Author: Bijan Tehrani

Three years in the making, this cinéma-vérité feature from Joe Berlinger is the epic story of one of the largest and most controversial environmental lawsuits on the planet. The inside story of the infamous “Amazon Chernobyl” case, Crude is a real-life high stakes legal drama, set against a backdrop of the environmental movement, global politics, celebrity activism, human rights advocacy, the media, multinational corporate power, and rapidly-disappearing indigenous cultures. Presenting a complex situation from multiple viewpoints, the film subverts the conventions of advocacy filmmaking, exploring a complicated situation from all angles while bringing an important story of environmental peril and…

Each year over eight million families around the world suffer the loss of a child. In Jennifer Steinman’s moving and inspiring documentary film, Motherland, a 17-day trip to South Africa transforms the lives of six grieving women from across the US. Unexpectedly and eight thousand miles from home, each finds comfort and healing in a landscape that appears, at first, to offer little more than melancholy.Prior to their journey, the six intrepid women featured in the film have each suffered the death of a child but otherwise have little in common. And although the anticipation of a long, emotional journey…

Iranian Film Festival (IFF) is an annual event showcasing the independent feature and short films made by or about the Iranians from around the world. IFF is also a platform for the Iranian filmmakers living around the globe to express their vision and talent through the artistic medium of film. Iranian Film Festival (IFF) was established to celebrate the Iranian film and culture in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Here is an interview with Saeed Shafa director of the festival.Bijan Tehrani: Please tell us a little bit about the Iranian Film Festival in San Francisco; when it was…

Five Minutes to Heaven happens in Lurgan, Northern Ireland. In 1975 a low level civil war has been underway, with the IRA targeting British loyalists and the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force exacting revenge on Catholics they claim are militant republicans. Alistair Little, 16 is the leader of a UVF cell, eager to be blooded. He and his gang are given the go ahead to kill a young Catholic man, James Griffin, as a reprisal and a warning to others. When the hit is carried out, Joe Griffin – the 11-year old little brother of the target – watches in horror…

Anna Easteden was born in Finland and raised on her parents’ dairy farm. Anna Easteden enjoys a career rich in experience and wide in range as an international model, TV, stage and screen actress, and humanitarian activist. Easteden is known for her performance as Bee Sting on “Who Wants to Be a Superhero?” as well as notable co-starring roles on “Bones,” “Days Of Our Lives” and “Passions.” She also played Nicole Brown Simpson in a Japanese TV movie and took on a lead role in the short film “Harmless,” winner of 2 prestigious film festival awards. Personally recruited by multi-award…

Payam’s approach to photography and lighting is to contextualize the subject as best as possible- He undertakes this approach by setting the subject in the environment that best represents who they are and how they relate to it. The preproduction process involves extensive location scouting, lighting design and research on his subjects so that he is able to arrive to the shoot prepared with knowledge to not only execute technical photograph but also to connect with his sitters based on his previous research as well as the magic that happens during a sitting to create a photograph that truly represents…

Off Jackson Avenue is an interwoven crime story set in New York City involving a Mexican woman (Jessica Pimentel) who has been tricked into sex-slavery by an Albanian pimp (Stivi Paskoski) and must find a way to break out; A Japanese hit man(Jun Suenaga) who is in town to do a job for the Chinese mob and must finish his assignment despite the fact that he is haunted by his recently-dead mother’s ghost; And a local car-thief (John-Luke Montias) who must go on one last stealing spree to raise enough money to buy a tire store and go legit. A…

SMILE ‘TIL IT HURTS: The Up With People Story explores the clean-cut, smile-drenched singing phenomenon Up With People. Since 1965, this peppy youth group has sung to 20 million people worldwide, performed at four Superbowl halftime shows, and been parodied on The Simpsons and South Park. Talent was not required of its members, just a common enthusiastic vision to change the world one squeaky-clean song at a time. But its cheery façade concealed the more complicated reality of an organization founded on conservative American ideals and cult-like utopian ideology.Up With People was born in response to the liberal counter-culture of…

While the Danish population hopes for a swift end to the war, freedom fighters Bent Faurschou-Hviid (23), alias Flame (THURE LINDHARDT), and Jørgen Haagen Schmith (33), alias Citron (MADS MIKKELSEN), secretly put their lives at stake fighting for the Resistance. The fearless and uncompromising Flame is a dedicated anti-fascist who dreams of the day when their group will reassemble and openly launch an armed counterattack at the occupying power. The more sensitive family man Citron primarily works as a driver for Flame, but now finds himself becoming more deeply involved in clandestine activities.When their immediate superior, Aksel Winther, orders them…

The moon looks down. A stranger arrives in the city looking for the same things we all wish for: work, love and respect. His name is Huso. He is a young Kurdish man unable to speak English, unfamiliar with his surroundings and without friends or family in this area of north London – Kingsland. We travel with Huso; dipping into other people’s lives; George, the fatherly Greek Cypriot who runs a market café, the harsh and controlling Mehmet, Fatma, a sad and lonely woman, Laila, her beautiful daughter who is married to a local gangster. Each person adopts Huso for…