21 Official International Film Festival Selections. 5 AWARDS: 5. PRIX du PUBLIC/AUDIENCE AWARD against World�?�¢??s Amour films - including 2 Days in Paris, Lady Chatterley, Paris Je t aime, and La Vie en Rose - at the oldest Love festival in the world (the 23rd Annual International Amour Film Festival held during Valentine in Mons/Belgium), 4. OUTSTANDING FEATURE AWARD, WORLD CINEMA- Washington DC Independent Film Festival 2006, 3. BEST ROMANCE FEATURE AWARD- WorldFest International Film Festival 2006, 2. BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE AWARD: Shiva Rose, Actress -FLIFF2006, 1. SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENTS AWARD: Jay Jonroy, Writer/Producer/Director- FLIFF 2006.
Festivals
21. Verona (Italy) Shakepeare's Romeo & Juilet Film Festival.
20. The 23rd Annual 'le Festival International du Film d'Amour de Mons/Belgium (In Competition.) 19. KLFF- Berlin 18. KLFF- London 17. Stockholm International Film Festival (American Independent Competition) 16. Florida International Film Festival-Ft. Lauderdale(American Independent Competition) 15. Sao Paulo- Brazil International Film Festival (New Directors Competition) 14. New Hampshire FilmExpo- Portsmouth (Closing Night Feature Competition) 13. Avignon Film Festival (Euro & American Indpendent Cinema Competition) 12. Jerusalem Film Festival 11. Moondance International FF- Los Angeles 10. Boston International Film Festival
9. Newport Beach International Film Festival 8. Ashdod-Israel "Love" Film Festival 7. WorldFest Houston IFF (3rd odest fest in America.)
6. Palm Beach International Film Festival 5. Philadelphia Film Society International Film Festival 4. Washington DC Independent Film Festival 3. Mt. Top Human Rights Film Festival (co-presented by HRW- Human Rights Watch, New York) 2. New York/Avignon Film Festival (American & French Independent Cinema) 1. Hamptons International Film Festival (Competition in Conflict Resolution)- New York.
Professional Affiliations
WGA- Writers Guild of America, New York; RPS- Royal Photographic Society- London, United Kingdom.
Jay Jonroy aka J Jalal Jonroy's Interests
Music
World Music, Flamenco, Tango, Samba, classic Persian (Shajarian and Parisa), Jewish Klezmer, Armenian (Gasparyan) and Kurdish music, especially soul spiritual music of Iran and Kurdistan - such as Rumi's love and spiritual poems' interpretations by Shahram Nazeri, and Yarsan spiritual music tanbur interpretations by Ali Moradi - and classic and soul music of India, Afghanistan,... And Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, Beatles, Billy Holliday, Bob Dylan, Annie Lennox, Eddie Brakel, The Doors, Paco de Lucia...
Movies
Classic and foreign films of Directors: Chaplin, Keaton, Hawkes, Mizoguchi, Ozu, Kurosawa, Fellini, De Sica, Bunuel, Satyajit Ray, Yilmaz Guney...to Perdo Almodovar, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Yimou Zhang &; Chen Kaige, and actors: Lilian Gish, Greta Garbo, Sophia Loren; Marlyin Monroe, Marlon Brando... Charlize Theron, Monica Bellucci, Salma Hayek, Cate Blanchett, Benicio de Toro, Gon Li, and Gong Li-admirer/similar sensitive actress Shiva Rose, in her first lead role in David & Layla!
Books
** Pierre Louys's APHRODITE ** MARQUEZ's 100 Years of Solitude ** BOCCACIO'S Decameron ** BAUDELARIRE's Les Fleurs du Mal ** APULEIUS' The Golden Ass **NARAYAN's The Ramayana **Shakepear's HAMLET and ROMEO & JUILET ** VOLTAIRE's Candide ** LORCA's plays and poems ** TENNESSEE WILLIAMS's plays ** RUMI's persian love and spiritual poems **Persian/Kurdish ONE THOUSAND ONE NIGHTS- Hazar U Yek Shab/w. After the invasion of Persia and Kurdistan in 7th C. by Arab Muslims, 1001 Nights was translated into Arabic during Abbasid Islamic rulers of Baghdad, under the original title of ALF LAYLA WA LAYLA- One Thousand One Nights. 1001 Nights faithfully translated into French early 18th C. as LES MILLE et UNE NUITS by Galland is probably the greatest story ever told. But in 19th C. Richard Burton corrupted the title to "Arabian Nights' Entertainment!" to titilate 19th C. frustrated puritans in England under Queen Victoria! Due to this curious error, the world mostly assumes erroneously that Alf Layla wa Layla tales were originated in Arabic language. In fact the core moral, fantastic, mesmerising, sometimes ertotic, and imaginative stories as told by Shahrzad, the young Persian princess, to Persian King Shahryar - that inspired dozens of the world's top writers from Voltaire and Anderson to Wordsworth and Borges - are Kurdish and Persian.
Heroes
MAHTMA GANDHI and YILMAZ GUNEY. Gandhi for succeeding against the British Empire without using violence: using only peaceful means - hunger strike, civil unrest, peaceful protests &; demonstrations ...pacific ways our today's trigger-happy leaders and suicide bombers seem to have forgotten. And Guney, the Kurdish director of YOL - Cannes 1982 Palme d'Or winner - for making independent filmmaking legend by writing and directing (via his assistant) his chef d'oeuvre YOL film from inside a Turkish prison cell! He managed to escape prison and finished the post production of his film in Europe where he remained in exile pursued by Turkish military secret assasins, for allegedly murdering a Turkish judge! Guney was from Northern Kurdistan, annexed to Turkey through military occupation by Turkish nationalist General Kamal Ataturk in 1920s. Since then the northern part of divided Kurdistan has been misnamed - South East Turkey - the longest military zone occupied territory in modern history, not freely open to tourists, let alone journalists. Guney died in Paris from stomach cancer (due to Turkish prison food?) He is buried with Chopin, Jim Morrison, and Oscar Wilde et al in the famous Pere Lachaise in Paris. Who could qualify better as an inspiration for any independent filmmaker? Without Guney's master, pioneering films, the first in th Middle East to make wise, authentic/ethnic, and politically risky films, I, as a diaspora, new immigrant director, probably would have not realized my hope of writing, producing and directing an independent film in tough, costly New York, especially DAVID &; LAYLA- a taboo "Jewish Muslim Romantic Comedy!"
About me: To play a video, first stop the music by pushing Pause on MP3 Music Player on the left margin. Then click Play arrow to play all videos in sequence or click on any video's smaller arrow of the clip you wish to see. (To return to the music, do the reverse: stop or pause a video, then play MP3 music.)
For Reviws and Cinemas Showtimes visit: www.DavidandLayla.com
A dual American and British citizen, multi-lingual Jay Jonroy now lives and works in New York and Paris. A member of Writers Guild of America WGA, and a former student of UCLA School of Film and Television, American Film Institute AFI, and USC Department of Cinema & TV Advanced Screenwriting Practicum, Jay was born in Southern-Kurdistan (Iraq.) Made stateless and in exile since Jay was a teenager, he has studied and worked in London, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Rio, Paris and New York. Either through scholarships or paid for by his own work, he has studied at the universities of Leicester, Imperial College, London, Paris Sorbonne, and UCLA and USC film schools in Los Angeles. After graduating with a rare First Class Honors B.Sc. degree at Leicester University, Jay declined a scholarship (to the shock of his professors) to study for a PhD at the prestigious Churchill College/Cambridge University in favor of a Masters Degree at Imperial College/London University so he could live in London- the cosmopolitan capital of diverse cultures and international arts. In London, later Jay studied Creative Photography. Worked briefly as a fashion photographer in London and Paris.
Discovered Koo Stark before her royal romance with Prince Andrew. Then, he studied 'Acting, Movement and Speech' at the London City Literary Institute. In the 90's while living for seven years in New York with actress Layla Alexander, he coached actors for their final year scenes and plays at the renowned Circle in the Square Theatre School of Acting on Broadway. He acted as volunteer mentor to the graduate students at New York University - NYU - Graduate Film Department assisting the development of their final thesis films. An amateur musician, Jay collects ethnic music and has been listed as a Patron of the Arts at the World Music Institute in New York. Two members of Jay's family - a younger brother and a brother-in-law - went missing or murdered in Iraq. Later, their remains were found in Ba'athists and Saddam's mass graves. Jay was obliged to abandon his film projects unfinished for about ten years to help his family escape Saddam's genocidal campaigns against Kurds. Some of those horrors are reflected in his first feature film David & Layla (2006). Jay supports Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch of NY and the World Music Institute. He writes about and promotes the films, music and cultures of oppressed nations. A cinephile of both East and West cinema, Jay is an Internet film critic of World Cinema at Newroz Films, as well as a writer on human rights and a free-lance supporter of the Human Rights International Film Festivals. Many of his siblings & relatives now live as refugees in diaspora in England, Holland, Germany, and France. His first feature, David & Layla, is a gift, a 'comic relief' to the oppressed 'Layla's of the World. It is dedicated to the memory of the genocide victim members of his family.
www.NewrozFilms.com
