of world cinema to the Dendy Opera Quays theater, next door to the Sydney Opera House; and created a buzz on Sydney’s busy summer calendar with an appealing and thought-provoking program.

Please Don’t Disturb (2011), written and directed by Mohsen Abdolvahab, won the festival’s award for best feature at the closing ceremony on Sunday. Abdolvahab’s film, which also won a screenplay award at the Dubai International Film Festival, weaves together three stories set in contemporary Tehran, depicting the lives of a battered wife, a mullah and an elderly couple. The award for best short film went to The Silly.
PFF founders and co-directors Amin Palangi and Sanaz Fotouhi opened the festival on Thursday night after a welcoming party featuring Persian food and dancers in traditional dress. They described the event to attendees as a grassroots family affair (the two happen to be married, and relied on support from family members both in Australia and Iran) and touched on their vision of encouraging the exploration of Persian culture through film. Palangi admitted to being originally inspired by the success of Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation, the festival’s closing night film. “When A Separation won the top prize at the Sydney Film Festival in June, I suddenly felt that there was a festival missing in Sydney.” He decided then and there to throw his efforts into showcasing on the silver screen a range of cultures often absent from the Australian media.
“We hope that this festival will offer a way of bridging cultural differences between people,” Fotouhi said afterwards. “What this means is that we wanted to cross cultural diversities and highlight common human traits, and film, because of its visual medium, is one of the best ways to do this.” Palangi and Fotouhi are both doctoral candidates studying film and diasporic Persian literature respectively, and both have also produced films in Iran as well as Afghanistan.
The PFF’s inaugural program was modest but strong. The opening night film was Iran/UK co-production I Am Nasrine (Tina Gharavi, 2011), a rough-hewn but bold drama about a teenager and her brother who are forced by their parents to emigrate to England after she is arrested on morality charges in Tehran. That film’s themes of migration, families torn apart, youthful angst and star-crossed love resonate throughout the program in works that comment on the social turmoil, war and poverty that plague the region.
The competition also included noteworthy older films such as Heiran (Shalize Arefpour, 2009), a touching and expertly crafted social-realist drama about a teenaged country girl who runs away from home to marry an Afghani immigrant; and Ashkan, the Charmed Ring and Other Stories, which brought Shahram Mokri the best director prize at the 2009 Tehran Film Festival. Rainy Seasons (Majid Barzegar, 2010) is a portrait of an Iranian teenager suffering from his parents’ divorce.
An interesting exception to the festival’s trend of social and family dramas was Opium War (2008), a black comedy from Afghani director Siddiq Barmak about two American soldiers lost in enemy territory in Afghanistan; it won best feature at the Rome Film Festival.
The festival also boasted a substantial program of short films, including Bitter Milk (Nasser Zamiri, 2011), a harrowing account of baby smuggling along Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan which won a number of prizes at regional festivals; Going (Salem Salavati, 2011), a tense drama about Kurdish refugees trying to escape Iran; and Delete (Kazem Mollaie, 2011) A comedy about digital photo manipulation featuring unique graphic art that won best film at the Tehran Short Film Festival.
“We wanted to represent a diverse range of films from established filmmakers as well as emerging ones says Fotouhi.The festival is representative of a range of voices. It is not only about a unique voices, rather it is about the multiplicities of voices that are emerging from the region and from their overseas communities.
No films from Tajikistan were included in the inaugural festival; but Palangi has stated that he is eager to see Tajik cinema included in future editions.
In addition to the awards ceremony, the closing night of the festival featured an out-of-competition screening of A Separation, the widely acclaimed drama that won a Special Jury Prize at last year’s ADFF among many other accolades on its way to winning the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Director Farhadi was originally scheduled to attend the sold-out screening, but was ultimately unable to because the Oscars took place in Los Angeles the following day.
Sunday’s sessions also included a panel discussion about Iranian cinema and a screening of a short documentary about the making of A Separation. The PFF’s tribute to Farhadi will continue with monthly screenings of his earlier work – including the haunting About Elly, which screened at ADFF in 2009. A Separation will be released in Australia on March 1, following highly lucrative runs in Iran, Europe and North America.

Gulf Film Festival launches


Gulf Script Market for Short Films  to ensure regions best stories see the light of day
Dubai, UAE; February 28, 2012: Arab filmmaking received a major stimulus today with the launch of the new ‘Gulf Script Market for Short Films,’ an initiative that will finesse the scriptwriting skills of regional writers and filmmakers, partner them with directors and producers, and help turn the completed scripts into reality. The pioneering programme, a first for the Gulf region, was unveiled by the Dubai based Gulf Film Festival, in advance of its fifth edition from April 10 to 16, 2012.
The integrated script market offers three days of hands-on script doctoring led by award-winning regional filmmakers, followed by pitch sessions to emerging and established directors, and industry networking geared towards securing partnership and production agreements. Scripts must either be completed or works in progress.
The combination of mentoring, collaboration and personalised matchmaking is a timely and much-needed boost for a thriving Gulf film industry. Paired with the Festival’s existing US$250,000 Enjaaz annual production fund for Gulf short films, the new initiative creates a holistic, end-to-end support programme for emerging and established scriptwriters, directors, and other film talent from the region.
Celebrated Egyptian director and scriptwriter Mohamed Khan; award-winning Lebanese director,  scriptwriter and film entrepreneur Michel Kammoun and accomplished Bahraini author and scriptwriter Fareed Ramadan will serve as the script market mentors for the first edition.
Masoud Amralla Al Ali, Director of the Gulf Film Festival, said that the founding of a market for short film scripts is an innovation created in response to market needs. “There has never been an integrated market, which meant that several good scripts could not be converted to movies, as writers did not have the necessary industry linkages. Producers and directors, on the other hand, were complaining about the scarcity of excellent scripts.”
“The script is the bedrock of any film – and the stronger the foundation, the better the film. Our three-pronged approach, to work hands-on with scriptwriters, to make matches with working directors and producers, and to facilitate larger industry connections, is the right step at a time of high interest in and high productivity from our region. By combining the strengths of all parties, we will lift the quality of filmmaking from a region that has both a significant talent base and a lot to say.”
Submissions to the inaugural script market are open until March 15, 2012. Entry is free and open to filmmakers, scriptwriters and authors of GCC, Iraq or Yemen nationality or origin; all applications must have a scriptwriter attached. Scripts can be submitted in English or Arabic, with a maximum of two scripts per team/individual. More details, rules and regulations, and the application form, are at www.gulffilmfest.com.
Ten to 15 projects will be selected from the entries, with shortlisted teams invited to a three-day mentoring session with industry professionals during GFF 2012. The finessed scripts will then be pitched to directors and producers participating in the Festival, with participants joining dedicated networking sessions and other Festival activities. All shortlisted teams will receive flights and accommodation to GFF2012. 
Shivani Pandya, Managing Director of the Gulf Film Festival, said: “Our efforts are focused on the future: We are cultivating a sustainable base of screen-ready film projects with the right talent attached that can move quickly into production.”
Widely regarded as the home of bold, innovative and contemporary filmmaking from the Arabian peninsula and an incubator for talent from the Gulf states, Iraq and Yemen, the Gulf Film Festival is home to a Gulf Competition for professional and student filmmakers, an international shorts competition and multiple out-of-competition segments. Film submissions to the Festival are currently pouring in ahead of its February 29 deadline.
The 2011 Gulf Film Festival drew more than 1,400 submissions from 98 countries for its three competitions. The United Arab Emirates led regional submissions, followed closely by Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iran, Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Yemen. Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Morocco and Algeria also provided a significant number of entries.
The annual Festival is also home to multiple out-of-competition segments including a children’s cinema showcase, master classes, nightly industry discussions and other special events. 

Dubai International Film Festival 2012



The 2012 Dubai International Film Festival is an exciting international film event that highlights independent films, filmmakers, and scriptwriters from around the world. The Dubai International Film Festival‘s aim is to help filmmakers reach the widest possible viewers, allow the international film community and overall public to experience the influence of cinema and promote their city as a main film making center. They are known for being a varied international film festival that supports developing and well-known directors.The festival will be held from December 7 to 14.
The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) launched seven years ago and the influence it has had on the region’s film industry has been huge. This week-long film festival serves as a platform where native and international directors, film-makers, writers and actors can come organized to share ideas and creativeness through workshops and seminars to help each other attain success in the county market.
Dubai International Film Festival is held in every December, this major international festival charms ability and celebs from all over the globe. It holds openings of normal and regional films, shorts and documentaries often on topics hardly tackled away in the world. In recent years, DIFF has also started showcasing African and Asian film skill.
DIFF also receives films that have been submitted to other international festivals to help native talent gain global appreciation and to more highpoint the growing film industry in the Middle East. This groundbreaking film festival in the Middle East has launched a varied range of awards and also, the Dubai Film Market, a programmer which enables assistance between local film-makers in order to bring scripts to screens. Many of its awards support up and coming young, local film makers and provide them with seed money and valuable industry influences.

For visitors, DIFF is a festival like no other where film is used to cross limits, typecasts and ideas, transporting a varied collection of stories from local GCC countries to life. For industry professionals, this festival is a precious week for networking and ahead support from programs and creativity related with the Dubai International Film Festival.

BARJIS CHOHAN FASHION FESTIVAL



Barjis graduated with a MA in Design from Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design. With a background in fashion design, she has spent time interning at Vivienne Westwood, designing haute couture evening wear for a French Fashion house in Monte Carlo.  Barjis, has a love for art, architecture and life; and she believes fashion is an extension of this and therefore a celebration of life, which comes across in her beautiful designs. Her dream is for her fashion label to become a luxury designer label to be reckoned with in the world of fashion.
The collection is produced in an array of luxurious georgette, crepe and 100% silk and the designs have delicate pleats and gathers that drape elegantly.  Select pieces incorporate crystals, handmade embroidery, beads and prints to add glamour, grandeur and that high end touch.
The pieces are predominantly suited for the modern Muslim woman, but they can be worn by any woman who appreciates good quality fabrics, feminine lines, subtle detail, elegant cuts, and diverse textures and wants clothes to enhance her inner and outer beauty and her personality.







Thursday 1 March 2012

Dubai Zoo Pics

Dubai zoo

Inter road zoo

Zarafa in Dubai zoo

Brown Panda

king of The Jungle Lion

Gurella 

bird cage 
Funny man 

Zoo outside

birds cage 

Monkey

Mora

To Funny 
deer 



cute lion 

lion cage 





Zoo Dubai

Dubai Zoo is the oldest zoo of its kind not only in the United Arab Emirates but also in the Arabian Peninsula. Dubai Zoo also happens to be the first Arabian zoo to breed the rare Chimpanzee and Arabian wild cat.



It is a special place of interest and fun for tourists and the people of Dubai.
H. H. Sheikh Rashid bin Maktoum, the late Ruler of Dubai, permitted Otto J. Bulart to build the Zoo on a two hectacre plot in Jumeirah.
The Dubai Zoo became a landmark as it indicated the "town's end".
During the first couple of years of its existance, the Dubai Zoo housed only a few animals like the big cats, monkeys and hoofed-animals. There was also a small acquarium with some fishes and reptiles.
In 1971 the management of the Dubai Zoo was taken over by the Dubai Municipality.
From May 1986 to May 1989, a part of the Zoo was redesigned and rebuilt. From June 1989 to the present there is constant re-designing and renovation.
Located in Jumeirah, the Dubai Zoo is a popular attraction, especially for families. The zoo's modern facilities though small, house many indigenous Arabian species, including the Arabian Wolf, which is no longer found in the wild, Gordon's Wildcat and the world's only captive breeding colony of Socotra Cormorants.

Photos of Crowne Plaza



Bathroom

Side poz Bathroom

Bathroom 2

Lobby

Main Entrance

Lobby1

BedRoom

BedRoom

BedRoom

BedRoom

BedRoom

Study Room