Censored Cinema
Censored Cinema
- Date
- Feb 17th 2011
- With
- Rafi Pitts, Vincenzo Bugno, Mehrangiz Kar, Sepideh Farsi, Ali Samadi Ahadi
Filmmaking remains politically sensitive facing censorship and limitation of artistic expression in far too many countries, one such example is Iran. Iranian filmmakers Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rassoulov were recently sentenced to imprisonment and banned from making films. Yet, films do get made in Iran, films that strive to tackle social issues head-on. And despite the fact that Iran’s current creative climate continues to be in the clasp of a repressive regime, an impressive body of work earning critical acclaim and international recognition is being produced. How do Iranian filmmakers deal with censorship and the imposed restrictions, and what consequences does this have? Prominent Iranian filmmaker Rafi Pitts, whose film The Hu nter premiered in the 2010 Berlinale Competition, will be joined by Mehrangiz Kar, eminent Iranian human rights activist and author, Iranian director Sepideh Farsi and Ali Samadi Ahadi, German filmmaker of Iranian descent. They will talk about how filmmakers can join forces and respond to political censorship.
Rafi Pitts
Iranian filmmaker, producer and screenwriter, his short and feature films received numerous awards at international festivals and are often categorised as films of the new wave of Iranian Cinema. His most recent films IT’S WINTER and THE HUNTER were screened in the Berlinale Competition in 2006 and 2010.
Vincenzo Bugno
Vincenzo Bugno worked as a journalist and film critic; for several years he has been a consultant/curator for film festivals. Since 2002 Vincenzo Bugno has worked at the Berlinale in various capacities, as Selection Committee Member and Festival Delegate. He is the Head of the Berlinale World Cinema Fund, founded 2004 with the objective of supporting film production in regions lacking a structurally strong film industry. He is also Curator of the TFL-TorinoFIlmLab.
Mehrangiz Kar
Iranian lawyer, human right activist and author. She served as a fellow, among others, at the National Endowment for Democracy, the American University in Washington DC , the University of Virginia and Columbia University. She was a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard and is currently based at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Sepideh Farsi
Born in Tehran, Iran, she moved to Paris to study mathematics but soon turned her focus to filmmaking. After making several short films, in 2001 she directed the documentary "Homi D. Sethna, Filmmaker" which won several awards. Her documentaries "Harat" and "Tehran Without Permission" both premiered at Locarno, her first two feature films "Dreams of Dust" and "The Gaze" at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. "The House Under the Water" won the NETPAC Award; her most recent documentary "7 voiles" received the Grand Prix of the French Competition at the International Film Festival Marseille.
© Renaud Monfourny
Ali Samadi Ahadi
German filmmaker of Iranian origin. In 2006 his documentary LOST CHILDREN won the German Film Award. He also directed the intercultural comedy SALAMI ALEIKUM. With his documentary THE GREEN WAVE, which featured in the German Cinema-LOLA@Berlinale in 2011, he responded to the opposition movement in Iran.