Iran, 6/20.

By David Hudson on 06/20/2009

[Updated through 6/21]

"The flowering of Iranian cinema in the 1990s was itself evidence of a cultural and political thaw, a tentative premonition of the current demand for change," argues AO Scott. "No national cinema is easily summarized, and movies are always an imperfect window on the world. But to watch, say, 'The Apple' (1998), [Samira] Makhmalbaf's first film; 'The Circle' (2000), 'Crimson Gold' (2003) and 'Offside' (2006) by [Jafar] Panahi; the more tenderly sentimental films of Majid Majidi (including 'The Color of Paradise' and 'Baran'); and Bahman Ghobadi's tough, poetic films about Kurdistan - and this is a very partial list - is to encounter images and stories that add depth and meaning to the raw videos and tweets of recent weeks. You see class divisions, the cruelty of the state, the oppression of women and their ways of resisting it, traditions of generosity and hospitality, and above all a passion for argument."

So. Now that you're reading the New York Times, carry on: Roger Cohen's just-posted dispatch is a must.

"Modern Iranian Culture for Dummies" is John Lopez's guide for Vanity Fair to books and movies you might want to pick up or plug into.

Online viewing tip #1. "In the wake of the disputed Presidential election in Iran, film fans might find it interesting to take a look at 'Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution,'" writes Peter Martin at Cinematical. "Directed by Nader T Homayoung, the documentary provides an overview of Iranian cinema, spending most of its time on milestones - both positive and negative - from the past 40 years. SnagFilms has made it available for free online viewing."

Online viewing tip #2. The National Film Board of Canada presents "The Tree That Remembers," in which "Masoud Raouf documents the experiences of Iranian-Canadians - former political prisoners like himself - who were active in the Iranian democratic movement and continue to struggle with the past."

Online viewing tips. Cargo has been posting a series of clips, "Teheran im Film"; some of the accompanying text is in English, but really, the clips speak for themselves: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Earlier: "Iran, 6/14."

Update, 6/21: More online viewing via Ekkehard Knörer: Bahman Kiarostami, son of Abbas, has made a documentary on the art being stored away - never exhibited - in the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. Works by the likes of Francis Bacon, Jackson Pollock and Pablo Picasso. The doc's in French, and unfortunately, there are no subtitles.

Should be mentioned, though, that Ekkehard stumbled across this while looking for a translation of a call - viewable here - put out by the Association of Iranian Documentary Filmmakers (and there are over 100 members) to the country's state-run television to report on fairly on the ongoing events.

Adriana Dunn checks in with James Longley via email, his only consistently dependable means of communication with the world outside Iran:

My documentary film project - the one I received my visa to make - is about a junior high school in the village of Pul, in the Caspian Sea province of Mazandaran. Since the elections I have not been back to this village, and I am not sure at the moment whether I will be allowed to continue working on that project.

As far as filming current events in Iran - this has been declared illegal by the government. Also, there has been an active effort to scapegoat the foreign media and blame them for the violence and tension following the elections. I expect that this broad-brush anti-foreign media propaganda will make it quite difficult for me to work here in the future. It may be that I will have to abandon my Iranian project and work on other subjects outside Iran, where I will not be subject to such a prohibitive level of violence and censorship.

Online viewing tips. From Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing: "Over at Mashable, Ben Parr has compiled a post with 10 of the most-viewed, and most significant, 'citizen videos' to have emerged from the ongoing turmoil in Iran."

[Photo: "Offside," Sony Pictures Classics, 2006]

Tags: Iranian Cinema