Sean Penn to meet with fans here in Dubai

During his visit to the seventh Dubai International Film Festival next week, A-list American actor and director and international social and political activist Sean Penn will participate in a public question-and-answer session with fans from across the nation, organisers said on Wednesday.

The event, slated for Monday, December 13 at the First Group Theatre, Madinat Jumeirah, runs from 7pm to 8pm and tickets, priced at Dh25, are on sale now.

Lifetime of movies and humanitarian work

Penn, whose career spans nearly three decades, more than 45 films and notable successes as producer, actor, director and screenwriter, is one of the Festival’s three Lifetime Achievement honorees this year. Two-time Academy Award winner and five-time nominee Penn is perhaps best known for his searing performances in “Dead Man Walking”, “Sweet and Lowdown”, “I Am Sam”, “Mystic River”, “Milk” and older genre classics “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” and “Carlito’s Way”.

His performances have also been singled out by the Cannes and Berlin film festivals and critics associations around the world, as has his directing work on films including “Into the Wild”, “The Crossing Guard” and “The Pledge”.

Penn’s humanitarian work - including his reportage from Iran and Iraq in recent years, and tireless campaigning on behalf of the victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the earthquake-ravaged Haiti – has also won numerous admirers around the world. In January 2010, Penn founded the J/P Haitian Relief Organization which focuses on medical aid, protection, and re-location. His organisation is currently leading the largest camp for internally displaced persons in Port-au-Prince and established the first emergency re-location in the country.

Penn's films at DIFF

In addition to the public conversation, DIFF 2010 is screening two path-breaking movies from Penn’s extraordinary repertoire: “Sweet and Lowdown” (1999) and “Into the Wild” (2007).

Gloriously comic, the heartbreakingly poignant rollicking ride through the seedy underbelly of the 1930s jazz era in America, in "Sweet and Lowdown" Sean Penn delivers a standout performance in this Woody Allen spoof documentary. It charts the life of jazz legend Emmet Ray. Screening on December 17 at CineStar Mall of the Emirates, “Sweet and Lowdown” evokes a gamut of emotion, from drunken hubris to tender love.

Based on the true story of Christopher McCandless starring Emile Hirsch, Sean Penn’s “Into the Wild” retraces the path taken by the conflicted and unstable young man. Abandoning his possessions and hitchhiking to Alaska to live in the wilderness, McCandless wanders through the lives of a variety of characters, each of whom attempt to offer him some insight and clarity to life. Screening on December 18 at CineStar Mall of the Emirates, “Into the Wild” captures the integrity, naiveté, and charm of this complex, troubled man.

Tickets can be purchased from DIFF 2010 box offices at Cinestar Mall of the Emirates, Souk Madinat  Jumeirah, the CNN Building in Dubai Media City and The Walk at Jumeirah Beach Residence, or from the website www.dubaifilmfest.com.
 

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