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All the news, reviews, comment and buzz from the Croisette on day eight of the Cannes film festivalAdam Boult

Here's a story that the New York Times has yet to carry. A petition, signed by 23 leading US academics, authors and film-makers, has been launched which urges the paper's "public editor" to examine the Times's inconsistent coverage of two Latin American countries.They argue that there are disparities between its largely negative reporting on Venezuela during the presidency of Hugo Chávez (who died in March) and its less critical reporting on Honduras under its successive leaders, Roberto Micheletti and Porfirio Lobo.Among the petition's signatories are more than a dozen experts on Latin America and the media plus Noam Chomsky and Ed Herman, and the film directors Oliver Stone and Michael Moore. Here's the full script of the petition… Dear Margaret Sullivan,In a recent column, you observed:Although individual words and phrases may not amount to very much in the great flow produced each day, language matters. When news organisations accept the government's way of speaking, they seem to accept the government's way of thinking. In The Times, these decisions carry even more weight.In light of this comment we encourage you to compare the New York Times's characterisation of the leadership of the late Hugo Chávez in Venezuela and that of Roberto Micheletti and Porfirio Lobo in Honduras.In the past four years, the Times has referred to Chávez as an "autocrat," "despot," "authoritarian ruler" and a "caudillo" in its news coverage. When opinion pieces are included, the Times has published at least 15 separate articles employing such language, depicting Chávez as a "dictator" or "strongman." Over the same period - since the June 28 2009 military overthrow of elected president Manuel Zelaya of Honduras - Times contributors have never used such terms to describe Micheletti, who presided over the coup regime after Zelaya's removal, or Porfirio Lobo, who succeeded him. Instead, the paper has variously described them in its news coverage as "interim," "de facto," and "new."Porfirio Lobo assumed the presidency after winning an election held under Micheletti's coup government. The elections were marked by repression and censorship, and international monitors, like the Carter Centre, boycotted them. Since the coup, Honduras's military and police have routinely killed civilians.Over the past 14 years, Venezuela has had 16 elections or referenda deemed free and fair by leading international authorities. Jimmy Carter praised Venezuela's elections, among the 92 the Carter Centre has monitored, as having "a very wonderful voting system." He concluded that "the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world." While some human rights groups have criticised the Chávez government, Venezuela has had no pattern of state security forces murdering civilians, as is the case in Honduras.Whatever one thinks of the democratic credentials of Chávez's presidency - and we recognise that reasonable people can disagree about it - there is nothing in the record, when compared with that of his Honduran counterparts, to warrant the discrepancies in the Times's coverage of the two governments.We urge you to examine this disparity in coverage and language use, particularly as it may appear to your readers to track all too closely the US government's positions regarding the Honduran government (which it supports) and the Venezuelan government (which it opposes) - precisely the syndrome you describe and warn against in your column.Yours sincerelyTo see all 23 of the early signatories, and to sign the petition, go hereSources: NYTimes eXaminer/North American Congress on Latin AmericaNew York TimesVenezuelaHondurasAmericasUnited StatesHugo ChávezNoam ChomskyMichael MooreOliver StoneJimmy CarterHuman rightsCensorshipRoy Greensladeguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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A minor work from the emerging master of African cinema, Mahamat Saleh-Haroun, this is elevated by a heightened female perspective and some rousing dance scenesMahamat Saleh-Haroun now revisits that theme of father-son bonding which was such an important part of his earlier movies Our Father (2002), Dry Season (2006) and A Screaming Man (2010). But now he progresses away from this template — in the same meandering way that characterises his storytelling — to a closer identification with women. It is a typically calm, lucid drama, presented in the director's unforced, cinematic vernacular and attractively and sympathetically acted. There is also some great music from the Senegalese composer Wasis Diop, brother of the director Djibril Diop Mambety. However, I couldn't help feeling that this was a slight and contrived piece, compared to his earlier work. Saleh-Haroun's lead is non-professional Souleymane Deme, who plays Grigris, a brilliant dancer despite a leg disability. He earns spare cash dancing in a bar in his home village in N'Djamena in Chad, and Deme devises choreographed moves which make a virtue of his weakness; Grigris also works in his stepfather's photography studio, developing portraits and photos on film in an old-fashioned dark room. But Grigris is discontented with his lot. He has fallen in love with Mimi (Anaïs Monory) a beautiful woman who wants to be a model but is having to work demeaningly as a "bar hostess" for rich foreigners. Grigris needs money to compete with them, and also to help pay for his ailing father-in-law's medical bills. The director brings his movie to a tense crisis when Grigris asks his protective buddy Moussa (Cyril Guei), a local tough-guy, if he can come in on a scam Moussa's got going: smuggling black-market petrol over the border to Cameroon to evade duty and lead-level restrictions. It involves swimming in darkness with jerry cans full of petrol across the Chari river, a desperately dangerous business for the fragile Grigris. The film is quite as gentle and accessible as the rest of Saleh-Haroun's work, and there are some terrific dance sequences. (Along with Sorrentino's The Great Beauty and Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, this is proving to be quite a festival of dance scenes.) But I had the impression that having discovered Deme, and decided to build a film around him, Saleh-Haroun wasn't exactly sure where his story would go. We actually get a scene in which Grigris works out some dance moves on the stage of a theatre, but where this theatre is, and what relationship Grigris has with it, is left undeveloped. This is a minor work set alongside something like Our Father, but the director's compassion shines out, and so does the charisma of Souleymane Deme.Rating: 3/5Cannes 2013Cannes film festivalAfricaPeter Bradshawguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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