Spotlight on Iranian Cinema

 
Students intrigued with international cinema are getting the opportunity this week to screen and celebrate masterpieces of contemporary Iranian film.

University of Oklahoma’s College of International Studies, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, and the Oklahoma City Museum of Art are joining together to create a week-long spotlight on Iranian cinema. The series will consist of five films shown throughout a six-day event, and will conclude with a lecture given by Hamid Naficy from Northwestern University, the preeminent scholar on Iranian cinema.

Afshin Marashi, associate professor for the Department of International and Area Studies at OU and Farzaneh Family Chair in Iranian studies, helped create and organize the event.

When Marashi arrived at OU last year as a new faculty member for Iranian studies, part of his job was to establish an Iranian studies program. Not only does this mean teaching courses about Iran, but it also means bringing in guest speakers and putting on other kinds of programming that will help educate students and the community about Iranian history, culture and society, according to Marashi.

“Film is sort of a natural part of that because in contemporary Iran, film is probably the most important and thriving genre of art that is taking place inside Iran. Iranian artists have really embraced the genre of filmmaking as really one of the primary forms of artistic expression,” Marashi said.

As more contemporary Iranian filmmakers emerge, they are becoming more and more noticed and rewarded for their talent.

“Iranian filmmakers in really only the last 20 years have won all sorts of awards at international film festivals, and they’ve become recognized on a global level as one of the most important film traditions in the world,” Marashi said.

However, in many parts of the world, including here in United States, and perhaps even more so in Oklahoma, Iranian film is a very foreign concept, both literally and figuratively. Many Americans have yet to be exposed to Iranian cinema.

“People at OU should know about this. Especially in this part of the country, there are very few opportunities to see foreign films. We get the big Hollywood blockbusters, but the art films and foreign films that are usually shown in New York and Los Angeles and other major metropolitan areas, those kind of films hardly ever make it to places like Oklahoma,” Marashi said.

Partnering with Marashi for the event is Brian Hearn, film curator for the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. Marashi and Hearn brainstormed several dozen Iranian films and filmmakers before ultimately deciding on the five films they thought were most important, each for different reasons, to show during the series, according to Hearn.

“We wanted to show contemporary films that give a sense of what life is like inside Iran. It is noteworthy that for the first time ever, an Iranian film ‘A Separation’ won the 2012 best foreign language film Academy Award. Of course, we had to include that film in the series,” Hearn said.

Marashi and Hearn are also spotlighting Iranian cinema in order to give the public a different perspective on the Middle Eastern country and to shed light on a culture that is often misconstrued.

“Iran is a nation that is widely misunderstood and misrepresented in the U.S… It is important to show other dimensions of Iranian society and culture that are rarely depicted in western mass media,” Hearn said.

The Oklahoma City Museum of Art is not only giving attendees the opportunity to screen Iranian films, they are also giving movie-goers a taste of Iran created specifically for this event.

“We are adding a related culinary component - a special menu available in our museum café,” Hearn said.

In addition to this week of Iranian film and food, concluding the event will be a lecture featuring Hamid Naficy immediately following the screening of the last film of the series.

“I would say that Hamid Naficy is the world’s leading authority on Iranian film, and in the field of Iranian studies, his reputation is something that everyone knows. So I thought if we’re doing a film series, we could combine that with a lecture by the world’s most preeminent scholar of Iranian film, and that would be a really great conclusion to the series,” Marashi said.

A reception and book signing will follow the lecture to celebrate the release of Naficy’s 4-volume book “A Social History of Iranian Cinema” and to wrap up the film series.

The spotlight on Iranian cinema will take place Oct. 16-21, 2012. For more information on the films being screened, film times and locations, visit www.ou.edu/international.