My friend, filmmaker Sabereh Kashi, has an exciting new film project in the works. Here is a first version of her film, "My Home of the Last Seven Millenia." In it she tells the tale of her return to Kashan from San Francisco, in search of a childhood memory. Congratulations to sweet Sabereh for her amibitious and loving project.
(Does anybody know what to do with the "chopped off" display screen of YouTube links on blogspot?)
Iranian film director Dariush Mehrjui and author and Berkeley resident Anita Amirrezvani.
Dariush Mehrjui and Fereshteh Davaran.
"Road to World Cup 2006," a video clip of a group of Iranians in Europe who travelled to Germany to see the games. One of the directors is M. R. Heydari, who lives in Sweden. This clip really moved me. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Happy Halloween and Happy Friday! I spent a solitary Halloween back at my house. My older son stayed in Santa Cruz to join the other 30,000 young people partying in Santa Cruz tonight. My younger son and Iden have gone to San Francisco to party at a friend's house. Did I tell you Iden is our house guest again for a couple of weeks? I am glad they are celebrating their youth, and I pray that they are safe. I had many trick or treaters at the door again this year. Treats were the order of the evening, so no tricks at this house! By now all is quiet in my neighborhood again and I get a chance to do some work.
Tomorrow evening I will go to UC Berkeley to see two of Dariush Mehrjui's films and attend a Q/A session where he will answer questions about his films. Here's the information in case you live in these parts and are interested to attend the program:
Berkeley Lecture Series Presents: An evening with Dariush Mehrjui; showing of “Derakht-e Golabi”, The Pear Tree, and “Dokhtar Dayi-e Gomshodeh”, The Lost Cousin (with Khosrow Shakibayie), followed by Q & A with Mr. Mehrjui; Saturday, November 1, 2008, 6:00 p.m.; 100 GPB (Genetics & Plant Biology), University of California, Berkeley, map.
I hope you all have a very good weekend ahead of you, full of joy, relaxation, and love. Remember to hold those who are dear to you tightly, kissing them often, and confessing your love to them! You have nothing to lose and something to gain when you pay close attention to those who are in your lives for a reason. Never take them for granted and in doing so, they will also take note not to take you for granted. So, fess up and be good y'all!
Radif Ensemble performs Persian traditional music at Queen Elizabeth Hall. Amazing Daf solo by Ali Nourbakhsh.
On Friday night my friend and I participated in a political fundraiser for the re-election of Ross Mirkarimi to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He is a second generation Iranian who has been extremely active in the Iranian community in the San Francisco Bay Area, fostering promotion of Iranian culture, arts, and social issues in these parts. He is also a very nice guy. Friday's fundraiser was an exciting event, especially when I visited briefly with Ala Hazrat, Bayramali and Reza! Yesterday my friend took me to meet another fabulous second generation young Iranian, Schauleh Sahba, who is making a short film advocating "No War on Iran." What a delightful young woman and what a sweet project. I will share more details about her important project later.
After all that excitement, this was a quiet and beautiful Sunday, spent mostly in the company of my older son. He helped me tidy up and clean the house, while all the time we were having philosophical discussions! We talked about love, relationships and many different things. We fought a little, too, which is to be expected. Now my house is tidy and clean and my thoughts and soul are sorted out! The three of us had dinner together. That's my life tonight, simple and beautiful. Have a good week you all.
Interviewing Loris Tjeknavorian, Sunday March 9, 2008 in Berkeley. Photo by Jahanshah Javid.From Simin Behbahani's acceptance speech at Stanford's Bita Award Ceremony, March 11, 2008.
If I feel better tomorrow, I will go to see Mehrjui's Santuri in Berkeley and will tell you about it (Thursday, March 13th at 5, 7, & 9 p.m. at Oaks Theater, 1875 Solano Ave, Berkeley). Have a good Thursday you all.
Nouvelle Vage Sings Dance With Me.
It's Friday. My week went by in a whirlwind of activities, minor accomplishments, and a pleasant event. I want to tell you about stories tonight. Those who know me, know to always expect me to tell them stories. I would often start many conversations by telling my friends: "Let me tell you a story," or "bezarin baratoon yek ghesseh begam." My stories don't surprise my friends anymore, but they are polite enough to endure (really, what choice do they have?!).
I believe there is a story in everything. Some of us never see it. Some of us see it but can never tell it. Some of us see it and tell it. Simple as that. Sometimes there isn't just one story, but several, all in the same seemingly mundane thing. So, take this videoclip, for example. The story about this videoclip is that my friend, Jahanshah, has a small corner on his website, Iranian.com, called "Stuff." He posts videoclips of things he likes, music he enjoys, and things he finds amusing there. With hundreds of article and news bits on the site, nowhere else on Iranian.com is more about Jahanshah himself than this small column. Last night he had posted this videoclip there. It is a song called "Dance With Me," by a French band, named Nouvelle Vague. It is ovelapped on a dance scene from the 1964 French movie, Bande A Part. It is a sweet song which has been perfectly rythmed on top of the movie scene, and the result is lovely.
The story of Bande A Part (or Band of Outsiders) is that it is a comedy classic by the great Jean-Luc Godard, the famous French director. Here's what the original dance scene looked like. The story on top of this is that American film director, Quentin Tarantino was so impressed by this movie that he named his movie production company, "A Band Apart" after the film and referenced it in his movie, Pulp Fiction. Pulp Fiction became an instant classic in the world of cinema in 1994. I even remember in Kamal Tabrizi's movie, Marmulak, in one scene Quentin Tarantino and Pulp Fiction were referenced and that was hilarious! So, how many stories did I just tell you? I wish you all a very good weekend, full of joy and relaxation. I hope all of you who have a special person in your lives, would make time to go out and do something really special with him or her alone. Go out for a nice long walk, go to dinner for two, or go see a movie together. Those of you who really like someone but have never found the courage to do something about it should probably also do something about that soon, and why not this weekend? Try it, it might work! Those of you still looking for someone, please don't give up, keep on looking. Life can be so full of surprises when you least expect them. Be bold, be brave, and confess your love for all those who matter most to you in your life. You won't regret it, I gurantee it. Be good y'all. P.S. The spacing on this post doesn't seem to work and I'm too tired to keep working on it! Bebakhshid!Do you remember this? It is a dance clip from the Indian movie, Sholay. Though I don't care much about Indian movies, I remember this one fondly, because of what life felt like around watching it in Iran in early 1980's. This clip is for Leva. I thought you might also appreciate the nostalgia.
Pari Saberi's Shams-e-Parandeh, the story of Molana's life, re-staged November 2007, Tehran.