Persian Arts Festival supports filmmaker Roxanne Varzi on her debut film.

New York City
August 11th, 8pm
Anthology Film Archives
32 2nd Avenue @ 2nd Street)

Trailer http://www.der.org/films/plastic-flowers-never-die.html

Plastic Flowers Never Die, Iran, 2008, 34 min; video, Roxanne Varzi

The film is an experimental documentary and meditation on the aftermath of the Iran-Iraq war, and especially the mourning after.  The war with Iraq was the largest mobilization of the Iranian population, achieved primarily by producing and promoting a culture of martyrdom based on religious themes found in Shii Islam. Martyrdom became state policy. Khomeini made it clear the war was a spiritual one that the people, and not a professional army, would fight.  It would be a sacred defense; a war of good against evil, of spirit against military might, where a human wave of believers would form a wall of defense against the Iraqis. Over 800,000
people died.

Dr. Roxanne Varzi has spent twelve years researching and writing about post-Revolution public culture in Iran which culminated in her ethnography Warring Souls, Media, Martyrdom and Youth in post-Revolution Iran, Duke University Press and various articles and stories in the London Review of Books, The New York Press and anthologies of fiction.  She is currently an associate professor of anthropology and film and media studies at the University of California, Irvine.  Plastic Flowers Never Die is Varzi’s first film.

Plastic Flowers Never Die has been shown in:

New Filmmakers Series, Museum of Architecture and Design, Los Angeles,
January 2008
The Boston International Film Festival, Spring 2008
Uqbar Project Space, Berlin, Germany summer 2008
Middle East Studies Association, Fall 2008
Society for Visual Anthropology Film Fest, at the American Anthropological
Meetings, Fall 2008
NewFilmaker’s @ Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY
Third Women’s Film Festival, Chennai, India
5th Annual Women’s International Film   & Arts Festival, Miami
International Festival of Ethnological Film, Belgrade, Serbia
Days of Ethnographic Film, Moscow, Russia
DocuDays, Beirut International Documentary Festival, Beirut, Lebanon
DOCSDF, Mexico City, Mexico
Society for Visual Anthropology
And at Various Universities

** “Like A Phoenix From The Ashes” **

What: POMEGRANATES film screening + record release party (NYC)

When: Thursday AUGUST 12 @ 9pm

Where: The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater
165 W 65th St New York NY 10023

co-presented by B-Music/Finders Keepers and Other Music with special thanks to ArteEast and Persian Arts Festival

Join us as we celebrate the release of “Pomegranates”, a compilation of Persian folk, funk, and psychedelia on the Finders Keepers record label — with a companion film collage! Following a successful sold-out premier in Los Angeles, we are proud to bring this multi-media pop-tastic collection of audio-visual rarities to New York!

This special night boasts a psychedelic visual feast of ultra-rare and never before-screened-’till-now vintage film from ’60s/’70s Iran, culled and curated from hundreds of hours and endless stacks of VHS and film of flicks from the pre-revolution glory years. Curated by Mahssa Taghinia and Tom Fitzgerald (programmer at avant-art house Cinefamily, in Los Angeles, and director of Edan’s Echo Party). Edited and “collaged” by Tom Fitzgerald, and soundtracked with an exclusive Persian mash-up mix done by Finders Keepers founder Andy Votel.

Andy will be appearing and DJing the soundtrack LIVE to the Pomegranates film exclusively at this New York screening! The night will also feature bonus visuals to accompany the feature film collage: un-earthed music video pastiche of songs from the compilation, along with vintage commercial reels and a montage of choice selected scenes with subtitled(!) dialogue.

A fun celebration of drinks, catered Persian dinner and pastries, and artwork. Special guest appearances by the curators of Pomegranates will be DJing after the screening!

Amidst the protests, violence, and politically charged situation within Iran, currently, we are excited to present a positive celebration that is socially and culturally relevant and informative, within New York.

See sneak peaks of the film can be found by clicking here!

*********************

Details for the Summer Meltdown full Series Schedule can be found here: http://www.filmlinc.com

Tickets are available and can be purchased here: http://www.filmlinc.com/wrt/onsale/fcssummer/pomegranateslikeaphoenixf.html

August 12th @ Walther Reade Theater NYC
“Like A Phoenix From The Ashes” – a night dedicated to film and music from Iran in the 60s & 70s.

http://www.filmlinc.com/

Saturday, July 17, 2010  4 – 6 pm

Bowery Poetry Club / 308 Bowery / NYC 10012 / Subway to 2nd Avenue F train

This special edition of our Persian poetry series will feature Zara Houshmand, an Iranian-American writer who lives in Austin, Texas. Her work includes poetry, theatre, virtual reality translation, and editing the “Mind & Life” dialogues between the Dalai Lama and scientists. Her poetry has been published in online and print literary journals. Her most recent book is A Mirror Garden (A. A. Knopf, 2007), a memoir co-authored with Monir Farmanfarmaian.

This event will also feature an extended open mic portion.  We are opening the stage to any and all readers, artists, musicians who would like to read or perform their own work or recite works by other poets.  A special appearance by PAF Founder, Mona Kayhan, will be among the readers!  Works can be in Persian or English, bearing some connection to Iran or Iranian/Persian culture.  Sign up to read at the event or early sign-up by email poetry@persianartsfestival.org.

Persian Arts Festival (PAF) revived Shab-e She’r, A Night of (Persian) Poetry, at the Bowery Poetry Club (BPC) but with a modern spin.  Our program expands what tends to be a very classical Persian tradition to feature modern works of literature, ranging from fictional novels to memoirs. PAF and BPC continue to host readings of well-established and emerging authors who are of Persian descent or specialize in Persian literature. Readers have included Nahid Rachlin, Manijeh Nasrabadi and Joe Martin to name a few.

Bowery Poetry Club / 308 Bowery / NYC 10012 / Subway to 2nd Avenue F train

Our June 16th Shab-e She’r series will feature Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet! Professor Kashani-Sabet teaches Middle Eastern history and directs the Middle East Center at the University of Pennsylvania. She received her B.A. with distinction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a Morehead Scholar and completed her M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in history at Yale University.  This event will celebrate the recent publication of her first novel, Martyrdom Street, published by Syracuse University Press. She has started a second novel and hopes to complete a series of children’s books in the future.

Her book, Frontier Fictions: Shaping the Iranian Nation, 1804-1946 (Princeton University Press, 1999) looks at the significance of land and border disputes in Iranian nationalism, with attention to Iran’s shared boundaries with the Ottoman Empire (and later Iraq and Turkey), Russia, Afghanistan and the Gulf states. Frontier Fictions is currently being translated into Persian by Kitabsara Press, Iran.

Professor Kashani-Sabet has also finished a book entitled, Conceiving Citizens: Women, Sexuality, and Religion in Modern Iran (forthcoming, Oxford University Press, 2010). She is also completing a book on America’s historical relationship with Iran and the Islamic world entitled, The Making of the ‘Great Satan’: A History of US – Iranian Relations (under contract with Princeton University Press). In addition to pursuing her academic work, Professor Kashani-Sabet spends time writing fiction.

An open mic will follow the reading, inviting everyone to read either his or her own poetry or works by other poets, in Persian or English, bearing some connection to Iran or Iranian/Persian culture. To sign up to read, please email poetry@persianartsfestival.org.

This event will be streamed LIVE at http://www.bowerypoetry.com!

Persian Arts Festival (PAF) revived Shab-e She’r, A Night of (Persian) Poetry, at the Bowery Poetry Club (BPC) but with a modern spin. Our program expands what tends to be a very classical Persian tradition to feature modern works of literature, ranging from fictional novels to memoirs. PAF and BPC continue to host readings of well-established and emerging authors who are of Persian descent or specialize in Persian literature. Readers have included Nahid Rachlin, Manijeh Nasrabadi and Joe Martin to name a few.

“An invitation to TAKE PART in Amir Parsa’s unfolding Kanto I.2, ‘The American in Paris is an Iranian in New York’ on amirparsa.net.

You can contribute to this scriptage and cumulation starting now and on June 12 from 9 to 3 east. with live exchanges while Amir and friends meander though Paris streets with stops at specific sites, reading and writing multiple parallel narratives.

HERE’S HOW:
a/help begin, write and end parallel fragments of kantô I.2;
b/comment or critique;
c/interpret;
d/chronicle;
e/whatever else you fancy, and/or
f/any possible hybrids (that should cover everything!) to get a new type of text.

For more info, go to amirparsa.net and ‘The American in Paris is an Iranian in New York’.”

In this collaboration, Aphrodite Désirée Navab and Chervine Dalaeli, artists who are from Iran and based in NYC, explore the gender stereotypes and pressures of Iranian patriarchal culture. Chervine photographs Aphrodite as she transforms herself into a Hermaphrodite, wearing a traditional shalwar chemise, mustache and turban and follows her as she interacts with the public for several weeks. For the event at Zoraspace, Hermaphrodite will perform the exclusively male Persian ritualized exercise tradition called Zurkhaneh, “house of strength”.

Hermaphrodite 2010 critiques gender expectations at the same time that it is a metaphor for the condition of exile, neither here nor there, but both, neither Iranian nor American, but both. To be ‘unhomed’, as cultural studies theorist Homi Bhabha puts it, does not mean that Hermaphrodite is ‘homeless’. Nor does it mean that s/he can be accommodated easily. By occupying two places at once, Hermaphrodite is a hybrid who becomes difficult to place. It is within this ‘third space’ of working, contesting and reconstructing that hermaphrodite creates an opening for other positions to emerge. Hermaphrodite’s performances and the resulting photographs and videos from these interventions allow for a space of ‘unhomeliness’–a space of trans-national and cross-cultural initiations.

Our 5th Annual festival will be March 2011, final date TBD.
We’ve decided to run a poster contest, the winning poster will be our official poster / image.  Submission details coming.

In the meantime…we’d be interested to hear some possible theme ideas.
Send them to us via Facebook or email at contest@persianartsfestival.org

The landmark Riverside Theater in NYC is hosting a day-long ‘IRANIAN Cultural Festival’ on Saturday June 12, 2010. This is a non-political community festival to celebrate the arts and culture of Iran, and is OPEN and FREE to all. This is a chance to introduce Iran properly to different communities.

Programming includes:

Wedding Sofreyeh Aghd display
Seasonal shrines display: Haft-Seen etc.
Books and educational displays
Face painting and other children’s programming
Traditional/Mahali costumes
Divination through Persian poetry (Faleh Hafez)
DVD of historical sites such as Persepolis, etc.
Ajeel/Shirini/foods for sale
Write your name in Persian and/or Calligraphy
Persian musical instruments and artifacts display
Backgammon display/workshop
Jewelry making
…

This FREE festival runs from 2-9 PM on Saturday June 12, 2010 at the Riverside Church, where Persian food will be available all day.

FREE musical and dance performances starting at 7 PM. Artists include Ballet Afsaneh dancers, spoken word/poetry/music by Niloufar Talebi and Bobak Salehi, and Sufi Rock by HAALE!

RIverside Theater New York City, 490 Riverside Drive New York, New