Author: Bijan Tehrani

Dear readers, Our new year’s resolution was to find a better way to serve our readers across the globe. We are now happy to unveil our new look, and hope that you will be pleased with the results. We have worked for months with web programming experts to find the best platform to run CWB on, and have successfully rebuilt the site on the search engine-friendly Scorpio Informatics system. Now we can reach more readers, and enable interaction with social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Based on a survey we conducted in the summer of 2010,…

Darryl Macdonald is the Director of the Palm Springs International Film Festival and the Palm Springs International ShortFest and Short Film Market. He is the co-founder of The Seattle International Film Festival, and was its Executive and Artistic Director from 1975 – 2003. He served as the first Artistic Director of the Palm Springs Film Festival (1989 -1993) and the Hamptons Film Festival (1993 -1996) and was the Programming Director of the Vancouver International Film Festival (1988 -1992). He has also served as the Director of the Goodwill Games Film Festival, the Women in Cinema Festival and the Washington State…

GLWIZ.COM visitors and owners of the GLBOX , are now able to watch the Award wining film of Bahman Ghbodai, No one Knows About Persian Cats that has recently been added to the list of Iranian films available on VOD.Cinema Without Borders has interviewed Bahaman Ghobadi about making of No one Knows About Persian Cats.No one Knows About Persian Cats is the story of two young musicians that have recently been released from prison and decide to form a band. Together they search the underworld of contemporary Tehran for other players. Forbidden by the authorities to play in Iran, they…

Paper Birds is the sale of a group of Vaudeville performers caught in a war that has taken away everything they had and left them starving. Musician Jorge del Pino, ventriloquist Enrique Corgo, singer Rocio Moliner and an orphan named Miguel make up an unlikely family of lost souls, struggling to get by one day at a time, sharing their joys and sorrows and their only escape from the misery around them: their music. As it turns out, when bread is scarce, applause can really hit the spot.Living among the victorious and the vanquished, they’re too busy looking for something…

In Undertow, a unique, gay romance and ghost story set on the beautiful Peruvian coastline, a married fisherman struggles to reconcile his devotion to his male lover within his world’s rigid traditions. Miguel (Cristian Mercado), a young fisherman, devoted husband, and beloved community member is about to welcome his first child along with his beautiful bride, Mariela (Tatiana Astengo). But Miguel harbors a scandalous secret: He’s in love with Santiago (Manolo Cardona), a handsome painter, ostracized by the town because he’s both agnostic and gay. When Santiago drowns accidentally in the ocean’s strong undertow, he cannot pass peacefully to the…

An alumni of New York University’s Graduate School of Film & Television, David Schreiber worked as Director of Development and Creative Director for four different production companies, and now serves as director of a digital filmmaking program in Santa Monica, California. Bijan Tehrani: Since we spoke four years ago about international cinema in the United States; what are your opinions on the presence of International cinema in the US. David Schreiber: Well, I would like to be more optimistic than when we spoke four years ago, but unfortunately the economic forces that impact movie production in this country I suspect…

Duane Sider, director of learning for Rosetta Stone Ltd., is passionate about changing the way the world views language-learning. In his role, Duane has introduced Rosetta Stone solutions and the joy of the language-learning journey to a variety of audiences through numerous speaking engagements nationwide. Additionally, Duane has authored a number of articles and theory papers on immersion methodology in second-language acquisition. Duane joined Rosetta Stone’s international operations in 1997, became director of learning in 2003, directing domestic and international training programs, and assumed his current responsibilities in 2008. Prior to joining Rosetta Stone, he taught literature, religion and aesthetics…

Filmed over nearly three years, Wasteland follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world’s largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eclectic band of “catadores”—self-designated pickers of recyclable materials. Muniz’s initial objective was to “paint” the catadores with garbage. However, his collaboration with these inspiring characters as they recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage reveals both the dignity and despair of the catadores as they begin to re-imagine their lives. Director Lucy Walker (Devil’s Playground,…

Last week, CWB interviewed Jacqueline Lyanga, the Director of the American Film Institute’s annual film festival, to find out more information for our readers on the 2010 AFI FEST.Bijan Tehrani: Please tell us about your involvement at the festival and what we should expect to see this year at the event. Jacqueline Lyanga: This year at AFI fest presented by Audi, we have a really fantastic line-up! There will be a lot of similarities to the program in the past, namely because both myself and the executive of programming have been here for the past five years, so there isn’t…

Last week, we had an opportunity to interview David Naranjo, Director of Product Development for Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America, Inc. (MDEA) about 3D DLP technology.David Naranjo brings more than 15 years of experience in the consumer and commercial electronics industry to Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America, Inc. He is solely responsible for leading the product development teams for Mitsubishi’s Premium Line of 3D Ready Home Theater TVs, Premium LCD Flat panels and LaserVue products. He has also been leading Mitsubishi’s efforts and discussions with studios, content developers, and technology providers on the 3D front.Naranjo’s professional background includes a wide range of…