Author: Bijan Tehrani

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…

Love for Share deals with the polygamy in Indonesia today. Three woman from three different social classes and backgrounds face polygamy and share a husband’s love and with several other women. Director of Love for Share, Nia Dinata was born on March 4, 1970 in Jakarta, Indonesia. She graduated from a Mass Communication major at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania.Nia then took special programs on film production at New York University. After returning from the USA in 1995, Nia works in various projects, mostly for television. In 1998 she won an award in The Indonesian Film for TV Festival for Best Picture and…

Kontakt a film by Sergej Stanojkovski participated at 2006 South East European Film Festival, held at Los Angeles. Kontakt is the story of two Macedonians, rejected by the rest of the society: Janko, an aggressive ex-convict and Zena, a girl from a psychiatry ward. Janko violent temper has made him a pain in the neck for everybody. Prison warden wants him to disappear, even his half-brother Novak wants to get rid of him. Therefore Novak comes up with the idea of asking Janko to look after Zana. Zena is in process of being released from psychiatry ward as the mental home…

Over the past twenty-three years, I have had the opportunity to get to know and work with Phil Mendez, known as the enigma of the animation world. This is a man who has as many stories told about him as he tells about himself and the industry with which he has had a love hate relationship. Phil would say that that’s too strongly said and what he has is a general dislike for the unkind things the industry has done to this art form and its creators. Phil is a very positive up beat person; so if you believe these…

American Visa is the second movie directed by Bolivian film director Juan Carlos Valdivia. American Visa is the story of Mario Alvarez, a man that in In post-9/11 Bolivia harsh new laws plans on traveling to Miami to reunite with his son and start a new life in the US. But it is almost impossible to get a US visa and what complicate his situation even more,is Blanca, a beautiful young woman who is looking for change in her life. Mario facing deadends goes wild. Cinema Without Borders: What inspired you to make “American Visa”? Juan Carlos Valdivia: Three reasons.…