Pepperdine University's School of Communications and Business Center hosts Professor Jack Shaheen and "A is for Arab" Exhibit, and Screening/Panel Discussion of Reel Bad Arabs documentary feature film.

Pepperdine Graphic Media and the Center for Entertainment, Media and Culture will be hosting Media: Representation and Responsibility. The first-ever event of its kind on Pepperdine's campus, it will be a week filled with movie screenings and seminars led by industry leaders who care deeply about the role the media plays in our lives and its effect on society. Driven by the students of PGM, Media Week is hoping to ignite a conversation that will transform the ways in which we produce and consume media. Media: Representation and Responsibility events will run from March 23-27. The week will kick-off Monday, March 23rd with a screening of Jack Shaheen's documentary, Reel Bad Arabs and Creative Projects Group Chairman and Straus Institute Adjunct Professor and Entertainment Industry Advisor, William Nix, will moderate a panel entitled "Middle East Stereotyping and the Media." The Panelists will include: Jack Shaheen, Author/Professor; Lorraine Ali, Senior Writer, Los Angeles Times; Rob Shalhoub, Screenwriter / Producer/ Media Entrepreneur; Renee Tajima-Pena, Documentary Filmmaker, Professor; Director of UCLA's Center for EthnoCommunications and Ahmed Ahmed, Actor/Comedian/Producer/Director.

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2015 Kahlil Gibran “Spirit of Humanity” Awards Gala

Salma Hayek Pinault will receive the Award for Individual Achievement at the 2015 Kahlil Gibran "Spirit of Humanity" Awards Gala on April 29th in Washington, D.C. Along with Ms. Hayek-Pinault, the AAI will honor The Honorable Michael E. Barood with the Najeeb Halaby Award for Public Service, John Sexton with the Award for Individual Achievement and Lawrence Wright with the Anthony Shadid Award for Excellence in Journalism.

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GKIDS Acquires North American Rights for Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet 

Salma Hayek's Animated Passion Project Based on the 100 Million-Selling Masterpiece By Lebanese Poet Kahlil Gibran is Slated for Summer 2015 Theatrical Release

New York, NY – February 5, 2015 – GKIDS, a distributor of award-winning animation for both adult and family audiences, announced its acquisition of North American rights to KAHLIL GIBRAN'S THE PROPHET, the animated feature produced and spearheaded by Salma Hayek-Pinault, based on the classic, internationally acclaimed and best- selling book by celebrated Lebanese author, Kahlil Gibran. The film was an official selection at Cannes, made its North American premiere in Toronto, and is slated for a summer 2015 theatrical release by GKIDS.

Press Coverage

Participant Media

Gibran Kahlil Gibran Memorial Unveiled

A ceremony was held at the Lebanese Embassy in Washington, D.C. on October 9, 2014 for a newly installed memorial dedicated to the late poet Gibran Khalil Gibran. The memorial will join others around the country in celebrating Gibran, including Copley Square in Boston and in Washington on Massachusetts Avenue. In dedicating the new memorial, Lebanese Ambassador to the United States, Ambassador Chedid stated "as we who enter this Embassy gaze on Gibran’s visage, let us dedicate ourselves to advancing this inspiring vision, which is a treasure not only for Lebanese and Americans, but for all humanity.">

National News Agency

Arab America

The Toronto International Film Festival. 

The Toronto International Film Festival (September 4-14, 2014) has announced over 40 titles — a mix of awards contenders, star-powered indies, and international art-house fare — screening in its Gala and Special Presentations program this September, including a Special Presentation of Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, Canada/France/Lebanon/Qatar/USA World Premiere Roger Allers, Gaëtan Brizzi, Paul Brizzi, Joan C. Gratz, Mohammed Saeed Harib, Tomm Moore, Nina Paley, Bill Plympton, Joann Sfar and Michal Socha Inspired by the beloved classic, Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet is a richly-animated story and celebration of Gibran’s book, created by artists, animators and musicians from around the world. Starring Liam Neeson, Salma Hayek-Pinault, John Krasinski, Frank Langella, Alfred Molina, John Rhys-Davies and Quvenzhané Wallis.

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Special Presentations

CANNES: SALMA HAYEK PRESENTING ‘THE PROPHET’ AS WORK-IN-PROGRESS 

Dave McNary Film Reporter@Variety

Cannes Film Festival has set an Official Selection work-in-progress screening of the animated feature “Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet” on Saturday, May 17th. The screening will feature highlights from the film and be presented by producer Salma Hayek-Pinault and director Roger Allers (“The Lion King”).

The story portrays the unlikely friendship between a young mischievous girl and an imprisoned poet.The event will also include animation directors involved with the film: Tomm Moore (“The Secret of Kells”), Joan Gratz (“Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase”), Joann Sfar (“The Rabbi’s Cat”), Bill Plympton (“In Your Face”), and Paul and Gaetan Brizzi (“The Hunchback of Notre Dame”). Composer Gabriel Yared will also participate.

Wild Bunch International is handling international sales at Cannes, excluding North America, which will be sold by Participant Media.

The film includes the voices of Hayek-Pinault, Liam Neeson, John Krasinski, Frank Langella, Alfred Molina and Quvenzhane Wallis. Producers are Hayek-Pinault, Clark Peterson, Jose Tamez, William Nix and Ron Senkowski.

Participant Media is financing along with Doha Film Institute, FFA Private Bank, MyGroup Lebanon, Financiere Pinault, and Code Red Productions.

http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/theDailyArticle/60919.html

http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/100016282/year/2014.html

http://gibransprophetmovie.com/

Festival De Cannes Video

Love Made Visible

In Love Made Visible, Jean Gibran portrays her role as spouse of a gifted artist and their often stormy family life together in Boston’s diverse South End. In the process, she vividly recalls to life the prolific Boston Expressionist art scene to which the South End was home. Retracing the course of her fifty-year marriage to sculptor Kahlil Gibran, cousin of the noted poet Gibran Kahlil Gibran, she reflects on the trials and joys of defying conventions of the 1950s, embracing another culture, raising a child in the household of a driven artist, and enabling her husband’s passion for sculpture and craft.

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The Arab American Institute Foundation (AAIF) 2014 Kahlil Gibran "Spirit of Humanity Awards Gala" in Washington, D.C. on April 25th.

Naya Salah began the evening event with her beautiful rendition of America the Beautiful in Arabic. http://www.aaiusa.org/blog/entry/naya-salah/ Honored at the event were Ambassador George Mitchell, who received the Najeeb Halaby Award for Public Service, Martin Luther King, III, who was given a Special Service Award, and Participant Media, which received the Award for Corporate Citizenship. Participant's CEO, Jim Berk, accepted the award on behalf of the company. Established in 2004 by eBay founder and philanthropist Jeff Skoll, Participant Media is responsible for more than 50 films, of which 36 received Academy Award nominations and 7 earned Academy Awards, including "Good Night and Good Luck," " North Country," "Syriana," "An Inconvenient Truth," "Lincoln," "State 194," and "The Square." Participant has pioneered the ground-breaking marriage of entertainment media and social activism, using film as the cornerstone of campaigns to facilitate social change. One campaign, in conjunction with the release of "Food, Inc.," prompted nearly 250,000 people to petition Congress to reauthorize the Child Nutrition Act of 2010. This year, Participant Media and Ms. Salma Hayek will debut an animated film based on Kahlil Gibran's world-renowned book "The Prophet." William Nix, an Executive Producer of the film, attended the AAI event and, along with Dr. Scott Field, Middle East Manager for the Skoll Global Threats Fund, and author, Dr. Jack Shaheen, worked with Participant on the sizzle reel of Participant films, which included film clips from "Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet," in their first public exhibition at the event.

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Kahlil Gibran is quoted at Nelson Mandela’s Funeral:

In his sermon at Nelson Mandela's funeral, Bishop Ziphozihle Siwa quoted Kahlil Gibran, saying as follows:

“Yet I cannot tarry longer. The sea that calls all things unto her calls me, and I must embark.For to stay, though the hours burn in the night, is to freeze and crystallize and be bound in a mould. Fain would I take with me all that is here. But how shall I? A voice cannot carry the tongue and the lips that gave it wings. Alone it must seek the ether. And alone and without his nest shall the eagle fly across the sun.”

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Producer William Nix is a featured speaker at the 2013 ADC National Convention in Washington, D.C.

His presentation will provide attendees with both a cultural and a historical perspective on Kahlil Gibran. It will also cover forthcoming film, art exhibition, art book and graphic novel publications, including transmedia/educational initiatives, involving Gibran's life story, his artistic works and his message to the world. These productions and exhibitions will be displayed and distributed throughout the United States and internationally. See: http://thegibranprojects.com/

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