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Exclusive: HBO Films has hired war correspondent-turned-documentary filmmaker Greg Barker to helm A Rope And A Prayer, a film about the kidnapping by the Taliban of two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times foreign correspondent David Rohde. Rohde wrote the book with his wife Kristen Mulvihill, a photo editor at Cosmopolitan Magazine. They had only been married two months when Rohde was taken into captivity by the Taliban in 2008 en route to an interview with a Taliban leader, in Afghanistan. She banged on the door of every journalist, politician and even the Taliban to try and free him. HBO also acquired Rohde’s five-part series written for the newspaper shortly after he and an Afghan colleague used a car tow line to drop from a wall and escape. Michelle Ashford, whose credits include HBO’s The Pacific, is writing the script. Michael London and Janice Williams will produce for Groundswell Productions.

Exclusive: HBO Films has hired war correspondent-turned-documentary filmmaker Greg Barker to helm A Rope And A Prayer, a film about the kidnapping by the Taliban of two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times foreign correspondent David Rohde. Rohde wrote the book with his wife Kristen Mulvihill, a photo editor at Cosmopolitan Magazine. They had only been married two months when Rohde was taken into captivity by the Taliban in 2008 en route to an interview with a Taliban leader, in Afghanistan. She banged on the door of every journalist, politician and even the Taliban to try and free him. HBO also acquired Rohde’s five-part series written for the newspaper shortly after he and an Afghan colleague used a car tow line to drop from a wall and escape. Michelle Ashford, whose credits include HBO’s The Pacific, is writing the script. Michael London and Janice Williams will produce for Groundswell Productions.

This week, on a very special episode of Reject Radio, Homecoming writer/director Sean Hackett discusses a brave new distribution technique, and Koran By Heart documentarian Greg Barker takes us to Cairo during Ramadan. Plus, Landon Palmer culture wars against Movies.com‘s dapper senior editor Pete Hall in a Movie News Pop Quiz that will probably cause your living room to burst into flame. Download This Episode On This Week’s Show: Movie News Pop Quiz [The Beginning - 15:44]: It’s Palmer vs Hall in what sounds like an 80s Yacht Rock reunion tour. So, of course, we end up dissecting the need for teaser trailers and why The Hunger Games and Dark Knight Rises failed at them. Crowded House [15:44 - 31:30]: Sean Hackett’s new film Homecoming tells a different kind of soldier story with a navel-gazing verite style. He joins us to talk about a group that missed out on college because of war, how...

This week, on a very special episode of Reject Radio, screenwriter Marti Noxon discusses the lack of sparkles in Fright Night and writer/director Tom McCarthy talks good people doing bad things in Win Win. Plus, good old Rob Hunter faces off against Hollywood.com Movies Editor Matt Patches in a grudge match that will be written about for hours to come. Listen Here: Download This Episode On This Week’s Show: Movie News Pop Quiz [The Beginning - 19:00]: It’s Hunter vs Patches in an all-out brawl. The result? We review a 15-year-old movie by the name of Mission: Impossible. Once More With Feeling [19:00 - 26:30]: Marti Noxon on why she chose to set the new Fright Night in Vegas, her favorite moments from the original, and the difference between writing for television and writing for the screen. Double Blast [37:45 - The End]: Win Win writer/director Tom McCarthy talks about ethical ambiguity, what to do when a scene isn’t...

A global contest reading of the Quran by young Muslim children that takes place in Cairo, Egypt annually during Ramadan. A coming of age story about Muslim kids in modern times. [Synopsis courtesy of imdb.com] "Koran by Heart" World Documentary Director(s): Greg Barker Producer(s): Julie Goldman, John Battsek, Greg Barker Editor: Langdon F. Page Director of Photography: Frank-Peter Lehmann Executive Producer: Shelia Nevins, Nancy Abraham Composer: Claude Chalhoub Co-Producer: Chetin ...

A global contest reading of the Quran by young Muslim children that takes place in Cairo, Egypt annually during Ramadan. A coming of age story about Muslim kids in modern times. [Synopsis courtesy of imdb.com] "Koran by Heart" World Documentary Director(s): Greg Barker Producer(s): Julie Goldman, John Battsek, Greg Barker Editor: Langdon F. Page Director of Photography: Frank-Peter Lehmann Executive Producer: Shelia Nevins, Nancy Abraham Composer: Claude Chalhoub Co-Producer: Chetin ...

A global contest reading of the Quran by young Muslim children that takes place in Cairo, Egypt annually during Ramadan. A coming of age story about Muslim kids in modern times. [Synopsis courtesy of imdb.com] "Koran by Heart" World Documentary Director(s): Greg Barker Producer(s): Julie Goldman, John Battsek, Greg Barker Editor: Langdon F. Page Director of Photography: Frank-Peter Lehmann Executive Producer: Shelia Nevins, Nancy Abraham Composer: Claude Chalhoub Co-Producer: Chetin ...

Tribeca: Tell us a little about Koran By Heart: Greg Barker: It's a competition film, in a traditional Spelling Bee type way, but it's also about the challenges facing the next generation of Muslims around the world. It's a film that's set mostly in Cairo around the world's oldest and most prestigious Koran reciting competition, for kids who come from all over the Islamic world from about 70 countries. 100 kids, some of them as young as 7 years old, come together for somewhat of an Olympics of Koranic recitation. So it's a competition film, but what happens is that, by getting to know the amazing young kids that we focus on, who are all 10 years old, we really get into their lives. It becomes not only a story about the challenges facing the next generation of Muslims, but also about the choices all of us make in terms of ...

Tribeca Film Festival has announced the line up of this years competition categories, including World Narrative Feature, World Documentary Feature, and the brand new Viewpoints which highlights eleven independent features and nine documentaries.

Tribeca Film Festival is one of leading film festivals located in New York City, showcasing many films not screened in any other U.S. film festival along with forty three world premieres and fifty four directorial debuts. Cameron Crowe’s premier of his concert documentary, The Union, will start the festival followed by a performance by Elton John. The rest of the lineup will be announced March 14th, and look out for coverage of the festival in April. Below you can find the complete press release on the lineup.

10th Tribeca Film Festival Announces World Narrative

And Documentary Competition Selections, And New Viewpoints Section

Tribeca Expands Awards Scope

2011 Festival to Present 88 Feature-Length and 61 Short Films April 20 – May...

By Sean O’Connell

Hollywoodnews.com: The 2011 Tribeca Film Festival revealed the World Narrative and Documentary Competition film selections for the 10th annual Tff, which will be held April 20 to May 1 in lower Manhattan.

In addition, Tff organizers unveiled the first edition of the new section — Viewpoints.

Forty-four of the 88 feature-length films that will screen during the fest have been announced. Much more information on each title can be found below.

“It’s our tenth Tribeca Film Festival, and in our relatively brief existence we have evolved dramatically,” said Nancy Schafer, Executive Director of the Tribeca Film Festival. “The Festival has become an integral part of the cultural landscape of New York City as well as a globally recognized platform for storytelling.”

So what will screen at Tribeca this year? In part, the following:

World Narrative Feature Competition

· Angels Crest, directed by Gaby Dellal, written by Catherine Trieschmann. (UK, Canada) – World Premiere.

And the festival beat marches on… nothing on this list immediately jumps out at me… no titles I recognize. These are just the World Narrative and Documentary competition selections, so, there’ll be more announcements made later. I do see representation from South Africa, Egypt and Rwanda. As I always do, I’ll be taking a closer look at the lineup for any titles worth profiling on this website. The festival runs from April 20th to May 1st. It’s in my backyard, so you know I’ll be covering it!

For now, here’s the full press release:

New York, NY [March 7, 2011] – The 2011 Tribeca Film Festival (Tff), presented by American Express®, today announced the World Narrative and Documentary Competition film selections and the first edition of the new section—Viewpoints. Forty-three of the 87 feature-length films were announced. The 10th edition of the Festival will take place from April 20 to May 1 in lower Manhattan.

The Tribeca Film Festival announced selections for its World Narrative, World Documentary, and Viewpoints competitions at its 10th annual event, running from April 20 to May 1 in New York. Eighty-eight features (such as Angels Crest, with Jeremy Piven) and 61 short films from 32 different countries were selected from more than 5,600 submissions to screen at the festival. “In programming the Festival this year we had to make some incredibly difficult decisions, but we are excited about the quality, ingenuity, risk-taking and diversity of this year’s program,” David Kwok, Director of Programming, said in a statement. “We are particularly proud that we have...

Getty Robert DeNiro

The 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, which will run from April 20 to May 1 in lower Manhattan, has announced the films that will play in this year’s World Narrative and Documentary Competition film categories, which are both competition sections. The also named the films that will will play in its new, out-of-competition section “Viewpoints.”

Now in its tenth year, this year’s festival features movies from 32 different counties and 99 different filmmakers, who were selected from a pool of 5,624 entries.