Author: Katayoon Barzegar Science fiction films are not about science; they are about disasters. Susan Sontag - The Imagination of Disaster The science fiction genre might be the last thing that comes to mind for a film about Palestine. The first question that arises...
Writer: Pegah Pezeshki But, memories become political, when there is a constant and pervasive attack against land and body to make us forget the past. Memories; those fragmented, scattered, and ambiguous images, or those that are sometimes very clear and detailed in...
Disruption, dispossession, dislocation, separation… These six short films directed by a new crop of female Iranian directors speak almost shoulder to shoulder of loss, of broken homes and hearts and life-paths; some but not all forge new strength from the breakage,...
Heiny Srour was born in Beirut, Lebanon in the mid-40’s. She studied anthropology at the Sorbonne under Maxime Rodinson, a renowned Orientalist and Social Anthropologist. It was during this time that she became interested in film, influenced by the ethnological films...
Hend Alawadhi The IAFOR Journal of Media, Communication and Film Abstract Palestinian cinema is intricately tied to the memory of a pre-1948 Palestine and the desire of return; one that must be understood in the context of sixty years of exile and dispersion. It is...
Author: Sepid Ghaemi When we use the term "independent" in isolation, specific meanings take shape in our minds. It belongs to the category of words that require constant definition and redefinition to reshape their boundaries, and perhaps this is its fundamental...
There’s a particular feeling I get when I’m about to see one of your films–an anticipation. It doesn’t matter if I’ve seen the film before or not (by now I think I’ve seen them all at least several times) I still get that feeling. I’m expecting something I seem to...
John Cassavetes started his career as an actor, most notably in Rosemary's Baby, but ended up becoming one of the catalysts for independent filmmaking -- a director who had his finger on the pulse of artists who wanted to create something outside of the predictability...
First things first: what do we mean when we talk about independent (or indie) films? Independent films don’t refer to just one particular genre. Rather, a film is classed as independent if it is made outside of the big studios. They’re made outside of the film studio...
The red carpet at mainstream events serves as a stage for the reflection and spotlighting of celebrities from the realms of commerce, art, and cinema. Their presence on the red carpet signifies a mission to portray films with substantial investments, and they...