23^rd Annual UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema

Hosted by UCLA Film & Television Archive and Farhang Foundation

Tradition of celebrating Iranian cinema set to take place from April 13 to April 28 in Westwood

UCLA Film & Television Archive and Farhang Foundation will join forces once again to celebrate Iranian cinema, marking the third year of collaboration between the two organizations in honor of the cinematic contributions of Iranian filmmakers and artists. The UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema, now in its 23rd year, will take placeSaturday, April 13 to Sunday, April 28, 2013 at theBilly Wilder Theater, located at 10899 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, California 90024.

"Iranian cinema is world renowned, and a jewel reflecting the complexities and intricacies of the Iranian world view. It's a great honor to be partnering with UCLA Film & Television Archive for another year of celebrating this vibrant part of our great culture," said Mark Amin chair of the Farhang Film Festival Committee and member of the board of trustees.

The series opens on April 13th with the screening ofDownpour (Iran, 1972) directed by Bahram Beyzaie, who will also be in attendance that evening. Also joining in person will be director Negar Azarbayjani on April 19^th during the screening of Facing Mirrors (Iran, 2011).

In the month of April, street banners sponsored by Farhang Foundation will be featuring the program along the prominent Wilshire Corridor, Westwood Blvd.  and surrounding areas. 

Featuring a diverse array of films and filmmaking styles that cover a range of topics, this year's lineup includes:

April 13 - Downpour (Iran, 1972) 
in person: director Bahram Beyzaie

April 14 - Modest Reception (Iran, 2012)

April 18 - Rhino Season (Iran, 2012)

April 19 - Facing Mirrors (Iran, 2011) 
in person: director Negar Azarbayjani

April 21 - No Entry for Men (Iran, 2011)

April 22 - The Reluctant Bachelor (Iran, 2011)

April 22 - Unwelcome in Tehran (Iran, 2012)

April 22 - Street Sultans (Iran, 2012)

April 25 - Fat Shaker (Iran, 2013)

April 25 - The Entrance (Iran, 2011)

April 28 - Felicity Land (Iran, 2011)

April 28 - The Last Step (Iran, 2012)

For the latest screening schedule, including show times, plot summaries and information on additional in-person guests, visit the UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema website.

Advance tickets are available online for $10. Tickets are also available at the Billy Wilder Theater box office starting one hour before showtime. Prices will vary. For more details on ticket prices, click here.

For additional information, including parking and directions, visit www.cinema.ucla.edu or call (310) 206-3456.

About Bahram Beyzaie

Bahram Beyzaie was born in Tehran in December 1938. His unique talents as an artist and his singular accomplishments as a scholar eventually combined to make him the Chair of the Dramatic Arts Department at Tehran University, where he helped train at least two generations of artists. After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, he was forced to resign from the university. His unbending dedication to his art and to the dignity of artists and scholars, his unwillingness to allow ideological or political forces deform his ideas and art, his defiant desire to always speak truth to power have made him a maverick. Mr. Beyzaie has written more than thirty-five plays and fifty screenplays. Though a filmmaker for over forty years, and recognized as one of the masters of Iran's much-celebrated new wave of cinema, he has been allowed to make only ten feature films and four short films. As a scholar, Mr. Beyzaie's pioneering work on the history of Iranian theater remains, some forty-years after its publication, the most authoritative source on the subject. His many monographs and essays have delved into a comparative study of Iranian, Indian, Chinese and Japanese performing art traditions. He has just finished work on a lengthy manuscript on the origins of A Thousand and One Nights story. He offers an altogether new interpretation of the Indo-Iranian origins of these remarkable stories. Western audiences were first introduced to Mr. Beyzaie's talents when two of his plays were performed at the Festival du Theater des Nations in Paris in 1963 and his works have been translated into English, French, German, Portuguese, Turkish, Kurdish and Arabic. He is currently the Daryabari Visiting Professor of Persian Letters at Stanford University. He lives in Palo Alto with his wife, an acclaimed actress, Mojdeh Shamsai, and their son Niassan. For more info visit: www.BahramBeyzaie.com

About Negar Azarbayjani

Negar Azarbayjani was born in February 1974. She has a BA degree in cinema from Art University of Tehran-Iran. She also has an MA degree in visual media arts from Emerson College in Boston-US. She started her career in pictures by acting in a few television series and also worked as the assistant editor on the movie Sheyda (directed by Kamal Tabrizi). In 2000 and after acting in Afflicted Generation (directed by Rasool Molagholipour), she moved to the United States to continue her studies. She was involved in writing and translating scripts and trade articles during and after her graduate program in the United states. She also directed a number of Shorts and Animations in the US as well as in Iran. Among her short subjects are Safe Corner , Roya and also Virtual Truth which won the critics special award from Tehran film festival in 2007. Facing Mirrors is her first feature film.

About UCLA Film & Television Archive

UCLA Film & Television Archive is renowned for its pioneering efforts to rescue, preserve and showcase moving image media-and is dedicated to ensuring that the collective visual memory of our time is explored and enjoyed for generations to come. A unique resource for media study, the Archive is one of the largest repositories of moving image materials in the world. The Archive Research and Study Center provides free access to more than 10,000 items each year to international researchers from all disciplines. For more info visit www.cinema.ucla.edu

About Farhang Foundation

Farhang Foundation is a non-religious, non-political and not-for-profit foundation established in 2008 to celebrate and promote Iranian art and culture for the benefit of the community at large. The foundation supports a broad range of academic activities in Southern California by funding university programs, publications and conferences. The foundation also supports diverse cultural programs such as the celebration of Nowruz and Mehregan, theater, dance performances, film screenings and poetry reading in Southern California. And, in cooperation with various cultural and academic institutions, Farhang Foundation funds major programs and exhibitions about Iran and its culture. However, the content, viewpoints or biases expressed by individual artists, academics, institutions or events supported by the foundation belong solely to each individual party and do not necessarily reflect the views of Farhang Foundation. For more info visit www.farhang.org