Author: Bijan Tehrani

MULBERRY CHILD is based on Jian Ping’s book Mulberry Child: A Memoir of China, the history of her coming-of-age under the brutality of Mao’s repressive Cultural Revolution. Told with the help of never-before-seen film footage inside the Cultural Revolution, MULBERRY CHILD, more than a journal of individual survival and family principles, is a lucid account of a dramatic period in China’s history.Susan Morgan Cooper was inspired to make her first documentary Mirjana… One Girl’s Journey, about a young Croatian girl displaced by The Balkan War. Her last documentary, the award winning An Unlikely Weapon was the story of photographer Eddie…

ESCAPE FIRE: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare tackles one of the most pressing issues of our time: how can Americans save their badly broken healthcare system?American healthcare costs are rising so rapidly that they could reach $4.2 trillion annually, roughly 20% of their gross domestic product, within ten years. Americans spend $300 billion a year on pharmaceutical drugs – almost as much as the rest of the world combined.ESCAPE FIRE also presents attainable solutions. After decades of resistance, a movement to bring innovative high-touch, low-cost methods of prevention and healing into our high-tech, costly system is finally gaining ground.…

In The Mill And The Cross, directed by Lech J. Majewski, we witness a translation of Pieter Bruegel’s 1564 epic masterpiece The Procession to Calvary into cinema. Lech J. Majewski mischievously invites the viewer to live inside the aesthetic universe of the painting as we watch its creation. As various lives unfold within the film frame, Bruegel, too, appears as a character—capturing shards of their desperate stories on his canvas-in-the-making. A vibrant meditation on art and religion as ongoing, layered processes of collective storytelling and reinterpretation, The Mill And The Cross is also a feast of stunning visual effects and…

On Saturday September 29 and during the Los Angeles Irish Film Festival there will be a fund raiser event to support The Solas Galway Picture Palace. The Solas Galway Picture Palace is the first dedicated non-profit arthouse cinema built in Galway City in the West of Ireland. The Picture Palace will screen films in the Irish language, documentary films, Irish-made films, independent worldwide features, classic & archival cinema, and retrospectives and will also cater for students, schools, young people and senior audiences.To learn more about this event we had an interview with the Irish international star Fionnula Flanagan.Fionnula Flanagan’s vast…

Tears of Gaza, an internationally acclaimed documentary about impact of the 2008 Gaza bombings on civilians and children, by filmmaker Vibeke Løkkeberg. After watching news reports from her home in Norway, Løkkeberg attempted to gain access to Gaza to report on events there, but discovered first-hand that international journalists were barred from entering the area. The denial of access further impelled her to report on the story, and she proceeded to gather raw footage from Palestinian cameramen and eye-witnesses living in Gaza who recorded bombings on smart phones. The result is an indelible cinematic experience and historical document that has…

In Americano Martin (Mathieu Demy) is a real-estate broker in his thirties living with his girlfriend Claire (Chiara Mastroianni) in Paris. Claire wants to start a family, but Martin can’t seem to commit. When news arrives from the United States that his estranged mother is dead, Martin sets off with dual passports in hand to tie up the loose ends of a rocky maternal relationship he hasn’t addressed since his childhood, when he returned to France with his father in the wake of his parents’ divorce in California.Arriving in Los Angeles, Martin is greeted by his mother’s best friend Linda…

How far would you go to get that dream job? Just what would you be willing to do? Four corporate warriors come together in one room to compete for one senior management position using The Grönholm Method: a system meant to separate the weak from the strong. But the weak may not be as futile as they appear. A wicked comedy that feels like a thriller, it’s a fool’s game of betrayals, reversals and manipulations that will keep you on the edge of your seat.The Grönholm Method is on stage in Falcon Theatre in Burbank. Bijan Tehrani: How did you…

Betroit, written and directed by Adel Serhan, is a portrayal of three couples as their lives become intertwined with one another. An act of violence disturbs the lives of the group and they come to realize how precious love and family can be. Leila (Darine Hamze) tries to escape from her abusive husband (Hassan Farhat) in hopes of fleeing to Detroit, where her sister Rola (Christine Solomon) lives. Lisa is desperately seeking a divorce from her husband Sam (Derek Kelly) in order to pursue a Hollywood career. She claims her husband physically abuses her in order to get Sam deported…

Last night, Sunday September 9/12 and at the residence of Czech Republic General Consul, I had the pleasure of listening to beautiful pieces of music played by Tereza Stanislav, Czech-Canadian violinist assistant concertmaster of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra since 2003. “Stanislav is a remarkably fine violinist. Her tuning was spot-on and there was a sense of ease in her performance that was completely captivating” writes Calgary Herald. During this memorable evening Janáček sonata for violin and piano & “Pohádka” for cello and piano & A. Dvořák´s Dumky piano trio were performed by Tereza Stanislav, Accompanied by Robert Thies on…

Recipient of the esteemed Teddy Award at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, Keep the Lights On, directed by Ira Sachs, chronicles an emotionally and sexually charged journey of two men in New York City through love, friendship, and addiction. Documentary filmmaker Erik (acclaimed Danish actor Thure Lindhardt in his first leading role in a U.S. film) and closeted lawyer Paul (Zachary Booth, Damages) meet through a casual encounter, but soon find a deeper connection and become a couple. Individually and together, they are risk takers—compulsive, and fueled by drugs and sex. In an almost decade-long relationship defined by highs,…