Mirasse Farda News desk reports that three specialized workshops are to be held from 19 to 21 October on subjects: “architecture and urban planning” , “anthropology” and “mass media and documentary film” incorporating  artists and university professors.

Due to the fact that last year the festival enjoyed a special ” visual anthropology” workshop with the presence of distinguished professor “Haidman”  and outstanding Iranian artists, it was expected that we follow the trend in the current year, but that was not fulfilled and the festival only has a one-day workshop on anthropology featuring Dr Jalaloddin Rafi far, faculty member of Tehran university anthropology department at social sciences college on Sunday morning from 9:30 to 12 open to public.

The festival will be held for 6 days and will be ended by presenting awards to the selected works.

Ethnomusicology is a compound word that refers to a science which studies the music of different parts of the world. The experts of this knowledge search and collect music documents and promote ethnic and traditional music in accordance with the societies’ requirements.

Dr. Mohsen Hajjarian , the teacher of this course got his PhD in Ethnomusicology in 1999 from the University of Maryland and is studying doctorate of Ethnology and sociology in the university of south Dakota.

Introducing the book as the first ethnography comprehensive pattern in Iran, the author of the book and the managing director of Miras-e-farda Institute , Mohammad sadegh Deghati najd, declared :”Ethnography scope and issues consists of two parts, the first part features theoretical issues on ethnography and monography while representing a history of ethnography and monography in Iran. The second part is a comprehensive ethnography pattern in 14 distinct area in every of which various and different issues are set forth, where each issue can be considered as a single topic in ethnography and case studies.

Based on Deghati utterances, this research book has been written through precise case studies of ethnography and monography researches in Iran since 60’s as well as interviews, consultancies and different workshops.

“In addition to presenting a  work pattern and appropriate guide for researchers, anthropologists , ethnographers and  anthropology students , the book flexibility makes it possible for the researchers to expand it based on their  views and innovations”, Deghati added.

The author also referred to his research team and said: Ethnography scope and issues is a result of a collaborative research conducted by: Mansoor Moradi, Masoomeh Rakhsha ,Tahereh Motevali , and by seeking advice of Dr. Manije Maghsoodi (assistant professor of anthropology in Tehran social sciences faculty) .

The president and publisher of the book in sequence are  IRIB and Miras-e-farda Institut

Since the beginning of cinema Verite festival in Iran ,we had the idea of interviewing this great man of documentary cinema .When we went to Laleh Hotel to visit him on Sunday morning ,he became so glad and emotional as when he was invited on the stage in the closing ceremony of the festival. Here’s how the interview started and went on.

Miras-e-farda – It’s our pleasure that you are here. As the grandfather of documentary filmmakers could you tell us some of your memories or stories about documentary filmmaking?

The special guest of this ceremony, and of course of the whole festival, was Richard Leacock, the last remaining member of the first generation of documentary filmmakers who was traveling to Iran at the age of 90.

Being invited on to the stage in the ceremony, Leacock became so emotional that shed a few tears.

In further parts of the ceremony, documentary filmmaker winners were announced as below:

- Long documentary film ‘Tinar’ with its anthropological approach to a shepherd child won statue, honorary diploma and first prize of documentary filmmakers association, also won statue and prize of national competition section, and special appreciation and third prize of international section for being able to beautifully depict the loneliness of human.

- ‘A square with no enclosure’ was another social documentary film which could win most of the festival prizes. It won the best short film prize of documentary filmmakers association and won the best research, the best script, and the best short film direction of festival juries.

- Having an anthropological approach, the film ‘last try-on’ could win the third best short documentary prize of International section juries while being praised by documentary filmmakers association.

- ‘All my mothers’ was another film, featuring women’s pain after war, that could achieve second place in both long documentary section and international section of the festival.

In this workshop , the films  “ Playground” and “……” produced by the students of Prof. Heideman were shown which made the participants to ask some questions about these two films and about ethnographical films in general.

Then, by putting emphasis on the principle that “without a novel look to an issue, we can never have a good recognition of it”, Prof. Heideman talked about his ethnographical film Institute in Germany where the students spend 5-7 years to study visual anthropology and ethnographical films.

“The theme of an ethnography film must be able to introduce itself rather than being introduced by the dialogues or through film editing by the filmmaker and the dialogues must be formed by the theme and people in the film”, he added.

He also stated that in his Institute they believe in theme-centered work without special style.

The opening ceremony on August 15 will be held in the presence of the sponsors of the event and officials from County.

Every year the municipality of Vitoria holds similar programs in order to get people better acquainted with different countries and cultures. The theme of this year’s program is Iranian civilization and culture. The event will display Iranian handicrafts and historical images, an exhibition featuring graphics by Reza Abedi, lectures on the history of Iranian Civilization , culture and literature. There will also be a workshop on Iranian films, Persian food festival and variety of other themes

]]> http://www.mirasfarda.org/en/?feed=rss2&p=91 0 http://www.mirasfarda.org/en/?p=118 http://www.mirasfarda.org/en/?p=118#comments Wed, 21 May 2008 05:28:42 +0000 admin http://www.mirasfarda.org/en/?p=118 In a private interview with Miras-e-farda , “Farhad Varahram “ a distinguished documentary filmmaker who  makes ethnographical documentaries, announced the production of “The Land of Sun “ which is a narrative about  the nature and culture of “oramanat” , a region in western Iran.

The film begins by showing the filmmaker while exhibiting some slides of “Oramanat” region in a congress. Two professional boatmen who were attending the congress showed interest to go to that place for boating in “Sirvan” river.

In the continuation, the film narrates the voyage of these two boatmen along “Sirvan” river between “oramanat takht” and “Sheikhan” zones, where they got familiar with natural, continental and cultural features of the place and consequently they achieved tranquility and peace in the voyage.

The voyage begins from “Oramanat takht” , where the filmmaker had produced the film” sacred marriage” eleven years ago , and ends on “Pardivar” bridge in Sheikhan region whereafter the river enters Iraq’s land.

The filmmaker who uses, in his new work ,some of the scenes he had taken years ago  ,stated that the comparison between  the scenes which had been taken some years ago with the new ones , shows the continental and natural changes of the region , but cultural and social changes have not been referred to in this work.

In addition to Farhad Varahram, other actors of the film were: “Amir Hossein Mahyari” & “Ali Rezaee” who are two of the professional boatmen of Iran.

Other crew included: Reza Teimoori (Photographer), and Sam Kalantari

(Assistant director & Programmer)

]]> http://www.mirasfarda.org/en/?feed=rss2&p=118 0 http://www.mirasfarda.org/en/?p=129 http://www.mirasfarda.org/en/?p=129#comments Sun, 11 May 2008 06:43:32 +0000 admin http://www.mirasfarda.org/en/?p=129 A meeting attended by Mr. Mohammad Tahaminezhad and Dr. Pedram Khosronezhad was held in The Cinema House on Wednesday Oct.22. According to Mojtaba Mirtahmaseb – the manager of The Association for Documentary Film-makers – who hosted the meeting, the purpose behind the meeting was to talk about “The First Conference on Visual Anthropology of Iran. The first round of the conference had been held in St. Andrews University in Scotland in June, 2008. According to Dr. Khosronezhad – the anthropology professor of the University – the conference is to be held biennially in Scotland. He also referred to some of the achievements of the conference as follows: allocation of one day of The Conference on Anthropology Films of the Scandinavian Countries for Iranian anthropology films, acquaintance of the students of St. Andrews University with the anthropology of Iran, selection of Iran as the research center, and also the world’s greatest professors’ acquaintance with anthropology films of Iran.

Furthermore Mohammad Tahaminezhad as the only Iranian who attended the conference to offer his paper added that in the conference he had tried to write a report like a journalist which resulted in a 100-page report. Mojtaba Mirtahmaseb expressed hope that with the aid of the Association for Documentary Film-makers the report would be published.

One part of this festival is dedicated to photos and films related to traditional arts and handicrafts which will be inaugurated on the second day of the festival (which is called the day of handicrafts, creativity and its role in maintenance of national identity)