Author: Bijan Tehrani

KIDS FOR CASH is a riveting look behind the notorious scandal that rocked the nation. Beginning in the wake of the shootings at Columbine, a small town in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania elected a charismatic judge who was hell-bent on keeping kids in line. Under his reign, over 3,000 children were ripped from their families and imprisoned for years for crimes as petty as creating a fake MySpace page. When one parent dared to question this harsh brand of justice, it was revealed that the judge had received millions of dollars in payments from the privately-owned juvenile detention centers where the…

Written and directed by Jenée LaMarque, THE PRETTY ONE is a coming of age comedy about identity and a wallflower who finally learns how to break out of her shell. In a balancing act of a performance, Zoe Kazan portrays twins Laurel and Audrey, most poignantly as a relationship blooms with her new neighbor (Jake Johnson). As Laurel begins to slip into the life she has always wanted but never thought was possible, she must decide between continuing her life as Audrey and revealing herself as the perfect fraud. Jenée LaMarque, director of THE PRETTY ONE,  graduated from Stanford University…

Jordan, 1967. The world is alive with change: brimming with reawakened energy, new styles, music and an infectious sense of hope. In Jordan, a different kind of change is underway as tens of thousands of refugees pour across the border from Palestine. Having been separated from his father in the chaos of war, Tarek, 11, and his mother Ghaydaa, are amongst this latest wave of refugees. Placed in “temporary” refugee camps made up of tents and prefab houses until they would be able to return, they wait, like the generation before them who arrived in 1948. With difficulties adjusting to…

To a growing number of Mexicans and Latinos in the Americas, narco-traffickers have become iconic outlaws, glorified by musicians who praise their new models of fame and success. They represent a pathway out of the ghetto, nurturing a new American dream fueled by an addiction to money, drugs, and violence. From war photographer Shaul Schwarz comes NARCO CULTURA, an explosive look at the drug cartels’ pop culture influence on both sides of the border as experienced by an LA narcocorrido singer dreaming of stardom and a Juarez crime scene investigator on the front line of Mexico’s Drug War. Shaul Schwarz…

CONVERSATIONS ON SERIOUS TOPICS, directed by Giedre Beinoriute is Lithuanian’s Oscar entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Award. CONVERSATIONS ON SERIOUS TOPICS will be screened at The Fifteenth Anniversary Scandinavian Film Festival L.A. on Sunday January 26 at 1:30 PM. This is a film without exterior action, props, landscapes or special effects. Its main characters are children and teenagers with a special ability to describe the surrounding world. Intimate conversations with them reveal the picture of the modern world – at times melancholic, at times comical, at times dramatic. Shot in a minimalist fashion, the film raises questions about…

THE DISCIPLE, Finland’s Oscar entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Award will be screened at The Fifteenth Anniversary Scandinavian Film Festival L.A on Saturday January 25 at 4:30 PM. THE DISCIPLE happens An island in the Baltic Sea in the summer of 1939. Thirteen-year-old Karl has come to work as an assistant to Hasselbond, the lighthouse master. Hasselbond at first rejects the boy because of his age, but Karl, who has grown up in an orphanage struggles desperately to stay on, using every opportunity to demonstrate how hard he can work. Finally, Hasselbond accepts him. Karl and Hasselbond’s oppressed…

The Fifteenth Anniversary Scandinavian Film Festival L.A. comes to the Writers Guild Theater, Beverly Hills over two weekends: January 18-19, 25-26, 2014. The yearly showcase of Nordic films and filmmakers, launched in 2000, screens the year’s Scandinavian films submitted to the Academy as nominees for Best Foreign-Language Film as well as other current feature, documentary, and short films. James Koenig is someone whose voice is heard in various arts arenas. He graduated from Northwestern University with bachelors and masters degrees in voice continuing studies in Italy, Germany, and California. As a classical singer he has sung in opera and concert…

2014 Palm Springs International Film Festival will open on January 3rd and continue through January 13th. PSIFF has consistently proven to be a fantastic platform for international film exhibition, as well as an outstanding event for international film fans within the U.S. and abroad. Last week, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Darryl Macdonald, Director of the festival, and discussing the ins-and-outs of the 2014 PSIFF. Bijan Tehrani: We are getting close to the 2014 Palm Springs International Festival and it is always exciting for international film lovers! What should we expect to see this year?Darryl Macdonald: It…

George Hayward is the author of the fiction novel SOUL AFFLICTED, a godless man’s search for hope and faith. A native of Lynn, Mass., Hayward’s writing career began during his early college years as journalism major, when he interned at the Boston Globe and covered high school sports and features for his hometown newspaper, the now-defunct Lynn Sunday Post. In 1987 he began a 12-year stint in the U.S. Air Force that included assignments in Colorado Springs, Alaska, Kuwait and San Antonio. The last nine of those years were as an award-winning journalist. He was the 1993 Air Force Journalist…

THE GOOD ROAD , directed by Gyan Arora, is India’s Oscar Entry for the Best Foreign Language Award Film. THE GOOD ROAD deals with three storylines which cross each other on the film’s titular highway.Pappu is a truck driver. Supporting his parents and extended family is beyond his means. Now, he has been presented a plan. An accident will be staged. Pappu will “die”. Insurance payments are substantial.David and Kiran, a middle class urban couple, with their son Aditya, are on a holiday. Aditya will be accidentally separated from them during a brief halt at a Dhaba. And his loss…