Brick Lane Film Saga Crosses the Atlantic While contemplating the small Portuguese village she's visiting, a character in London writer Monica Ali's new novel, Alentejo Blue, thinks to herself, "I could run away and be here." Given the events that have unfolded for Ali in the past month, the line must be resonating with the author, who has a very good reason t...

A rushed three hour write-up on the Pirate Bay en route to the Star and Shadow cinema in Newcastle on Friday, got me looking back to the first time the Pirate Bayern was in the news, when I wrote a piece here linking it to Hakim Bay's Pirate Utopias and the Temporary Autonomous Zone which was written back in spring 1990, long before the birth of the Web. If Cluetrain is the text that precurse...

Paradise Now, the Oscar-nominated film directed by Hany Abu Assad, is the first feature film to take on the theme of suicide bombers. It is a film that plays across a hugely emotional landscape which inevitably polarises people. For every terrorist there are victims, for every oppressed person, there are martyrs: it all depends on your viewpoint.... Khaled and Said, two young Palestinia...

What a year 2006 is turning out to be for any socialist who wants to see politically charged or socially aware cinema. The line up for this year’s best film Oscar and the recent releases from Europe are a testament to the film industry being in rude health in terms of intelligent and heartfelt work.

OK, you’re already saying - there’s enough to worry about in the world - war, terrorists, human rights, technology, poverty, global warming - enough already! But one issue that looks set to dominate the global agenda over the coming years is America's high potential for an economic crash