cinema trust Tina Jalali wrote in Etamad newspaper:
The 43rd Fajr Film Festival will be held this year while we are again witnessing the separation of the national and international sectors.
This prestigious cinema event in the last one or two years, which was affected by the approach and closed view of cinema managers in the 13th government, was accompanied by many criticisms from cinema people and experts.
Now, however, with the selection of Manouchehr Shahsavari as the secretary and a group of well-known and professional cinematographers such as Mohammad Mehdi Heydarian, Seyed Mohammad Beheshti, Hossein Tazami, Farhad Tawhidi, Alireza Shujanouri, etc., in the capacity of the policy-making council, and with a serious change of attitude, it seems Let’s witness a passionate festival with high attendance of all cinema people.
But the basic question about the Fajr Film Festival is why this cinematic event, which has been going on for more than four decades, is still vulnerable and does not have a serious stability?
We had a conversation with Shadmehr Rastin, a writer and cinema expert, and asked his opinion about this matter.
TheOne of the most important features of the Fajr Film Festival is the ups and downs it has had in all these years. Do you think that film events in other parts of the world have many ups and downs like the Fajr Festival?
Most of the international and art festivals in the last fifty years have changed in nature and performance. The most important of them is the closure of a period of the Cannes festival in 1968 and the addition of the critics section to this festival. Therefore, it is normal for festivals to have changes in tactics (executive matters) according to the conditions of today’s cinema, but their main strategy, which is to support the artistic sector of cinema and give importance to the universal language of cinema for communication between cultures, especially the shadow cultures, has not changed much. has not done Of course, the feminist trend among festivals is mostly in the field of film selection, judging and awarding of special awards in the last decade, which is the main topic of changes in the nature of art festivals.
But guild festivals have changed less and have mostly adapted themselves to the screenings of works in virtual space and non-present audiences. So that they try to attract the newly established classes with technological advances in production and screening. Therefore, national festivals have a greater tendency to become guilds and have a wider influence of the votes of guild judges in the selection of works, and art festivals value alternative cinema more than mainstream cinema, such as Hollywood or Bollywood cinema.
TheIf we want to diagnose the Fajr Film Festival in general, in your opinion, what are the most important problems of the festival in all these years?
From the 10th edition of Fajr Festival in Iran, whispers of adding an art festival called Ferdowsi Festival were heard among Fajr Festival policymakers. By emphasizing the aspect of supporting “authorship” in cinema, Saifullah Dad considered that the main Fajr awards be limited to the best film, director, writer, actor and special selection of the jury and an award for technical achievements, which will be given by a limited group of cinema judges. Art (for example, seven people) should be held during Fajr and with an international approach, which was not possible due to the absence of the cinema house festival at that time.
In the first step, Khaneh Cinema and cinema trades, like other countries that have unions and dynamic organizations of cinema trades, set up a guild celebration for awarding specialized awards called “Cinema House Celebration”, so that after the public release of films, I emphasize that after the national and popular screening, the films are selected by the judges of the categories and they are awarded during a ceremony. These awards can continue to be profitable in the production cycle until the release (the second round of release) for films that meet industry and cinema standards and deserve more attention, and the winners can benefit financially from these awards.
It was in such a situation that Mohammad Mehdi Asgarpour announced that some technical film awards will be removed from the Fajr Festival, which was met with severe criticism from Sanof, because they indirectly emphasized the financial impact of the awards in motivating Sanof to improve the quality level of their activities. After that, the directors of the festival did not adopt a new policy regarding the reduction of awards in Fajr, and on the contrary, they added to the government awards of Fajr Festival, which had an adverse effect on the quality and effectiveness of the Simorgh Award. On the other hand, Fajr International Festival, along with the national festival, according to the standards of holding a world festival, tried to make the international festival artistic-composing, which culminated in the separation of the world festival from the national festival in terms of time, place and management, which in this matter He also achieved some achievements.
Unfortunately, the lack of understanding by film managers and officials and the lack of clear goals in the festival environment, that is, in terms of the film market and business meetings for joint production, caused not only the national festival but also the international festival to suffer serious damage, and there are still directors who expect Fajr International Art Festival. Increase sales and production together. This argument is wrong because Iran has imposed restrictions on the screening of foreign films and Iranian cinema is under sanctions at the global level, and add these to the non-compliance with the copyright law in Iranian cinema, which is the main challenge of the globalization of commercial cinema.
TheSome film experts believe that Fajr Film Festival is not basically a festival, but a celebration. What do you think?
I don’t know what it means, but the expectations of government managers from cinema in general and from Fajr festival in a specific sense, is to compensate for their deficiencies and weaknesses in the matter of culture by promoting Fajr film festival and not allowing cinematographers to use the podium of Fajr festival. These years, people have shown that they do not welcome the Fajr festival, which is completely government-run, and the directors are forced to return the Fajr festival to the people and cinematographers again.
TheThe meaning of celebration or festival is that, according to many of the same experts, this event is similar to a period among moviegoers with a movie screening, especially since the chosen ones are not very popular with the public.
I believe that every trade union activity needs meetings and celebrations that, apart from work activities, show that the group is sympathetic to each other and comes together like a family. In all genres there are annual celebrations and certainly with a seasonal theme, naturally, cinema is not independent from other genres and it needs at least once a year its people to gather together and appreciate their elders and welcome the arrival of young people and newcomers. Give family elements to their work aspects with a friendly gathering to find motivations to continue working.
But the problem arises when this period is mixed with a theme celebration that is the Fajr decade with the government’s display of power in the Fajr decade by those who are not in the field of cinema at all, such as the family of the government delegation, the family of parliamentarians, the family of security guards and… all of them are in this gathering. they are coming
From the point of view of a critic or reporter who enters this gathering, does he not realize that in this gathering cinemagoers gathered together or those who like to take pictures next to cinemagoers?
This mixing of themes and audiences of these festivals makes them always say that Fajr Festival is a festival. While the Fajr festival is a cultural activity, the more people from that field participate in this cultural activity, the more results it will bring. And no matter how far the organizers and audiences are from the cinema, your criticism is correct and we realize that for almost 10 to 15 years we are still moving away from the issue of Fajr Festival.
TheSome believe that the Fajr Film Festival should have a permanent secretary, does a permanent secretary help to organize the Fajr Festival better?
Stability and security are needed in any cultural activity to be fruitful. Unfortunately, Fajr festival, like other cultural activities in Iran, has not been very stable and this is more of a comprehensive Iranian vision in the last century. That everything is unstable and temporary, planned and executed. It is hoped that the Fajr Festival, as the most continuous cultural trend in contemporary Iran, will try to register itself as a “national heritage” and not undergo fundamental changes.
TheIt seems that in the past one or two years, this cultural and artistic event has moved away from its original essence and a kind of political view has taken over it. Of course, if we look at the life of the festival, we can see that the festival has always been dominated by politics, but it has become more intense in recent years. What is your view?
In this period of Fajr Film Festival, I hope that with the presence of the policy-making council, which is well-versed and familiar with cultural-cinematic management, they will be able to create a significant change in the national-international Fajr Festival and even the celebration of the House of Cinema. Due to the small number of films that are ready to compete in Fajr and the lack of celebration of the cinema house (in the last four periods) and the neglect of the international festival, this period is a good opportunity that even with the temporary closure of the National Fajr Festival, the artistic orientation Fajr Festival Secure your authorship and add to the necessity of holding a cinema house celebration.
It is a definite suggestion that Fajr Art and International Festival be held next year and we should start preparing for the celebration of Cinema House. With such an approach, we will definitely witness a cultural, artistic, cinematographic and authorial activity in the world festival and a national celebration of the Cinema House, which will greatly help the screening among the cinema houses, and no politics outside the cinema will affect the performance of Fajr.
TheHow harmful do you see the impact of different currents on the festival?
In general, any movement that uses cinema as a tool to promote things other than art and culture and disrupts people’s relationship with cinema, causes cinema, screening and art cinema to give way to “hidden cinema” which in several We have seen it in recent years.
What should be done for the festival to be a gathering place for all cinema people again?
It is enough to leave its management to the cinematographers. In the last half century, it is Iranian cinema and its filmmakers who have been the reputation of Iranian culture and art for the future of the country, and no official in any position has reached the achievements of cinematographers in industry, art, and communication with the people.
TheWhat do you think Iranian cinema should do to become more international? What should be done to take co-productions seriously?
As I mentioned in the film market, Iran’s cinema products have many buyers, especially Asian broadcasters, so it is necessary to correct the misconception in the minds of managers and critics that not all cinema is Western cinema, especially Hollywood and America. Because of this mentality, many Iranian cinematographers have not paid attention to the film market in Asia and other developed countries and have deprived themselves of new markets and marketing methods in the field of cinema. Iran’s cinema market even has the capacity to become independent from Fajr Festival and needs to review its time-space, management and even policies.
Joint production, which definitely has nothing to do with the Fajr Festival, and its prerequisites, namely, connection with the World Bank, compliance with copyright, and most importantly, the guarantee of a reputable Iranian bank for foreign investors, are among the obstacles that still exist in joint production. Therefore, Iranian cinema mostly sells sales services or final products, which has nothing to do with co-production. Of course, this challenge does not exist only in the cinema industry, and after the global sanctions, it has affected all the production industries of Iran.