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| Lily Amir-Arjomand |
From Sight & Sound magazine, Summer 2021, Vol. 31, Issue 6, dedicated to unsung heroes of cinema. This was my contribution, trying to go beyond the familiar names and professions one hears on a film set. — EK
Lily Amir-Arjomand (b. 1938)
One of the key architects of the new Iranian cinema, Lily Amir-Arjomand was most likely unfamiliar with even the most basic film terminology. But no matter when she had one thing that no one else in Iran has possessed before or since: trust in the filmmaker.
Emerging from a privileged background, this former classmate of the Queen of Iran was a technocrat with imagination. In 1964 she founded a library for children. Four years later Kanoon had become an impeccably streamlined production house for first-rate cultural goods (including films) aimed at children, with centres spread all over the country. And everything was free.
At Kanoon, up and coming filmmakers were offered the chance to direct their first features (among them future masters such as Abbas Kiarostami and Moḥammad-Reza Aslani). Working-class kids were given cameras to experiment with. A distribution network and an international film festival (with participants including Saul Bass, Karel Zeman, Burt Hanstra and Jacques Tati) exposed youngsters to great films. Amir-Arjomand even supported blacklisted filmmakers, allowing them to make films for Kanoon when they couldn't get jobs elsewhere.
The 1979 revolution ended her leadership of Kanoon and also her life in Iran. But thanks to her, for years Kanoon remained the single most important network of cinema education for children anywhere in the world.
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