The Beginning of the Cold Season: Mediated Iran
Monday July 27th - 7:30PM
Brecht Forum
451 West Street, New York, NY 10014
The issues surrounding and behind Iran's June 12th election and resultant protests are issues most of us do not understand. Its multiple and parallel histories of democracy, Islamic rule, regime changes, revolutions, and United States intervention are thorny, with nuances and local expectations the average American can't begin to address with any confidence of expertise. Yet we do.
Seven years after Bush's "Axis of Evil" speech, how are we to relate to Iranians in struggle? How can we understand the true voice of its people? The issue is magnified and muddied by the quantity and quality of information we receive in the United States.
How often have we been able to see Iran? Do we know what it looks like? Tehran? Its people? Quite simply, this was the original inspiration behind THE BEGINNING OF THE COLD SEASON, a program of non-fiction films shot in Iran.
The program opens up with an offensive faux-objective production by the Encyclopedia Britannica, released the same year of the US and UK-backed coup of the democratically-elected Iranian government. It is followed by a French symphony/portrait film. The final feature is a "post-modern" documentary of the history of Tehran, as seen through its film archives and newsreels. It is an attempt for a young Iranian filmmaker to understand his own history and culture through the images it has left behind.
--Iran - Kenneth Richter, 1953, 14 minutes
--Iran - Claude Lelouch, 1971, 18 minutes
--Tehran Has No More Pomegranates! - Massoud Bakhshi, 2007, 75 minutes
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 107 minutes | Digital Projection
Speakers to include:
--Mani Mostofi of United 4 Iran
--Mahyad Toussi of BoomGen Studios
(The Bakhshi film is available on DVD from both SoCiArts and Documentary Educational Resources.)