In SASHKA (2018) – a short film by Katarzyna Lesisz that will be screened at 2019 Polish Film Festival Los Angeles, Sasha, a young Ukrainian, receives a message about death of a man with whom she took a fictional marriage to get Polish VISA. The funeral of her husband gives her an opportunity to meet her beloved Piotr, who arranged her marriage years ago and decided to leave her with no explanation. https://youtu.be/7uaXk__dUTw The following is our interview with Katarzyna Lesisz, director of SASHKA: Bijan Tehrani: How did you come up with the idea of SASHKA? Katarzyna Lesisz : I was always interested in telling…
Author: Bijan Tehrani
Bijan Tehrani
Bijan (Hassan) Tehrani Founder and Editor in Chief of Cinema Without Borders, is a film director, writer, and a film critic, his first article appeared in a weekly film publication in Iran 45 years ago. Bijan founded Cinema Without Borders, an online publication dedicated to promotion of international cinema in the US and around the globe, eighteen years ago and still works as its editor in chief. Bijan is has also been a columnist and film critic for the Iranian monthly film related medias for 45 years and during the past 5 years he has been a permanent columnist and film reviewer for Film Emrooz (Film Today), a popular Iranian monthly print film magazine. Bijan has won several awards in international film festivals and book fairs for his short films and children's books as well as for his services to the international cinema. Bijan is a member of Iranian Film Writers Critics Society and International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI). He is also an 82nd Golden Globe Awards voter.
“As an American-Iranian filmmaker I spent most of my life outside the U.S., therefore I had no idea how it is to live under the shadow of gun violence. When I moved to California 30 years ago, I tried hard to understand the love for guns. I tried to understand why people needed guns at home. I was told that this is our 2nd Amendment right and it is part of U.S. Constitution, so it is sacred. I also never understood why constitutions cannot be rewritten; why we think they are untouchable. There are many old and fanatic beliefs that…
I wish all the fans of cinema as art could attend 2019 Vancouver International Film Festival. I call this festival amazing as it offers one of the best collections of international and Canadian films, but it is not only the very strong line up of the festival that makes it so attractive to attend, but also all its side events, such as industry seminars, Q&A sessions, live screenplay reading and music performances. Vancouver International Film Festival runs for sixteen days from Thursday , Sep 26 to Friday Oct 11th. To learn more about 2019 Vancouver International Film Festival we interviewed Curtis Woloschuk, Associate…
Every month at Cinema Without Borders and CineEqual, we receive numerous emails and phone calls from independent, international filmmakers of social justice cinema, seeking help in making or distributing their projects. Help is wanted everywhere. On September 2nd, 2019 alone, social justice cinema filmmakers from the US, UK, Iran, Bangladesh, France, Pakistan, Germany, Canada, South Africa, and Thailand contacted us looking for help. Considering today’s world political climate that beckons for awareness of social justice issues, we have decided to introduce and spotlight organizations that offer support for independent filmmakers working on social justice projects. SIMA Studios, the organization we’re…
Cinema Without Borders has announced its jury members to decide the winner of 2019 GoE Bridging The Borders Award at the Lucas International Festival for Young Film Lovers, Germany. Also LUCAS – International Festival for Young Film Lovers programmers, have announced nominees for the Cinema Without Borders’ Bridging The Borders Award sponsored by Go Energistics. A jury of seven formed by CWB will decide the winning films and on September 26th at the festival’s award ceremony, Yeganeh Taheri, CWB Editor in Germany will announce Jury Honorary Mention Film. Then Adam B. Shepherd, President and Chief Executive Officer of Go Energistics, sponsor of…
The 14th edition of the International Exile Film Festival will run from November 8–14, 2019, at Gothenburg – Sweden. If you are a filmmaker living in exile, or an immigrant filmmaker or you have film related to immigrants and refugees problems, it’s now the time for submitting your film to the festival. The Exile Film Festival invites filmmakers and producers to participate in the 2019 edition of the festival. The Exile Film Festival is a free forum to screen films. The Exile Film Festival is a unique arena to support solidarity, justice, freedom, democracy and human rights across all borders through…
Honeyland is an amazing and beautiful documentary directed by Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov. The freshness and importance of the topic of the film, honesty of the filmmakers dealing with their subject and the magical structure of Honeyland makes it one of the best and exceptionally entertaining and informative documentaries of our time. I had the opportunity to speak to Tamara Kotevska & Ljubomir Stefanov in a Skype video interview.and ask them about making of Honeyland: Bijan Tehrani https://vimeo.com/351211822 Hatidze lives with her ailing mother in the mountains of Macedonia, making a living cultivating honey using ancient beekeeping traditions. When an…
The Mountain a film by Rick Alverson happens in 1950s America. Since his mother‘s confinement to an institution, Andy (Tye Sheridan) has lived in the shadow of his stoic father. A family acquaintance, Dr. Wallace Fiennes (Jeff Goldblum), employs the introverted young man as a photographer to document an asylum tour advocating for his increasingly controversial lobotomy procedure. As the tour progresses and Andy witnesses the doctor’s career and life unravel, he begins to identify with the institutions’ patients. Arriving at a California mountain town, a growing center of the New Age movement, they encounter an unconventional French healer who requests a lobotomy…
Jasmin Mozaffari’s directorial debut, Firecrackers, was named one of TIFF’s top ten Canadian films last year. The film follows two teenage friends, Lou and Chantal, who plan to ditch small-town life for the big city. These plans are thwarted when Chantal’s possessive ex-boyfriend assaults her, leading the women to take revenge. Jasmin Mozaffari’s directorial debut, Firecrackers, was named one of TIFF’s top ten Canadian films last year. The film follows two teenage friends, Lou and Chantal, who plan to ditch small-town life for the big city. These plans are thwarted when Chantal’s possessive ex-boyfriend assaults her, leading the women to…
Big World Pictures presents the US theatrical release of “I DO NOT CARE IF WE GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS BARBARIANS”, a film by Radu Jude. Named Best Feature at the 2018 Karlovy Vary International Film festival; official selection at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, and Romania’s official selection for the 2019 Academy Awards (Best Foreign Language Film), “I DO NOT CARE IF WE GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS BARBARIANS” will open at IFC Center in New York on July 19 and at Laemmle Monica in Los Angeles on July 26. Other cities will follow. “I do not care…