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A cinematheque for Mashhad, 2007. Designed by Ehsan Khoshbakht
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Ehsan Khoshbakht is a film curator, filmmaker, writer and architect.
Ehsan is the co-director of Il Cinema Ritrovato film festival in Bologna, Italy. He has curated or co-curated programmes dedicated to film and jazz, Iranian pre-revolutionary cinema, John Stahl, Henry King, Frank Tuttle, Stuart Heisler and George Stevens in Bologna, London, Berlin, Barcelona, New York, Lisbon, Ankara, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Basel and beyond. More on his curatorial work here.
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| 2024 |
Ehsan is the curator if the retrospective section of Locarno Film Festival 2024. For the same retrospective, he has edited the book The Lady with the Torch: Columbia Pictures, 1929-1959. [above pic]
Architect by training, Ehsan writes books and essays on film.
Ehsan has directed two feature documentaries, Filmfarsi (2019) and Celluloid Underground (2023). His short documentary, Duke Ellington in Isfahan, which was made for BBC television in 2018, was selected for Telluride Film Festival 2021.
He formerly edited the arts quarterly Underline for the British Council. The past issues of the magazine can be accessed here.
Ehsan's latest book, Asghar Farhadi: Interviews is was published on January 2023 by the University Press of Mississippi. For other books authored, edited or prefaced by Ehsan, see below or visit this page.
Ehsan used to write for and maintain a blog on jazz, Take the "A" Train, between 2009 and 2021.
For contacting Ehsan, use the "contact me" (left hand side bar) section of this page.
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| The US DVD release of Filmfarsi + |
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| Asghar Farhadi: Interviews (2023), University Press of Mississippi |
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| Sky Belongs to Us: European Films and Filmmakers (2023) |
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| Essay on Chess of the Wind for the Criterion blu-ray release of the film |
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| Playing the Camera: "Music Films" from Bach to Bob Dylan (2021) |
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| The Age of Innocence: The Studio Era Revisited (2021) |
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| The Art of Movie Posters (2014) |
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| The Westerns (2014) |
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| Celluloid Architecture (2009) |
2024
September
August
8-25: "Iranian New Wave: 1962-1979", Melbourne International Film Festival
7-17: "The Lady with the Torch: The Centenary of Columbia Pictures", Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland
13: Ehsan Khoshbakht on Locarno’s Columbia Retrospective ‘The Lady With the Torch’: ‘This Film Will Never Play Again in My Lifetime’
7: 'I Simply Can’t Stop Watching Columbia Films': Ehsan Khoshbakht Speaks About The Lady with the Torch
5: The Lady With the Torch and “Prophetic Anti-Fascist Quickies”: Locarno Fetes Columbia Pictures at 100
Celluloid Underground at DokuFest, Prizren, Kosovo
July
Bandits of Orgosolo DVD/blu-ray interview released by Radiance
June
22-30: Il Cinema Ritrovato XXXVIII
16: Celluloid Underground at Closeup Cinema, London
May
28-3: Jury at DocumentaMadrid
28: Celluloid Underground at Filmoteca Espanola
10: Interview with Letterboxd about Celluloid Underground, conducted by John Forde
April
11: Celluloid Underground in Newcastle
2023
December
13: A Lost Continent of Cinema: Filmfarsi, an Iranian Paradox lecture at the Cinematek, Brussels
13: Filmfarsi screening at the cinematheque in Brussels
November
12: Introducing Sven Klang's Combo at Barbican, London
1: Mumbai International Film Festival screened Celluloid Underground
In Courrier International – French translation of a Guardian article: Ahmad Jorghanian, l’Iranien qui voulait sauver le cinéma
October
20: Henry King in Morelia
5: Premiere of Celluloid Underground at London Film Festival
June
23: Il Cinema Ritrovato
14: Presenting Far From Home and 25 Fireman's Street at Midnight Sun
May
10-20: Iranian pre-revolutionary cinema retrospective at Sinema Transtopia, Berlin
9: Lecture on Iranian cinema at the cinematheque of Luxembourg
February-March
Iranian cinema retrospective at Cinemateca Portuguesa
2022
December
8: Filmfarsi screens at Barbican +
8: Lecture at the BFI Southbank: How to Make a Retrospective
November
20: Introducing None But the Lonely Heart at Cary Grant Comes Home for the Weekend Festival in Bristol
14: How Dare You Have Such a Rubbish Wish (dir: Mania Akbari, 2022), based on a script by me premieres at IDFA.
October
30: Introducing See You Friday, Robinson + Szyfry at Closeup Cinema in London
25: Introducing One Way Street (Hugo Fregonese, 1950) in Morelia, Mexico
23: Viennale podcast on Iranian cinema
21-23: Introducing various screenings of films by Ebrahim Golestan at the Viennale
20: Review of The Gravedigger's Wife for Sight & Sound
19: Introducing Brick & Mirror at Ritzy Cinema in London
19: Moderating Q&A with filmmaker Mitra Farahani at Closeup Cinema in London after the screening of See You Friday, Robinson
September
29: Iranian Subversive Documentaries at the Cube in Bristol. Hosted by BEEF
12: Introducing The Carriage Driver (Nosrat Karimi, 1971) at Forum des Images, Paris
10: Introducing Diamond 33 (Dariush Mehrjui, 1966) at Forum des Images, Paris
9: Introducing Filmfarsi + Midnight Terror AKA Cry of Midnight at Forum des Images, Paris
July
Introduction to Chess of the Wind at Cinema Rediscovered in Bristol
June
Hugo Fregonese retrospective in Bologna
George Stevens retrospective at Athens Avant Garde Film festival
April
24: I'll be introducing a screening of Memories of Underdevelopment at Closeup Cinema in London.
1: My blu-ray review of Jazz on a Summer's Day at the May issue of Sight & Sound.
Duke Ellington in Isfahan plays at É Tudo Verdade film festival in Brazil.
March
Niels Kristian Bonde Jensen has interviewed me during my brief stay in Copenhagen. His article featuring passages of the interview (in Danish) can be read here: Afbrudte revolutioner.
DEN GLEMTE REVOLUTION: IRANSK FILM FØR 1979 which I have curated for the cinematheque in Copenhagen plays during February and March. I shall be introducing some film in the second half of March.
February
I had the delightful and challenging experience of translating À vendredi, Robinson (Mitra Farahani, 2022), featuring Jean-Luc Godard and Ebrahim Golestan. It'll premiere at the Berlinale on February 11.
The Prose-Poetry Cinema of Ebrahim Golestan in the March issue of Sight & Sound.
January
30: I'll screen Mikko Niskanen's Under Your Skin (1966) at Closeup, as the opening film of a film club called Never on Sunday. ["Never on Sunday is a series of screenings of rare classics, archive masterpieces, obscure delights and forgotten gems carefully curated by Ehsan Khoshbakht and taking place the last Sunday of each month at Close-Up."]
23: Filmfarsi shows at Houston's Museum of Fine Arts.
21: Filmfarsi shows at Closeup.
7-14: I have organised a tribute to Jörn Donner at Closeup Film Centre.
2021
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| Forgotten Revolution at Filmoteca de Catalunya, December 2021 |
December
15-31: Iranian pre-revolutionary cinema retrospective (plus Filmfarsi screening) at Filmoteca de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain. The brochure is available here.
10: Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa: Far From Home, a programme of three shorts at Berlin's Transtopia. Ehsan will be moderating a conversation with MSV via Zoom.
November
18: Film restoration lecture at Festival International du Film d'Amiens, France. Read a dispatch of it here (in French)
9: Filmfarsi gets its DVD release in North America, via Grasshopper.
October
27-1 Serving as a member of jury for the short film competition of Morelia International Film Festival in Mexico.
1-16: Filmfarsi plays at Close-Up Film Centre in London
15: Filmfarsi at Film Studies Center in The University of Chicago.
September
The Forgotten Revolution: Iranian Cinema Before 1979 | A Retrospective at Sinema Transtopia, Berlin
6: Introducing State Fair (Henry King) at the cinematheque of Copenhagen
5: Introducing the Henry King retrospective at the cinematheque of Copenhagen
August
Jury member at IndieLisboa, Lisbon.
July
May
27: Iranian Film Festival Zurich plays Filmfarsi.
6-12: Filmfarsi streams for free in Hong Kong as a part of the M+ Museum's programme "Disrupted Views, Interrupted Legacies" and on May 12, I shall be participating in an seminar called "Cinematic Renovations in Filmfarsi and The Endless Film", together with Leandro Listorti (filmmaker) and Chanel Kong (associate curator at M+)
April
A second book was published in the month of April: Performing with the Camera: "Music Films" from Bach to Bob Dylan (نواختن با دوربین: فیلم های موسیقی از باخ تا باب دیلن), Kasra Publishing, April 2021 [Cover image above]
Jury member at It's All True, Brazil
Ehsan's new book, The Age of Innocence: Rediscovering American's Cinema's Studio Era (in Persian), is out on April 9, 2021 [See the cover above]
March
Conversation about Filmfarsi with students from Carleton University, Canada
2020
November
November
Filmfarsi at UCLA
Filmfarsi at Wisconsin Film Festival
Filmfarsi at Iranisches Filmfestival Köln
October
Filmfarsi at Virginia Film Festival
September
27: Filmfarsi at It's All True, Brazil
27: Filmfarsi at It's All True, Brazil
18: Filmfarsi at Sinema Transtopia, Berlin, Germany
9-15: Serving on the jury of London Open City Doc.4: On its first post-pandemic screening, Filmfarsi plays at IndieLisboa International Film Festival in Lisbon. Venue: Cinemateca Portuguesa
Interviewed by Portugal's Publico newspaper:
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| click on to enlarge |
August
25-31: Il Cinema Ritrovato
July
Interviewed by Danish journal Politiken about Abbas Kiarostami.
June
9: Q&A with Mahnaz Mohammadi after the screening of her film Mother at Cheltenham International Film Festival
April
For Sight & Sound's May 2020 issue, Tehran Taboo.
February
January
30: Filmfarsi at AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, Washington DC
27: Filmfarsi gets its Dutch premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam
19: Filmfarsi playing at Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art
18: In Harm's Way: The Films of Majed Neisi curated by Ehsan Khoshbakht plays at Close-Up Film Centre, London
18: A House Is Not a Home: Wright or Wrong (dir: Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa, 2020) [above poster] opens in Chicago's Gene Siskel Film Center. I've produced a section of the film which was shot in London, interviewing Michael Rosenbaum for it.
17: Filmfarsi plays at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.
15: Filmfarsi gets two screenings in Prague as a part of ÍRÁN:CI
27: Filmfarsi gets its Dutch premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam
19: Filmfarsi playing at Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art
18: In Harm's Way: The Films of Majed Neisi curated by Ehsan Khoshbakht plays at Close-Up Film Centre, London
18: A House Is Not a Home: Wright or Wrong (dir: Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa, 2020) [above poster] opens in Chicago's Gene Siskel Film Center. I've produced a section of the film which was shot in London, interviewing Michael Rosenbaum for it.
17: Filmfarsi plays at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.
15: Filmfarsi gets two screenings in Prague as a part of ÍRÁN:CI
2019
December
3: Filmfarsi played in Ankara.
November
28th: Filmfarsi at Avant-Garde Film Festival in Athens.
21th: Filmfarsi at Aarhus' Slagtehal3.
13th: Filmfarsi at Bath Film Festival.
5th: Working with the Archive — An extended discussion on the process of working with archive institutions and organisations. Part of the London Korean Film Festival's Special Focus: A Century of Korean Cinema.
1th: Museo Nazionale del Cinema and Turin Film Festival present Filmfarsi at Artissima
13th: Filmfarsi at Bath Film Festival.
5th: Working with the Archive — An extended discussion on the process of working with archive institutions and organisations. Part of the London Korean Film Festival's Special Focus: A Century of Korean Cinema.
1th: Museo Nazionale del Cinema and Turin Film Festival present Filmfarsi at Artissima
October
22-23th: Filmfarsi at Cambridge Film Festival
13th: Filmfarsi at HIFF
1th: Talk on Dorothy Arzner at the cinematheque of Danish Film Institute in Copenhagen. 19:00.
13th: Filmfarsi at HIFF
1th: Talk on Dorothy Arzner at the cinematheque of Danish Film Institute in Copenhagen. 19:00.
August
The US bluray release of Searching for Ingmar Bergman features a panel discussion from Il Cinema Ritrovato with Margarethe von Trotta, Felix Moeller, and Jan Holmberg of The Ingmar Bergman Foundation which is moderated by me.
June
22th-30th: Il Cinema Ritrovato XXXIII
10th: Jafar Panahi: Interviews, edited by Drew Todd and Ehsan Khoshbakht (assistant editor) is published by the University Press of Mississippi.
March
14: Lecture on BBC's Jazz 625 at Stadtkino in Basel. On the same day, introducing a 35mm screening of Satchmo the Great. Link to 625 here and to Satchmo here.
February
25: The last work-in-progress screening of Filmfarsi, back to where it all started: Cinemateket of Copenhagen.
18: Issue no. 4 of Underline is out. Download here.
20-9 February: Drifting Shadows: Masterpieces of Finnish Cinema at Edinburgh's Filmhouse. 18-30: Drifting Shadows: Masterpieces of Finnish Cinema in London.
23: Antti Alanen and Ehsan Khoshbakht bring 16 Finnish cinema classics to London [INTERVIEW]
16-30: Agony & Ecstasy: Visual Arts on Screen in Bologna
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2018
December
8: Together with Imogen Sara Smith introduced a Keaton/Chaplin screening at Istanbul Silent Cinema Days.
1-4: Introduced Memories of Underdevelopment in Ankara. Co-curated with Jonathan Rosenbaum a small programme on Media Manipulation in American cinema of the 1950s which was played in Ankara as well. Together with Sara Imogen Smith we introduced the films.
November
29: Introduced Pixote during the archive screening day at BFI Southbank.
October
11-12: Lecture in Forli, Italy on Iranian cinema.
September
I was both interviewed by and wrote a note for Scalarama newspaper in the UK. The digital edition can be read here.
June
Curator of John M. Stahl retrospective at Il Cinema Ritrovato 2018. The catalogue notes
February
I've curated a small retrospective of jazz on film for the cinematheque of Helsinki to commemorate the Black History Month in Finland. For the list of films to be shown go here. Info in Finnish available here at the website of the cinematheque.
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| Underline magazine (2017-2019) |
December
The Turkish translation of my Samuel Khachikian essay which originally appeared on Sight & Sound was published in Sekans magazine. If you read Turkish, download it
November
- Introducing a screening of Still Life (Sohrab Shahid Saless) at Goethe-Institut London. (Sat 11 November 2017 17:30)
- Moderating a panel on Korean Film Noir at London Korean Film Festival. (Regent Street Cinema, 05 Nov 2017 2:30 pm)
The first issue of the magazine Underline was published. I served as the editor-in-chief. It's an ongoing quarterly publication in limited print and free digital edition in two languages, Persian and English. [Persian +] [English +]
July
Introducing a selection of Kinemacolor films at Cinema Rediscovered festival in Bristol's Watershed. [+]
June
Tehran Noir at Il Cinema Ritrovato (June 24 -July 2)
Interviewed by Laura Di Nicolantonio about Khachikian.
Interviewed by Lee Marshall for Internazionale.
April
The fourth and last screening of an in-progress version of Filmfarsi, this time at the Ankara International Film Festival.
There are two essays by me published on a new book from Intellect, The World Cinema Directory: Iran 2. Edited by Parviz Jahed, one essays concerns Iranian documentaries about Cinephilia and the other is on Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa's Jerry and Me.
March
The third screening of Filmfarsi (work in progress) at London Essay Film Festival, Birkbeck Cinema.
Our annual comic strip for Sight & Sound, known as Departed, was published in Persian on 24 Monthly:
2016
October
15th: Norwich - Abbas Kiarostami: The Art of Seeing
September
July
14 July: A Tribute to Abbas Kiarostami. Along with Geoff Andrew and Mania Akbari, I'll be introducing Close-Up by Kiarostami at the Close-Up cinema in London. More here.
24 Monthly has published my piece on Ernst Lubitsch's Shop Around the Corner.
June
Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato
I'll be introducing new documentary "Nicolas Roeg: It's About Time" and talking to its director David Thompson at Il Cinema Ritrovato, Sala Auditorium - Laboratori delle Arti UniBo, June 27, 18:30.
I'll participating in Danish Film Institute's season of Iranian cinema, presenting Downpour and The Traveler, both June 12), a talk on Iranian new wave cinema and finally a sneak preview of a my new documentary film, Filmfarsi, about the popular cinema in pre-revolutionary Iran (June 10). All the events will be held at the cinematheque.
April
30th: Cambridge - Teaching a crash course on Iranian Contemporary Cinema. More
25th-27th: Presenting films and interviewing Mania Akbari on stage, after the screening of her films at Cambridge Art Picturehouse. [Films
25th: Participating in the Wired talk series at the Anglia Ruskin University ARU with Mania Akbari
23th: My essay on Jacques Rivette has been published in 24 Monthly (left pic).
15th: I'll be delivering a talk at the University of Basque Country, Bilbao, on Film Culture, Programming, and Cultural Translation.
March
Published articles:
- Review of Istanbul Silent Cinema Days +
- Review of Gianfranco Rosi's
- Review of the Berlinale for Film Monthly.
February
A Simple Event: Tales from Iranian New Wave Cinema
Cinematheque of Helsinki, February 2-20
This is an expanded version of my Simple Event program for Il Cinema Ritrovato in June-July 2015.
For the line-up of the films to be screened and my introductory essay visit the official website, here.
2015
December
I have contributed two chapters (on film noir and western directors) to the new book, Rahnamay-e Genre (A Guide to 10 Movie Genres), edited by Yahya Natanzi, and published by Cheshmeh Press in Iran.
3-4th - Introducing Louis Feuillade's Les Vampires at the Istanbul International Silent Film Festival.
Nov 26-Dec 2 - Cine Comic Strip Meets Jazz, an exhibition by Naiel Ibarrola and I, at the Aliye Berger Exhibition Hall in Ankara.
November
October
15th: Norwich - Abbas Kiarostami: The Art of Seeing
September
July
14 July: A Tribute to Abbas Kiarostami. Along with Geoff Andrew and Mania Akbari, I'll be introducing Close-Up by Kiarostami at the Close-Up cinema in London. More here.
24 Monthly has published my piece on Ernst Lubitsch's Shop Around the Corner.
June
Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato
I'll be introducing new documentary "Nicolas Roeg: It's About Time" and talking to its director David Thompson at Il Cinema Ritrovato, Sala Auditorium - Laboratori delle Arti UniBo, June 27, 18:30.
I'll participating in Danish Film Institute's season of Iranian cinema, presenting Downpour and The Traveler, both June 12), a talk on Iranian new wave cinema and finally a sneak preview of a my new documentary film, Filmfarsi, about the popular cinema in pre-revolutionary Iran (June 10). All the events will be held at the cinematheque.
April
30th: Cambridge - Teaching a crash course on Iranian Contemporary Cinema. More
25th-27th: Presenting films and interviewing Mania Akbari on stage, after the screening of her films at Cambridge Art Picturehouse. [Films
25th: Participating in the Wired talk series at the Anglia Ruskin University ARU with Mania Akbari
23th: My essay on Jacques Rivette has been published in 24 Monthly (left pic).
15th: I'll be delivering a talk at the University of Basque Country, Bilbao, on Film Culture, Programming, and Cultural Translation.
March
Published articles:
- Review of Istanbul Silent Cinema Days +
- Review of Gianfranco Rosi's
- Review of the Berlinale for Film Monthly.
February
A Simple Event: Tales from Iranian New Wave Cinema
Cinematheque of Helsinki, February 2-20
This is an expanded version of my Simple Event program for Il Cinema Ritrovato in June-July 2015.
For the line-up of the films to be screened and my introductory essay visit the official website, here.
2015
December
I have contributed two chapters (on film noir and western directors) to the new book, Rahnamay-e Genre (A Guide to 10 Movie Genres), edited by Yahya Natanzi, and published by Cheshmeh Press in Iran.
3-4th - Introducing Louis Feuillade's Les Vampires at the Istanbul International Silent Film Festival.
Nov 26-Dec 2 - Cine Comic Strip Meets Jazz, an exhibition by Naiel Ibarrola and I, at the Aliye Berger Exhibition Hall in Ankara.
November
30th - Again, Jonathan Rosenbaum and I will be the guests of Bilkent University in Ankara for a discussion about cinephilia, hosted by Ahmet Gürata.
29th - Jonathan Rosenbaum and I will be introducing films from our Jazz Goes to the Movies show at the Festival on Wheels in Ankara, a day-long event which is free admission. More info here.
Read/watch some of the media coverage from the Ankara event here and here. (All these news pieces have two things in common: a) they have mentioned the jazz show, b) they've misspelled my name. Here, here, here, and here.)
Read/watch some of the media coverage from the Ankara event here and here. (All these news pieces have two things in common: a) they have mentioned the jazz show, b) they've misspelled my name. Here, here, here, and here.)
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| The poster for our exhibition in Ankara, Turkey |
14th Teaching a crash course on Iranian cinema in Cambridge: Iranian Cinema: Innovation, Revolution, Cinephilia.
The cinematheque of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art is holding a retrospective of western genre, based on my book The Westerns. I've personally selected the films which includes masterpieces by Andre de Toth, Joseph H. Lewis, Raoul Walsh, Allan Dwan, John Ford, Budd Boetticher, and Delmer Daves.
August
Festival report: Karlovy Vary International Film Festival - The 50th edition
July
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| With Jonathan Rosenbaum on the stage of Cinema Jolly, Bologna, introducing one of the jazz films we had selected for Il Cinema Ritrovato. |
On Jacques Colombier for Film Monthly.
On Gjon Mili for 24 Monthly.
June
June 1
Cinema at 33 1/3 RPM on Notebook _ MUBI
May
On May 28, I'll be introducing three Iranian films (
April
March
I participated in three panels (as well as introduced two films) as part of Iranian Cinema Day at One World Film Festival in Wales which coincided with the Persian New Year, Nowruz. A short radio interview conducted on the same day can be accessed here. Also BBC Persian has covered the event on their website.
Wrong Side of the Road: Notes on Berlinale 2015 in Film Monthly.
February
My review of Whiplash appears on 24 Monthly. [cover above]
January
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| The digital edition |
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| Paperback edition |
I have contributed a chapter to the British Council published book (digital and paperback)
2014
A LIST OF ESSAYS FROM LATE 2014 AS APPEARED ON
White Screen, Thin Cinema
Freight Trains, Aircrafts and a Rose
Solos and Jams of an American Director
Like One of Truffaut's Dreams
Cinema, Octavo
Days & Nights of Hunchback
November
I've contributed to the second issue of a new documentary film journal from Iran,
My newest book, The Art of Movie Poster has been published by my usual publisher Kasra. See the teaser below.
September
Interview with Mohammad Rasoulof for the October issue of Sight & Sound.
I've contributed to the second issue of a new documentary film journal from Iran,
My newest book, The Art of Movie Poster has been published by my usual publisher Kasra. See the teaser below.
September
August
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| Western Cinema, published in August, 2014. |
June
I'm partly responsible for this Open City Docs retrospective (17-22 June, 2014), having written the catalogue essay and selected/suggested some of the films in it.
Life May Be (Mark Cousins and Mania Akbari), a film which I've co-produced with Don Boyd, was premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and later in July was screened at Karlovy Vary International Festival.
May
April
I have supervised designing the Cinema of Childhood website at cinemaofchildhood.com. I am also the editor of this online venue which is a touring film season of 17 films about children from all around the world. The season is curated by the filmmaker Mark Cousins, and inspired by his feature documentary A Story of Children and Film. Cinema of Childhood was launched in April 2014 at Filmhouse in Edinburgh, BFI Southbank and other key venues.
Read my short essays on three Mohammad Ali Talebi films on the Cinema of Childhood website. [+]
Book review: my review of Silencing Cinema Film Censorship around the World has appeared on Cine-Eye, no. 7. [pic above] Previously published in a "censored" edition on Iranian 24 Monthly.
Touring in the UK with Mohammad Ali Talebi. Read this and this about the retrospective of his films in the Cinema of Childhood season.
Interview
Few days later: of Fribourg panel appears on BBC Persian website.
April 3
April 2: I'll participate in a panel discussion about Iranian cinema in Fribourg, Switzerland. The occasion is a retrospective of Iranian films at the Fribourg International Film Festival which later, in June, will travel to Edinburgh.
March
The Swiss Tages-Anzeiger has published an interview with me about Iranian cinema as their warming-up for an upcoming retrospective of Iranian films at the Fribourg International Film Festival. (see April)
If you're a German reader, the interview is online here.
February
Recently, a publisher in Iran asked me to write some notes to be put on the back cover of the three newly translation books on Jean-Luc Godard, Gary Cooper and Humprey Bogart. These titles are out now.
Exhibition in Tehran
The following pictures are from me and Naiel Ibarrola's exhibition of cinema, jazz and comic strip melting pot at Tehran's Aun Gallery which we have named Cine Comic Strip. To my surprise, the website of Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has taken note of our rather odd effort. On the day I'm writing this, only two days is left from the 10 day long event which was received relatively well in Iran.
2013
November
October
31th
SOAS (University of London) will show A Journey Through Iranian Cinema with Mark Cousins and after the screening I'll participate in a Q&A with Mark and Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad. More info here.
12th
The EasternBreeze Film Festival in Toronto screened A Journey Through Iranian Cinema with Mark Cousins in their documentary competition section. The official website here.
On the same day, and in the same continent, the film was shown at the 30th Middle East Studies Film Festival, held in the city of New Orleans. The brochure can be downloaded here.
New articles in Film Monthly 464: The Cinema of Misfits (from my series on women cinema, this one about Shirley Clarke) + Becket, Pinter and Pandora's Box (comparing cinephilic obsessions to the Krapp's Last Tape!).
August
Film programmer for Levant TV.
July
On the death of my friend, Ahmad Jorghanian, for Film Monthly 460 [picture on the left]. I'm working on a film about him.
June
The month of Edinburgh International Film Festival. My daily reports of the festival for Cinemaema, the most visited film website in Farsi, are here: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
Aside from these seven dispatches I have some video interviews from festival on Fandor's Keyframe which you can see here (with Mark Cousins) and here (with David Cairns)
May
During May and June (and in some parts of April) I was the co-editor of Cinemaema.com, the most visited film website in Farsi which enjoys half a million visits per month.
April
March
February
February 2013 turned out to be one of the busiest months in recent years, as far as publishing is concerned. The most auspicious event of the month, was Jonathan Rosenbaum's 70th birthday that Keyframe celebrated it by running my recent interview with Jonathan about jazz and film criticism, along with a video portrait by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky and Kevin B. Lee. Meanwhile, on my blog I published more audio/video stuff which can be accessed here.
Later on, the interview was published in Romanian (here) and Farsi (Film Monthly).
My first piece of film criticism, written for Tajrobeh [a journal of art and humanities], was published near the end of February. It was on Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa's documentary Jerry & ME.
From Film 455: On Sergiu Nicolaescu which is, more or less, what I already said here on my blog. [see image below]
From the same issue, a review of Neil Young Journeys by Jonathan Demme.
The Iranian 24 [frame] Monthly published a translation of my favorite documentaries of 2012 (with exception of Jerry & ME which I'm going to explain later on my blog), plus a note by me on Il deserto rosso. The table of contents of the 36th issue of 24 can be checked here.
Interview with Abbas Kiarostami, translated here for the Keyframe.
Film Monthly 449: Notes on women cinema & four articles about Dorothy Arzner.
Interview with Abbas Kiarostami, translated here for the Keyframe.
January
The article I wrote after the passing of Romanian director, actor and politician Sergiu Nicolaescu became one of the most read posts of my blog in less than four days, and it was enthusiastically received in Romania. The daily newspaper Adevărul wrote about that, and later, the complete article, translated into Romanian appeared on Dilema Veche [picture above].
Best of 2012: You can read my best of the year picks and lists at Keyframe [here and here] and Notebook, the latter being the 5th fantasy double feature poll.
I continued my musing on women cinema for the Film Monthly, this time, on Ida Lupino, for the 453th issue.
2012
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| Short documentary with a limited distribution in 2012 |
November
Freedom and Organization: a report from 56th London Film Festival for Iranian Film Monthly.
October
Miniatures in Motion: Iran in color dreams and visions of Stan Brakhage on NOTEBOOK
September
Film Monthly 448: on Andre Hussein's film music and the Chelsea Girls (A. Warhol)
Film Monthly 447: Reports from Il Cinema Ritrovato Film Festival.July
"Something's Rotten in the State of Denmark": Motherland, Occupation and Resistance in Jean Grémillon's "Lumière d’été" on MUBI NOTEBOOK
June
Attended Il Cinema Ritrovato festival in Bologna, Italy. Festival reports here.
May
Dossier on Alain Resnais for the Film Monthly. Jonathan Rosenbaum kindly wrote the introduction.
April
Vincente Minnelli & the matter of design, today on
March
Wrote the liner notes for the new album of Kevin McMahons Quartet.
January
Wrote the introduction to the Farsi edition of Frankly My Dear: Gone With the Wind Revisited by Molly Haskell.
My interview with Geoff Andrew, head of programming at BFI Southbank, about his passion for Kiarostami, and his book on Ten, appears here.
2011
Ehsan's jazz podcasts (in Persian only) can be accessed on this website where you can find all the 25 episodes, produced in 2011-12.
September
Reverse Darwinism in Cinema for Film Monthly, No. 432
August
In Joiners Arms club in Hackney I organized two events of jazz music and abstract/avant-garde cinema.
June
From Film Monthly 428:
On Christian Marclay's :The Clock, a masterpiece of time.
Garbage Talks: Dylan, Weberman and Garbology
May
In this month, first Film Directors Encyclopedia in Farsi (picture above) was published. As a contributor, I have 72 entries in the book, including:
Also from Film Monthly, 427:Renoir, Tati, Gance, Stroheim, Hitchcock, Jean Grémillon, Ford, Lang, Dwan, Ray, Litvak, Welles, Carne, Rohmer, Penn, Eisenstein, Vidor, Antonioni, Christy Cabanne, Clarence Brown, Pennebaker, Dorothy Arzner, Dziga Vertov, Elia Kazan, Capra, Zinneman, George Stevens, Georges Melies, Gregory La Cava, H. C. Potter, Henri-Georges Clozout, Henry King, Jack Conway, Jacques Becker, Jacques Feyder, James Whale, Strenberg, John English/William Witney, Sturges, Duvivier, Lev Kuleshov, Lewis Milestone, Lewis Seiler, Lloyd Bacon, Luchino Visconti, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Marcel L'Herbier, Marcel Pagnol, Mervyn Le Roy, Maurice Touneur, Norman Foster, Raymond Bernard, Richard Boleslawski, Richard Brooks, Robert Aldrich, Robert Florey, Robert Rossen, Robert Wiene, Sacha Guitry, Sam Wood, Shirley Clark, Sidney Lumet, Tay Garnett, Tod Browning, Victor Fleming, Victor Seastrom, Vincent Sherman, Vitorio De Sica, Vsevald Pudovkin, William Wyler.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and International Women's Day
On Becket's TV Works
Social Networks and Film Criticism
February
January
The Daily Notebook's 3rd Writers' Poll: Fantasy Double Features of 2010
From 421th Film Monthly:
Exiles on Main St.: on Recent Rockumentaries
From Fellini to Fosse: Musical reinterpretations of European art film.
2010
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| Metropolitan Urban Design Workshop: Me (right) with Madadi, my boss at the time (middle), and Andrew Olszewski. Autumn 2010 |
December
From Film Monthly, 420 Issue:
- On Orson Welles's TV Works
- A Feminine Vertigo: On Chantal Akerman's Le Captive
12th Issue of 24 Monthly:
- On David Fincher
- On Houshang Golmakani
- On Yves Montand
November
From Film Monthly, 418th Issue:
On Arthur Penn
A detailed and analytical filmography of Robert Aldrich
Best Jazz Scores in History of Cinema: A Favorite Top 25
In the same issue of Film Monthly Houshang Golmakani's review of Celluloid Architecture book was published.
11th Issue of 24 Monthly:
- On Phillip Seymour Hoffman
- On "Film and City"
- On Henri Langlois, and Film Archives.
October
From 417th Film Monthly:
On Dracula in Pakistan
On Jack Clayton's Innocents
On Arthur Penn's Micky One
From 10th Issue of 24 Monthly:
- On Cate Blanchett
(Download in PDF. It's in Farsi)
August
Lecturing on "the nature of cinematographic image" in Ferdowsi University of Mashhad.
From 415th Film Monthly:
Anatomy of Dream Factory: a long essay on history of film studios in Hollywood, Germany, Italy and England.
From 9th Issue of 24 Monthly:
- On Morgan Freeman (PDF)
An Interview with Silent Film Composer Ekkehard Wölk for Silent Era. Read it here.
24 Monthly:
A selection of my favorite noir directors, as well as an article on Jeff Bridges.(download it in PDF format, here. It's in Farsi of course!)
From 414th Film Monthly:
Truth is a guillotine [on Claude Chabrol in his 80s]
Profession: Anti-Fascist [on Dashiell Hammett's Watch on the Rhine]
LIFE ... REPLACED BY FRESH CORPSE: David Thomson's “Have You Seen...” Reviewed, appears in the summer issue of Noir City Sentinel. It's a noir report of Thomson's massive book.#
MUBI's Notebook post from July.
On Victor Sjöström and his influence on Bergman for 24 Monthly. (Download it here)
From 413th issue of Film Monthly:
- On Dede Allen
- On John Ford's Bucking Broadway.
- On Blast Of Silence.
Review of Celluloid Architecture book appeared in 24 Monthly. In the same issue and under the section, auteur's note, I introduced my book.
Published works from 412th Film Monthly:
- On Dennis Hopper
- Reviewing Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro.
From 411th issue of Film Monthly:
On Victor Fleming and reflections of his character in Clark Gable's Rhett Butler.
On Fritz Lang's Clash by Night.
Obituary: Kathryn Grayson
Shargh, an important daily newspaper, reviewed Celluloid Architecture book.
An essay on Eric Rohmer + Reading film frames: a new approach to studying and analyzing films appeared in the 410th issue of Film Monthly.
April
April
My essay on Jean Grémillon, from the 409th issue of Film Monthly, apparently the first article in Farsi about the great French filmmaker published.
A positive review of Celluloid Architecture book appears in Shahra Ara Daily, one of Mashhad's three biggest newspapers. [read here]
My first book, Celluloid Architecture (in Farsi), on interplay between cinema and architecture, published. [picture above]
March
From 408th issue of Film Monthly: "New York and the movies" and a small piece on Egyptian remake of The Asphalt Jungle, Cairo (Wolf Rilla, 1963).
February
For the special issue of "International Fajr Film Festival," I wrote an article about directors who emerged from TV in the history of motion pictures.
January
My interview with German silent film composer, Ekkehard Wölk, appeared in 60th issue of Film Quarterly.
Three new articles in the 405th issue of Film Monthly:
- On Man Ray, the filmmaker.
- On H. C. Potter's early post modern masterpiece, Hellzapoppin'
- On Sacha Guitry's Le roman d'un tricheur
December
An homage to the cinema of Joseph M. Newman concerning his centennial in the 404th issue of Film Monthly, accompanied with two other pieces on Cornel Wilde's The Naked Prey and Public Domain films.
Screening my documentary From Caligari to Libeskind in Khayyam University.
Lecturing on "cinema & architecture - the meanings of image," for architecture students of Khayyam University.
November
Three pieces published in 402th issue of Film Monthly: On Tiffany studios in early 1930s; remembering Singing in the rain; on Braineaters.
Publishing two of my pieces (a comparison between Sherlock Holmes series and Moto's in the historical context of WW II and spy films; the second one, on Michael Curtiz's Young Man With a Horn and fictional jazz bio-pics.
My interview with German Silent film composer and pianist, Ekkehard Wölk, appeared in the 402th issue of the Film Monthly. The English version will be printed in the upcoming issue of Film International Quarterly.
October
From the 401th issue of Film Monthly my new column Bazkhaniha[rediscoveries] started.
A new collection of my writings appears in Film Monthly:
- Tracing the landing on moon in history of cinema.
- On British screen writer, Alec Coppel.
- Introducing Gerald Peary's For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism to Iranian film goers.
- On Early Katharine Hepburn films.
- First article from a humorous series on bad movies (this one about Ray Kellogg)
- My response to David Thomson's inequitable note on An American In Paris, in his book "Have you seen?"
September
A very long piece that I've wrote on history and aesthetic of movie posters appeared in a special issue of Film publications.
May
Launching my blogs, Take the 'A' train and Notes on cinematograph.
January
Three long essays for mini-retrospectives in International Fajr Film Festivel: John Ford (Oscar winning films), Alfred Hitchcock (British period), and Francis Ford Coppola (in the 1970s).
October
I was the guest editor of a special issue of Art Monthly, celebrating 50th anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, including my introduction to this anthology of writings and interviews and also a piece on meanings of place and space in film.
February
After a year of work (including 2 months of editing) my first documentary film, From , about German expressionist cinema and architecture of the 1920s and its longing influence on history of art and architecture was screened for a small group of colleagues and friends. Since then, due to some references to Holocaust in the film, I haven't been able to screen the film in Iran.
January
Teaching genre studies in a cultural institute in Northeast of Iran.
2007
A positive review of Celluloid Architecture book appears in Shahra Ara Daily, one of Mashhad's three biggest newspapers. [read here]
My first book, Celluloid Architecture (in Farsi), on interplay between cinema and architecture, published. [picture above]
March
From 408th issue of Film Monthly: "New York and the movies" and a small piece on Egyptian remake of The Asphalt Jungle, Cairo (Wolf Rilla, 1963).
February
For the special issue of "International Fajr Film Festival," I wrote an article about directors who emerged from TV in the history of motion pictures.
January
My interview with German silent film composer, Ekkehard Wölk, appeared in 60th issue of Film Quarterly.
Three new articles in the 405th issue of Film Monthly:
- On Man Ray, the filmmaker.
- On H. C. Potter's early post modern masterpiece, Hellzapoppin'
- On Sacha Guitry's Le roman d'un tricheur
2009
December
An homage to the cinema of Joseph M. Newman concerning his centennial in the 404th issue of Film Monthly, accompanied with two other pieces on Cornel Wilde's The Naked Prey and Public Domain films.
Screening my documentary From Caligari to Libeskind in Khayyam University.
Lecturing on "cinema & architecture - the meanings of image," for architecture students of Khayyam University.
November
Three pieces published in 402th issue of Film Monthly: On Tiffany studios in early 1930s; remembering Singing in the rain; on Braineaters.
Publishing two of my pieces (a comparison between Sherlock Holmes series and Moto's in the historical context of WW II and spy films; the second one, on Michael Curtiz's Young Man With a Horn and fictional jazz bio-pics.
My interview with German Silent film composer and pianist, Ekkehard Wölk, appeared in the 402th issue of the Film Monthly. The English version will be printed in the upcoming issue of Film International Quarterly.
October
From the 401th issue of Film Monthly my new column Bazkhaniha[rediscoveries] started.
A new collection of my writings appears in Film Monthly:
- Tracing the landing on moon in history of cinema.
- On British screen writer, Alec Coppel.
- Introducing Gerald Peary's For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism to Iranian film goers.
- On Early Katharine Hepburn films.
- First article from a humorous series on bad movies (this one about Ray Kellogg)
- My response to David Thomson's inequitable note on An American In Paris, in his book "Have you seen?"
September
A very long piece that I've wrote on history and aesthetic of movie posters appeared in a special issue of Film publications.
May
Launching my blogs, Take the 'A' train and Notes on cinematograph.
January
Three long essays for mini-retrospectives in International Fajr Film Festivel: John Ford (Oscar winning films), Alfred Hitchcock (British period), and Francis Ford Coppola (in the 1970s).
2008
October
I was the guest editor of a special issue of Art Monthly, celebrating 50th anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, including my introduction to this anthology of writings and interviews and also a piece on meanings of place and space in film.
February
After a year of work (including 2 months of editing) my first documentary film, From , about German expressionist cinema and architecture of the 1920s and its longing influence on history of art and architecture was screened for a small group of colleagues and friends. Since then, due to some references to Holocaust in the film, I haven't been able to screen the film in Iran.
January
Teaching genre studies in a cultural institute in Northeast of Iran.
2007
Teaching "Space in Cinema" (architecture, city, landscape and cityscape in movies), from 2007. An audio tape of one the courses is available here:
Teaching film history in Agah Film. The course successfully went on for more than 30 sessions (nearly 100 hours.)
Design project: a cinematheque for Mashhad, Iran.
Curated two retrospectives for Khorasan's society of film critics, on comedy genre and westerns.
2002
Organized two retrospectives for the cinema of John Huston and Sam Peckinpah (shown occasionally in 35mm prints, something quite rare in Iran) at the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad.
