27/05/2009

Your daily journey into global arts, culture and entertainment, with Harriett Gilbert and Mark Coles.

Man Booker International Prize 2009

Canadian short story writer Alice Munro is this year's winner of the Man Booker International Prize, one of literature's biggest awards. Jane Smiley, herself an acclaimed author, was one of the judges and she tells us why the prize went to a writer of short stories rather than novels.

John Waters

For most film fans, the name John Waters means one thing. Exuberant, irreverent cult movies. Films like Pink Flamingos and Hairspray. But there's another, lesser known side to John Waters. As well as a director, he's also an artist. His work - Rear Projection - was recently showing simultaneously at galleries in Los Angeles and New York. To come up with his art, Waters shoots stills from films shown on television, then alters and recombines the photographs he's taken to make what he calls "little movies" - re-editing and redirecting them to tell new stories all his own. The Strand meets John Waters in Beverly Hills.

Gone With The Wind

The historial epic Gone with the Wind first hit cinema screens in 1939. Seventy years on, it remains as alluring as ever. Writer Molly Haskell looks at its continuing enduring appeal.

Frankly, My Dear: Gone with the Wind Revisited by Molly Haskell is published by Yale University Press.

Baaba Mal

Senegalese musician Baaba Maal is back with a new studio album Television. Made in Dakar and London, his latest work blends West African musical traditions with elements of electronic dance.