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Presenter(s)
Date
The Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies
and the Canadian Society for Iranian and Persian Studies
jointly present:
رازها و دروغها در جشنواره کن و ۴۴ سال حضور سینمای ایران در فرانسه | Secrets and Lies at the Cannes Festival and 44 Years of Iranian Cinema in France
(in Persian)
by Mamad Haghighat, Critic & Filmmaker (Paris, France)
Tuesday, October 15, 2024 1 pm Eastern Time (Canada & US)
Location for In-Person Attendance:
Rm 200B, 4 Bancroft Ave, Toronto, ON, M5S 1C1
Mohammad Haghighat’s new book, Rāz–hā va durūgh-hā dar jashnvārah-i kan va 44 sāl huzūr-i sīnimā-yi Īrān dar Farānsah (Secrets and Lies at the Cannes Festival and 44 Years of Iranian Cinema in France), has been published in Persian by Nakoja Publishing in Paris and will soon be released. With 22 sections and 393 pages, the book details the release of Iranian films, their coverage in the press, sales statistics, distribution companies, and exact release dates of over 170 Iranian films in France up to the end of 2023. This book addresses the growing presence of Iranian cinema at the world’s most important festival, Cannes, along with many secrets and unheard stories. The book also discusses the role of the Cinematheque and the establishment of the first Iranian film festival abroad after the Revolution, and it includes sections on major Iranian filmmakers. The final section features correspondence between the author and various filmmakers, along with exclusive interviews with Cannes Festival presidents Gilles Jacob and Pierre Lescure, and a conversation with general delegate Thierry Frémaux, covering the festival’s policies. The book offers a historical account in a narrative tone, concluding with documents related to Iranian cinema.
Mohammad Haghighat, is a director, journalist, and film critic. He began his journalistic career with the magazine Fīlm va Hunar in 1974, while also directing short films in Isfahan at the time. In 1977, he moved to France and met Henri Langlois, the director of the Cinémathèque Française, where he began to introduce Iranian films, including works by Sohrab Shahid Saless, Bahram Beyzai, and Amir Naderi. In 1979, he served as an assistant director to Sohrab Shahid Saless for The Long Vacation of Lotte H. Eisner. From 1983 to 2000, he founded the first annual Iranian Film Festival in Paris, which was the first Iranian film festival held outside of Iran after the 1979 Revolution. He collaborated with various French publications, including Cinéma Action, Positif, Cahiers du Cinéma, and Le Monde, as well as with Iranian cinematic outlets like Māh-nāmah-i fīlm, cinemacinema and banifilmonline. He completed his master’s thesis at the University of Paris 8 by directing a feature film titled L’état de crise (1984), which was accepted into the 1984 Locarno Festival and the 1985 Brussels Festival. He is the author of Histoire du cinéma iranien 1900-1999, the first book written in French about a century of Iranian cinema. In 2003, he produced Deux fereshté (Two Angels), starring Golshifteh Farahani, in Iran. The film was accepted into the Critics’ Week section at Cannes 2003 and invited to over 15 other festivals. His latest cinematic work is a 52-minute documentary film titled A cause de Langlois (Thank You, Mr. Langlois), produced in Paris.