Cyrus’ Awakening (1974): A Documentary by Enrique Meneses

Today we have a guest blogger, writing about a documentary on Iran from the 1970s. Our guest is Dr. Lidia Merás and the subject, Cyrus’ Awakening [watch here], a film made by her former neighbor and the renowned journalist Enrique Meneses:


Old school journalist Enrique Meneses, the person behind the famous pictures of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro in Sierra Maestra (1958), visited Iran at least four times. The first visit was in 1958, after being expelled from Iraq following King Faisal II’s assassination. He returned in 1974 commissioned by Spanish Public television to make a reportage for the memorable series ‘Los reporteros’ [The reporters, TVE1].

Cyrus’ Awakening gives an in-sight on contemporary Iran in the aftermath of the oil-fueled ‘Green revolution’. Meneses interviewed Mohamed Reza Pahleví and the empress Farah Diba who were engaged in modernizing of the country (banning polygamy, granting women with the same rights than men and promoting contemporary art, among other contributions). After an historic introduction to Persia, the ancient name for Iran, the film outlines the country’s economy agenda and political alliances as well as some aspects on mass media, higher education, folklore, craftsmanship and religion…all in thirty minutes. Interestingly enough, Meneses explains some key ideas on Zoroastrian beliefs, whereas Shiite Islam is never mentioned.

Revisiting 5 Favorite Jazz Films with Comics

If cinema itself has been freewheeling in its use and abuse of other art forms to show what influential critic Raymond Durgnat calls “the impossible,” why, when it comes to talking about films, should we be limited to literary forms of expression?

That’s the question illustrator and co-author Naiel Ibarrola and I asked ourselves before launching into a new form of film criticism using the comic format to tell our alternative history of cinema, a project that’s occupied us since last year.

The great thing about comics, as a medium, is the endless freedom you have in playing with elements of time and space, building up scenes, putting people in one place talking to each other, where in reality they had been thousands of miles away and never spoken the same language. Hence the comic, like cinema, becomes the art of the impossible. The comic imitates the cinema. So far, we have used the illustrations to show how a Raoul Walsh composition is realized; how an imaginary conversation between Yasujiro Ozu and Fritz Lang takes place in a dingy French café; and to fulfill many other cinephilic fantasies through ideas, colors and drawings. Now we want to share some of them with you.

SEE ILLUSTRATIONS AND READ THE ARTICLE HERE

Poetics of Space: Roeg's (In)Significance

Insignificance (Nicolas Roeg, 1985)

Survival of the Unfit

CINEPHILIA & REVOLUTION

A familiar practice in Persian film literature is that of the “cinematic memoir”—personal reminiscences of the film culture of pre-Revolutionary Iran.

Bolstered by a nostalgic tone, these autobiographical texts deal with the themes of childhood, adolescence and encounters with cinema in a Westernized Iran. The authors of such memoirs frequently depict Iran as a haven for cinephiles. Considering the number of films that were shown in pre-Revolutionary Iran and the diversity of their origins, this may be taken as an accurate characterization.

Read the full article here

Women Cinema and the Problem of Representation

فیلم‌سازی زنان و مسأله بازنمایی

يك بررسي تاريخي از جنبش سينماي زنان

گردآوري شده توسط كتايون يوسفي

یکی از اولین نمونه‌های توجه جنبش زنان به رسانه سینما کتابی بود که در 1970 منتشر شد با نام «پیوندِ خواهری محکم است». این کتاب 600 صفحه‌ای که مجموعه‌ای از اسناد تاریخی و مهم‌ترین مقالات فعالان جنبش آزادی‌خواهی زنان را گرد آورده بود لیستی به انتهای خود ضمیمه داشت از فیلم‌هایی که به خاطر توجه به مشکلات زنان یا جامعۀ مشکل‌ساز برای زنان تماشایشان توصیه می‌شد. اين مجلد بهانه‌اي شد تا در طول پنج-شش سال بعد از انتشارش انواع فستیوال‌ها، کتاب‌ها و مجلات با موضوع سینما و زنان در بریتانیا و آمریکا یکی پس از دیگری ظاهر شوند: 1971، تاسیس گروه فیلم زنان لندن؛ 1972 برگزاری جشنواره فیلم زنان در نیویورک و دو ماه بعد بخشی مختص زنان در جشنواره فیلم ادینبُرو؛ همچنین تأسیس مجله آمریکاییِ «فیلم و زنان»، 1973 فستیوال فیلم زنان در تورنتو و واشنگتن و دورۀ «فیلم زنان» در انستیتوی فیلم بریتانیا. اولین کتاب در این حوزه در 1973 توسط مارجوری روزن با نام «ونوس پاپکورنی» منتشر شدکه تصویر ارائه شده از زنان در هالیوود را با آنچه در واقعیتِ جامعه می‌گذشت مقایسه کرد. به دنبال آن در 1974«از تکریم تا تجاوز» (مالی هسکل) و «زنان و مسئلۀ جنسیت آن‌ها در فیلمِ امروز» (جون ملن) آمدند. هر سه این کتاب‌ها در آمریکا و توسط نویسندگان آمریکایی نوشته شدند و رویکردی جامعه‌شناختی به این مسأله داشتند؛ به این معنی که سینما را آینه‌ای از یک جامعه در حال تغییر می‌دانستند؛ البته آینه‌ای پر از تحریف که به بهانه «واقع‌گریزی» تصویری دروغ از شرایط اجتماعی نشان می‌داد و زنان را تشویق می‌کرد که با تصاویری غلط همذات‌پنداری کنند.

Iran (1971), a film by Claude Lelouch

An awful piece of travelogue whose loose narrative slowly takes shape from various rip-offs from Iran-related (or unrelated) sources such as Agnes Varda, Parviz Kimiavi, Richard Brooks and most importantly Lelouch's fellow countryman, Albert Lamorisse and his Le Vent des amoureux.