Author: Bijan Tehrani

Michael Cory Davis, a native New Yorker, born in Brooklyn re-located to Los Angeles to pursue his career as what he terms a “Triple Threat” —actor, writer, and director. Michael has starred in numerous commercials, print campaigns and independent films, many of which have won numerous awards. He also had a recurring role on the daytime soap opera, The Bold & the Beautiful and starred in six high rated films for the sci-fi channel. In 2003, while starring in two feature-length films in Sofia, Bulgaria, Michael learned of the growing number of young girls and women forcefully taken from Bulgaria…

Yulie Cohen Gerstel was born and lives in Tel Aviv. Before starting to work in films, she studied sociology and anthropology at Tel Aviv University (BA) and received an MA with distinction in Communication Art from NYIT. During the 80’s Gerstel was working in films in New York and LA. Since 1988 and 1990 she is raising her 2 daughters. In 1993 she became an independent filmmaker. Her films include 8 x 30 min. documentaries. During 2000/2001 she co-produced RAMLEH and FOR MY CHILDREN with Michal Aviad. MY TERRORIST, Gerstel’s first long form documentary, (2002, Doc. 58 min.) was directed…

Before Flying Back to the Earth, that has received a Directors Guild of America Award in 2007, is a gracefully expressive journey into the lives of children living with leukemia at a pediatric hospital in Vilnius, Lithuania. The children enter into an alien world, bereft of color and warmth, but populated with kind strangers. Their new toys are invented out of stainless steel, and new friendships are formed in the crucible of the cancer ward. Inured to the routine of daily medication and meals that alternate between porridge and cabbage soup, the children dream of life beyond the clinic’s thick…

Two strangers having sex in a motel; they introduce themselves afterwards and begin talking—telling truths and lies. Matías Bize’s comedic and risqué film focuses on the lives of newly formed couple Daniela (Blanca Lewin) and Bruno (Gonzalo Valenzuela) and manages to include gripping drama and crowd-pleasing emotion into a small motel room. En la Cama is a fresh look at the vast distance between the sexes and the relationship between the two. Matias Bize, Didector of En la Cama was born in Santiago, Chile in 1979. Just before graduating from the “Escuela de Cine de Chile”, with only 23 years…

Aideen Ratteray Pryse is a founding member of Bermuda International Film Festival, Aideen has served as Festival Director since 1997. Aideen trained as an urban planner, having obtained a Bachelor’s degree at McGill University and a Master’s at the University of Waterloo. She was formerly employed with the Bermuda Department of Planning as Assistant Director (Administration & Control). In addition to her film festival work, she is a member of the board of directors of the Centre on Philanthropy. Cinema Without Borders: Please tell us about the Bermuda International Film Festival, how did it start and its approach to cinema…

In a world under the dark spell of wars and terrorism, credit card loans seem to be a distant threat. But when you find out about the millions of lives shattered by the endless greed of lenders, you wonder who is more dangerous: the fanatic terrorists that kill people because of their beliefs, or economic terrorists who suck the blood of the poor and those who are striving for American Dream? Maxed Out is a powerful visual statement about the disaster created by credit card lenders in our world today. There are sequences in the movie that bring total silence…

Writer/director Danielle Lurie graduated from Stanford University in 2000 with a BA in Philosophy. Danielle’s debut short film, In the Morning, about honor killings, premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, and has won nine film festivals to date, including ‘Best Narrative Short’ at the Oscar qualifying Nashville Film Festival. On November 9, 2005, In the Morning screened before members of the U.S. Congress during the Congressional Human Rights Caucus on Honor Killings, and would later screen before members of UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women). On a plane flight to Washington DC (en route to her screening at…

The 4th Annual Other Venice Film Festival Highlights and Schedule 90 Films, 60 World Premieres, Live Music, Art and Parties OVFF is dedicated to screening full-length, short and animated films that embody the spirit, energy and diversity of Venice, CA – an epicenter for LA artists and filmmakers who continue to pave the way toward expanding the language of underground, alternative cinema. The OTHER VENICE FILM FESTIVAL bridges the community of Venice and that of greater LA together in a wild, exciting, fun-filled weekend of movies, music and mayhem. To find out more about this festival we interviewed two of…

Sentenced to community service at a small, countryside church, Adam, a middle-aged neo-Nazi, is warmly welcomed by the cheerful vicar, Ivan. Although Adam is crude, full of hostility, and clearly beyond redemption, Ivan encourages him to choose a goal that will occupy his time there. When Adam dismissively replies that he will bake an apple pie, Ivan assigns him the task of nurturing the church’s lone apple tree. If by the time this unassuming tree has been attacked by crows, infested with maggots, and struck by lightning, you are not reasonably certain it has become the battleground for a fiercely…

Border Café (Café Transit) tells the powerful story of Reyhan, a single woman fighting to make her mark and control her own destiny in a man’s world. The story takes place in a small Iranian border town located at the dividing line between Europe and Asia and revolves around the struggles of the unwavering, widowed mother of two young children. Reyhan decides to reopen her deceased husband’s roadhouse café, though it is known that it is unthinkable for a woman to run such a business. Her immovable desire for independence causes intense conflicts with her late husband’s brother who runs…