Author: Bijan Tehrani

Cinema Italian Style 2013 opens November 14th at the Egyptian theatre with the U.S. premiere of Paolo Sorrentino’s THE GREAT BEAUTY, Italy’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film for the 2013 Academy Awards®. Sorrentino will be joined on the red carpet by Academy Award Winner Bernardo Bertolucci. Both directors will receive the Cinema Italian Style Award prior to the film screening. The opening night presentation is in collaboration with AFI FEST which will be presenting THE GREAT BEAUTY in its World Cinema program. Here is an interview with Alberto Di Mauro, director of the Italian Cultural Institute, Los Angeles about…

A Cinema of Discontent: Film Censorship in Iran, the latest film from Jamsheed Akrami, an Iranian/American filmmaker, deals with problems of filmmaking and censorship in Iran. Last week, we had the opportunity of speaking to Jamsheed Akrami about his film and estate of the filmmaking in Iran. Dr. Jamsheed Akrami is a former editor of the Iranian film magazines Film and Art and Film Quarterly. He has published extensively on Iranian cinema, presented dozens of lectures, curated several film series, and produced a number of films and videos, including a trilogy of feature-length documentaries on Iranian cinema: The Lost Cinema,…

Aglaya, the Hungarian film was adapted by, Director Krisztina Deák from Aglaja Veteranyi’s novel “Why the Child is Cooking in the Polenta”. The film centers on a very young girl who grows up in a family of circus artists from Eastern Europe. Their life of interdependence is a constraint and curse, as well as a source of joy, until the day the small community is torn apart. Aglaya will be screened at Hungarian Film Festival, Los Angeles. Bijan Tehrani: What inspired you to make Aglaya?Krisztina Deák: The story of my film is based on Aglaja Veteranyi’s autobiographical novel. For my…

AFI FEST 2013 will run from November 7 to November 14. As in years passed, we had the opportunity to interview Jacqueline Lyanga, Festival Director, the American Film Institute’s (AFI) annual film festival in Los Angeles.For Jacqueline Lyanga, it’s a position that she has held since 2010, but she has worked for AFI since 2005 as a programmer and producer of year-round and festival programs. Ms. Lyanga travels all over the world to most of the major international film festivals and markets to find films to showcase to AFI FEST’s Los Angeles audience. Prior to working for AFI FEST, Jacqueline…

THE SQUARE captures the immediacy and intensity of the revolution from the nexus of Cairo’s Tahrir Square, catapulting us into the action from the 2011 overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, through military rule, and culminating with the ousting of Mohamed Morsi in the summer of 2013. The film provides a kaleidoscopic, visceral portrait of the events as they unfold through the eyes of several passionate activists—including one member of the Muslim Brotherhood and a young liberal, Khalid Abdalla, who has acted in films like THE KITE RUNNER. Armed with nothing more than cameras, social media, videos posted to YouTube, and a…

Wednesday, October 2 was the opening performance for Danny DeVito and Judd Hirsch in Neil Simon’s “The Sunshine Boys” at the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre. Directed by Thea Sharrock, “The Sunshine Boys” continues through November 3, 2013. Joining Danny DeVito and Judd Hirsch is Justin Bartha, with Annie Abrams, Matthew Bohrer, Benjamin Burdick, Gibby Brand, Johnnie Fiori, Frank Kopyc and PaSean Wilson. Set and costume design by Hildegard Bechtler, lighting design by Neil Austin, music by Adrian Johnston and sound design by Cricket S. Meyers. Casting is by Jim Carnahan with Los Angeles casting by Mark B. Simon. The production…

DISLECKSIA: THE MOVIE is an engaging documentary that weaves vintage classroom footage, celebrity interviews and the comedic touch of dyslexic director Harvey Hubbell V into an engrossingly entertaining film on a serious subject. In the first film to discuss dyslexia as a learning difference, not a learning disability, Hubbell rallies a team of celebrated neuroscientists, heroic educators, high profile celebrities and business leaders with dyslexia who are advocates of Harvey’s beliefs. The subjects of the film showcase the most up-to-date information and in doing so, a blueprint emerges on how best to manage this learning difference that up to 1.4…

Imagine, directed by Andrzej Jakimowski will be screened on October 12 and 13 during Polish Film Festival, Los Angeles Ian, a spatial orientation instructor, arrives at a world-renowned Lisbon clinic for the visually impaired to work with blind patients. It is his task to help them become more confident and allow them to explore their surroundings without feeling vulnerable or afraid – and without a white cane. The clinic’s international community greets his unorthodox methods with both anticipation and skepticism. For Ian, orientation flows from the mind and imagination – then sensory perception follows. He quickly wins the trust of…

Inspired by real events, The Closed Circuit, directed by Ryszard Bugajski is a compelling, strongly performed political thriller about greed and corruption in contemporary Gdansk, Poland, where some high-flying new entrepreneurs fall victim to the machinations of the city’s entrenched powers. The action begins in 2003, as young businessmen throw a grand fete to open their new factory. They’re partners in a fast-growing, highly successful company called Navar, which produces high-tech electronics using state-of-the-art equipment from Denmark. Lurking on the fringes of the festivities like some malevolent spider is district prosecutor Andrzej Kostrzewa (Janusz Gajos). A Communist Party stalwart from way…

CELEBRATION OF PALESTINIAN CULTURE is an enlightening cultural festival that shares stories of the Holy Land and celebrates Palestinian creativity. To enrich participants’ experience of Palestinian culture, CELEBRATION is a multimedia experience with an art exhibition, feature film screenings followed by Q&As with the directors, public conversations, and live performances by the avant-garde Diyar Dance Theatre from Bethlehem, and the international Palestinian hip-hop sensation, DAM. To learn more about this event we talked to Jordan Elgrably, director of the Levantine Cultural Center. Bijan Tehrani: Could you please tell us about your involvement in the Palestinian events and what motivated you…