cinematemad, It’s 2 pm, when I get off the bus under the Hafez bridge, I quickly move towards the Charso campus. The area of Hafez bridge to the front of Charso campus is so crowded that half of the population of Tehran is present in this area. If we factor in the terrible traffic and air pollution and noise pollution, without exaggeration, 50 motorbikes move simultaneously from four sides of the street. With every step they pass us, people who hang around each other, it seems that we are watching the atmosphere of the streets of India, a question that has been in my mind again and again. What does this space have to do with an international cultural event? What do the foreign guests who pass through this passage really think about the nature of the festival? Tehran does not lack beautiful and pleasant areas that are suitable for holding cultural and artistic events. Is it time to hold a festival here with this crowd and commotion? Of course, it seems that this area has become more crowded in the last few years.
I move forward and slowly pass countless motorbikes so that, God forbid, I don’t bump into them and they don’t bump into me, in other words, I don’t cause trouble for them or for myself.
In just a few steps between the bus station and the Charso campus, I get so nervous that I keep saying to myself that this corridor full of noise is similar to everything except a cultural place, but a hundred mercy to the entrance of the Milad Tower and the Mellat campus, which are the minimums of an environment. It is culturally appropriate.
Anyway, I enter the Charso campus and breathe a sigh of relief.
Il Bahmai’s problems
I go up the stairs and after passing through the gate, I greet my colleagues and enter one of the cinema halls. One of the films screened titled “Il Man Bahmai” directed by Mr. Ehsani caught my attention, the story deals with the problems of the Bahmai people and the documentary maker, during a conversation with some of them, told about the sad situation of that region which is the loss of nomadism and Nasrullah Madqalchi’s voice is also pleasant in the background of the film. Il Man Behmai is one of the most important movies.
It feels good to watch a documentary
When I come out of this theater and immediately enter the “Rukh” movie theater, at first I thought that I would not be able to connect with this movie, but the movie touched me so much that I didn’t want it to end.
In short, the documentary “Rukh” is a good and perfect film in the real sense, the director approaches Ali Akbar Sadeghi and narrates his thoughts and thoughts in a lovely way. Before watching the movie, I had the impression that Ali Akbar Sadeghi was a gloomy person, but this movie not only opened the dimensions of this painter’s personality to me, but also made me eager to know more about Master Sadeghi and wish to meet him closely one day. to see I had seen other films by Sam Kalantari, but “Rukh” was more charming and lovable. The opportunity to analyze in this field is not short, but I can only say that I left the hall with a good feeling.
A document that is not an order
This year, one of the criticisms of the Cinema Verity Festival is the large number of government bodies and organizations. I spoke with Maryam Bahrul Uloomi, a young cinema director and producer who came to watch one of the documentaries, and she has the same opinion.
When I ask his opinion about the festival, he says: The reception of the festival this year is very good, but the point that there is, seems to be the abundance of organ works. But what is important and we should not forget is the main essence of the documentary, which should be accompanied by truth-seeking, and documentary makers should not make a film contrary to reality to please their sponsoring organizations or just to please the festivals.
He continues: If the documentary cinema, like a part of the fictional cinema, becomes prescriptive and as a result gets distorted, it will move away from its truth-seeking mission and will have no value. Just as the application of audits damages the works that are actually documented.
Professional and bold
One of the documentaries that caught my attention and was honestly great was “The Third Street of Seoul”. I know more about football than Persepolis, Esteghlal and the national team, and I don’t know much about its various coordinates and edges. I had heard about corruption in football in the media many times, but I didn’t follow the details, but when I saw the movie, I said to myself, girl, look what’s going on behind the scenes of football! We scream purple when the national team goes to the World Cup, we jump in the air when Persepolis wins, but we don’t know anything about the adventures and happenings behind the scenes of football (as a general audience). Boldly and of course professionally, he was able to reveal the cases and show us and narrate the story impartially.
The images of thirty years of Iranian football and the efforts of the footballers to reach the World Cup in the documentary are the result of three decades of hard work of the director and his association with the national team, which is commendable.
The calamities that brought upon our football
Excited to watch a football movie, I come out of “Seoul Third Street” movie theater. I met Mahmoudreza Rezaei, the director and Ali Waliullahi, the author of this documentary, I talked with the director about how to make this film, he said: It is very difficult to make a film in the field of the national team in international competitions, but due to the fact that I have spent three decades on the side of I was part of the national team as a documentary maker and I had gained a lot of experience in this field.
He explains: I always wanted to make a film documentary about the content and margins of Iranian football and tell in it how much non-sports forces have a negative impact on football and what harm they have done to our football.
This director continued his speech and said: I think football is one of the main topics in the discussion of national unity and it can enter in different aspects, and since it is associated with the collective happiness and excitement of the people, it is good and very helpful for the spirit of the society.
I ask the director, the conversations that are raised in the film from behind the scenes of football are bold, did you face censorship problems? Q. Rezaei says: I tried to be a fair narrator, we invited many officials to appear in this film, but unfortunately some of them refused, and their absence was beyond our control, but everyone who responded positively to our invitation, said his words. We put it in the movie and we did not censor any word and it was not censored and finally we leave the judgment to the audience.
The director expressed his gratitude to Mr. Hamidi Moghaddam, the secretary of the festival, for supporting us, and said: This film was 120 minutes long and we cut it to 95 minutes to be shown at the festival. Consider the 28 years of Rush and the images I had collected during Putting two years together in such a way that the audience can connect with it, and it was a very difficult task, but we are satisfied with the result. I said to the director: This film establishes a good relationship with the general audience, he replied: Although Iranian people are not fond of documentaries and prefer to watch humorous films, we will definitely release this film to the general public.
The prestige of the festival is enhanced with high-quality and daring films
One of the criticisms of this year’s festival was that films with sensitive themes were left out and did not enter the competition section, and low-quality neutral films were given a chance to appear instead. In the elevator, I see Alireza Hosseini, a member of the policy council of the Cinema-Ghekrit festival. Hosseini is one of the respected and kind documentary makers. In response to my question, he says: This year, compared to the last one or two years, the subject of films is bolder and the number of high-profile documentaries is more.
I tell Hosseini: Some filmmakers complain about their films not being screened in the festival. He points out that there are always objections to some films not making it to the competition section, and explains: If a film has an acceptable quality standard, it can be screened in the festival. , because the prestige of the festival increases with the presence of high-quality and daring films.
He continues: I believe that Iranian documentary cinema is still progressive and a step ahead in paying attention to society’s issues, and this year filmmakers have made good films. Documentary cinema does not have the same problems as fiction cinema, and documentary filmmakers make films with dedication and selflessness. It can be said that a part of the inadequacy of body cinema in paying attention to social issues and problems is compensated for in documentary films.
He also says about the high volume of organic films: In any case, such films are in the festival, because film production in Iran depends a lot on government and organic budgets, but organic and government films are also present in other domestic festivals. We hope that the production of documentary and fiction films in the country will be done by the private sector as much as possible, in this case they will be more daring.
Video library
One of the popular sections of the Cinema Verity Festival is the video library, in this section, which has a glass room, we can watch the films of the competition section on a monitor or laptop. This section is also called “Video Library”.
Of course, apart from the festival, more than 900 documentaries, short animations and experimental films from the productions of the expansion center in different periods have been made available in the “Video Library” section of the center.
I’m watching Elevator in the video library, a film with a social theme, and I was moved to tears by moments of it. Elevator is about one of the characters of “Yaghi” series and tells the life story of a man who was rescued from the trap of addiction. The story of Mohammad Saberi’s life, who is unaware of his son and family for thirteen years due to the damage he suffers from addiction. The movie “Elevator” has many sad moments, but Javad Rezaghizadeh, the director of this movie, narrates his story well and does justice to the subject he chose.
Of course, Mohammad Kart’s effort to revive Mohammad Saberi’s life and save him from the trap of addiction is commendable.
But after watching the movie on the monitor, I said to myself: Honestly, the pleasure of watching a movie on a wide screen is something else.
Both crowded halls and empty halls
Filmmakers’ works were screened at the Cinema-Ghekrit festival for a week, and the screening of films continues until today, Saturday, December 24. We experience different moments in the festival and we did, in the way that long queues were formed for some films, in the hall of some films, the seats were full of people from cape to cape and the audience was even sitting on the stairs, some films made their way to a wonderful screening But there were some movies that only had one row of audience seats.
In short, in this year’s festival, both good quality films and weak films were released, which raised the voices of some critics and media people. But what was very evident was the acceptance of this event by documentary cinema enthusiasts.
A special event
One of the days of the festival, when I was walking in the hall, I encountered a lot of people on the stairs, and among them, I saw Mohammad Javad Zarif. Zarif’s presence in the festival was widely reflected in the news agencies and quickly went viral in the virtual space. The vice president for planning and strategic supervision of the president appeared in the crowd of reporters with his always smiling face and said: Basically, art plays a very important role in diplomacy, because it speaks in a language that everyone can understand. Many people use documentary to distort history, of course, this is a tool that can be used to present a true narrative to the audience with an eloquent and attractive language.
Zarif explained about the importance of the “Cinema-Ghekrit” international festival: this festival is an opportunity for artists and people who are working hard and it is not clear that they will have a chance to be seen in the cinema. Through these festivals, these people get an opportunity to get to know the general audience and the people, and the people also get to know them and be able to use this art.
The fault of the sentence is what you said, also say its art
In this article, as much as we criticized the festival, it is not bad to mention the day and night efforts of the organizing staff of this event, friends and colleagues in the news and public relations department who, with respect and love, worked with the media people to organize this festival as well as possible. they do
Indeed, filmmakers and artists who are reading this report, this festival is still open today in the Charso campus, use the remaining opportunity and see the results of the efforts of the filmmakers.