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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