Tea with Culture Podcast Returns After a Short Hiatus
Tea with Culture, the podcast I co-run with Wael Hattar has been on a bit of a hiatus, but we’re back with two new episodes where we discuss art and cinema.
The podcast is an independent and lo-fi endeavour, and I know the podcast landscape in the UAE and across the region has grown, but we’re happy to carry on running podcast on our own terms, just as we started in 2015 (before many of the current popular podcasts even started), and to have honest discussions about the arts.
If you don’t already, please follow/subscribe to Tea with Culture on whichever podcast app you use.
The following was recorded and published in September.
Hind Mezaina and Wael Hattar sit together after a podcast hiatus, to catch up on the state of art and culture across the UAE and beyond.
They talk about life during (and post?) pandemic, art fairs, the accessibility of art, grassroots collectives that are co-opted by art fairs/commercial galleries, how the art scene in the UAE has not matured enough, the obsession with young artists, finding joy in art and more.
Links to some of the things mentioned in the discussion:
www.akaretler.com.tr/Artweeks
www.theculturist.com/home/exhibitio…a-gallery.html
tashkeel.org/exhibitions/wonder-land
maraya.ae/exhibitions/view/towards-time/121
u.ae/en/information-and-ser…id/dubai-cultural-visa
nyuad.nyu.edu/en/admissions/grad…art-and-media.htmlImage from Towards Time. Works by Zara Mahmood at Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah
Part two of a catch up conversation between Hind Mezaina and Wael Hattar, this one is about the state of cinema in the UAE and beyond.
Topics include:
- Changed habits of watching films since the pandemic
- Cinema vs streaming debate
- UAE cinemas and the inconsistent subtitling of non-English language films, lack of efforts by the multiplexes to attract new and diverse audiences to cinemas, high end cinema experience vs affordable cinema
- Lack of financial support for filmmakers in the UAE and new generation of new short films made by independent filmmakers in the
- Streaming companies funding regional films and TV shows
- Omar El Zohairy and his latest film FeathersRelevant links:
grasshopperfilm.com/film/feathers/
www.theculturist.com/home/2022/5/19…at-al-saadiyat
imagenationabudhabi.com/afs/
www.netflix.com/ae-en/title/81312532 (Cooking with Paris)
www.hbo.com/irma-vepImage: Still from Feathers