According to Khabaronline news agency, Fethullah Amiri, the judge of the national competition section of the 18th Cinema Verity Festival, whose conclusion was held on December 25 at Vahdat Hall, said in an interview with ILNA: “In my opinion, Iranian documentary cinema is a living cinema because this cinema is growing.” is The works that were present in the festival this year show that our documentary cinema is moving forward.
Amiri pointed out: Iranian documentary cinema has made significant progress both technically and in terms of structure and content, because the films usually deal with current issues and are up-to-date works in terms of structure, and on the other hand, in technical issues such as filming equipment, color correction and Lighting, music composition, etc., this progress can be seen, and in my opinion, we had significant works in the 18th edition of the Cinemahegurit Festival.
He said about the variety of topics among the works included in this festival period: It was very interesting for me that in this festival we witnessed a lot of thematic variety among the works. Among the works of the festival, there were films with environmental, sports, social, political, etc. topics. This variety of topics is an interesting event for a festival in the national section, which of course makes the job of judging more difficult because the differences between the films were very large, but this variety definitely contributes to the attractiveness of the festival and brings satisfaction and welcome to more layers of cinema audiences.
This documentary director stated about the weaknesses of the 18th Haqit Cinema Festival: In addition to these positive points, in my opinion, the lack of independent cinema was one of the weaknesses of the Haqit Cinema Festival. On the other hand, the works of the broadcasting centers of the provinces were much weaker than usual, and I think that finally two films from these centers were present in the festival, which in my opinion is very worrying for documentary cinema, because television should produce more documentaries and this year compared to previous years In the past, we saw a weaker presence of radio and television, and I think the reason for this should be investigated.
He added: “Independent cinema had a more colorful presence in previous years, but this year, unfortunately, there were much fewer independent films in the festival, and this issue is one of the issues that should be further investigated and analyzed, because it seems that the cost of film production has increased greatly.” And less independent filmmakers have the possibility to produce works. Filmmaking today is very expensive, and I believe that this is the main reason for the weakening of independent cinema, and I think that if this situation continues, independent cinema will become weaker in the years to come.
Amiri stated: One of the interesting points of attention is the very good presence of the Center for the Development of Documentary, Experimental and Animated Cinema in the Haqit Cinema Festival. I have not worked with the Extension Center before, but this year there were a lot of good films from the Extension Center at the festival, which shows that there is good support for documentary cinema. What I mean by good movie is the right combination of content, structure and technical quality.
He added: “Each foreign festival has its own characteristics, but in my opinion, there were several films among the works of this period of Cinema-Hegrit that can have a successful presence in foreign festivals next year.” In general, our documentary cinemas have been much more successful than fiction films in foreign festivals, and although they may not have won awards such as Oscars and there was not much media atmosphere for these works, the fact is that documentary cinema has been present in the past decade at least. International has been stronger than fiction cinema, and if you compare the number of awards for this cinema with fiction cinema, you will understand this. I have been observing Iranian documentary cinema for years and I must say that this cinema is literally a living cinema.
The director of the documentary “Life in Cold Veins” emphasized: If we want to preserve the viability of our documentary cinema, we must also pay attention to the private and independent sector and support it. In the current situation, independent cinema needs support, and in my opinion, platforms can play a supporting role for documentary cinema, and attention should also be paid to this cinema in international broadcasting. If the economic cycle of documentary cinema flourishes, the productions of the independent sector will definitely increase, and these works can be present in the next periods of the festival along with other works produced by various institutions, and in this way, the festival will enjoy more prosperity and prestige.
Amiri said about the political films of the 18th Haqit Cinema Festival: One of the good features of this festival was the presence of political films, which seem to have moved the red lines a little, and for the first time we saw films that had serious criticisms of the government and cannot be considered neutral effects. Political documentary cinema is a cinema in which the private sector may not be able to participate alone, and it is necessary for security and political institutions to support these works so that the filmmaker has a strong support for criticism and does not get into trouble after making his work.
At the end of his statement, the director emphasized: We in the jury did our best to ensure that the rights of no film or filmmaker were lost, and I must say that there was no interference in the judging of the works, and even in the summary meeting of the jury, no one was present except the judges, and only after At the end of the meeting, Mr. Hamidi Moghadam thanked the jury and had no role in the selections and judgments.
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