Sunday, October 27, 2013, wife, Manhattan daughter and I saw "The SQUARE" at the Film Forum theater in lower Manhattan. This film chronicles the thoughts and actions of three individuals involved in the Tahrir Square protests.
The film was all about the Egyptian people demanding the downfall of the Mubarak regime, then the downfall of the military that took over afterwards, then the downfall of Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood gang; and now they are demanding something other than the military or the Islamists, they are demanding not a leader, but a conscience in the nation of Egypt. A conscience that will afford people for the first time in a long time their clearly stated and long-sought hopes, dreams and aspirations for "Food, Freedom, Social Justice and Dignity."
The film is an account from the street of what transpired in Egypt, physically and in the minds and hearts of Egyptian in these last 2.5 years, gives a fine summary of it. It follows three main protesters from just before January 25, 2011 through today. They are a young man frustrated by his inability to find more than odd jobs, a well-known actor, and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. These are three men coming to the same objective from three widely different viewpoints. Along the way, the film is all over the square and other places; it meets and talks with Egyptians, men, women, young, old, Muslims, Coptics, educated and not, housewives and active women, military, secular and Islamist....
The film delivers a powerful message. You feel immersed in it and riveted by it throughout. The film is very well done, very moving, and seriously touches your heart.
The film received great reviews from the Wall Street journal, the New York Times, the Huffington Post, the Hollywood Reporter, the Village Voice and Twitch.
After the movie, we had the good fortune to meet the director of the movie, Jehane Noujaim. She said they are trying to get it to Egypt in late November, but they still have to jump through legal hoops.
However, on November 5, 2013, the New York Times reported that, thanks to Netflix, now we all will be able to see "The SQUARE" early in 2014 anywhere you like, in Cairo, in San Francisco, in New York, in Tokyo, in London, in Moscow, in Paris, anywhere actually. See NY Times article below.
I highly recommend you see it, you will a get the sense of being there, inside the revolution(s).
Hussein
Netflix billed “The Square” as the company’s first major documentary acquisition since its announcement last month that it wanted to make more direct investments in the movie business. It said other documentary pickups would be announced soon.
The Netflix streaming service is already known for having a trove of documentaries, but in most cases it has carried those films later in their life cycles, or what are known as “windows” in the business. By acquiring rights to a film like “The Square” now, it is paying for an earlier, more exclusive window — foreshadowing a time when the service could follow a similar plan for feature films, perhaps even pre-empting a theatrical release altogether. (“The Square” is getting a limited run this week in theaters in New York and Los Angeles, so that it can qualify for the Oscars.)
Netflix signaled this strategy when it reported earnings in July, saying that it would begin to acquire feature documentaries as it sought to extend its reach beyond television series.
News of an impending deal was first reported on Friday by The Los Angeles Times.
The plans are consistent with Netflix’s strategy of differentiating itself from its competitors through a subset of original programming rather than through a stockpile of dated films and TV shows. Those plans have attracted the ire of theater owners, particularly after Ted Sarandos, the chief content officer for Netflix, asked in a late-October speech, “Why not premiere movies on Netflix the same day they’re opening in theaters?”
He also remarked, “The reason why we may enter the space and release some big movies ourselves this way is because I’m concerned that as theater owners try to strangle innovation and distribution, not only are they going to kill theaters, they might kill movies.”
On Monday, according to Variety, Mr. Sarandos clarified his position, saying that he was not calling for so-called day and date releases of films online, but was calling “to move all the windows up to get closer to what the consumer wants.”
By acquiring rights to “The Square” and making it available in the first quarter of next year, Netflix will be able to promote the film’s availability during Oscar season. (The service was able to do this with several films last year, but not on an exclusive basis.)
“The Square,” previously titled “Al Midan,” is a serious Oscar contender in the documentary field. Early reviews have been rapturous — it currently has a rare 100 percent positive rating on RottenTomatoes.com — and the movie won coveted prizes this year at the Sundance and Toronto film festivals. Jehane Noujaim, the film’s Egyptian-American director, is also the type of daring filmmaker the documentary branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences likes to rally behind; she was arrested three times while making her film over two and a half years.
But competition in the documentary category is often brutal, and this year looks like no exception. Other films generating early Oscar attention include “Blackfish,” about orca whales at theme parks, and “The Act of Killing,” focused on Indonesian genocide.
Brooks Barnes contributed reporting.
Netflix said Monday that starting early next year it will be the exclusive streaming distributor for “The Square,” an Arabic documentary about the Egyptian protest centered in Tahrir Square, which is considered a leading contender for an Oscar nomination.Netflix Acquires Streaming Rights to Highly Praised Documentary
Netflix billed “The Square” as the company’s first major documentary acquisition since its announcement last month that it wanted to make more direct investments in the movie business. It said other documentary pickups would be announced soon.
The Netflix streaming service is already known for having a trove of documentaries, but in most cases it has carried those films later in their life cycles, or what are known as “windows” in the business. By acquiring rights to a film like “The Square” now, it is paying for an earlier, more exclusive window — foreshadowing a time when the service could follow a similar plan for feature films, perhaps even pre-empting a theatrical release altogether. (“The Square” is getting a limited run this week in theaters in New York and Los Angeles, so that it can qualify for the Oscars.)
Netflix signaled this strategy when it reported earnings in July, saying that it would begin to acquire feature documentaries as it sought to extend its reach beyond television series.
News of an impending deal was first reported on Friday by The Los Angeles Times.
The plans are consistent with Netflix’s strategy of differentiating itself from its competitors through a subset of original programming rather than through a stockpile of dated films and TV shows. Those plans have attracted the ire of theater owners, particularly after Ted Sarandos, the chief content officer for Netflix, asked in a late-October speech, “Why not premiere movies on Netflix the same day they’re opening in theaters?”
He also remarked, “The reason why we may enter the space and release some big movies ourselves this way is because I’m concerned that as theater owners try to strangle innovation and distribution, not only are they going to kill theaters, they might kill movies.”
On Monday, according to Variety, Mr. Sarandos clarified his position, saying that he was not calling for so-called day and date releases of films online, but was calling “to move all the windows up to get closer to what the consumer wants.”
By acquiring rights to “The Square” and making it available in the first quarter of next year, Netflix will be able to promote the film’s availability during Oscar season. (The service was able to do this with several films last year, but not on an exclusive basis.)
“The Square,” previously titled “Al Midan,” is a serious Oscar contender in the documentary field. Early reviews have been rapturous — it currently has a rare 100 percent positive rating on RottenTomatoes.com — and the movie won coveted prizes this year at the Sundance and Toronto film festivals. Jehane Noujaim, the film’s Egyptian-American director, is also the type of daring filmmaker the documentary branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences likes to rally behind; she was arrested three times while making her film over two and a half years.
But competition in the documentary category is often brutal, and this year looks like no exception. Other films generating early Oscar attention include “Blackfish,” about orca whales at theme parks, and “The Act of Killing,” focused on Indonesian genocide.
Brooks Barnes contributed reporting.
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