Film executive in Cannes accused of sexual assault during event
A vice president of one of the parallel film events at the Cannes Festival was suspended Thursday after being publicly denounced for sexual violence, witnesses and organizers told AFP. During a roundtable discussion about sexual assault organized by France's film board (CNC), a woman stood up and publicly denounced an executive from the ACID Cannes film section.
'The young woman acted with great courage and was immediately taken care of by charities present,' Erwan Balanant, a French MP who was in the room, told AFP. It came as the main Cannes Festival barred a French actor from the premiere Thursday of a film in the running for the Palme d'Or top prize because he has been accused of rape by three former partners. The ACID Cannes event is not part of the official festival, but runs at the same time and has some organizational links. It showcases up-and-coming directors and more experimental cinema.
'Today, during a public roundtable, we heard testimony implicating one of our members, currently vice-president of ACID, in serious acts that could amount to sexual violence,' two other co-presidents of the organization said in a statement to AFP. They said the man had been suspended as a precautionary measure and that 'an internal investigation process has been entrusted to an external body.' The vice president cannot be named for legal reasons. Cannes has been under pressure from MPs and activists to take a tougher line on sexual violence.--AFP
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Indonesia has a young, digitally active population of around 280 million, and 'Tung Tung Tung Sahur' is not its only viral export. This summer, video footage -- not AI-generated -- of a sunglass-wearing boy dancing on a rowboat during a race at a western Indonesian festival also became an internet sensation. Noxa, the TikToker behind the original 'Tung Tung Tung Sahur' clip, is now represented by a Paris-based collective of artists, lawyers and researchers called Mementum Lab. 'Noxa is a content creator based in Indonesia. He's under 20,' they told AFP. 'He makes fast, overstimulated, AI-assisted videos.' 'He doesn't call himself a 'contemporary artist', but we think he's already acting like one,' said Mementum Lab, which is focused on complex emerging issues around AI intellectual property, and says it is helping Noxa negotiate deals for his work. Noxa, in comments provided by the collective, said the character was 'inspired by the sound of the sahur drum I used to hear'. 'I didn't want my character to be just another passing joke -- I wanted him to have meaning,' he said. Cultural nuances can be lost at a mass scale, however, with one 12-year-old tourist in Tokyo saying he thought 'Tung Tung Tung Sahur' was a baseball bat. And the generation gap looks set to persist. 'What's that?!' laughed a woman as she puzzled at the row of Italian Brainrot dolls. 'It's not cute at all!' — AFP
