Expressions, Lecture Series

As part of an educational program celebrating the artistic accomplishments of Iranian-Americans, Center for Iranian Modern Arts was able to implement its Public Service Project "Expressions, Lecture Series" This program took place at NYU Cantor Film Center in December 2001and February 2002.
CIMA was able to attract many New Yorkers to Expressions, Lecture Series which were accompanied by original short films and documentaries. As an attempt to celebrate artistic efforts of Iranian-Americans who are producing a rich body of works CIMA was able to gather several Iranian- American artists and present their works to New York audiences within a lecture series format.
Among the panelists were Iranian- American artists, scholars, poets and those who have produced documentaries and feature films . The program also played host to directors and cinema scholars from the Middle East as well as the United States in an attempt to enrich our understanding and expand our knowledge of the cultural complexity of the region. The free lecture series were cosponsored by Alwan and other Iranian organizations at New York University Cantor Film Center.
Cantor Film Center @ NYU on 36 East 8th St at University Place, New York
Subway: N, R to 8th St, 6 to Astor Place

Saturday December 15 at 5:30pm at NYU's Cantor Film Center in New York
Life In Fog (original : a Time for Drunken Horses)
Bahman Ghobadi, Iran, 1997, 28 min , color , 16mm
The Party, 1997, 25' The Notebook Quota 1997, 25' God's Fish 1997, 25'
Discussion Panel , chaired by Bahman Maghsoudlou, producer and renowned film critic - New York City
Life In Fog
Bahman Ghobadi - Director
Born in 1968 in the city of Baneh in Kurdestan, Iran, he began his career in Kurdestan in 1987 and continued his film activities in Tehran starting in 1992. In 1998, he graduated with a degree in directing
from the School of Broadcasting in Tehran. He has been an assistant director to a few Iranian filmmakers, most notably working on Abbas Kia-Rostami's last film (The Wind Will Carry
Us, 1999). Ghobadi has written and directed a number of short films that have garnered various prestigious awards from international film festivals around the world.
Ghobadi's first feature film "A Time for Drunken Horses" (2000) received the Camera d'Or at Cannes 2000.

Filmography:
- That Man Came (1994)
- Again Rain With Song (1995)
- And Now Life (1995)
- Like Mother (1996)
- A Soldier Called Amin (1997)
- The Party (1997)
- The Notebook Quota (1997)
- God's Fish (1997)
- Life in Fog (1998)
- Melodies of the Plains Girls (1999)
- A Time for Drunken Horses (Debut Feature, Winner of Camera d'Or at
Cannes 2000)

Expressions, Lecture Series
February 22-24, 2002
Cantor Film Center @ NYU on 36 East 8th St at University Place, New York
Subway: N, R to 8th St, 6 to Astor Place

Feb 22-
8:00 Sir Alfred of Charles de Gaulle Airport Hamid Rahmanian (Iranian-American artist) followed by Panel Discussion
Ta'zieh: Another Narrative: Parvez Jahed
Sir Alfred of Charles de Gaulle Airport
Hamid Rahmanian, USA / Iran, 2000, 30 min, video
followed by Q & A with the director of "Alfred" and producer of "Ta'zieh", featuring Professor Chelkovski , New York University
Mehran Karemi Nasseri, who now goes by the name "Sir Alfred", has been living in the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France. For the pastY´twelve years he has been waiting for the document that would allow him to leave. Unlike the story that has been told in the world press of a man trapped in the underground terminals of an airport, dubbed the "strangest case in immigration history", this documentary examines the life of a man whose only aspiration is to be somebody else. Sir Alfred refused to speak with the Iranian director: he would only talk with his American wife. Ta'zieh: Another Narrative
Parvez Jahed, Iran, 2001, 75 min, video
Ta'zieh is one of the oldest traditions of theater in Iran. It is a form that combines Islamic fact and fiction with ancient Iranian ritual. Ta'zieh resembles the ancient Iranian sacred mourning ritual that exalts mythological heroes. Over the centuries i t has evolved into a passion play featuring the life, tribulations, and death of Imam Hussein, a central figure in the country's Shiite history. Today, Ta'zieh is not merely an exercise in religious narration, but a performance that meshes didactic rhythm ic schemes with theatrical
props to visualize the passion of Hussein for a lay audience. Therein they learn the virtues of Imam Hussein's life notions of right and wrong, and the power of heavenly justice.
As part of "Expressions, Lecture Series" CIMA was proud to present second generation Iranian American film makers who have been recognized and awarded in different film festivals in the last few years were featured on Saturday February 23.

11:30 Daughters of the Sun Maryam Shahriar (Iran)
1:15 Two Women Tahmineh Milani (Iran)
Daughters of the Sun / dokhtaran khorshid
Maryam Shahriar, Iran, 2000, 90 min, 35mm

Sat Feb 23, 11:30am
In her debut film about the bitter fate of Iranian women in the countryside, California-trained director Maryam Shahriar takes a brave look at a controversial subject. Financial destitution forces a father to shave his daughter's head and send her away, disguised as a young man, to work at a small carpet factory. Far from home, the lonely protagonist endures the cruel behavior of her boss and the romantic attentions of a female coworker. Notable for its transgression of strictures on bareheadedness and cross-dressing for
women, Daughters of the Sun successfully creates the stark milieu of rural economic conditions. Shahriar's sensitive direction won her the best first film award at the 2000 Montreal Film Festival.
Two Women / do zan
Tahmineh Milani, 1999, 96 min, 35mm
Sat Feb 23, 1:15pm
Director Tahmineh Milani waited seven years for government censors to approve her script for this moving 1999 indictment of traditional attitudes toward women. Fereshteh (Niki Karimi) is an excellent student in Tehran, but her father unfairly blam es her for an incident involving a stalker. He forces her to return to her
hometown and pressures her to marry a man who embraces the old codes of behavior. She must stay at home and hide her books while her old friend Roya leads a relatively free life in Tehran. Gradually
Fereshteh's husband, her father, and even her stalker come to resemble each other--unfeeling monsters who refuse to treat her as a human being. This schematization gives the film the strength of a
feminist cri de coeur, all the while Milani skillfully uses composition and camera movement to underline emotions in each scene.

Sunday February 24
7:00 Panel discussion
8:30 Under the Moonlight Reza Mir-Karimi / zir-e noor-e maah
2001, 96 min, 35mm
Under the Moonlight chronicles the spiritual education of Seyyed Hassan, a cleric-in-training at a Tehran seminary. Beset by a crisis of faith, Hassan is drawn to a community of homeless outcasts living under a bridge. Director Mir-Karimi gently contrasts the seminary world of doctrine and hierarchy with life among Tehran's dispossessed, with its attendant camaraderie and resilience as well as drugs and prostitution.
Panel Discussion with the artists with the participation of
Jenine Abboushi; New York University, Hamid Dabashi; Columbia
University, Joseph Massad; Columbia University
Sun Feb 24, 7:00pm

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