Author: Bijan Tehrani

UCLA Film & Television Archive continue its long tradition tracing the unfolding of Iran’s fascinating national cinema. Continually offering compelling new voices and visions, Iranian film responds to a rich storytelling heritage and enters into crucial dialogue with other world cultural and artistic traditions in its unique interplay of social inquiry and formal experimentation. This edition of the UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema offers a panoply of genres and storytelling modes, sampling the contributions of an array of film artists, working in widely varying settings and focused on diverse topics. 2013 Celebration of Iranian Cinema opens April 13 and continues…

A palpable sense of unease hangs over a single city block in the coastal town of Recife, Brazil. Home to prosperous families and the servants who work for them, the area is ruled by an aging patriarch and his sons. When a private security firm is reluctantly brought in to protect the residents from a recent spate of petty crime, it unleashes the fears, anxieties and resentments of a divided society still haunted by its troubled past. Kleber Mendonça Filho, director of Neighboring Sounds, was born in 1968 in Recife, Brazil. He graduated with a degree in journalism and has worked…

In 1980 Stanley Kubrick released his classic horror film, THE SHINING. Over 30 years later, viewers are still struggling to understand its hidden meanings. Loved and hated by equal numbers, the film is considered a genre standard by many loyalists, while other viewers dismiss it as the lazy result of a legendary director working far below his talent level. In between these two poles, however, live the theories of ardent fans who are convinced they have decoded THE SHINING’s secret messages regarding genocide, government conspiracy, and the nightmare that we call history. Ascher’s ROOM 237 fuses fact and fiction through…

Filmistaan happens In Mumbai, where affable Bollywood buff and wanna-be-actor Sunny, who works as an assistant director, fantasizes on becoming a heart-throb star. However, at every audition he is summarily thrown out. Undeterred, he goes with an American crew to remote areas in Rajasthan to work on a documentary. One day an Islamic terrorist group kidnaps him for the American crew-member. Sunny finds himself on enemy border amidst guns and pathani-clad guards, who decide to keep him hostage until they locate their original target. The house In which he is confined belongs to a Pakistani, whose trade stems from pirated…

Babe’s and Ricky’s Inn, directed by Ramin Niami, chronicles the last days of one of the most unique and vibrant blues clubs in the world.For over fifty years, Laura Mae Gross ‘Mama’, an African American woman from Mississippi, brought musicians together, regardless of race, age, or gender, in a place where only the music mattered. The club was originally located on legendary Central Ave, in South Central LA. ‘Mama’ created a place where people such as Johnny Lee Hooker, BB King, Albert King, and others shared the stage with newcomers in an open, creative, and safe environment. The film shows…

Set on the French Riviera in the summer of 1915, Gilles Bourdos’ lushly atmospheric drama RENOIR tells the story of celebrated Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, in declining health at age 74, and his middle son Jean, who returns home to convalesce after being wounded in World War I. The elder Renoir is filled with a new, wholly unexpected energy when a young girl miraculously enters his world. Blazing with life, radiantly beautiful, Andrée will become his last model, and the wellspring of a remarkable rejuvenation. At the same time, Jean also falls under the spell of the free-spirited young Andrée.…

Two times a week, when I go from Santa Monica (where I teach), to the CWB office in Burbank, I have to face the notorious LA traffic—sometimes taking hours to complete the 20 mile trip. It was just a few weeks ago on a rare rainy day in L.A. when I experienced the worse traffic jam of my life. I had just entered the freeway, hoping that in an hour I would be in the office, finishing and posting a video report on an exhibition of Italian hats I was working on; I had promised a few people that this…

Dr. Amir Hooshang Kavoosi, Iranian Film Historian and filmmaker passed away today in a Tehran Hospital. Mr. Kavoosi that had his film education in France, for decades helped to educate thousands of film students that are now well-known filmmakers working in Iran and outside the country. Mr. Kavoosi was also a film critic that fought for years to bring awareness to the audiences against the main stream Iranian Films made before the revolution (most of them copies of cheesy Hollywood and Bollywood films) and used the term “Farsi Films” for them, indicating that the only relationship of these films to…

The LEE STRASBERG Theatre & Film Institute, one of the most prestigious acting schools for theater and film students in the world, has sponsored Cinema Without Borders Awards at a plethora of different film festivals and events. The most recent of these occasions is the Cinema Without Borders and Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute’s “Young Acting Talent Award”, given to Golsa Nesari. The Iranian-born actress, also a recent “Queen of the Universe” winner in addition to her Top 10 finish at the Miss Universe pageant, received a certificate for an upcoming Method Acting Intensive provided by The Lee Strasberg…

As a traditional film editor, I have constantly been searching for tools that simulate old-school methods. One of the programs that is being heavily used in current Film and TV editing is Avid Media Composer. Independent and international filmmakers has always the impression that Avid Media Composer is a very expensive package only targeted for the major studios, not the average filmmaker or film editor. The reality is, however, that the price of media composer has fallen drastically during the last few years. Now, it is affordable for many of us who are looking for a professional and serious solution…