The Strand - The Strand - Wednesday 04th November 2009

The best of the world's arts, film, music, literature and music brought to you every day. Presented by Bidisha.

Doha Film Festival
We attend the very first Doha Tribeca Film Festival which took place last weekend in capital city of Qatar in the Persian Gulf. Actor Robert De Niro was there as one of its founders and we find out how the Qatari film community got involved.

World Service Playwriting Competition
On the 21st and 28th November you'll be able to hear the winning plays from the BBC World Service's International Radio Playwriting Competition. Bidisha speaks to their writers, the two overall winners - Efo Kodjo Mawugbe from Ghana and Erin Browne from the USA about their motivations and how it feels to hear their work 'coming off the page'.

You can hear Erin Browne's winning play 'Trying' on BBC World Service on Saturday 21st November 2009, 2001 GMT

You can hear Efo Kodjo Mawugbe's winning play 'The Prison Graduates' on BBC World Service on Saturday 28th November 2009, 2001 GMT

Animal Farm
As part of the BBC World Service's 1989: Europe's Revolution coverage -- marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Communist power in Europe -- here on the Strand we are serialising George Orwell's Animal Farm. Published in 1945, Orwell's satire captures, with bitter humour, what happens when a Communist revolution goes wrong. It’s read by South African actor John Kani.

Broadcast on:

BBC World Service, 1:32pm Thursday 5th November 2009

Duration:

28 minutes

Available until:

12:00am Thursday 1st January 2099

Categories:

• Factual,
• Arts, Culture & the Media