Pars Arts

Noor Film Festival 2008 Photos

Hey, remember when we said we were going to the Noor Film Festival red carpet thingy? No? Well, we went. And Amy Malek – Pars Arts contributor, anthropology genius, NGO-starter, and fearless press photographer extraordinaire – took some amazing photos that you should definitely not miss. Seriously, it was elbows-out in this press pit and Amy spent a solid couple of hours wedged between some people from Persian satellite TV and a disgruntled yet chatty guy from one of the wire services. We love you, Amy.

Above, she managed to capture the Iranian Paris Hilton (accidentally?) flashing her dog’s nether regions. Persian Paris’s real name is Saye Yabandeh, and she’s an actress, and we think she kinda rocks for bringing her puppy to the LAX Hilton. And her pet’s coloring matches her leopard-print dress. So Hollywood!

Check out the rest of the photos, which include guy-who-plays-Dwight-Schrute Rainn Wilson, Iranian stage actress Mary Apick, and the best male Persian pop star of any of our lifetimes (Andy, duh), among others, in the full Noor Film Festival 2008 red carpet photo album.

So besides the pictures… our favorite thing of the night was the clip below. We say keep your eyes and ears open for this doc about prejudice and perception, Ain’t She Sweet, by Bita Haidarian:

Mixed Nutz

Norooz Productions, the people behind the popular animated film Babak & Friends, recently unveiled their latest project. Mixed Nutz is an animated extension of the Babak brand with a bunch of other multicultural characters added. It’s airing on Tapesh TV (which I’ve honestly never watched, so unfortunately I probably won’t see this until it’s out on DVD or streaming online somewhere).

The trailer is above and I’m really interested in how the show will avoid or, even better, address cultural stereotypes. But watch the trailer – it’s somewhat reminiscent of Bobby’s World. What do you think?

I honestly thought this was something completely different when I saw the name “Mixed Nutz” (as in, something totally not appropriate for children). So glad I was wrong. And also glad to see that Norooz Productions says they have “created a cultural advisory board by country to ensure accuracy and relevance of cultural content.” Here’s more from Iranian.com:

The production company has once again gone to great lengths to ensure Disney-quality animation with a superb cast of voices, musicians, artists and animators. Famous Iranian music band Kiosk and composer Mehrdad Arabifard were part of the production. The designs of characters and animation are headed up by Alfred Gimeno and Glen Kennedy, two animators who have not only won awards like Emmys but have worked at great companies likes Warner Brothers, Hanna Barbera and Disney. The Farsi version of the series was dubbed with professional voice-over actors from Iran to ensure quality.

Norooz Productions plans to launch Mixed Nutz on televisions stations around the world. The series, which currently consists of 13 episodes, is being dubbed into five languages, including Persian, Korean, Hindi, Spanish and French. The company has plans to air the series on major networks like Canada’s CBC, Korea’s EBS, Indian TV, Ariana TV in Afghanistan and the BBC. The founders hope that once the show is aired, the demand will enable them to renew the show for more seaons in the coming year.

Re-Interpreting Googoosh: An Interview with Musician Payam Bavafa

Meet Payam Bavafa, songwriter/guitarist in a San Francisco-based experimental rock band called Sholi. The band’s most recent EP, “Hejrat,” features an awesome cover of Googoosh’s song by the same name. We asked Bavafa, the group’s sole Iranian-American member, what Persian music means to him, and why he and his bandmates – drummer Jonathon Bafus, bassist Eric Ruud, and keyboardist/percussionist Greg Hagel – decided to cover the Persian pop legend. Here’s what he had to say.

Pars Arts: Tell us about Sholi; how’d you guys get together, and how’d you pick the name?
Payam Bavafa: I started playing music with Jon (the drummer) in Davis, where we were both going to college. I wanted to have a Persian name for our group, and Jon liked “Sholi,” the nickname that my dad gave my brother and me when we wrestled as kids.

PA: Your newest release is a 7″ entitled Hejrat, which is the name of the famous Googoosh song you’ve covered. Why the fascination with Googoosh, and why did you choose the song Hejrat?
PB: Googoosh was the predominant soundtrack to youth in Iran in the ’70s. My mother came to the United States then as a college student, and like many other young Iranian girls of the time, she was fascinated with Googoosh… her voice, her looks, her dancing, her fashions. For today’s middle-aged Iranians, including my mom, listening to Googoosh’s music is reminiscent not only of Iranian ’70s music, but the family and the culture they left behind. Thinking about how powerful this inherently nostalgic music must have been to my mother and other Iranians struck a particularly strong chord in me.

My original idea was to do an entire album of Googoosh covers, reinterpreting them with Sholi as a means to turn American audiences on to her music and story. However at the time (November 2007), this seemed a bit ambitious, and also political rhetoric between Iran and America was escalating in such a way that I felt the urge to make a more concise statement right away – one that would turn an American artist’s fan-base on to Iranian music and culture and vice-versa. That is still pretty ambitious, I suppose…

It was also then that I read an essay by Hamid Nafisi called The Making of Exile Cultures, about the impact of media, particularly television, on Iranian expatriates looking back to images/sounds/relics of their pre-revolutionary past for a sense of cultural identity. This led me to thinking about how I seek out my own cultural identity, with Internet and new media playing a prominent role. The YouTube video and audio clips we sampled for the 7″ – the front-cover image of Googoosh on the TV taken from the Hejrat music video, the image of Joanna on the back cover taken from the Sprout and the Bean music video, and the audio clip of Iranians being interviewed about what they do for fun at the end of Sprout and Bean, are all a testament to Nafisi’s ideas and also the way I connected to the songs myself. My good friend Michael Aghajanian posed our parents watching Googoosh on television at his house in LA for the cover shot.

As for why I chose “Hejrat” in particular… it started with seeing the music video and being intrigued. After looking further into the lyrics and speaking with some Iranians, I realized that it’s commonly regarded as one of Iran’s most beautiful songs. I believe that the literal translation of the title is “Migration,” and it’s about a lover that has departed. I wanted to re-frame the song to be about Iran itself leaving the hundreds of thousands of natives who were essentially forced out of their homeland at the turn of the Islamic Revolution, a theme that I think Googoosh herself embodies.

PA: You’re the sole Iranian in Sholi’s lineup. How did you introduce Googoosh to your bandmates? Have you guys explored other Persian music, and do you have plans to do other Iranian covers?
PB: We don’t have plans for more covers at the moment, but I think that Persian music is something that is inherently explored within this band… in the melodies, rhythms, tunings, 1-chord song structures.

I introduced Eric (our bass player) to Googoosh’s music a long time before he was in the band. I could tell he was moved by it, not even knowing what the song was about. More recently I gave everyone “Googoosh: 40 Golden Hits,” a best-of compilation on Taraneh Records my friend Razmin turned me on to.

PA: The B-side of this album is a cover of the Joanna Newsom song, “Sprout and the Bean.” Again, an interesting choice, as Newsom’s ethereal folk-style contrasts so much with Googoosh’s 1970s disco-chic. What does Newsom’s music represent here?
PB: I think “Sprout and the Bean” is beautiful and poses an interesting counterpoint to “Hejrat,” thematically. The song climaxes with a chorus of voices asking “Should we go outside?” Googoosh’s answer, through “Migration,” the name and theme, is delivered on side A. The backwards sequencing here – implying action or “migration” preceding thought or choice or questioning – is suggestive of many Iranians’ sudden plight at the turn of the revolution. A large number of these exiles still look to the past for answers in their search for happiness and a sense of cultural identity. While Joanna’s and many Americans’ existential dialogue is far-removed from political pressures, Googoosh’s and the expatriated Iranians’ dialogue is heavily centered on their cultural displacement. Joanna embodies the fantastical and other-worldly, and works within an original, mystical universe that she’s seemed to have created all on her own. I think that her work moves the audience forward into a fantasy realm, rather than backward into a realistic, nostalgic one. It’s full of “danger of broad boats,” “hollow chatter of tadpoles,” among a myriad of other fantastical constructions that are characteristic of her free-flowing musical ideas. To me, what Googoosh represents now is a repressed cultural icon. Her songs have rigid, repetitive structures, and are mostly romantic in nature. Her work, in its current context, is most often interpreted as nostalgic, turning listeners back to the way their lives were before political circumstance changed everything.

PA: You’re touring now, with recent stops in Brooklyn complete. How has your music been received thus far, especially the Persian-language Googoosh cover? A couple of your stops were in my old neighborhood, Williamsburg – I’m so curious about what the hipsters made of your show.
PB: I think we were received well at [Brooklyn venue] Union Hall. The place was a strange combination of hipster kids and 30-something parents with their babies playing bocce. This Norwegian prog band called Ungdomskulen played with us. They were awesome.

Oddly enough, the Googoosh song has been the highlight of many shows among Americans and Iranians alike. In Portland, this very nice Iranian woman came to the show with her American husband, and they liked it so much they welcomed us to stay the night at their house! I feel like in some ways doing such a cover has allowed us to connect with a crowd of people who would have never connected to our music otherwise… the main example of that being my parents. Another highlight was a Take Away Show we recently did with director Vincent Moon (yet to be released). For one of the videos we walked through Dolores Park in San Francisco carrying guitar, cello, and bells, playing “Hejrat” to hundreds of unsuspecting listeners.

PA: What other Persian music has influenced your and Sholi’s music?
PB: Lately I’ve been listening to the Golha Radio Programmes (The Flowers of Persian Poetry and Song) on radiogolha.com. They are very beautiful and inspiring; it’s so nice that they’ve been digitally archived since their original broadcasts from 1956-1979.

When I was young, I listened to a lot of Andy and Kouros, and actually still do. I think Balla is one of the best Iranian pop albums. Besides that, Shajarian, Javad Maroufi, Ebi, Hayedeh, Marzieh, Dariush and probably a hundred other artists that I couldn’t name that my parents have filled the house with since I was young. A lot of traditional Persian music.

—
Hear Sholi’s music here:

Sep Kamvar and Jonathan Harris: I Want You To Want Me

Check out the work of Jonathan Harris and Iranian-American Sep Kamvar at the MoMA in NYC. Their project entitled I Want You To Want Me is part of the new Design and the Elastic Mind exhibit. If you can’t make it to New York, there’s a YouTube video above that demonstrates the project, which pulls in data from dating sites to create a visualization of human desire. Very awesome.

Harris and Kamvar have worked together on other projects, including the clothing company Distilled. Kamvar also leads personalized search at Google and teaches at Stanford.

Here’s a video from Sarah Meyers/Pop17.com that includes snippets of an interview with Kamvar and Harris (I love the way it’s shot):

Read more about Kamvar’s work on his website. And see Jonathan Harris’s other projects here.

Iranian Eco-Architect Nader Khalili

Iranian eco-architect Nader Khalili died early last month (here is the LA Times obit). He was an advocate of “earth architecture,” inventing techniques for building really cool dome-shaped structures. Khalili founded an institute called Cal-Earth to teach others how to build these houses, which got the stamp of approval from the UN, where he was also a consultant.

I think Khalili’s work is really the pinnacle of an Iranian working to create and promote environmentally-conscious living. He leaves behind a really amazing legacy, which includes several books (one of them a translation of Rumi poems). His books – and the architectural plans for his structures – can be purchased via Cal-Earth.

Studio 360 did an excellent show this weekend that included a bit of a tribute to his work and included old interviews with Khalili. Listen to it by using the player below, or visit Studio 360’s website.

Photo: Los Angeles Times

127

Check out 127 (“saad o bist o haft”), a smart band out of Tehran that takes Iranian scales, adds a trombone, a dash of jazz, and a pinch of punk, then stirs it all together with sharp lyrics to make some delicious, delicious music. Think a cross between the Decemberists and Nellie McKay, but speed it up and imagine it in Persian and English both. I think the video above is my favorite song of theirs I’ve heard so far. Check out their beautiful website – that’s what you get when the band is comprised of a bunch of art students – and add them on MySpace.

I was very lucky to meet a couple of the band members, who are in LA now and winding down a US tour, at the Noor Film Festival this weekend (post on that coming very soon). Just got an email from their trombone with heads up that they’ll be performing at Arizona State University (I think? Will clarify when I get an update from them), on April 18… more soon!... here are the details of their April 18 show:

The 127 Band – playing on April 18, 2008
University of Arizona
Stage 2, located on Mountain Ave. and 2nd Street
Tucson, AZ 85721

Zaman Zamani’s Awesome Line-Drawn Nudes

Zaman Zamani’s art in this Iranian.com gallery is really, really amazing. First, his style has a really great range, from this lebas-mahali-with-attitude portrait to this cute plate of what look like dancing dervishes to this more illustration-like painting of a girl in a green chador. Ladies, check out the line drawing/painting of the woman above, with her miniatur-style elongated torso, and tell me that does not make you wish it was the 1970s right now, so you could tease your hair to that size and get away with it?

But wait, it gets better! There are totally awesome nudes. more »

2008 Noor Film Festival (and UCLA)

The opening ceremony and red carpet good times for the 2008 Noor Film Festival are this Sunday in Los Angeles, kicking off a couple weeks of Iranian and Middle Eastern films. Pars Arts will be there, hopefully getting some photos and good quotes, so stay tuned.

I am really crossing my fingers that celebrity judge Rainn Wilson will be present, in character as Dwight Schrute, and also hoping to see his fellow celebrity judge, the amazingly illustrious Iranian-in-America director Reza Badiyi. Check out Bebin TV’s interview with Badiyi to see why he rocks so hard.

But enough about that. Here’s the full schedule of movies being screened in Beverly Hills. In its second year, Noor’s tagline is “Celebrating Women.” But I’m most excited about Nomads of Iran, Saied Atoofi’s documentary that explores the lives of two Iranian nomadic tribes. From Noor’s website, here’s a description:

This documentary is a rare glimpse of two major nomadic tribes of Iran, Quashquees and Bakhtiaris. Nomads talk about their lives, traditions, weddings, ways of making decisions for their families and tribes, and occasionally complement the beautiful scenery of their surroundings with singing nomadic songs.

This documentary also explores the changes of lives of nomads who preferred to stay put permanently and built a new way of life in small towns. Nomad-settlers explain how settlement has changed the very fabric of their family, way of thinking, and being in the world.

Unfortunately, I can’t find a trailer or clips for this film on YouTube (please leave a comment if you find anything). For Iranians in Colorado, the film is also being shown at the Colorado Springs Indie Spirit Film Festival at the end of the month.

Iranian film fans in LA should also know that the 18th Annual Iranian Film Festival is in progress now. Go, go, go, because it’s over on April 20th and then you have to wait another year again. Here’s a full schedule. The lineup is amazing… and I like that they have one night devoted to Iranian diaspora films (April 18). Buy your tickets from UCLA.