Author: Bijan Tehrani

5 Days of War is inspired by the real events of the swift-but-devastating, five-day war between Russia and Georgia in 2008. An American journalist (Rupert Friend) and his cameraman (Richard Coyle), have been caught in the combat zone during the first Russian airstrikes against Georgia. Rescuing Tatia (Emmanuelle Chriqui), a young Georgian schoolteacher from the attack, the two reporters agree to help reunite her with her family in exchange for her services as their interpreter. As the three attempt to escape to safety, they witness—and document—the devastation from the full-scale crossfire to the cold-blooded murder of innocent civilians. They desperately…

The Family Tree is the story of the dysfunctional Burnett family – Bunnie (Hope Davis), Jack (Dermot Mulroney) and their twin 17-year-olds, Eric (Max Thieriot) and Kelly (Britt Robertson). When a freak accident leaves Bunnie with a case of amnesia, the Burnetts get an unexpected second chance at happiness. Meanwhile, next door neighbor Simon (Chi McBride) is relieved that his tryst gone wrong with Bunnie remains undetected, at least for the moment. Before long, a slew of past relationships, kids with guns, a suicidal teacher, a very zealous religious club, misinterpreted advances, corporate down-sizing, and one fateful squirrel combine to…

The Goethe Institute of Los Angeles will have a screening of a series of German short films on Wednesday, August 24, under the title “Low Budget – High Energy”. I was lucky to get ahold of Teymour Tehrani (Yes, we share the same last name, but this is just coincidental!), producer of Light Years, and have a chat with him about the Wednesday screenings and filmmaking in Germany.Teymour was born on 1978 in Stuttgart, Germany. He has studied filmmaking at some of the top international film schools in the world and his films as director and producer have been nominated…

Senna is a very powerful documentary on life of Brazilian Formula One racing driver Ayrton Senna, who won the formula1 world championship three times before his death at age 34. Asif Kapadia, director of Senna is known for his visually striking films. He has an interest in exploring the lives of ‘outsiders’, characters living in timeless, extreme and unforgiving circumstances or landscapes. His films have been awarded and distributed internationally and shown how versatile and expressive British cinema can be. Born in Hackney, London in 1972, Kapadia studied filmmaking at the Royal College of Art where he first gained recognition…

Koran By Heart is about three 10-year-old kids – two boys and a girl – who come from all over the Islamic world to compete in Cairo’s prestigious Koran-recitation contest during Ramadan. The recitation of the Koran is a revered and deeply religious tradition, and this “Olympics of Koranic recitation” draws Muslim children from over 70 countries around the world.Nabiollah from Tajikistan, Djamil from Senegal and Rifdha (one of the few girls participating) from the Maldives must memorize 114 chapters, over 6,200 verses, and 200,000 words in Arabic – and not one of them is a native Arab speaker. Moreover,…

Honest Man: the Life of R. Budd Dwyer is a movie about politics and corruption, suicide and survival. Four years in the making, it explores the scandal that led an honest, hardworking man to take his own life. This independently produced feature-length documentary follows Budd Dwyer, a Pennsylvania politician who infamously committed suicide at a televised press conference.The film chronicles Dwyer’s meteoric rise to political power and examines the bribery scandal and subsequent trial that pushed him to his breaking point. Honest Man also delves into the controversy and consequences of the uncensored airing of Dwyer’s death on television stations…

I have been a film director for many years, mostly focused on documentary filmmaking, and my favorite aspect of filmmaking comes in the editing phase. There are more tools for editing a film now than ever before—you are not limited to just a Moviola. There are more technical editing tools, but there is no change in the nature of editing. Editing is a talent that few people have and takes years to perfect; like a musician writing music, you must be able to pick up the tempo of each film you edit. I like what non-linear and digital editing systems…

Produced by Cyril Colbeau-Justin and Jean-Baptiste Dupont, Point Blank stars Gilles Lellouche, Roschdy Zem, Gerard Lanvin and Elena Anaya. Lellouche plays Samuel, a nurse working at a hospital when his pregnant wife (Anaya) is kidnapped before his very eyes. Knocked unconscious, he comes to and discovers that a dangerous criminal named Sartet (Zem) is responsible, and if he’s ever to see his wife again, he must do Sartet’s bidding. Samuel quickly finds himself pitted against rival gangsters and trigger-happy police in a deadly race to save the lives of his wife and unborn child.The following is CWB’s interview with Fred…

Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects CS5 have introduced a revolutionary way for editing films and adding visual effects to them. To understand more about these two great products of Adobe, we talked to Steve Forde, Senior Product Manager, After Effects and Al Mooney, Product Manager, Adobe Premiere Pro.Bijan Tehrani: My first question is about After Effects and what are the new features that come with the 5.5 version. *Steve Forde: The big new features that we introduce in CS5.5 are things that we heard from a lot of our users who, with the advent of DSLR, are not…

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