“If I do my job as an actor, you won't notice that I'm South Asian or that I'm a woman, or even that I'm playing one of the most controversial political figures of all time. I'm portraying a person at a crossroads struggling with a difficult decision.” So says Zehra Fazal (pictured right) of her striking portrayal of Adolf Hitler in her self-produced, one-woman adaptation of Yukio Mishima’s play, My Friend Hitler, currently running at... more ›

Two weeks into the D.C. smoking ban, and we've got news, both good and bad, to report. Smoking Bans are Fleeting: This month's issue of The Atlantic brings us news that will be music to the ears of the District's disgruntled smokers. According to the magazine, smoking bans have a long and rich history -- and are usually overturned. Whether Pope Urban VIII's proclamation of a worldwide smoking ban in 1624 or Adolf Hitler's German... more ›

In light of this momentous weekend in movie history, we here at DCist would like to take a brief look back at some of the seminal events in moving pictures. Ever since the dawn of the 20th century, the transmission of images on celluloid has captivated people around the world. Silent films, such as Georges Melies' Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon), Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin and Charlie Chaplin's varied oeuvre pioneered many of the elements that are integral to today's big budget extravaganzas -- special effects, tracking shots, jump cuts, and more. With the advent of talking films, both directors and politicians began to see films' value as a tool of propaganda. As World War II dawned, Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will portrayed Adolf Hitler and the German troops in a positive light, while across the ocean, American filmmakers struck back with their own allegory of the struggle between good and evil, the 1942 classic film, Star Wars. more ›

MONDAY Politics and Prose welcomes Ali Ansari, who will be discussing his book Confronting Iran. We’ve not read the book, but we’d hazard a guess that the strategies offered by the author get a good deal more nuanced than something along the lines of whining “We got to get them to stop doing this shit.” 5015 Connecticut Avenue, NW., at 7 p.m. TUESDAY It’s not said often enough, but historical accounts of great naval battles... more ›

, his meditation on vengeance), who has re-imagined the life of artist Pablo Picasso to have ended decades earlier, by the hands of a Nazi officer. more ›