Author: Bijan Tehrani

The Hollywood Brazilian Film Festival and Market was created to bridge the gap between Hollywood, the world film community and the Brazilian Film Industry. Financiers from both Hollywood and Latin America will meet for daily seminars designed to highlight bilateral business opportunities and new film financing opportunities for both Hollywood and the Latin American film community. HBFF is the first Hollywood-based film festival dedicated to addressing the cultural-creative and commercial exchange between Hollywood, the international film industry and the Brazilian Film Community.To learn more about the Hollywood Brazilian Film Festival we had an interview with Talize Sayegh, Executive Producer/Founder of…

How to Die In Oregon is an extraordinarily powerful, compassionate and intimate exploration of Oregan’s historic and controversial Death with Dignity Act, which legalizes physician aid-in- dying for some terminally ill patients. Since Oregon became the first state in the nation to pass such a law in 1994, more than 500 Oregonians have taken advantage of it. Sagner was the 343rd, and he is one of a half-dozen terminally ill people whom filmmaker Peter Richardson (“Clear Cut: The Story Of Philomath, Oregon”) follows as they struggle with whether, and when to end their lives by lethal overdose.Bijan Tehrani: How did…

The First Grader begins in a remote mountain top primary school in the Kenyan bush, hundreds of children are jostling for a chance for the free education newly promised by the Kenyan government. One new applicant causes astonishment when he knocks on the door of the school. He is Maruge, an old Mau Mau veteran in his eighties, who is desperate to learn to read at this late stage of his life. He fought for the liberation of his country and now feels he must have the chance of an education so long denied—even if it means sitting in a…

Over the past two decades, Belgian cinema, either from Flanders or from the French speaking part of the country, has risen to prominence in the international filmmaking arena, boasting richly diverse films that consistently garner critical praise and worldwide anticipation. Last year, the Consulate General of Belgium in Los Angeles launched a monthly Belgian Film Series in partnership with the American Cinemathèque as a celebration of Belgium’s Presidency of the European Union in the second half on 2010. Thanks to the great success of the series, ‘Grit and Whimsy’ has returned on a permanent basis. Each third Wednesday of the…

Love During Wartime is the real, modern-day tale of Romeo and Juliet. Two fated lovers fighting against the world with their only weapon: Love. In the middle of the smoke and debris, from the most well-known running conflict in the world is Osama, a Palestinian Muslim artist. Jasmin is an Israeli Jew who is a dancer and a daughter of a German Jewish immigrant. Israeli bureaucracy filled with suspicion and a menacing Palestinian society make their life a nightmare. All they want to do is create a new life together removed from politics, religion and history. But, of course, this…

Cookie is a short film directed by Enuka Okuma. The film tells the story of a beautiful young woman named Cookie who is told “not to bother” showing up at work; she retreats into the safety of home with her charming, mischievous, and jobless husband, Johnny. Cookie and Johnny venture deep into a fun and infantile world of their own, completely void of responsibility. When a meeting of Cookie’s book club is held at their house, the couple’s existence is challenged by the attention Cookie receives from handsome newcomer Patrick, and by the concern Cookie’s best-friend Rachel has regarding Cookie’s…

South East European Film Festival-L.A. is an annual event where film devotees are able to see the best of South East European films. Fueled by her passion for film and love of introducing new films, Founder and Director of the festival, Vera Mijojlic, has been the driving force behind the event’s growth and popularity. To learn more about SeeFest 2011, we sat down with Vera for an interview. Bijan Tehrani: What is new in SeeFest 2011?Vera Mijojlic: Plenty of new: new web site, new promo, new people on the team….SeeFest is getting better design, and I am very happy with…

DLP Cinema and DLP technology makes Texas Instrument a great player in Digital Film Projection in movie theaters. To have more information about this field, we had an interview with Dave Duncan, is the Manager for DLP Cinema® Products. DLP® is the award winning digital projection technology enabling high quality projection in businesses, homes, professional venues, classrooms and movie theaters worldwide. Dave’s responsibilities include business strategy, product direction, marketing and overall operations for both the DLP Cinema and DLP HDTV businesses. Prior to his current role, Dave spent eight years working with DLP Cinema customers and the entertainment industry to…

When notary Lebel (Rémy Girard) sits down with Jeanne and Simon Marwan (Mélissa Désormeaux Poulin, Maxim Gaudette) to read them their mother Nawal’s will (Lubna Azabal), the twins are stunned to receive a pair of envelopes – one for the father they thought was dead and another for a brother they didn’t know existed.In this enigmatic inheritance, Jeanne sees the key to Nawal’s retreat into unexplained silence during the final weeks of her life. She immediately decides to go to the Middle East to dig into a family history of which she knows next to nothing.Simon is unmoved by their…

When the USSR broke apart in 1991, a generation of young people faced a new realm of possibilities. An intimate epic about the extraordinary lives of this last Soviet generation, Robin Hessman’s feature documentary, My Perestroika, tells the stories of five Moscow schoolmates who were brought up behind the Iron Curtain, witnessed the joy and confusion of glasnost, and reached adulthood right as the world changed around them. Through candid first-person testimony, revealing verité footage, and vintage home movies, Hessman—who spent many years living in Moscow—reveals a Russia rarely ever seen on film; where people are frank about their lives…