Established 1961 13 Lifestyle Features Sunday, September 6, 2020

n improvised school in Mexico’s study area.” Around 30 million Mexican capital is helping underprivileged children began a new school year last Achildren keep studying during the month with distance learning via televi- pandemic with classes in the street, a sion in collaboration with four private blacksmith’s shop and even the back of channels. Schools have been closed an old truck. The project is aimed at stu- since March in Mexico, which has dents struggling to keep up with a dis- recorded more than 66,000 coronavirus tance-learning program launched by the deaths-one of the world’s highest tolls. government for tens of millions of chil- Around 70 children between the ages of dren whose schools have shut. six and 15 have so far attended the Each morning, after washing their “Little Corner of Hope” street school in a hands, students in face masks squeeze suburb of the capital. into the back of a pick-up truck parked The community effort relies on the at the side of a street in Mexico City and support of several volunteer teachers, sit at desks ready to learn. “We’ve donations of electronic equipment, a equipped it with television, internet, a blacksmith who allows the use of a Vanesa Quintana (left) and Javier Chavez take their class at the Volunteer Fatima Rodriguez (right) speaks with Maria Luisa Moreno laptop and a smartphone to help disad- workshop and a tortilla shop that pro- improvised street classroom called ‘Rinconcito de Esperanza’ (Little (center) and her son Marcos Hernandez at the improvised street vantaged children to take their classes,” vides a free internet connection. “The Corner of Hope), set up as part of the ‘All For Leo Movement’ in classroom called ‘Rinconcito de Esperanza’. Dalia Davila, the 34-year-old manager of most difficult things are the weather, Heroes de Padierna neighborhood in Mexico City. — AFP photos the project, told AFP. Under a canopy to sometimes there’s a lot of sun, a lot of protect against the sun, a mother tried noise, and it’s difficult to teach a lan- fic test the concentration of the students the applications,” said mother-of-three due to a heart condition. “All this pain to connect an old cellphone to a Wi-Fi guage in the street,” said English as they grapple with technological chal- Martha Hernandez. “I didn’t even know we transform into love, in sharing with network to download teaching materials teacher Eduardo Soto. The 50-year-old lenges. “It’s been very difficult (for the how to insert a file,” she said. For Davila those most in need,” she said. — AFP for her 11-year-old daughter. offered his services for free after the children), first because they didn’t know and her partner, helping disadvantaged A notice informs passers-by: “We ask pandemic left him without work. how to use a computer, then because children is a way of coping with the you for respect, you are entering a Car horns and the noise of street traf- they didn’t give us any training to use death of their own young son, Leonardo,

isney’s live-action “” featur- represented in , particularly ing an all-Asian cast finally pre- among mega-budget blockbusters. Dmieres Friday, launching on Eddie Murphy’s wise-cracking dragon streaming service Disney+ in a bold Mushu from the 1998 animation is small-screen gamble that analysts say nowhere to be seen. “This is huge, that could change Hollywood forever. The a major studio has the confidence in an lavish $200 million film about a leg- all-Asian, Asian-American cast, to put endary female Chinese warrior was due their weight and financial support to hit movie theaters in March, but behind it,” said Ma. “It should be a White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany speaks while a video plays of Speaker of the became an early victim of the coron- benchmark. It should be something the House Nancy Pelosi walking into a hair salon as she holds a press briefing in the Brady Press avirus pandemic, with multiple release world can see, that this is viable.” Briefing Room of the White House on Sept 3, 2020. — AFP date delays. Gone too are the musical numbers Last month, still uncertain over when and romantic sub-plots. New Zealand or if movie-going families would feel director Niki Caro (“Whale Rider”) chose safe to return, Disney rocked the indus- a more mature tone, with beautifully try-and its own cast-by announcing US actor Jason Scott Lee choreographed fight scenes and land- “Mulan” would skip theaters and pre- scapes reminiscent of “Crouching Tiger, straight-to-video movies, it has never miere in living rooms instead. “The Hidden Dragon.” The theme of women’s tried this approach with anything close decision for it to go on Disney+ was a empowerment also comes to the fore, to the budget of “Mulan”-and Tinseltown big shock I think for a lot of us,” said both in star Yifei Liu’s physical perform- will be watching nervously. “What hap- actor Jason Scott Lee, who plays the ance, and the introduction of a mysteri- ith less than two months until the nation in 1865, to go on the auction pens this weekend may be remembered movie’s main villain, adding that the film ous new female foe (Gong Li.) “I don’t US elections, the race for the block. The macabre keepsake came forever, may be a tipping point for all of was “meant to be seen” on the big think Niki wanted to do a remake,” said WWhite House - long pushed to attached to a bloodstained telegram Hollywood as we go into the future,” screen. “At first it was devastating,” Tzi Ma. “That’s not what we’re trying to do. the margins by the coronavirus pandem- announcing the president’s death. The said Jeff Bock, senior analyst for indus- Ma, who plays Mulan’s father, told AFP. We really want to connect to the original ic - has finally taken off: a good time for RR auction house in Boston put the hair try tracker Exhibitor Relations. “This is “But after a day or so, I thought about ballad as our focal point. “I loved the AFP to make a weekly list of offbeat and telegram on sale online, with a about how audiences are going to the silver lining... with Covid-19, our songs... but it is not our mission here.” moments on the campaign trail. deadline for bids on September 12. As of digest blockbuster entertainment in the responsibilities grow. We want to keep Friday, the highest bid was $28,000. future,” he added. Unleash the age spots everybody safe.” ‘Set free’ Alongside health concerns is an Initial reviews have been cautiously No holds are barred for the Donald Political hair pulling ‘This is huge’ experiment in on-demand viewing that positive, with many praising the film’s Trump campaign, which this week Hair also made headlines this week Easing the decision for Disney was could dramatically alter the way audi- stunning visuals and willingness to launched a series of Facebook ads when it emerged that Nancy Pelosi, the the fact that in China-where Disney+ is ences watch movies. The release of depart from the animation, but some including one featuring a picture of powerful Democratic speaker of the not available-many theaters have “Mulan” comes on the same weekend criticizing a lack of character depth or Democratic opponent Joe Biden, House of Representatives, said she was reopened. The movie launches on big that Warner Bros. sci-fi blockbuster humor. For the cast, after months of touched up to add wrinkles and age the victim of a “setup” after she was screens there next week. Based on a “Tenet” hits US theaters-or at least, the limbo, the film’s long-awaited release spots to make the 77-year-old look older. filmed on a security camera visiting an 1,500-year-old Chinese ballad about a roughly 70 percent that have reopened, alone is reason to celebrate. “It’s been A campaign official also admitted shar- indoor hair salon in defiance of pandem- young girl who takes her ailing father’s at reduced capacity. Unlike its rival stu- so long, I feel like the film has been ing a falsified video montage that ic regulations in her hometown of San place in the imperial army, “Mulan” was dio, which will have to split box office caged up, and it just needs to be set appeared to show Biden falling asleep in Francisco. Pelosi, a fierce critic of already expected to be one of Disney’s receipts with theaters, Disney will keep free,” said Lee. “It needs to have its the middle of a television interview. Trump’s handling of the health crisis, biggest films ever in that marketplace. 100 percent of profits for “Mulan,” which wings... let people see it in whatever Trump is 74 years old. said she had fallen for a trap set by the “Mulan” is groundbreaking in other will cost viewers $30, on top of existing format.”— AFP salon’s owner, who has been pushing for ways, too. subscriptions. Misdirections months to be allowed to re-open. Trump The entire cast is Asian or Asian- While Disney has produced plenty of Biden’s digital team came up with its was quick to take to Twitter to attack one American-a demographic serially under- own way of bursting the bubble of the of his most outspoken critics. “Maybe the president’s supporters: it bought up the Beauty Parlor owner should be running online domain KeepAmericaGreat.com, the House of Representatives instead of one of the key slogans of the Trump Crazy Nancy?” the president said. campaign. When Trump fans click on it, it redirects them to a site attacking the Joe’s mow woes president’s record. Biden, who has largely kept a low pro- file in recent months as controversies A different Lincoln memorial dogged his opponent, finally stepped ful- In the bitter fight for the White House, ly onto the campaign trail this week, visit- a former occupant of the residence is ing Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, two key placed in a very particular position: states in the election. On Friday he Abraham Lincoln. Donald Trump likes to returned to his home state of Delaware to portray himself as a natural heir to the take part in an online fundraising push, man who abolished slavery, while anti- but a loud noise in the background Trump Republicans have appropriated forced him to ask his interlocutor to raise his name for a Trump-bashing cam- his voice. Biden explained it was just his paign, The Lincoln Project. That fight neighbor mowing his lawn, and that he In this file photo, US-Chinese actress Yifei Liu attends the world premiere of over the 16th president made it perfect couldn’t ask him to stop: surely a Trump Disney’s ‘Mulan’ at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. - AFP photos for a lock of Honest Abe’s hair, snipped supporter. — AFP off during the autopsy after his assassi-

self-confessed “shy nerdy person” to her speeches. Speaking via Zoom dur- and in her father’s electric car, living she is an “angry naive child who sits in global icon. The resulting film, “Greta”, ing a break in classes at her second- off baked beans and pasta as she the United Nation General Assembly Film reveals reveals not only the inside story of the ary school in Stockholm, Thunberg urges leaders to act to save the planet. screaming at world leaders, because pain and risk Thunberg has put herself said the film was true to the real her, At another point she despairs that that is not the person I am.” Indeed, through for the climate cause - braving someone who “loves her dogs and the responsibility of her role to remind she drew a laugh from reporters and Thunberg as death threats and a hair-raising North routines” but whose life has been the world of the existential crisis it Grossman by admitting that at one Atlantic crossing in a racing yacht - but turned upside down by the climate faces is “too much”, a fear she repeat- stage she “doubted his seriousness” her love of breaking into dance and cause. The film shows how she ed Friday during her virtual press con- as a film-maker because he worked on steely, funny and her gift for comedy. dances in her pyjamas to relieve stress ference at Venice. “It is such a respon- his own. “Why don’t they send a sound Thunberg told AFP that she hoped as she criss-crosses Europe on trains sibility. I don’t want to have to do all guy? Why aren’t they more profession- a secret dancer the intimate, often touching portrait that this,” she said. Yet when far-right crit- al?” she wondered. tracks her extraordinary rise would put ics vilified her as “mentally ill” in the The film shows how the straight-talk- an end to the “conspiracy theories that film, Thunberg, who has Asperger syn- ing schoolgirl went from being a quiet reta Thunberg said Friday the I don’t think for myself and someone drome, laughed it off saying, introvert to a global celebrity in a few weight of having to sound the else writes my speeches. “In the “Sometimes I think it might be good if months in 2018, and her frustration at Galarm on climate change was movie you can see that is not actually everyone had a bit of Asberger’s. “I the gulf between politicians’ promises “too much” for her or any child after a true, that I do decide for myself,” said don’t see the world in black and white, and their actions. “I think the most sur- hugely surprising fly-on-the-wall film the activist, who has been dismissed just the climate crisis.” prising thing about Greta is that she is about her rise was premiered at the as a “brat” by Brazil’s far-right very, very funny,” Grossman told Venice film festival. The Swedish President Jair Bolsonaro, who claimed ‘Kids were mean to me’ reporters. “Sometimes I joke that she teenager allowed film-maker Nathan she was being manipulated. Despite the adoration Thunberg could have been a comedian. She is Grossman to follow her for a year after now receives at demonstrations and very charming and funny as you have he met her in 2018 on the very first day Living off baked beans on social media, in the film she admits seen in this press conference.”— AFP Several scenes show in the docu- that “kids were mean to me” when I of her schools’ strike, sitting alone out- Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg mentary her clashing with her actor was younger. “I was never invited to side parliament in Stockholm with her holds a poster reading ‘School strike for father, Svante - who she convinced to parties and was left out.” The activist, homemade placard. Climate’ as she protests in front of the become a vegan - often over her per- now 17, said she was relieved the doc- In that time she went from being a Swedish Parliament Riksdagen. — AFP fectionism as she writes and rewrites umentary does away with the idea that