I have been following Houman Seyyedi’s work as a filmmaker and witnessed his artistic growth through his last four feature films—Africa (2010), Thirteen (2012), Confessions of My Dangerous Mind (2014), and Sound and Fury (2016). Houman Seyyedi is not only a film director, but an author as well. He has his own way of telling stories creating worlds and he writes, directs and edits his film, as well as having a hand in the sound and music. Now in Sheeple (Maghz-haye Kuchak Zang Zadeh), Houman takes a big step forward and comes up with an extraordinary and shocking film which…
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.
Cinema Without Borders is proud to present GoE Bridging The Borders Award for the 11 Consecutive year at the prestigious SEEfest, South East European Film Festival LA. GoE Bridging The Borders Award offered by Cinema Without Borders and sponsored by GoEnergistics, goes to a feature film that helps bringing people of our world closer together. Winner will be announced on May 6th during the closing ceremony of the 14th Edition of the festival at the Writer’s Guild theater. Jury members for Bridging the Borders Award assigned by SEEfest are: Jan Cvitkovič Jan Cvitkovič, the Slovanian filmmaker, is an Archeologist, writer, director.…
When I am not touched by a film, I prefer to avoid writing about it and share a critic’s review with our visitors. Tehran, City Of Love, with no doubt is a well made film by a talented film director, it follows the life of three depressed characters all through the film with dark humor. One of the characters is a middle-aged man who is a body building instructor and fails in romantically attracting a young man that is his student. The other character is a depressed man that sings in memorial ceremonies and finds the opportunity of becoming a…
Bomb, a Love Story is about love and war, or better to say, how cruelty of war helps blossoming of a love. The story of Bomb, a Love Story happens during the Tehran bombardments during Iran/Iraq war and creates the atmosphere and mood of the city on those dark and unforgettable days quite faithfully. Bomb, a Love Story will be screened on May 10, 2019 – 7:30 pm at Billy Wilder Theater as part of UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema. Iraj (Payman Maadi) and Mitra (Leila Hatami) are a couple that have troubled relationship. Iraj is bothered by the fact that his wife, before their marriage…
Kamran Heidari creates the genre of his own. His films are new kind of dacudrama and dacufiction, while he never leaves his real characters and real events, he turns them masterfully to an impressive drama. One of his latest films, Ali Agha, reminds me the Italian Neorealist cinema and specially films like Vittorio De Sica’s Umberto D, where the main character in both films are struggling for survival, they are old and they both have a deep affection for their animal companions. Umberto has a hard time to let his little dog go and Ali Agha can’t leave his pigeons.…
Today, Monday April 15th 2019, is the 20th anniversary of the first release of HOME PAGE, a film by documentary filmmaker, Doug Block. In 1996 Doug fascinated by this new thing called the internet, trains his wry, analytical lens on the burgeoning home page (i.e. blogging) phenomenon. He soon falls under the spell of 21-year old cyber superstar Justin Hall, whose literally bare-all online diary spares no details about friends, family, lovers and, inevitably, Block himself. When Hall goads the filmmaker into keeping his own online diary, the story takes an unexpectedly personal turn, with hilarious and deeply affecting results. This…
If you are a fan of international cinema and you live in Los Angeles, you should not miss Czech That Film, a festival that screens the latest and the best of Czech Republic cinema. Aneta Campbell, Cultural Affairs Officer at Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Los Angeles gave us a little bit of info to the history of the Czech That Film festival: “Czech That Film festival was established in 2012. The very first festival was held in cooperation of our Consulate in Los Angeles with Czech Film Center. The first screenings were held at the Cinefamily, which was my personal…
Four films from Kamran Heidari, well-known Iranian filmmaker is now playing at the Spectacle movie theater in New York. NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS Tuesday April 2 – 7:30 PM Tuesday April 16 – 7:30 PM Q & A TUESDAY, APRIL 16 – 7:30 PM followed by a Skype Q&A with Kamran Heidari Thursday April 25 – 7:30 PM DINGOMARO Wednesday April 3 – 7:30 PM Thursday April 11 – 10 PM Sunday April 14 – 5 PM Wednesday April 24 – 10 PM ALI AQA Thursday April 4 – 7:30 PM Monday April 15 – 7:30 PM Friday April 19…
The Ford Foundation is hosting an event on April 8th for Brave New Films’ FOLLOWING THEIR LEAD: YOUTH IN ACTION series. Rohan Chand the young actor from BAD WORDS and MOWGLI will be introducing the organizations in this event. Anyone interested to social justice issues would like to be in the ‘room where it happens’. Historically, that room has been strictly limited and the people who are most directly affected by the outcomes discussed in these rooms aren’t invited to participate. Here is our video interview with Jim Miller, Executive Director of Brave New Films. https://vimeo.com/327862698 On April 8th Brave New Films will share…
Rayka Zehtabchi is a 25-year-old Oscar winning Iranian-American director based in Los Angeles. Her directorial debut, Madaran, is an Iranian language short that won Jury awards at top film festivals and qualified for the 89th Academy Awards in 2016. She is the very first Iranian woman and second Iranian filmmaker to win an Oscar. In an video interview with Cinema Without Borders and CineEqual, she told us about the effects of her Iranian root in her plans as a filmmaker, https://vimeo.com/323559274 Rayka’s Oscar winning short documentary, Period. End of Sentence. can be seen on Netflix worldwide, and is about a group…