4 May 2019

'Kerning Cultures': audio rich stories from the Middle East

From The Podcast Hour, 12:25 pm on 4 May 2019

'Kerning Cultures' is a podcast showcasing interesting audio documentaries from the Middle East.

I've enjoyed recent stories about one man's mission to visit the 47 towns called Lebanon in the USA, a potholing trip down the deepest underground cave in the world, and one all about the Arabic version of Sesame Street called Iftah Ya Simsim.

We share an example from Dubai. It's now a futuristic, skyscraper-studded metropolis but people still remember the time not so long ago when it was just a small trading port without an airport, a time when you could just walk out of your front door and go and play in the sand dunes.

One relic from this bygone age was the Plaza Cinema- it opened in 1972 but was torn down for a new development in 2015. Producer Alex Atack tracks down some of the people involved with setting the cinema up, people like Lachman Bhatia whose father started renting out Bollywood movies and showing them on an old 16 millimetre projector.

'A Cinema, Demolished' from Kerning Cultures is produced by Alex Atack and Vinita Bharadwaj, and edited by Dana Ballout and Hebah Fisher.