Radio Dreams, a UK film directed by Iranian/British filmmaker, Babak Jalali had a very successful release in US and to find out more about making of Radio Dreams, we had a video interview with Babak Jalali. Radio Dreams creates the odd yet very real world of PARS-FM – a Farsi-language radio station broadcasting from the heart of San Francisco. The story unfolds over a single day as the station’s program manager, Hamid – a brilliant, misunderstood Iranian writer (played by the “Iranian Bob Dylan” Mohsen Namjoo) – prepares for a triumphant broadcast – a live performance pairing Metallica and Kabul…
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.
Evzen Kolar, a friend of international cinema has left our world. At Cinema Without Borders we offer our deepest condolences to his family and friends, he will surly be missed. The following article about Evzen Kolar has been published in Screen Daily Evzen Kolar, the Czech-born producer of The Boys & Girl From County Clare and City Of Industry, has died in California after a brief illness. He was 67. Kolar was born in Moravia in the Czech Republic to a diplomat and got his first taste of entertainment as a child actor, before becoming an assistant director in Europe on…
Paladin presents the Los Angeles theatrical premiere of Pamela Yates’ latest documentary, 500 Years on July 28 at the Laemmle Monica. The film, which played to standing ovations at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, is the third and final installment in the filmmaker’s epic cinematic trilogy, The Resistance Saga, which also includes Yates’ seminal human rights films When the Mountains Tremble (1982) and Granito: How to Nail a Dictator(2011). 500 Years will have its U.S. theatrical premiere on July 12 at New York’s IFC Center, followed by the Los Angeles opening on July 28 and a release in select cities. Timed to coincide with awards season,…
Women Make Movies all over the world….and they were part of two international events this month. As part of the US State Department and USC’s American Film Showcase cultural exchange program, the US Embassy in Tanzania brought our ED, Debra Zimmerman to the Zanzibar International Film Festival to lead a workshop for women filmmakers called WOMEN MAKE MOVIES. Co-facilitated by Aylin Basaran and Priscilla Mlay, 15 East African women filmmakers took part in the 5 day workshop and then pitched their projects. As part of our expanding international webinar program, WMM has given all the women free access to all…
THE FENCER, directed by Klaus Härö is strory of a young man, Endel Nelis, that arrives in Haapsalu, Estonia, in the early 1950s. Having left Leningrad to escape the secret police, he finds work as a teacher and founds a sports club for his students. Endel becomes a father figure to his students and starts teaching them his great passion – fencing, which causes a conflict with the school’s principal. Envious, the principal starts investigating Endel’s background… https://youtu.be/7L-0FyxZ5t0 Endel learns to love the children and looks after them; most are orphans because of the Russian occupation. Fencing becomes a form…
At a time when physical, religious, racial, cultural, and economic borders divide the population of our planet, efforts to bridge those borders should be appreciated. In that spirit, Cinema Without Borders presents Bridging the Borders Award to the films that are most successful in bridging and connecting the people of our world closer together. Bridging The Borders Award is offered at Palm Springs International Film Festival, Palm Springs International ShoerFest Film Festival, Southeast European Film Festival, LA and Polish Film Festival, LA. Bridging The Borders Award has been sponsored by HP for the Palm Springs International Film Festival and Palm…
PANTHEON (France), directed by Ange-Régis Hounkpatin, as the winner of HP’s 2017 Bridging the Borders Award, presented by Cinema Without Borders at the Palm Springs International ShortFest. This year’s festival was held at Palm Springs’ Camelot Theatre. The Editor-in-Chief of CWB, Bijan Tehrani, and filmmaker, jury member Susan Morgan Cooper presented the award for this year’s HP Bridging the Borders winner. The winner received a HP ZBook 15 Mobile Workstation. An approximate $2500 value awarded from our generous sponsors. The 12 nominees for the 2016 HP’s Bridging The Borders Award were: Eyes of Exodus (USA/Greece), Facing Mecca (Switzerland), Facing the…
Two times winner of Cinema Without Borders Seal Of Excellence Award, Palm Springs International ShortFest Film Festival receives about 4,200 submissions from over 100 countries around the globe. Approximately 325 shorts are selected and screened in 90-minute themed programs, with many of the remaining titles available for viewing our Film Market. https://youtu.be/6-Id8CujiqM An Oscar and BAFTA qualifying festival, ShortFest has presented more than 100 shorts that have gone on to receive Oscar nominations and/or awards. The festival also includes the ShortFest Forum, a series of panels, master classes and roundtable discussions designed to provide emerging filmmakers with both the knowledge…
At Cinema Without Borders we had the opportunity of talking to the Academy Award winner director of The Promise, Terry George about the process of making it. The Promise happens in 1914. As the Great War looms, the mighty Ottoman Empire is crumbling. Constantinople, the once vibrant, multicultural capital on the shores of the Bosporus, is about to be consumed by chaos. https://youtu.be/vHaxt_FpPvY Michael Boghosian (Oscar Isaac), arrives in the cosmopolitan hub as a medical student determined to bring modern medicine back to Siroun, his ancestral village in Southern Turkey where Turkish Muslims and Armenian Christians have lived side by…
The 12th edition of SEEfest opens at the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills with gala screening of Croatian film The Constitution on April 27 at 7:00 PM and runs for a full week through May 4 at Laemmle’s Music Hall, Goethe-Institut, and West Hollywood Library campus. Join the festival audience and enjoy 8 days of screenings, panels, the Business of Film Conference, events and networking. https://youtu.be/wZ7YBnyMeuE To buy your festival pass go to the festival site. Your pass gives you access to all films and events, conversations with festival guests, Opening and Closing galas. Don’t miss this year’s great…