The First Grader
The First Grader is a 2010 biographical drama film directed by Justin Chadwick. It stars Naomie Harris, Oliver Litondo, Tony Kgoroge; the film is based on the true story of Kimani Maruge, a Kenyan farmer who enrolled in elementary school at the age of 84 following the Kenyan government's announcement of free universal primary education in 2003. In 2003, a disc jockey announces over a Kenyan radio station that the government is offering free primary school education to all natives who can prove citizenship with a birth certificate. Kimani Maruge, an 84-year-old villager, hears this and decides to take it upon himself to seek an education. Arriving at his local school, he meets the principal and teacher, he expresses his desire to learn. Her teaching colleague ridicules him and demands he leave. Jane informs her husband Charles about Maruge, he discourages her in supporting his educational endeavor. After beginning his initial classes, Maruge is plagued by memories of his service during the Mau Mau Uprising against the British in the 1950s.
He begins to hallucinate and becomes confrontational with the students, struggling to continue his academics. Controversy begins to stir over Maruge’s education. Soon enough, the story that an elderly man going to school becomes national headlines. Mr. Kipruto, a superintendent of the school district, is alerted to the situation and disapproves of Maruge's predicament and suggests that he go to an adult educational facility. Meeting with the head of the education board to plead Maruge’s case, Jane is overruled, it is explained to her that if an exception is made to keep Maruge in the school, others will follow, many schools will become filled with older people sitting aside children. Maruge is forced to attend an adult learning centre, where he soon finds himself surrounded by people with no motivation or ambition to study. Maruge vows to never go back to the adult institution. Jane decides to offer him a reprieve, to work as her teaching assistant; as Maruge's story gains publicity and attention, the local press descend on the school, causing friction among the parents.
The villagers believe Maruge are seeking fame and fortune at the expense of the children. Following negative feedback and random acts of violence against the school, Jane soon receives a letter that she is to be transferred to another educational institute a few hundred miles away. Jane reveals to Maruge that she is relocating, commences an emotional goodbye with the children. Following protests and disobedience on part of the students towards their new teacher, Maruge is motivated to travel to Nairobi to appeal himself to the education board. Jane is reinstated at the school, where the children are there to welcome her; the film's epilogue displays a series of graphics stating that at age 84, Maruge is the oldest person to start primary school according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Supplementally, he was invited to make a speech before international leaders at the UN in New York regarding the power of education, he inspired a whole new generation of people to go to school for the first time.
Maruge died in 2009. Naomie Harris as Jane Obinchu Oliver Litondo as Kimani Maruge Alfred Munyua as Alfred Tony Kgoroge as Charles Obinchu Vusi Kunene as Mr. Kipruto Sam Feuer as American Journalist US based film producer Sam Feuer found the story on the front page of the LA Times and optioned the rights. He, producing partner Richard Harding, partnered with BBC Films and hired Ann Peacock to write the screenplay; the British produced film was shot on location in the Rift Valley in Kenya, despite earlier reports that it would be filmed in South Africa. Director Chadwick conveyed, "We could have shot it in South Africa, but Kenya has this unbelievable, inexplicable energy inherent in the children, the people we were making the film about". Among mainstream critics the film received mixed reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a fresh score of 60% based on reviews from 71 critics, with an average score of 5.6 out of 10. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average out of 100 to critics' reviews, The First Grader was given a score of 56 based on 21 reviews.
2010 in film Mau Mau Uprising Footnotes Official website The First Grader on IMDb The First Grader at Rotten Tomatoes The First Grader at Metacritic The First Grader at Box Office Mojo
Islington
Islington is a district in Greater London and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy High Street, Upper Street, Essex Road, Southgate Road to the east. Islington grew as a sprawling Middlesex village along the line of the Great North Road, has provided the name of the modern borough; this gave rise to some confusion, as neighbouring districts may be said to be in Islington. This district is bounded by Liverpool Road to the west and City Road and Southgate Road to the south-east, its northernmost point is in the area of Canonbury. The main north-south high street, Upper Street splits at Highbury Corner to Holloway Road to the west and St. Paul's Road to the east; the Angel business improvement district, an area centered around the Angel tube station, exists within southern Islington district and northern portions of two other districts in the London Borough of Islington – Finsbury and Pentonville.
Islington was named by the Saxons Giseldone Gislandune. The name means "Gīsla's hill" from the Old English personal name dun; the name mutated to Isledon, which remained in use well into the 17th century when the modern form arose. In medieval times, Islington was just one of many small manors thereabouts, along with Bernersbury, Neweton Berewe or Hey-bury and Canonesbury; some roads on the edge of the area, including Essex Road, were known as streets by the medieval period indicating a Roman origin, but little physical evidence remains. What is known is that the Great North Road from Aldersgate came into use in the 14th century, connecting with a new turnpike up Highgate Hill; this was along the line of modern Upper Street, with a toll gate at The Angel defining the extent of the village. The Back Road, the modern Liverpool Road, was a drovers' road where cattle would be rested before the final leg of their journey to Smithfield. Pens and sheds were erected along this road to accommodate the animals.
The first recorded church, St Mary's, was erected in the twelfth century and was replaced in the fifteenth century. Islington lay on the estates of the Dean and Chapter of St Pauls. There were substantial medieval moated manor houses in the area, principally at Canonbury and Highbury. In 1548, there were 440 communicants listed and the rural atmosphere, with access to the City and Westminster, made it a popular residence for the rich and eminent; the local inns harboured sheltered recusants. The Royal Agricultural Hall was built in 1862 on the Liverpool Road site of William Dixon's Cattle Layers; the hall was 75 ft high and the arched glass roof spanned 125 ft. It was built for the annual Smithfield Show in December of that year but was popular for other purposes, including recitals and the Royal Tournament, it was the primary exhibition site for London until the 20th century and the largest building of its kind, holding up to 50,000 people. It was requisitioned for use by the Mount Pleasant sorting office during World War II and never re-opened.
The main hall has now been incorporated into the Business Design Centre. The hill on which Islington stands has long supplied the City of London with water, the first projects drawing water through wooden pipes from the many springs that lay at its foot, in Finsbury; these included Sadler's London Spa and Clerkenwell. By the 17th century these traditional sources were inadequate to supply the growing population and plans were laid to construct a waterway, the New River, to bring fresh water from the source of the River Lea, in Hertfordshire to New River Head, below Islington in Finsbury; the river was opened on 29 September 1613 by the constructor of the project. His statue still stands; the course of the river ran to the east of Upper Street, much of its course is now covered and forms a linear park through the area. The Regent's Canal passes through Islington, for much of which in an 886-metre tunnel that runs from Colebrook Row east of the Angel, to emerge at Muriel Street near Caledonian Road.
The stretch is marked above with a series of pavement plaques so walkers may find their way from one entrance to the other. The area of the canal east of the tunnel and north of the City Road was once dominated by much warehousing and industry surrounding the large City Road Basin and Wenlock Basin; those old buildings that survive here are now residential or small creative work units. This stretch has one side accessed from the towpath; the canal was constructed in 1820 to carry cargo from Limehouse into the canal system. There is no tow-path in the tunnel so bargees had to walk their barges through, braced against the roof. Commercial use of the canal has declined since the 1960s. In the 17th and 18th centuries the availability of water made Islington a good place for growing vegetables to feed London; the manor became a popular excursion destination for Londoners, attracted to the area by its rural feel. Many public houses were therefore built to serve the needs of both the excursionists and travellers on the turnpike.
By 1716, there were 56 ale-house keepers in Upper Street offering pleasure and tea gardens, activities such as archery, skittle alleys and bowling. By the 18th century and dancing were offered, together with billiards, firework displays and balloon ascents; the King's Head Tavern, now a Victorian building with a theatre, has remained on the same site, opposite the parish c
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London known as the National Theatre, is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. Internationally, it is known as the National Theatre of Great Britain. From its foundation in 1963 until 1976, the company was based at The Old Vic theatre in Waterloo; the current building is located next to the Thames in the South Bank area of central London. In addition to performances at the National Theatre building, the National Theatre tours productions at theatres across the United Kingdom. Permission to add the "Royal" prefix to the name of the theatre was given in 1988, but the full title is used; the theatre presents a varied programme, including Shakespeare, other international classic drama, new plays by contemporary playwrights. Each auditorium in the theatre can run up to three shows in repertoire, thus further widening the number of plays which can be put on during any one season.
In June 2009, the theatre began National Theatre Live, a programme of simulcasts of live productions to cinemas, first in the United Kingdom and internationally. The programme began with a production of Phèdre, starring Helen Mirren, screened live in 70 cinemas across the UK. NT Live productions have since been broadcast to over 2,500 venues in 60 countries around the world; the NT had an annual turnover of £105 million in 2015–16, of which earned income made up 75%. Support from Arts Council England provided 17% of income, 1% from Learning and Participation activity, the remaining 9% came from a mixture of companies, individuals and foundations. In 1847, a critic using the pseudonym Dramaticus published a pamphlet describing the parlous state of British theatre. Production of serious plays was restricted to the patent theatres, new plays were subjected to censorship by the Lord Chamberlain's Office. At the same time, there was a burgeoning theatre sector featuring a diet of low melodrama and musical burlesque.
There was a demand to commemorate serious theatre, with the "Shakespeare Committee" purchasing the playwright's birthplace for the nation demonstrating a recognition of the importance of'serious drama'. The following year saw more pamphlets on a demand for a National Theatre from London publisher Effingham William Wilson; the situation continued, with a renewed call every decade for a National Theatre. Attention was aroused in 1879 when the Comédie-Française took a residency at the Gaiety Theatre, described in The Times as representing "the highest aristocracy of the theatre"; the principal demands now coalesced around: a structure in the capital that would present "exemplary theatre". The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre was opened in Stratford upon Avon on 23 April 1879, with the New Shakespeare Company; this still left the capital without a national theatre. A London Shakespeare League was founded in 1902 to develop a Shakespeare National Theatre and – with the impending tri-centenary in 1916 of his death – in 1913 purchased land for a theatre in Bloomsbury.
This work was interrupted by World War I. In 1910, George Bernard Shaw wrote a short comedy, The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, in which Shakespeare himself attempts to persuade Elizabeth I of the necessity of building a National Theatre to stage his plays; the play was part of the long-term campaign to build a National Theatre. In 1948, the London County Council presented a site close to the Royal Festival Hall for the purpose, a "National Theatre Act", offering financial support, was passed by Parliament in 1949. Ten years after the foundation stone had been laid in 1951, the Government declared that the nation could not afford a National Theatre. Still, the Government tried to apply unacceptable conditions to save money. Following some initial inspirational steps taken with the opening of the Chichester Festival Theatre in Chichester June 1962, the developments in London proceeded. In July 1962, with agreements reached, a board was set up to supervise construction, a separate board was constituted to run a National Theatre Company and lease the Old Vic theatre.
The "National Theatre Company" opened on 22 October 1963 with Hamlet. The current building was designed by architects Sir Denys Lasdun and Peter Softley and structural engineers Flint & Neill and contains three stages, which opened individually between 1976 and 1977; the construction work was carried out by Sir Robert McAlpine. The Company remained at the Old Vic until 1977; the National Theatre building houses three separate theatres. Additionally, a temporary structure was added in April 2013 and closed in May 2016. Named after the theatre's first artistic director, Laurence Olivier, this is the main auditorium, modelled on the ancient Greek theatre at Epidaurus. A'drum revolve' is operated by a single staff member; the drum has two rim revolves and two platforms, each
Southwark Playhouse
Southwark Playhouse is a theatre in London, located between Borough and Elephant and Castle tube stations. The Southwark Playhouse Theatre Company was founded in 1993 by Tom Wilson, they identified the need for a high quality accessible theatre which would act as a major resource for the community. They leased a disused workshop in a comparatively neglected part of Southwark and turned it into a flexible theatre space; the theatre put down strong roots in Southwark, developing an innovative, free-at-source education programme. It has worked with teachers, Southwark Borough Council and government agencies to improve educational achievement and raise aspirations; this programme attracts substantial funding each year. Over the next fifteen years the theatre established itself as one of London's leading studio theatres, presenting high quality work by new and emerging theatre practitioners. Under successive artistic directors, Mehmet Ergen, Erica Whyman, Thea Sharrock and Gareth Machin, it has become an indispensable part of small-scale fringe theatre in London.
Its venue hire rates remain among the lowest and therefore the most competitive in London theatre, providing the opportunity to host the best of the emerging companies based in or visiting the capital. Southwark Playhouse has moved venues twice in its 20-year history. After leaving its original home in Southwark Bridge Road in 2006, the theatre operated in vaults beneath platform one of London Bridge railway station, accessed from Tooley Street, from 2007 until early 2013. From early 2013 to 2018 the theatre is based at 77-85 Newington Causeway before moving back to London Bridge as part of a Section 106 agreement when the station is completed in 2018. In July 2012 it was announced that, due to the redevelopment of London Bridge Station, Southwark Playhouse would not be able to keep its home underneath the arches of the station. After a high-profile public campaign backed by Stephen Fry and Andy Serkis, a space was secured in the new station complex as part of a Section 106 agreement with Network Rail which will allow the theatre to return to its London Bridge premises when the redevelopment is completed in 2018.
From 2013 to 2019 Southwark Playhouse is based at 77-85 Newington Causeway, in a 3-floor warehouse between Borough and Elephant and Castle tube stations. The temporary theatre, opened in May 2013, houses two performance spaces: a 240-seat'Main House' and a 120-seat'Studio'. There is a rehearsal space and a bar/cafe area; the Playhouse will create a second venue at Churchyard Row in Elephant and Castle as part of the major redevelopment scheme in the area. This will be part of the Highpoint building, a residential tower block next to the new Council leisure and fitness centre. In January 2019, a production of All in a Row sparked controversy over the way that an autistic person was being represented in puppet form. Southwark Playhouse's website
Moonlight (2016 film)
Moonlight is a 2016 American coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Barry Jenkins, based on Tarell Alvin McCraney's unpublished semi-autobiographical play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue. It stars Trevante Rhodes, André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Ashton Sanders, Jharrel Jerome, Naomie Harris, Mahershala Ali; the film presents three stages in the life of the main character. It explores the difficulties he faces with his sexuality and identity, including the physical and emotional abuse he endures growing up. Filmed in Miami, beginning in 2015, Moonlight premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on September 2, 2016. Distributed by A24, the film was released in the United States on October 21, 2016, grossed over $65 million worldwide. At the 74th Golden Globe Awards Moonlight won Best Motion Picture – Drama and was nominated in five other categories; the film subsequently won the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 89th annual Academy Awards, along with Best Supporting Actor for Ali and Best Adapted Screenplay for Jenkins and McCraney, from a total of eight nominations.
In 2017, The New York Times considered it the "twentieth-best film of the 21st century so far". Moonlight became the first film with an all-black cast, the first LGBTQ film, the second-lowest-grossing film domestically to win the Oscar for Best Picture; the film's editor, Joi McMillon, became the first black woman to be nominated for an editing Oscar, Ali became the first Muslim to win an acting Oscar. In Liberty City, Cuban drug dealer Juan finds Chiron, a withdrawn child who goes by the nickname "Little," hiding from a pack of bullies in a crackhouse. Juan lets Chiron spend the night with him and his younger girlfriend Teresa before returning Chiron to his mother Paula, who subsequently grounds him from watching TV for worrying her. Chiron continues to spend time with Juan, who teaches him how to swim and advises him to make his own path in life. One night, Juan encounters Paula smoking crack with one of his customers. Juan berates her for her addiction and neglect of her son, but she rebukes him for selling crack to her in the first place.
She implies that she knows why Chiron gets beaten up by his peers, alluding to "the way he walks," before going home and taking out frustrations on Chiron. The next day, Chiron admits to Juan and Teresa that he hates his mother and asks what a "faggot" means. Juan describes it as "a word used to make gay people feel bad." He tells Chiron that he should not allow others to mock him. After asking Juan whether he sold drugs to Paula, Chiron leaves. Now a teenager, Chiron juggles avoiding school bully Terrel and spending time with Teresa, who has lived alone since Juan's death. Paula supports her crack addiction with prostitution and coerces Chiron into giving her money Teresa loans him. One night, Chiron has a dream. On another night, Kevin visits Chiron at the beach near his house. While smoking a blunt, the two discuss their ambitions and the nickname Kevin gave Chiron when they were children, they kiss, Kevin masturbates Chiron. The next morning, Terrel manipulates Kevin into participating in a hazing ritual.
Kevin reluctantly punches Chiron until he is unable to stand before watching as Terrel and his goons beat him up. When a social worker urges him to reveal his attackers' identities, not wanting to turn him in refuses, stating that reporting them will not solve anything; the next day, an enraged Chiron walks into class with a sense of purpose and puts Terrel in his place by smashing him over the head with a chair. The police arrive, arrest Chiron for assault, send him to juvenile hall. Now going by the nickname "Black," an adult Chiron, is released from prison and deals drugs in Atlanta, he receives frequent calls from Paula, who asks him to visit her at the drug treatment center where she now lives. One day, he receives a call from Kevin, who invites him to visit him should he decide to come to Miami; the next day, he realizes he has had a wet dream. While visiting Paula, Chiron stands up to her, she proceeds to apologize for not loving him when he needed it most and tells him she loves him if he does not love her back.
The two of them reconcile before Paula lets her son go. Chiron travels to reunites with Kevin, who now works at a diner; when his attempts to probe Chiron about his life result in silence, Kevin tells him he's had a child with an ex-girlfriend and, although the relationship ended, he is fulfilled by his role as a father. Chiron proceeds to ask Kevin why he called, to which Kevin plays a song on the jukebox that made him think of Chiron. After Kevin serves Chiron dinner, the two of them go to his apartment. Kevin tells Chiron that he is happy despite the fact that his life didn't turn out as he had hoped, resulting in Chiron breaking down and admitting that he has not been intimate with anybody since their encounter years ago and since his arrest. Kevin comforts they embrace. In a flashback, Little stands on a beach in the moonlight. Chiron Harris, the film's protagonist Trevante Rhodes as Adult Chiron / "Black" Ashton Sanders as Teen Chiron / "Black" Alex Hibbert as Child Chiron / "Little" Kevin Jones, Chiron's closest friend André Holland as Adult Kevin Jharrel Jerome as Teen Kevin Jaden Piner as Child Kevin Naomie Harris as Paula, Chiron's mother Janelle Monáe as Teresa, Juan's girlfriend Mahershala Al
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Best Actress in a Supporting Role is a British Academy Film Award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding supporting performance in a film. This award had four nominees until 1999 when expanded to five nominees. There has been one tie in this category. No award was given for the years 1980 or 1981. 9 nominationsJudi Dench4 nominations 3 nominations 2 nominations 3 winsJudi Dench2 wins BIFA Award for Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role BAFTA Awards Database
London
London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south-east of England, at the head of its 50-mile estuary leading to the North Sea, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. Londinium was founded by the Romans; the City of London, London's ancient core − an area of just 1.12 square miles and colloquially known as the Square Mile − retains boundaries that follow its medieval limits. The City of Westminster is an Inner London borough holding city status. Greater London is governed by the Mayor of the London Assembly. London is considered to be one of the world's most important global cities and has been termed the world's most powerful, most desirable, most influential, most visited, most expensive, sustainable, most investment friendly, most popular for work, the most vegetarian friendly city in the world. London exerts a considerable impact upon the arts, education, fashion, healthcare, professional services and development, tourism and transportation.
London ranks 26 out of 300 major cities for economic performance. It is one of the largest financial centres and has either the fifth or sixth largest metropolitan area GDP, it is the most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the busiest city airport system as measured by passenger traffic. It is the leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. London's universities form the largest concentration of higher education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted three modern Summer Olympic Games. London has a diverse range of people and cultures, more than 300 languages are spoken in the region, its estimated mid-2016 municipal population was 8,787,892, the most populous of any city in the European Union and accounting for 13.4% of the UK population. London's urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census.
The population within the London commuter belt is the most populous in the EU with 14,040,163 inhabitants in 2016. London was the world's most populous city from c. 1831 to 1925. London contains four World Heritage Sites: the Tower of London. Other landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square and The Shard. London has numerous museums, galleries and sporting events; these include the British Museum, National Gallery, Natural History Museum, Tate Modern, British Library and West End theatres. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world. "London" is an ancient name, attested in the first century AD in the Latinised form Londinium. Over the years, the name has attracted many mythicising explanations; the earliest attested appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written around 1136. This had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had taken over the city and named it Kaerlud.
Modern scientific analyses of the name must account for the origins of the different forms found in early sources Latin, Old English, Welsh, with reference to the known developments over time of sounds in those different languages. It is agreed; this was adapted into Latin as Londinium and borrowed into Old English, the ancestor-language of English. The toponymy of the Common Brythonic form is much debated. A prominent explanation was Richard Coates's 1998 argument that the name derived from pre-Celtic Old European *lowonida, meaning "river too wide to ford". Coates suggested that this was a name given to the part of the River Thames which flows through London. However, most work has accepted a Celtic origin for the name, recent studies have favoured an explanation along the lines of a Celtic derivative of a proto-Indo-European root *lendh-, combined with the Celtic suffix *-injo- or *-onjo-. Peter Schrijver has suggested, on these grounds, that the name meant'place that floods'; until 1889, the name "London" applied to the City of London, but since it has referred to the County of London and Greater London.
"London" is sometimes written informally as "LDN". In 1993, the remains of a Bronze Age bridge were found on the south foreshore, upstream of Vauxhall Bridge; this bridge either reached a now lost island in it. Two of those timbers were radiocarbon dated to between 1750 BC and 1285 BC. In 2010 the foundations of a large timber structure, dated to between 4800 BC and 4500 BC, were found on the Thames's south foreshore, downstream of Vauxhall Bridge; the function of the mesolithic structure is not known. Both structures are on the south bank. Although there is evidence of scattered Brythonic settlements in the area, the first major settlement was founded by the Romans about four years after the invasion
