16th Third Eye Asian Film Festival: IX Biler Diary, Cyanide and Jana Aranya. A Bengali film about a boarding school based on Hindu religious values, an Iranian political thriller about the period immediately preceding the Islamic revolution and a raved work of the master, Satyajit Ray—these were the last feature films I saw at the 16th Third Eye Asian Film Festival, Mumbai. The festival was organised in December 2017 by the Asian Film Foundation and P.L. Deshpande Maharashtra Kala Acad...

Siraj Syed’s IFFI 2016 diary, XII: Award-winners of Golden and Silver Peacocks In the curtailed International Film Festival of India (IFFI), which has shrunk from 15 to 9 days over the last 30 years, the closing ceremony was held on the 28th of November. Partly due to the fact that I have come to be less patient with speeches and formalities and partly in protest at the non-receipt of an invitation to the closing film screening, I decided to skip the ceremony, like I had skipped the ope...

          Best Film: A Very Ordinary Citizen Best Director: Majid Barzegar for A Very Ordinary Citizen Best Actor: Souren Mnatsakanian for A Very Ordinary Citizen Best Actress: Samira Hassanpour for Raspberry Best Screenplay: Saman Salour for Raspberry Best Cinematography: José Luis Alcaine for Finding Altamira Best Documentary: Atlan, directed by Moeen Karimoddini  Best Sho...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent You have to hand it to filmmaker Alex Gibney (GOING CLEAR), he has taken on everything from Eliot Spitzer’s political downfall to the Enron debacle to Lance Armstrong’s doping to soft-money “super-lobbyist” Jack Abramoff to Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, not to mention Nigerian music legend Fela Kuti. So it comes as no surprise that Gibney goes from wrestling Xenu to rattling the NSA’s cage with ...

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DAWN is a night of short film curated by director/writer/producer/actress Dawn Westlake for the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur, CA. Westlake will be showing her films "Dottie: The Little Girl with the Big Voice" (animated/2002) & "Through the Pane" (doc/2015), along with films by Adnan Zandi (Iran), Phil Lepherd (UK), Ruben Sainz (Spain) and others... When: Thursday, June 23rd, 2016 8p-10:30p Tickets by donation...$0 - $20 suggested For more info...

  A stylish fairytale, Baher (Her mind) is an extravagant interpretation of how far human mind can go when logic departs and the heart takes the lead.    Iranian director Hassan Akhondpour creates a 25 minute eerie, yet sophisticated journey through a female mind, delving into his character’s deepest desires and emotions. Obsessed with the idea that her husband is seeing another woman, the character gradually enters a world of emotional paranoia where the lines between ...

REVIEW: Baher, Her Mind (short) Director: Hassan Akhondpour Prod co: Paya Film Toos Iran, 25 minutes Hassan Akhondpour’s debut short is already making waves across the Middle East, with over two million shares and scores of discussions generated since its May 19 premiere at the Cannes Short Film Corner. Told in 25 minutes and without dialogue, Baher: Her Mind is a journey into the psyche of our protagonist —whose name we never hear spoken out loud— convinced her husband ...

The Path of Zarathustra, Review: The temperature of departure To say that Parsees are a minority community in India, or, for that matter, anywhere in the world, might be an understatement. Official figures put their entire population as 80,000, most of them being Indians. Followers of the prophet Zarathustra (Zoraster) and natives of Iran, they fled an oppressive regime in their parent country to seek refuge in India, and were granted asylum in what is present day Gujarat, along the western c...

INTERVIEW: Nima Javidi, director of Melbourne, Opening Film of Venice71 Critics Week  Director Nima Javidi opened this year's Critics Week at the 71st Venice Film Festival with his debut feature Melbourne, telling the story of a couple in contemporary Iran whose planned migration to Melbourne is prevented by an unfortunate event few hours before departure. Javidi is the director of six short films and two documentaries. He is mainly known in Iran for his work on televisioncomm...

Numerous plastic bags filled with clothes and personal objects are drained until the very last airdrop is lost and their entire content appears withered, even more soulless than in its actual state. As the opening credits roll down, this stylistic symbol unpacks an array of thoughts and interpretations.  We are transferred to a simple, but modern apartment in Tehran. A couple is packing. Amir (Payman Maadi) and Sara’s (Negar Javaherian) belongings, their lives and future are about ...

PETITION FOR THE LIBERATION OF MAHNAZ MOHAMMADI     Dear all, On June 7th, Iranian filmmaker Mahnaz Mohammadi was summoned by Sentence Enforcement Court of Evin Prison, in the North of Tehran, to be jailed, and the world took a little notice. This imprisonment is the last of a long line of troubles, wich begins with her arrest on June 27th 2011. At that time, The Film Disr...

  The films are Bahadur The Accidental Brave by Aditya Seth, There Is Something In The Air by Iram Ghufran, The Women In Blue Berets by Farida Pacha, Mayong: Myth/Reality by Utpal Borpujari, Director, Painter Shri Babura Laad Saheb by Richa Hushing, Dhananjay Kulkarni “Chandragupta” by Rirvu Laha, The Sound Of Old Rooms by Sandeep Ray and Powerless (Katiyabaaz) by Fahad Mustafa and Deepti Kak...

Day 2 of DIFF was a day of extremes. It was wonderful to see all the film fans studying their guides - some of the guides visibly well-read. I watched three films today and they are very diverse. Chicken with plums (Poulet aux prunes) premiered at Venice. It is a beautiful love story of a musician, played by Mathieu Amalric of The Diving Belle and the butterfly fame, who can't get over the loss of his violin and he decides to rather die. It sounds like a depressing film but it is in...

Radio France International interview with "Saeed Shafa" about the 4th Annual Iranian Film Festival - San Francisco [September 10-11, 2011]. http://www.persian.rfi.fr/%D9%81%D8%B1%D9%87%D9%86%DA%AF-%D9%88-%D9%87%D9%86%D8%B1/20110827-%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%87-%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%B1%DB%8C%D8%B4%D9%85 ...

28 July: Day 4 Day 4 was filled with very serious movies and a light-hearted Canadian doccie that had its first screening outside North America. I loved St Henri, the 26th of August, maybe its because of my journalistic background as we're always trying to find these little stories in the community - the hairstylist, the boxer, the shopkeeper. It's candy to the soul. This Montreal suburb, although it seems ghetto-like, has wonderful characters and the 14 filmmakers did a fine job to f...

Durban, 26 July: Day 2 The miserable weather is busy getting the better of me as I spent most of the day in bed. As I am in Durban for the film festival at great expense, I dragged myself out of bed for the night's delights. I planned to see Dog Sweat at 22:00, but decided to rather skip that. The two films that were shown tonight are both in competition and both are good - one is exceptional, in fact. It's good to see young African directors at the festival and Andrew Dosunmu...

This year’s Iranian Film Festival will partly evolve around the theme of 30 years of revolution in Iran. The fourth edition of this festival, which will take place on the 18, 19 and 20th of December in De Fabriek in Zaandam (the Netherlands) will not only look back at the events of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but will also focus on Iran’s current situation. Through documentaries, short films and interviews with international guests, the festival tracks the development of Iran in the 30 ye...

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