"The Gulf Arab city of Dubai launches its first international film festival next month, screening many controversial films to Arab audiences for the first time.
Organizers say the festival, whose 75 mainly Arab and South Asian films will be followed by seminars, hopes to foster a debate on relations between the West and Arab and Islamic countries. But the Dec. 6-11 event, in which movies will not face the censorship usually practiced by local authorities, will also offer Arab audiences a chance to become more aware of the diversity of the Arab world and see films that touch on the thorny issue of relations with the United States and Israel," Andrew Hammond reports for Reuters.