Keyvan Kathirian Referring to tonight’s cultural debate, the film critic stated that his question to the candidates is, how much is culture and art their priority?
to report cinema cinema, Keyvan Kathirian The film critic and writer said about the presidential candidate’s debate tonight on July 11, 2018 and what issues this debate can include in the field of culture: What we like and what we want is a debate, but the more important debate is that the candidates in general How much do the fields of culture and art have in each field? It is important for us that culture is the priority of anyone who wants to run the country. But apparently, in most cases, this was not and is not the case. As if for officials, culture is only decorative.
He added: For me and many others, it is important for the person who wants to be the president to say what movie he saw last time or what book he read and whether he went to the theater or not. The candidates may believe that the theater is not useful for the president, and as a result, they sometimes choose ministers who do not have the necessary knowledge and skills in the field of culture and art. This lack of knowledge and lack of mastery over art is exploited and then sometimes they are surrounded by those who either did not pass a good test before or are not in the art scene at all or on the contrary they are opportunistic people and they know that because culture is not the priority of the president, whatever they do in If they want a visual space, cinema, theater, etc., they will do it.
Stating that culture is not among the priorities, Kathirian said: “Unfortunately, the candidates still talk about politics when they sit at the cultural roundtable.” Even in the cultural round table, the general aspect of culture is mostly looked at, and as we saw in the previous debates, there was no discussion about art.
He said about how much art can be covered in a 2-hour debate: After all, a few sentences should be devoted to art in the 2-hour program that is broadcast. But the problem is that art is not a priority now, and worse than that, it is unfortunately not a priority for the people because their pockets are empty, and you cannot expect someone who has empty pockets to be concerned with theater and cinema.
In another part of his speech, Kathirian mentioned the importance of culture: In the previous round, some candidates showed that culture and ethics are not important to them because they said words that contained lies and accusations and lacked honesty.
He clarified about his question to the candidates at this time of few debates: Candidates should say what is the favorite movie of Sehan? Have they seen the theater? This is important for those who are concerned about the dignity of books, art and cinema. Cultural people may want to make a decision based on this. At the same time, they don’t want to know if these candidates listen to music at all? Have you ever been to the gallery? Candidates should say what is the priority of culture for them and where is it in their life? They have played games so far that they want to be decisive about this. These are not big issues on the surface, but they are definitely equally important and some people can gain knowledge based on this.
This film critic said about his other question to the candidates: I would like to know what the candidates think about audit and supervision in culture and art? Our main problem is that the artist cannot speak easily, while criticism is at the heart of creating a work of art, and the artist must be able to say anything with his art.
He added: Many of these audits should be abandoned and nothing will happen. Maybe the movies that were banned and after some time were allowed to be screened or broadcast. My question is, according to the candidates, how should the government view art or social and critical art? It’s been a long time since we’ve had a serious social critic movie, all the movies have become comedies because according to some officials, the artist is not supposed to speak seriously, but he can even have a low-level joke.
Kathirian also stated in the discussion of supporting artists: people of culture should know what the candidates’ views are about supporting artists. Many great artists are sitting at home and not working, what program is there to support these people?
In the end, he pointed to the part of the people who did not participate in the first phase of the elections and said: “Don’t think it unlikely that part of the low participation of the people will return to this closed cultural space.”
Source: Mehr