It is now a widely accepted fact that the Lumiére brothers are the fathers of the seventh art, though a few films had already been made as early as 1888 (Roundhay Garden Scene, Dickson’s experiment, Carmentica et al). Their series of films starting in 1895 notably Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat and Employees Leaving the Lumière Factory have become pieces of historical interest. It is said that the audience fled the theatre thinking that a real train is heading their way!

Take a look at the piece:

Cut to 1995. To commemorate the event of 100 years of cinema, a project called Lumiére et Compagnie (Lumiére & Company) was undertaken. Its intention was to gather the most important contemporary directors at one place and give them a task - To make a film using the same camera that was used by the Lumiére brothers!. Not just that, there were three more rules:

1.    The movie should not be more than 52 seconds.
2.    The directors should not used synchronized sound
3.    Only 3 takes allowed!

The film as such follows the directors making their films with the bizarre device interspersed with miniature interviews upon various questions including their views on mortality of cinema and their own motives for taking up the medium in order to express themselves. Some interesting opinions come out during these sections.

The list of 41 directors by itself is mind boggling with the likes of Abbas Kiarostami, David Lynch, Theo Angelopoulos, Michael Haneke, Zhang Yimou, Wim Wenders and many more (See Tags for the list!). The result- 41 minute films with totally different perspectives. Abbas Kiarostami’s “Dinner for One” is typically his style as he makes an omelet.  David Lynch’s bizarre piece, as usual, set in a quiet little suburban town that has more mystery than meets the eye is an instant hit. Zhang Yimou’s "cultural piece" near the China Wall, Gabriel Axel’s tracking sot of the various arts and Wim Wenders’ extension of Wings of Desire are all immensely amusing to watch.

Here is David Lynch’s piece for you:

And Spike Lee's cute one:

The film by itself is not very extraordinary. But it is all about the event and the massive operation of bringing all the masters under one place and putting them under such constraints that no one else would dare to in any other year. A celebration of Cinema and one for the cinephiles.

A couple of weeks ago I was tagged by Filmbrain to come up with a list of the 12 films that I most want to see in the world. According to the rules posted on The Dancing Image these have to be films that are not available on Netflix (in other words not Berlin Alexanderplatz or Hitler: A Film From Germany, films that only a lack of free time are now keeping me from seeing, despite their being ultimate holy grails for many years).

Back in the heyday of my cinephilia (pretty much the entire 1990s) when I was seeing 400 movies a year, the most-want-to-see list was a vital and constantly expanding document. Even as I dutifully checked off all the canonical films the list became a hydra-headed monster urging me to see every film by every director I was interested in, or everything in a favorite critic's top ten list or every masterpiece that my transatlantic cinephile confidant (and regular TWITT commenter) Norton Straub (no relation) had raved about. (In our early 20s we found our ultimate check-list in The International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers: Vol One—a mammoth collection of essays, published in 1984, on the 600 or so most significant films made to that date—and we vowed to see all of them before we turned 30. We made good progress at first but a considerable chunk of them remain elusive more than a decade past that deadline).

I wish I could admit (viz. the Humiliation game) to never having seen Birth of a Nation or Citizen Kane or The Seventh Seal but there are few skeletons in my closet of that variety (Doctor Zhivago might be the best contender, or Caddyshack). And often I wish that I hadn't yet seen McCabe and Mrs Miller or Late Spring or India Song or just one last Tarkovsky film so that I still had treats in store of that magnitude, because one of the curses of rampant cinephilia is that the more one sees the more one wants or needs to see but with increasingly diminished returns.

So here is my list of 12 films that have eluded me and remained as beacons of hope that there are still mind-blowing films out there worth waiting for.

1. THE ENCHANTED DESNA (Yulia Solntseva, USSR, 1965). It was Jonathan Rosenbaum's essay on Solnetseva in Richard Roud's two volume Cinema: A Critical Dictionary (another bible) that made this an instant holy grail. Soltntseva was the widow of Alexander Dovzhenko and she made only three films, all from Dovzhenko's unrealized scripts: three films (all shot in 70mm I believe) with the most alluring titles in cinema: Poem of the Sea, The Flaming Years and The Enchanted Desna. I finally saw The Flaming Years a few years ago and it was pretty wonderful, but it is Rosenbaum's description of Desna that has haunted me: “The wonders of The Enchanted Desna...fulfil the possibilities of personal wide-screen spectacle with a prodigiousness matched only by Playtime and 2001, utilizing synchronous and non-synchronous multi-track sound with a nearly comparable inventiveness. The astonishing realization of a family's trip at night beside a lake, filtered through the presumed consciousness of Dovzhenko as a boy, is an experience of color, texture and aural density combining to convey as enchanted a dream as the cinema has to offer; and other breathtaking moments—such as a field rapidly travered by a camera as though by a plough—prove that the most spectacular cinematic means can be used with personal abandon and freedom.” [One fabulous piece of trivia about this most obscure movie: The Smiths used an image from it as the cover of That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore in 1985 (see #28 here). No idea whether Morrissey had actually seen the film or had just been leafing through Films and Filmmaking Magazine and it had caught his eye.]

2. DISTANT THUNDER (Satyajit Ray, India, 1973). Whatever happened to Satyajit Ray? Once one of the titans of world cinema, Ray, who died in 1992, was feted in 1995 with a touring revival of nine of his greatest films, restored under the auspices of Ismael Merchant and distributed by Sony Classics. But thirteen years later and Ray seems to have vanished off the face of the earth, or at least the US, with his films rarely revived and barely available on DVD. Of the eight Ray films available on Netflix only one—Kino's The Chess Players—seems to be of even acceptable quality (read the viewer comments on the others which sound as if they were transferred from bootlegged VHS). Why the nine Sony/Merchant-Ivory re-releases—including the peerless Apu Trilogy—are not available in quality transfers is a mystery. One of my very favorite Ray films, Days and Nights in the Forest, was not even included in the '95 tour, and nor was the one Ray film I've always wanted to see: Distant Thunder. This film appears in many lists of the best films of the 70s and I once saw it in a list of Hou Hsiao-Hsien's ten favorite films of all time, which is all I needed to know.

3. OUT 1 (Jacques Rivette, France, 1971). Though I'm sure this is by far the most important film I've never seen, as well as the most daunting, I almost shouldn't include it since I have actually had two chances to see this behemoth in the past few years (at the Museum of the Moving Image in November 06 and March 07). But though I've had the opportunity I just haven't had the luxury of time to spend a whole weekend watching one movie. Out 1 runs 12 hours and 40 minutes and apparently you can add an extra 30 minutes to that if it is projected at 24 frames per second rather than the nonstandard 25 fps it was shot in. That’s just what you want in one of the longest films ever made, isn't it: for it to be run a little slower than intended. I'm sure it's amazing though and maybe, when I do finally get to see it I will surely wish it a half hour longer.

4. THE DEATH OF EMPEDOCLES (Jean-Marie Straub and Danielle Huillet, Germany, 1986). I am thrilled that New Yorker Films is finally releasing the Straubs' amazing Moses and Aaron on DVD this fall and it gives me hope that one day their monumental The Death of Empedocles might see the light of day.

5. A BEE IN THE RAIN (Fernando Lopes, Portugal, 1972). One of the aforementioned Norton's favorites. That, and a wonderful title, and the fact that no-one else I know has ever heard of this film (it's like one of those fake titles Woody Allen would have on a cinema marquee), were all I need to turn it into a holy grail and I've never tried to find out more. One thing about holy grails is that they are sometimes more attractive to long for than to actually experience so it was with a mixture of elation and disappointment that I discovered, while researching this, that there are 16 unsubtitled minutes of the film on YouTube.

6. THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS (David Lean, GB, 1949). Until a couple of weeks ago I didn't even know this film (pictured above) existed and so I didn't catch it at Film Forum's Lean retrospective, but the raves I've read and heard since have me kicking myself hard for missing it. Brief Encounter has long been one of my all-time favorite films but for some reason, apart from the Dickens adaptations, I've never searched out any of Lean's other '40s films. This isn't on DVD here but it is in the UK so this might be a grail I can catch up with soon. And while I'm at it This Happy Breed and Hobson's Choice sound pretty wonderful too.

7. DOOMED LOVE (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal, 1978). Another long-time most-want-to-see that I have had the chance to see recently but had to pass on. At the BAM retrospective of the 100-year-old-and-still-churning-them-out Portuguese master this March, time constraints forced me to choose between this 4-hour opus and the 3-hour Francisca (both films based on the writings of 19th-century novelist Camilo Castelo Branco). Francisca was amazing, but Jonathan Rosenbaum recently ranked all of Oliveira's films in Film Comment, and Doomed Love was at the very top of the list. And here's what J. Hoberman has written of the film "De Oliveira has a taste for kabukilike performances, painted backdrops, Grandma Moses compositions, oddly matched shots, extraordinarily long takes, and scenes that are played out entirely in mirrors or near total darkness.” What more do I need?

8. UNTITLED: PART ONE (Ernie Gehr, USA, 1981). Hoberman's annual top ten lists in the Village Voice were such an influence on my film-going that I once went to the New York Public Library and searched out every one of them on microfiche going back to the late 70s. (Now all I'd need to do is click here). It was also Hoberman who really turned me onto Ernie Gehr whose structural films are among the glories of cinema. I've caught up with most of them over the years but this one (#5 1982, somewhere between Stalker and Diva) has always eluded me.

9. AN INDEPENDENT LIFE (Vitali Kanevski, Russia, 1992). When Vitali Kanevsky made the astounding Freeze, Die, Come to Life in 1989 he seemed like the next great Russian director. But after he made the less rapturously received An Independent Life in 1992—a film which, as far as I know, was never shown in New York—he vanished. Dave Kehr once described a scene from the film to me—something about rats in flames running up a hillside—and I've wanted to see it ever since.

10. THE REPORT (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran, 1977). I've seen almost everything by Kiarostami, but The Report, his second feature after The Traveller, has never shown up at any Kiarostami retrospective here. All I know about it is that it is a two-hour portrait of marriage and suicide and that it stars Shohreh Aghdashloo who, 25 years later, received an Oscar nomination for House of Sand and Fog. And I'm sure it's astounding.

11. THE CONFRONTATION (Miklos Jancso, Hungary, 1969). In the early '90s the Hungarian maestro Miklos Jancso (now 87 and still making films apparently) was teaching at Harvard and came to Anthology Film Archives with a bunch of his own film prints. I didn't know then how rare these films were because they've never shown up again. The Confrontation (also known as Sparkling Winds) is from his major period, mid-way between The Red and the White and Red Psalm, so it is sure to be literally awesome. And it's all shot in 12 takes to boot.

12. THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED (Jerry Lewis, USA, 1972). Who doesn't want to see Jerry Lewis’s legendary ill-fated, ill-advised and unreleased Holocaust weepie? Well, probably many people, but I'm not one of them. Harry Shearer, who is one of the few people on earth lucky enough to have seen it, spoke to the whole subject of holy grails when he told Rolling Stone: “With most of these kinds of things, you find that the anticipation, or the concept, is better than the thing itself. But seeing this film was really awe-inspiring, in that you are rarely in the presence of a perfect object. This was a perfect object. This movie is so drastically wrong, its pathos and its comedy are so wildly misplaced, that you could not, in your fantasy of what it might be like, improve on what it really is.”

So there you go. If anyone notices any of these films playing in New York at any time, please let me know. And if you've seen any of them please tell me if they're worth the wait.

Shirin Neshat

Ad ogni film inteso come testo reale corrisponde un testo sognato dallo spettatore. Di quella visione, della curva delle emozioni e dei battiti che raggiunge il cuore nel momento di massima accelerazione riferisce Shirin, cronaca suggestiva dell'esperienza cinematografica. Nel "buio in sala" e nel buio di una sala, centoquattordici attrici iraniane assistono al poema persiano "Khosrow e Shirin", scritto nel XII secolo da Nezami Ganjevi. Volti autoctoni, interrotti soltanto dal volto francese di Juliette Binoche, interpretano le vicende amorose e dolorose della principessa Shirin, che resteranno nel fuori campo e invisibili allo spettatore.
Kiarostami scende nella grotta del mito platonico con le sue attrici-spettatrici di cui registra i movimenti visibili, le reazioni, le microalterazioni e i ritmi emotivi. La macchina da presa del regista iraniano diventa uno strumento per riprendere l'energia intellettuale e affettiva che si sprigiona in sala. Quello che per la scienza sarebbe un'esperienza indeterminabile e difficilmente accertabile diventa per Kiarostami poeticamente possibile. I volti incorniciati in primo piano sono un deposito di sogni nati nel buio della sala e resi esplorabili dall'autore.
Shirin è un film sul ruolo dello spettatore e sull'importanza del fuori campo. Vicine o lontane allo schermo, incollate alla poltrona o irrequiete sulla poltrona, le spettatrici di Kiarostami sono il principale spettacolo. Lontana dalle sale dei multiplex, che sanno di plastica e pop-corn, la "caverna" messa in scena dal regista iraniano è un luogo sacro in cui chiedere asilo, un abisso in cui gettarsi, l'alcova di un'altra vita. Il film proiettato nel film non esiste se non dentro agli occhi e al calore dei corpi delle sue attrici. L'invisibilità della rappresentazione rappresentata, di cui avvertiamo soltanto il parlato e il sonoro, è la testimonianza eloquente di un mondo nascosto e segreto che preme ai margini dell'inquadratura ma è comunque il visibile il vero centro e senso del film.

Forse il cinema di cui abbiamo più bisogno è quello che si sottrae all'imperativo del (di)mostrare, quello che suggerisce, allude e lascia filtrare la presenza di un altrove. Kiarostami costruisce un film che è anche (e soprattutto) un saggio teorico sulla natura dello spettatore, sul cinema, lo schermo, la sala e i tempi e riti della visione. Dopo aver filmato il lirismo del quotidiano e dopo aver descritto gli aspetti minimi dell'esistere, l'autore iraniano approccia poeticamente la "passione" dello spettatore e il suo incontro con il film, riflettendo sul senso di elevazione e sul soffio vitale prodotto dalle immagini e trasferito ai corpi riuniti in platea.

*

Shirin

Un film di Abbas Kiarostami

Cast: Juliette Binoche,  Mahnaz Afshar, Niki Karimi.

La recensione  qui presentata  appare in Mymovies 2008:

There is no better movie I have seen about truth and lies. Why do we tell the truth? Why do we tell lies? What is the relation between truth and films? Beautiful beautiful movie.

"We can never get close to truth except through lying, to reveal, with doubts, a fictional part of all of us, which for me is the most real part of an individual." Abbas Kiarostami.

Homework strives to arrive at the truth about children doing homework. And many things besides: authority, duty, fear, reward, punishment, freedom. I have never seen this striving for truth--we know this from life--so beautifully represented on camera before.

A raíz de la moda del Dogma y con motivo del centenario de la invención del cinematógrafo (como es el caso de esta película) comienzan a surgir una suerte de cayapas fílmicas con películas "mosqueteras" (todos para una y una para todos.. tipo Paris Je T'aime! y Chacun son cinema) y se desata en el mundo cinéfilo la fiebre de las normas y las restricciones técnicas . En 1995 son convocados 40 cuartobates del cine mundial para participar, con un cortometraje cada uno, en el proyecto Lumiére y Compañia. Cada corto de ficción o documental debia cumplir con estas caracteristicas o restricciones básicas: 52 seg de duración, no más de 3 tomas, el sonido no podia estar sincronizado con la imagen, la luz debia ser natural y la más emblemática de todas era rodar con el Cinematógrafo original y con la misma película que usaron los hermanos Lumière.

La mayoria de los cortos son un verdadero homenaje al séptimo arte como por ejemplo los de Gabriel Axel y Claude Lelouch, Bigas Luna homenajea la vida y con la muerte lo hace Andrei Konchalovsky, que no es más que la otra cara de la vida. Con un lenguaje más contemporaneo están los de Greenaway,  David Linch y Kiarostami con su corto de ficción Cena para uno. Me llamo mucho la atención el de Ismail Merchant co-dirigido con James Ivory que más que homenajear a los Lumiere parece acercarse más a la obra de Dziga Vertov con un corto documental muy al estilo de El hombre de la cámara, cosa que no me molesta para nada por ser ese un documental de culto para mí.

Hay dos maravillas mundiales como locaciones magistralmente encuadradas, hijos de directores dando sus pininos, humor africano y una cantidad de referencias culturales y cinematográficas. Obviamente no podian faltar los besos de amor y la gran ausente fue la violencia.. que nadie la invito porque no hacía falta :p.

Aquí les dejo mi top10 que es puro lomito pero si alguien quiere hacer su propia selección también es posible verlos Todos.

1° Gabriel Axel

2° Youssef Chahine

3° Zhang Yimou

4° Bigas Luna

5° Andrei Konchalovsky

6° Francis Girod

7° Claude Lelouch

8° Jaco Van Dormael

9° Abbas Kiarostami

10° Ismail Merchant y James Ivory

Makhmalbaf on the other hand tried to assassinate a policeman and was a religious fundamentalist. Like Kiarostami his films have been iranian (depicting the iranian society). Makhmalbafs more warmblooded behaviour and islamism that made him famous due to the regimes support has also made the regime unease, and has lost the support from the regime he himself once was a strong supporter of. He has left the country now. Not being in Iran where he told his great stories from, he has made mostly mediocre films in his exile years. Recently a bomb exploded in Afghanistan on his set killing a horse and wounding people. Makhmalbaf is now fearing for his families life.

Well look whos laughing now, its certainly not the bazari revolutionary islamist. Not only has his talent dried but now his own family is in danger.

Now Kiarostamis latest experimental film Shirin has been shown at the Venice Film Festival where he also received another award. Next year Kiarostamis feature Certified Copy starring Juliette Binoche will be premiered. We are eagerly waiting.

soffiare

il vento verrà

verrà per seminarti gli occhi di visioni

e

allagherà il tuo orecchio di suoni

leggerà la trama e il tessuto

nei fili del sole

farà di te

un magnifico ciliegio

*   *   *

A mio figlio Tommaso, per il giorno del suo 21°compleanno.

Dear All,

I hope you are enjoying the beginning of the summer. St. Louis summers are beautifully green. They can be toasty and wet too. We are enjoying a bit of both at the moment. The news from Iran has both good and disturbing parts. Among the disturbing parts are further American action to create unrest in Iran, as is the Iranian government's move to tighten its enforcement of the ladies dress code in public and of course the continued anxiety over the arrest of Dr. Esfandiari. Good things include news of continued strong resolve among Iranian women to enhance their presence on the social and political scene by forming new coalitions as well as the usual great artistic and intellectual activity in the country.

One of my goals in these windows is to dispel the myth that reduces Iran to a culture of "villains vs. victims." I would like you to see that regardless of the internal and global issues that Iran is dealing with, Iranians continue to be a lively, creative, humorous, and art loving people like any other in the world. Here it is in the words of one of the major contemporary Iranian painters Iran Darrudi
http://www.payvand.com/news/07/may/1304.html. Or, read about the three-minute documentary that the renowned Iranian director and screen-writer Abbas Kiarostami made on the occasion of Cannes Film festival's 60th year. Kiarostami included in his three-minute documentary, 24 top Iranian actresses whom he has worked with over the years: http://www.payvand.com/news/07/may/1226.html.

Visual Delight

Nothing connects cultures like a visit. Let's take a look at some
recent photos of Iran's natural beauty (thanks to my friend Bahar
Bastani who sent the images). I have kept the slide show short so your
home computers don't have large files to deal with. Click here: Iran Natural Beauty.

Recent Visit to Iran

While disturbing news about visits to Iran get a lot of attention, the
happy and successful ones find it hard to get any. My friend Judith
Ernst who visited Iran recently, had promised to share her experience
with us. Judith wrote a beautiful piece which provides a rare window
on Iran as few Americans make such a visits these days. Her
thoughtfully written piece about the trip received little attention
from the national papers. However, fortunately, it was greeted
enthusiastically by on-line news source Commondreams (thank goodness
for the alternative media). Judy was in Iran with her husband, Carl
Ernst, a professor of Islamic Studies at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, who was invited to a conference on Rumi and
while there received an award for his most recent book, Following
Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World.  I recommend the book highly for personal reading and/or classroom use.  Now, for Judy's take on the trip to Iran click on:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/18/1348/

Current Issues
* And now to the not-so-exciting current news:

According to ABC News, the CIA has received secret presidential
approval to mount a covert "black" operation to destabilize the
Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence
community say. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity
because of the sensitive nature of the subject, say President Bush has
signed a "nonlethal presidential finding" that puts into motion a CIA
plan that reportedly includes a coordinated campaign of propaganda,
disinformation and manipulation of Iran's currency and international
financial transactions.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/05/bush_authorizes.html

* Though the majority of Americans many not readily connect the two, the
recent harshness on the part of the Iranian government toward Iranians
themselves as well as Iranian American visitors has much to do with
these "regime change" plans cooked here in the U.S. In a letter
recently written by Emaddedin Baghi of Defending Prisoners'
Rights Society in Tehran, Iran and circulated through the
International Society for Iranian Studies here in the US, Mr. Baghi writes:

In recent years, the government of the United States has announced
that it has allocated a yearly budget for the support of civil
society, democracy, and human rights in Iran. This so-called
"democracy fund" is approved by the United States Congress and
extensive media coverage of this financial endeavor has been
encouraged.

Given the existence of long-standing hostilities between the
governments of Iran and the United States, the government of Iran has
shown extreme sensitivity to the idea of individuals or groups
receiving funds to engage in activities that, in the public words of
at least some American officials, is intended for an eventual "regime
change" in Iran. I am sure the United States government would show
similar sensitivity if it was revealed that there were individuals or
organizations in the United States that were receiving funds from
hostile groups or countries intent on creating instability in that
country."

Mr. Baghi suggests in his letter that "Undoubtedly, not all these
pressures and arrests are reflective of recently developed government
concerns and suspicions. Forces that are against liberty also use the
U.S. budget allocation as a pretext or excuse to legitimize their
opposition to civil liberties and to discredit their critics."
Nevertheless, he goes on to say: "It is not right for independent
individuals and institutions inside Iran to pay the price for
allocated funds that the United States government spends on
broadcasting from the United States into Iran or for the activities of
exiled Iranian groups that cooperate with various American
organizations."
Mr. Baghi's moving letter ends with "This is why I hereby make a plea
to you and your respected organizations to insist that the United
States government change its ways or, in case of its insistence on
allocating a yearly budget, make public and transparent the exact
amount and recipients (individuals and groups) of these funds."

* On the brighter side, an Iranian woman member of the parliament,
Fatemeh Rakeii has announced a plan to form a coalition of women
political activists to help women gain all their rights in the
political and management arenas. Rakeii described the main goal of the
coalition as "abolition" of gender discrimination. At the same time, a
coalition of reformist women is also about to form in order to
increase women's seats in the 2008 parliamentary elections. To read
more on these, please visit:
http://www.mehrnews.com/en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=490115

* In these windows, I am always talking about one-sidedness of the media
on Iran/Islam related issues. At the moment, Iran gets the worst
possible press. But the treatment is extended to all Muslims, as my
student Matt Miller noted recently in an e-mail (thanks Matt!). Matt
writes: "There was a poll by Pew that came out today that surveyed the
U.S. Muslim population. Here is the headline that appeared in U.S.
media outlets (via the Associated Press) about the poll: "Some young
Muslims approve suicide hits."  While on the BBC this was the headline
about the same poll: "Muslims 'well-integrated' in the U.S.."  The
stark contrast in the headlines is incredible. The articles both go on
to talk about the same poll by Pew, yet the AP (U.S.) article focuses
almost exclusively on Muslims and terrorism (citing the 13% of young
U.S. Muslims who approve of suicide attacks to defend religion in
"rare cases"),while the BBC article talks about how U.S. Muslims are
well-integrated into U.S. life, reject terrorism in overwhelming
numbers, and like the U.S. although they don't often feel welcomed in
the U.S." Matt finds "incredible" how two stories about the same poll
portray the U.S. Muslim population in such vastly different lights. He
provides the link:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18797530/. Now compare
with:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6680939.stm

St. Louis Persian Music Event!

We just have to end on a happier note. What better than the news that my friend Behfar Dianati has sent. Behfar, with help from Iranian American Cultural Society of the Midwest, has organized a concert of Persian music by American musicians called Songs of Love from Iran by the artist Monika Jalili and her group Noorsaaz. The group will perform at the Missouri Historical Society, on Saturday, June 9, at 7:00. If you live in or near St. Louis, come to get a taste of Persian music performed by American artists. And, if you like more information, call (314- 746-4599).

Until the next window, I wish you a great week.

Best,
Fatemeh
===================================
Fatemeh Keshavarz, Professor and Chair
Dept. of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures
Washington University in St. Louis
Tel: (314) 935-5156
Fax: (314) 935-4399
==================================

There are not more than a handful of directors who have the special ability to look beyond the boundaries and hop over the conventions of the medium. Abbas Kiarostami, with his radically fresh perspective and consistent streak of “different” films, undoubtedly is in the cream of that list. Read More

However, Correspondences was a brilliantly rewarding and moving experience. Viktor Erice and Abbas Kiarostami apparently never met in person till the exhibition but they maintained a very unique rapport with each other through a sort of creative dialogue that gave birth to this particular installation. Despite being from vastly different backgrounds, these two auteurs found common ground in their visions of childhood, memory and cinema. There are some very powerful images (photographs by Kiarostami especially) and an excellent black and white short film by Erice titled, Lifeline (video link). Two very interesting pieces by Kiarostami included projections of a sleeping couple (Sleepers) onto the floor and another ten minute projection of a sleeping child.

Occasionally, you do feel like a voyeur but then again, isn't that what cinema is essentially about?

Links:

• Letters to the World
• Erice-Kiarostami: Correspondences (Paperback)

However, Correspondences was a brilliantly rewarding and moving experience. Viktor Erice and Abbas Kiarostami apparently never met in person till the exhibition but they maintained a very unique rapport with each other through a sort of creative dialogue that gave birth to this particular installation. Despite being from vastly different backgrounds, these two auteurs found common ground in their visions of childhood, memory and cinema. There are some very powerful images (photographs by Kiarostami especially) and an excellent black and white short film by Erice titled, Lifeline (video link). Two very interesting pieces by Kiarostami included projections of a sleeping couple (Sleepers) onto the floor and another ten minute projection of a sleeping child.

Occasionally, you do feel like a voyeur but then again, isn't that what cinema is essentially about?

(Cross-posted on Couch-Critics)

Links:

• Letters to the World
• Erice-Kiarostami: Correspondences (Paperback)

Alguns adultos esquecem que já foram crianças. Que viram como alguns as tratavam. Assim, em vez de quebrarem um ciclo lamentável, terminam perpetuando. Crianças têm sim o direito de serem ouvidas e até ajudadas em seus dramas.

Mais que passarem lições as crianças, alguns adultos tendem sim a impor. Em vez de obterem-na por respeito, confiança, escolhem o caminho do medo.

Por conta da estupidez de um professor, um menino nos leva a acompanhá-lo na jornada descrita no título. O tal professor, numa deplorável 'aula', termina dizendo a um dos alunos que numa próxima vez ele será expulso. Embora esteja ciente de que muitos daqueles meninos além de morarem longe, ajudam em casa, em afazeres domésticos, ou nos ofícios do pai. Mesmo assim, em vez de ministrar a aula ganhando uma simpatia dos alunos, prefere humilhar. A esse menino, sua atitude fora deprimente.

Então, o amiguinho do lado, Ahmad, já em casa, ao começar a fazer os seus deveres, descobre que trouxe por engano o caderno desse que fora ameaçado de expulsão. Ciente de que o professor nem ouviria a explicação, sentindo-se culpado, decide ir entregar o caderno. Acontece que ele só sabe o nome do lugar. E fica distante da sua casa.

Pede permissão a sua mãe. Até o que ela falou, era o mais lógico. A questão é como falou. E mais, não parando um pouco para explicar. Como não deu atenção a aquela cabecinha, e soou como uma ordem, Ahmed saiu escondido.

No caminho, vai se deparar com outros adultos... Em alguns desses encontros, minhas exclamações foram desde um 'Affe!' até um sonoro e silábico 'PQP!'

Ele sobe e desce escadaria, trilhas, como também entra e sai de becos e vielas... Querendo descobrir onde ficava a casa do seu amigo. As horas vão passando... A noite chegando...

Assim, Ahmed faz a diferença entre todos aqueles adultos. E o final é emocionante! Bravo, Ahmed! Parabéns também ao Diretor até por nos trazer um Irã bucólico. Gostei!

Por: Valéria Miguez (LELLA).

Onde Fica a Casa do Meu Amigo (Khane-ye doust kodjast?). 1987. Irã. Direção e Roteiro: Abbas Kiarostami. Elenco: Babek Ahmed Poor. Gênero: Drama. Duração: 80 minutos.

Address

"Where is the friend's house?" asked the horseman just at dawn.

The heavens paused.

A wayfarer took the bright branch from his lips,

conferred it on the darkness of the sands,

pointed with his finger to a poplar tree and said,

"Just before that tree

there is a garden path greener than God's dreams.

In it there is love as wide as the blue wings of true friendship.

You go on to the end of the path that takes up again

just beyond maturity,

then turn toward the flower of loneliness.

Two steps before the flower,

stop at the eternal fountain of earthly myth.

There a transparent terror will seize you,

and in the sincerity of the streaming heavens

you will hear a rustling.

High up in a pine tree,

you will see a child

who will lift a chick out of a nest of light.

Ask him,

"Where is the friend's house?" (trans. Jerome Clinton.)

El pasado domingo Yusuf Shahin, el gigante egipcio del Séptimo Arte Árabe y Mundial, murió a la edad de 82 años en el Cairo. Yousri Nasrallah, su antiguo ayudante lo definió en una ocasión como "una de las más grandes organizaciones no gubernamentales independientes existente en el mundo árabe." Se le considera como uno de los directores de cine más importantes y creativos. 

Nacido en 1926 en Alejandría de padre cristiano libanés y madre egipcia, a Shahin desde su más tierna infancia le fascinó el cine. A los 17 años Shahin abandonó Alejandría, donde completó sus estudios, y se fue a estudiar interpretación al Pasadena Playhouse en California. 

Shahin era conocido como poseedor de un  espíritu librepensador independiente, que no prestaba demasiada atención a las reglas autoritarias ni a los convencionalismos sociales. Su producción cinematográfica cubre una amplia gama de estilos tales como películas melodramáticas, musicales, comedias, neorrealistas y políticas. Una de sus contribuciones más importantes y singulares al cine fue su trilogía autobiográfica ¿Alejandría... Por qué? (Alexandria Why?), La Memoria ( The Memory) y Alejandría, de nuevo y siempre (Alexandria Again and Again). En esta trilogía, Shahin introdujo el uso de  la narrativa en primera persona. En sus últimas películas,  El Inmigrante (The Immigrant - 1994)  y El Otro (The Other - 1999), Shahin trató el tema del surgimiento del fundamentalismo islámico en la sociedad egipcia. 

En 1997, Shahin ganó la Palma de Oro del Festival de Cine de Cannes por su película Destino (Destiny.) 

Shahin es un pionero de la industria cinematográfica en Oriente Medio. A pesar de la fuerte oposición interna, la agitación política y la fuerte censura gubernamental, varios directores de cine en Oriente Medio han dejado su huella en el cine mundial. Irónicamente, los productores de cine más vibrantes y creativos se pueden encontrar actualmente en la República Islámica de Irán. A pesar de  la fuerte censura gubernamental, Irán ha dado origen a destacados directores de cine como: Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Abbas Kiarostami, Rakshan Bani-Etemad, y Jafr Panahi. En la actualidad, sus películas se ven y son apreciadas en todo el mundo. 

Lo mismo ocurre con la producción cinematográfica en otros países árabes tales como Líbano y Palestina. Una de las más famosas y recientes películas libanesas es la galardonada Caramel de Nadine Labaki, en la que ella narra con un estilo divertido y conmovedor la vida de cinco mujeres libanesas en un salón de belleza en Beirut. 

Los productores de cine palestinos también han alcanzado fama mundial. Entre sus películas están La Boda de Rana (Rana's Wedding) de Hany Abu-Assad y Boda en Galilea (Wedding in Galilee) de Michel Khleifi. 

A pesar de la tensa atmósfera política en la región, todavía hay mentes creativas en acción. Esto es un signo de esperanza para Oriente Medio y para el mundo. Me imagino que en tiempos de oscuridad y opresión es cuando emergen nuevas ideas para dejar su marca y originar un entendimiento más profundo de la condición humana. Rossellini y Fellini en Italia, Renoir en Francia, Buñuel en España y Sergei Eisenstein en Rusia son solo unos pocos ejemplos.  

http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/chahine.htm  

DEATH OF A GIANT 

Last Sunday Yusuf Shahin the Egyptian giant of the Arab and World Seventh Art died at the age of 82 in Cairo. Yousri Nasrallah, his former assistant once defined him as "one of the biggest independent non governmental organizations existing in the Arab world." He is considered as one of the most important and creative international film directors. 

Born in 1926 in Alexandria to a Christian Lebanese father and an Egyptian mother, Shahin was since his early childhood mesmerized by the cinema. At the age of 17, Shahin left Alexandria, where he completed his studies, and went to study acting at the Pasadena Playhouse in California. 

Shahin was known to be an independent free-thinking spirit who did not pay too much attention to authoritarian rulers and social conventions. His movie productions cover a wide range of styles such as melodramas, musicals, comedy, neorealist and political films. One of his most important and unique contribution to cinema was his autobiographical trilogy Alexandria Why? The Memory, and Alexandria Again and Again. In this trilogy, Shahin innovated the use of first-person narrative. In his latest films The Immigrant (1994), and The Other (1999) Shahin dealt with the issue of the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Egyptian society. 

In 1997, Shahin won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for his film Destiny. 

Shahin is a pioneer of the film industry in the Middle East. Despite strong internal opposition, political upheaval and strong government censorship several film directors in the Middle East have left their mark on world cinema.

The most vibrant and creative filmmakers can ironically be found today in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Despite strong government censorship, Iran has produced leading film directors such as Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Abbas Kiarostami, Rakshan Bani-Etemad, and Jafr Panahi. Their movies are now seen and appreciated worldwide. 

The same applies to film production in other Arab countries such as Lebanon and Palestine. One of the most famous and recent Lebanese film is Nadine Labaki's award-winning movie Caramel,  in which she recounts in a funny and poignant style the lives of five Lebanese women in a beauty salon in Beirut. 

Palestinian film producers have also achieved worldwide fame. Their films include Hany Abu-Assad's Rana's Wedding and Michel Khleifi's Wedding in Galilee. 

Despite the tense political atmosphere in the region creative minds are still at work. This is a hopeful sign for the Middle East and the world. I guess it is in times of darkness and oppression that new ideas emerge to leave their imprint and elicit a deeper understanding of the human condition. Italy's Rossellini and Fellini, France's Renoir, Spain's Bunuel, Russia's Sergei Eisenstein are only but few examples. 

http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/chahine.htm

Soon I can read Kubrick's unmade Napolean script (downloading several rare Kubrick movies, scripts, soundtracks right now). Jack Nicholson was supposed to star, and I was supposed to love it.

Watching Kiarostami's Taste of Cherry, two thirds of the way through and loving it, despereate for the desert, Iran/Persia looks really cool and I think I'll have to visit. I imagine my skin darker from the sun and dirt on sweaty skin and my hair thick from all the sand stuck in the greasy locks. Confess to obsession with the Middle East, especially Iran and Libya.

For all the moving pictures I stare at I've started to form an idea around the moving pictures I could make. There exists in my mind the conviction that I have seen too many movies to bother with narrative or even story telling, something close to movies about movies are always seeds in my brain, but those are really not the realm I'm interested in expanding. For the sake of germination, no comment.

-- Omar Chavez
Hollywood, Calif.

"Yes. We've gone from janitor to head janitor. Now and then, you can also see more Latinos on television playing characters who aren't being arrested on Cops."

-- Peter DiCarlo
Los Angeles; Toronto

"I've noticed that if [producers] are going to cast minorities, they still tend to go black or Asian. And I think if you consider the numbers, we're the biggest minority right now and continue to grow. Yet in roles, we're still underrepresented. So yeah, there's been some improvement, but compared to what our population is in the U.S., I don't think it's there yet."

-- Noemi Soulet
Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.

"I've seen progress, but not so much in the direction that I would like to see. One thing that I noticed is there are no real superheroes out there who are Latino. There are African-American, Caucasian, and even Asian [superheroes]. That's one thing that I see that's needed in the industry: more action-adventure, hero-type roles represented by the Latino actors in the industry. Nobody's going to change the Latino entertainment industry if it's not Latinos. Latinos have to come together and join forces and make a single voice in the entertainment industry to demand equal and bigger spotlight opportunities."

-- Joey Fiero
Beverly Hills, Calif.

http://www.LifeAsAStrugglingActor.com

http://www.FieroEntertainment.com

http://www.CastingJoseph.com

josephfiero@gmail.com

Latino Actor Joey Fiero

Actor Joey Fiero

How to survive in a film acting career and not to be a "struggling actor".

Joseph Fiero Playing Piano First and foremost, before you read this article read my other article "How to become an actor and make a living from acting" then come back to this one. Look up guides as how to go about becoming an actor if you are not one. If you are one start off by reading everything you can about the entertainment industry from directing,writing,producing,distribution to the music side of things. Know what is happening today and who is that artist. Learn from experienced people who have made it. Take entertainment business/law classes as well.

Step2

Joseph Fiero's Friend GINA doing a fund raiser on TV as a host. Submit yourself to casting calls from all over the internet or local newspaper including game shows. This would include commercials, print work and independent films. Don't wait for someone to call you, follow the casting calls. Google Keywords "Casting Calls" and try to find some in your home town or ones that do "virtual audition". Submit to everything even if it doesn't sound like you but you think they could "keep you on file". Ignore people saying that it will just annoy casting places. Casting sole purpose is to constantly "discover" people.

Step3

Joseph Fiero on the Mcdonalds Bags and Cups around the world. While you are waiting for the auditions and for your face to be plastered all over the world, pick up a camera with a friends help, start making films about yourself and stories about your life and build a video demo reel and make it look like you have been in such and such type films. Horror, comedy, action and drama. Step 1 comes in handy when you have read about "filmmaking". Start showcasing you and your work all over the place.

Step4

Joseph Fiero and Camera Crew. If someone wants to hire you for FREE, then be polite and tell them to at least pay you for the GAS and food and a little extra for the road. AFTER they really, really want you and your basically at the negotiation table. REFUSE to work for free. Sometimes when big corporations throw a campaign and they won't pay the people featured but the exposure can help your image market abilities and sometimes they offer gifts so give in to the big guys to work for free because most of the time they give you something. Examples: CAR MAKERS, PRODUCT MAKERS, FAST FOOD CHAINS, NETWORK CONTESTS.

Step5

Micheal Madsen and Joseph Fiero Keep in contact with EVERYONE you ever meet that is in the entertainment industry and invite them to parties, events and to the local bar at times. If you feel that some of these people are using you or playing Hollywood games, kindly tell them you see threw them and walk away from the so called "friendship". Remember, most of the time when you meet people in the industry and they ask you "what do you do" they are really saying "what can you do for me". The point is FIND REAL FRIENDS that share a mutual interest in becoming rich and famous if thats your thing.

Step6

Joseph Fiero Signing Autographs Discover what the meaning of "struggling" means to you. For most it means not being on TV, Magazines and made into toy action figures, others it means not being casted in your local city theater. Remember its all about business and you yourself are a business. So what is your business model? If you want to become a famous or somewhat famous actor, skip to step 8.

Step7

Joseph Fiero on E! news After all this, don't sound desperate if you haven't seen anything happen because this only means your not doing one of the steps right. Instead focus on more publicity on yourself if you've already tried the above steps with no result. Most of the above steps really mean that you have no talent to do anything so you must focus on making yourself known and image liked by publicity either paid or free. Learn about publicity and how it works from this point.

Step8

Joseph Fiero, Co-Founder of GBTVOnline Find another career that makes you a lot of money, possibly investments, real estate or the lottery. Then pay a somewhat famous or once was famous actor to star in a movie that you wrote and find a distributor to put it into Walmart or Blockbuster OR pitch a TV show with someone famous in it and negotiate for you to be a co-star or at least reoccurring role.

Step9

A poster of Joseph Fiero Never settle for the scraps of a movie or one liners if you are with one of the top agencies if you have established yourself, talk to your agent and tell them to get you in on a bigger "package deal". Never feel that you don't deserve or can't do that role. If you don't know something but you said you did, go learn it before you shoot. So go get them tiger and see you around town! Read my other articles on acting too.

FieroEntertainment.com

CastingJoseph.com

FieroCasting.com

LifeAsAStrugglingActor.com

FieroPhotography.info

FieroDesigns

Joey Fiero is a Independent Producer and Filmmaker and a producer for Creative Entertainment Media Inc. (www.CreativeEntertainmentMedia.com) partially responsible for television/film development, acquisitions and business introductions. He Co-Founded GBTVOnline.com a online music network that showcases nothing but the hottest A-List celebrity artists along with fellow actor and producer Stacy Hall.

Mr. Fiero brings more then a decade of experience from within the entertainment industry that expands from the arts trenches to business product development. A graduate of Broadcasting in television combined with his years of experience as early as in his teens, Mr. Fiero prides himself on building long-term, personal relationships in business which he credits as the secret to his success. Joey Fiero formed Fiero Entertainment Inc. In 2006 and is expanding in all areas of the Entertainment Industry from Production and Development to Casting.

In addition to continuing on his career way, Mr. Fiero devotes part of his time to a non-profit foundation; Global Alliance for the Arts & Humanities Inc. This non-profit is designed to give others the training, experience and access of opportunity to pursue “key decision making” careers in the television and film industry.
Business Inquires: JosephFiero@gmail.com

http://lifeasastrugglingactor.com/

Starring Cast: Joey Fiero Actor, Producer, Director, Daddy. Jacquie Fiero Manager, Producer, Writer, Mommy. Joey Fiero Jr. Actor, Director, Comedian, Trouble Maker. Aly Fiero Actor, Model, Trouble Maker, Princess. More Episodes and Representation: The Fiero's on Youtube Life as a Struggling Actor on Youtube. Watch some of the first episodes that Joey filmed of his life as an actor with kids. Represtation TV/FILM Nancy Chaidez and Associates310.467.8954 Production Company C.E.M. Inc. P.O. Box 12801 Marina del Rey, CA 90295 Phone: 310.902.2326 323.533.6206 Fax: 310.822.4068 Executive Producers: Susan Flanagan, Bidwell Tyler, Joey Fiero Joey Fiero says he is a worldwide unknown star! His face and name has really been seen around the world on street curbs and sitting on trash cans. His mission is to become a high profile actor and producer inspiring the world with his movies. His wife Jacquie would like get into the marketing and advertising side of the industry. Their kids want nothing but to be actors and on TV kids shows. Follow this goofy fun family's and friends day to day lives and just see how many Hollywood adventures they get themselves into! SHOW YOUR SUPPORT! Check out our new online store! Every purchase helps The Fieros! Joey Fiero and his son Joey Jr. take us to a commercial audition for Wal-Mart. Joey Jr. takes over the camera for daddy! Joey takes us on a Latino Actor Fest where he meets new friends and other aspiring actors!

LifeAsAStrugglingActor.Com • CastingJoseph.com • FieroCasting.com © 2008 • WGA Registered

Bargaining toward a new deal between the union and the producers' group began on April 15. The actors' current contract expires on June 30.

The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, another actors' union, said separately that it had agreed at the producers' request to delay the beginning of its own contract negotiations until May 5.

The federation, whose contract also expires at the end of June, had expected to begin talks next Monday.