Relaying Cinema in Midcentury Iran

Abstract:

The talk will focus on the second chapter of Askari’s forthcoming book, Relaying Cinema in Midcentury Iran, which tracks the work of those who worried over films, those who operated technologies of sound and images (especially dubbing technologies), and those engaged in the practical management of copyright. Focusing on a few high-profile moments of blockage, unprofitability, and physical reconfiguration of second-hand Hollywood studio prints, the talk redefines these seeming barriers to film circulation in Iran as examples of careful labors of engineering, maintenance, and repair.

Bio:

Kaveh Askari is an associate professor in the film studies program at Michigan State University and author of Making Movies into Art: Picture Craft from the Magic Lantern to Early Hollywood (BFI,2014).