Latest news with #WilliamDalrymple
The National
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
34,000 people sign petition demanding BBC 'stop suppressing' Gaza film
Basement Films were commissioned by the BBC to make a documentary about Israel targeting Palestinian healthcare infrastructure but the broadcaster has since blocked it from coming out. The corporation has blamed the furore around a different documentary which it pulled from its iPlayer streaming platform after controversy around it featuring the son of a Hamas government official. But the 'spineless' broadcaster has come under fire for 'suppressing' Basement Films' documentary and faces questions about whether there is 'improper influence being exercised to prevent its screening'. READ MORE: Irish minister in stunning rebuke of 'genocidal' Israel In post on Twitter/X, the company said: 'We are doubtful that our film investigating attacks on hospitals and medics in Gaza, produced with [the BBC] over 14 months, cleared multiple times at all levels, containing graphic footage of attacks and searing testimony of survivors of those attacks, will be released by [the BBC]. 'We apologise to the survivors of these attacks, those alleging torture and the families of those killed. They all doubted whether [the BBC] would ever tell their stories. We thought they would; they still can. We are desperate for this film to be released. Please watch this space." Scottish historian William Dalrymple (below), one of the most renowned living historians of the British Empire, responded to the company's statement, saying the BBC were 'shameful and spineless'. He said: 'You've lost all respect and all claims to truth telling during this, the supreme moral test of our lifetime. The largest mass slaughter and ethnic cleansing of civilians in modern times is underway and you are too timid to show a documentary you yourself commissioned from some of the country's most acclaimed award-winning documentary makers. Utterly shameful.' Former top government spin doctor Alastair Campbell said he and former Tory MP Rory Stewart had discussed the film on their hit podcast The Rest is Politics. READ MORE: SNP and Scottish Labour unite to condemn 'blatantly racist' Reform UK advert He added: 'The BBC commissioned the film, which was delivered on time and having gone through all the editorial processes and week by week excuses given for why the tune is not right to show it. 'Inexplicable unless there is improper influence being exercised to prevent its screening.' A petition demanding its release has reached 34,418 signatures at the time of writing. The petition states: 'The BBC is suppressing a documentary about the plight of doctors in Gaza, saying the delay is linked to an internal review of a different film by a different producer. It makes no sense. 'The UK Government still supports [Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu's murderous regime – that's why the BBC bosses won't show the film. But airing Gaza: Medics Under Fire could help persuade MPs to bring an end to the horror.' The BBC was approached for comment.
The National
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
BBC criticised after shelving documentary on Gaza doctors
The documentary titled Gaza: Medics Under Fire was reportedly ready to be broadcast in February but has been shelved following the controversy around How to Survive a Warzone, which featured the son of a Hamas official. The production firm behind the documentary on Gaza doctors, Basement Films, said the BBC has postponed airing their film until after a review into How to Survive a Warzone is completed. A number of NHS doctors are reportedly writing to the BBC to air their frustrations over its decision to delay the screening of the film after they helped to introduce the documentary team to their counterparts in Gaza. READ MORE: Keir Starmer delivers weak statement on Israel's ethnic cleansing plan Historian William Dalrymple also criticised the broadcaster's decision as he said the broadcaster is 'wrecking its reputation' over its failure to hold the Israeli Government to account. He wrote on social media: 'The BBC really needs to get a spine. 'It is wrecking its reputation with its systematic censorship of the news out of Gaza and its failure to hold Netanyahu's government to account for War Crimes- a description it is too cowardly to use.' (Image: PA) The independent documentary production company Basement Films said it was 'deeply disappointed' that its film had not yet been aired yet, amid suggestions that the BBC had reversed an original plan to press ahead with the screening. 'There is no moral or professional reason why a mistake in one film should repeatedly prevent the release of another film,' the company said. In a statement, they added: 'We gathered searing testimony from multiple Palestinian doctors and health workers who had survived attacks on hospitals and their homes that killed both colleagues and loved ones. 'We also spoke to multiple medics who had been detained and testified they had been tortured, and we made solemn undertakings that their stories would be told and done so as soon as possible. 'The film has been made by an experienced and multi award winning team both from Basement Films, and the BBC. It has been fact checked, compiled on and signed off multiple times within the BBC, as well as experts we consulted with.' One BBC staff member said the reaction around How to Survive a Warzone had left bosses at the corporation 'terrified' of airing any further documentaries about Gaza, The Times has reported. (Image: BBC) The BBC said that it would show the film 'as soon as possible' after its review into 'How to Survive a Warzone' had concluded. However, it is unclear when that will be. According to The Times, sources close to the situation indicated that the review had become mired in a legal delay after Peter Johnston, the BBC's director of editorial complaints, finished interviewing key people at the BBC and Hoyo Films, the production company behind How to Survive a Warzone. The findings of the review are not expected to affect Basement's film which has reportedly been signed off by the corporation's lawyers. Gaza: Medics Under Fire has been made by a team of Bafta and Emmy award-winning producers with Basement Films, headed by former editor of Channel 4 News Ben de Pear. The BBC said the film remained an important piece of journalism. 'We are committed to journalism which tells our audiences the stories of this war, including what is happening in Gaza. This documentary is a powerful piece of reporting and we will broadcast it as soon as possible,' a spokesman said. 'We have taken an editorial decision not to do so while we have an ongoing review into a previous documentary, Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone.'
Mint
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
In the company of Indian masters
In 2019, writer and historian William Dalrymple curated a magnificent exhibition titled, Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company , at the Wallace Collection in London. It was the first of its kind to be held in the UK, bringing together a rich repository of art collectively known as 'Company paintings". Crucially, the show focused on identifying as many of the artists as possible instead of lumping them all under 'unknown", an orientalist shortcut that had been the default for years, pushing Company paintings into the realm of anthropological curiosity rather than fit subject for aesthetic and art-historical evaluation. A Treasury of Life: Indian Company Paintings c. 1790-1835 , currently on at Delhi Art Gallery (DAG), builds on Dalrymple's rigorous work by bringing together a wide array of Company paintings. Curated by writer and historian Giles Tillotson, it comes with a lavishly produced catalogue, with contributions by scholars like Apurba Chatterjee Jennifer Howes and Malini Roy, among others. Apart from juxtaposing works by Indian artists like Sita Ram and Chuni Lal against European originals that may have inspired and informed their style, the show makes a point about the nomenclature of 'Company painting". As Tillotson points out, the term refers to a timeframe—the 18th and 19th centuries—during which these paintings were made under the patronage of East India Company officers. The name is not to be confused as a stylistic category, which may be inferred from the misleading but oft-used term, 'Company school". Even a cursory look at the paintings makes it evident that the Company painters were invested in leaving their mark, however subtly, on the work they did, usually within a strict framework provided to them by their patrons, many of whom used the images as scientific references to build the Linnaean system of classification of species during this era. Some of the private collections—the Parlby Album, Zoffany Album or Fraser Album, for instance—served as personal memory-keeping, a record of time spent among the exotic flora and fauna of the empire. Yet others were proofs of the splendour of British life in the faraway colonies. A prominent example of the latter were the images of palaces and bungalows in Maidapur, a now-forgotten interface between 'the Mughal capital of Murshidabad" and 'the British capital of Calcutta", as historian Rosie Llewellyn-Jones puts it. Unlike their European counterparts dominated by the picturesque style of landscape painting, the paintings of British residences in this region are starkly delineated, with clinical precision of architectural blueprints. The still life paintings by the Murshidabad artists, along with images of caste and religious diversity of India, add freshness to the show. Especially arresting are the paintings from the south, which are not seen as often as the ones from Bengal. A Treasury of Life is on at DAG, Delhi, till 5 July.
Time of India
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Roy Kapur Films and WIIP collaborate to adapt historian William Dalrymple's book
In a first for a big-scale collaboration, global independent studio WIIP (known for producing well-received web series Mare of Easttown) and Indian production house Roy Kapur Films will be creating a web series adaption of writer-historian William Dalrymple 's critically-acclaimed and bestseller book The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company . The web series will be produced across the UK and Asia. According to a source, it is estimated that the first season of the web series will cost $100 million, almost similar to the scale of critically-acclaimed big-scale web series such as The Crown and Game of Thrones. The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company tells the story of how the East India Company based in a small London office took over the entire Indian sub-continent which constituted more than one-fourth of the world's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at the time. The web series will be directed by legendary British director Stephen Frears known for films such as My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), and Dangerous Liaisons (1988) "This is the most contemporary of themes: A ruthless businessman and his corporation seizing power, a group of oligarchs taking over a chunk of the world, asset-stripping, looting, manipulating the stock market, destroying whole economies for their profit. The East India Company stealing India in the 18th century, " said director Stephen Frears. This will be the first big-scale collaboration of Indian production with an international production house in creating a web series adaptation. The funding of the series is likely to be done by a global streaming platform. "Stephen's range as a filmmaker is simply unmatched. He has directed some of the most beloved films of the last four decades. To have him come on board to helm this project is an absolute dream come true, " said producer Siddharth Roy Kapur, founder of Roy Kapur Films. "Collaborating with our production partners at WIIP has been an incredibly enriching experience. This is a story that demanded scale, depth, and ambition, and I am proud that we have brought an extraordinary team together to bring it to life for a global audience, ' he added.
Arab News
30-01-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Palestine takes center stage at Jaipur Literature Festival, world's largest literary show
JAIPUR: The 18th edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival, India's largest literary event, began on Thursday with a special focus on the history and present-day situation in Gaza and Palestine. Known as the 'greatest literary show on earth,' the five-day event is held in Jaipur, the capital of the northwestern state of Rajasthan, bringing to one venue dozens of leading voices from literature, politics, science and the arts from India and abroad. More than 400,000 people attended the event last year and organizers expect even more to show up this time. Many of the festival's sessions will be devoted to Gaza, covering events there during the past 18 months of relentless Israeli attacks that have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and destroyed much of the territory's civilian infrastructure. 'What's happening in Gaza is, in my opinion, the most appalling moral issue of our time and I'm very proud that we are giving this issue the prominence it deserves, and I think in a way that many Western literary festivals might be nervous to do. We are in a position in this country to speak frankly and openly about the horrors coming out of Gaza, and we intend to do so,' Scottish historian and writer William Dalrymple, one of the JLF's directors, told Arab News. Among the speakers will be Pankaj Mishra, the Indian novelist and essayist whose latest book, 'The World After Gaza,' is a reckoning with Israel's latest war on the enclave, its historical context and geopolitical ramifications. Pankaj will be joined by Palestinian writer and lawyer Selma Dabbagh to discuss how the war — which brought Israel to trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice and has led to International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant — challenges understandings of justice and decolonization. In another session, Nathan Thrall, an author and journalist known for his 2023 nonfiction work 'A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy,' who has covered Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, will speak about the human impact of Israel's apartheid rule over the Palestinian people. 'It's really an extraordinary lineup. We've got Gideon Levy from Haaretz — one of the most outspoken anti-Netanyahu journalists from the Israeli media — speaking in several sessions. I think he's the bravest Israeli journalist of the lot, and the most outspoken on the horrors,' Dalrymple said. Levy will speak about the unprecedented loss of civilian life in Gaza during the latest war and how it is likely to impact the future of the region. Avi Shlaim, emeritus professor of international relations at the University of Oxford, will be talking about his memoir, 'Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab Jew,' which 'exposes Mossad operations, which tried to get the Jewish community in Iraq to leave through false flag operations, bombing synagogues and so on,' Dalrymple said. 'Then we have Philippe Sands, a very important international lawyer, who was strongly involved in the International Court of Justice case.' For Dalrymple, who has spent many years reporting from and writing about the Middle East, raising the issue of Palestine as someone who knows the region also comes with a sense of responsibility. The subject and 'the historical background of the terrible injustices which are taking place' are 'often badly misrepresented,' he said. 'I have a duty to share what I know with those that are often misled and misguided about what's happening ... people are seeing a lot on their social media but often they don't have the education in the history and the politics to make sense of it all.' Most of the people who will come to the festival may not have a thorough understanding of what is happening, but they can easily gain it by taking part in the event. 'Sometimes there isn't as much knowledge and as much understanding of the issue, which is why people come to literary festivals. Not everyone in the modern world has time to read 300-page books on the history of Palestine but you can attend very easily a 50-minute session with experts summarizing it,' Dalrymple said. 'Literary festivals in the West are often scared of bringing this up and we've seen many examples of sessions on Palestine canceled in venues in the West. For example, when Pankaj Mishra was trying to speak on the same subject which he's speaking with us, his session was famously canceled at the Barbican last year. So, he'll be having with us the session that was censored in London ... we pride ourselves on the freedom with which our authors will be able to talk about all these things.'
