Music Nostalgia: Googoosh Kaj Kolah Khan video videos YouTube
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Kaj Kolah Khan
This video of Googoosh singing “Kaj Kolah Khan” is a great way to start the day. Thanks, YouTube!
Art & Photography Events: 30 Years of Solitude art exhibition Iran Heritage women
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30 Years of Solitude
An event put on by Iran Heritage in London this Saturday, 30 Years of Solitude is a day highlighting Iranian women artists. From Iran Heritage:
One of the most remarkable aspects of the exhibition is the sense of humour with which the artists tackle their problems, addressing major issues such as Islamic paternalism, loss of identity, isolation from the rest of the world, the Iranian Revolution and the devastating eight-year war with Iraq from 1981-1989 where thousands of teenagers ran to martyrdom. 30 Years of Solitude shows that the contemporary art of Iran has been hugely influenced by the traumatic historic events of the last three decades, and that millions of Iranians have been affected by them in one way or another. As Faryar Javaherian says “Art was a way to exorcise all the evils witnessed during the war and the Revolution. After World War II there was a similar outburst of art, literature and philosophy in Europe”.
Music Nostalgia: Andranik Bebin TV Iranian pop music Music Nostalgia video
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Andranik, Father of Iranian Pop Music
Bebin.TV consistently cranks out well-researched and well-packaged video journalism, which has made the site a really important archive of Iranian culture in a relatively short time. Bebin’s especially strong in its music coverage, as evidenced by this 15-minute piece about Andranik, who you’ve probably never heard of but who happened to invent Iranian pop music in the 1970s. In any case, if you are a fan of Googoosh, Ebi, Andy, Shahrokh or any of the other classics (many of whom are interviewed in this piece), you have Andranik to thank for their sound. Watch above.
Books & Literature Community Internet: AIAW Iranian American Manijeh Nasrabadi Persis Karim writers
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Iranian American Writers Online
The Association of Iranian American Writers (AIAW) has just launched their website, iranianamericanwriters.org, which features member profiles, excerpts of member work, and a blog. From the group’s mission statement:
The Association of Iranian American Writers is a member-based organization dedicated to promoting the work of fiction and non-fiction writers, essayists, poets, journalists, photojournalists, and artists who work with words. Iranian heritage and/or Iranian history and culture are important aspects of our work, although not necessarily our essential subject matter.
Membership starts at $50 ($35 for students). The group was founded by professor and writer Persis Karim and is co-directed by her and writer Manijeh Nasrabadi.
(Full disclosure: I spoke at AIAW’s inaugural conference.)
Art & Photography Culture Internet: Belog blogs Internet Tiffany Malakooti videos
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Belog
Tiffany Malakooti is an LA-based artist whose blog, Belog (get it?), is a visual encyclopedia of awesome Iranian art and randomness. Heavy on visuals, a recent post highlights this charming UNICEF PSA by Noureddin Zarrinkelk:
Events Film & Television: All Roads Film Festival Ehsan Amani film festivals Massoud Bakhshi Sili Tehran Anar Nadarad
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Persian Portraits
Persian Portraits is a series of Iranian films curated by the Tehran-based Documentary Experimental Film Center. Among the films screened will be Ehsan Amani’s “The Slap” (Sili; previously covered). They’ll also be showing Massoud Bakhshi’s “Tehran Has No More Pomegranates” (Tehran Anar Nadarad); the video above includes an interview with Bakhshi. The event will take place at 7:30 pm on Sunday, September 28, at the Egyptian Theatre, as part of the National Geographic All Roads Film Festival.
Details here (scroll down).
(Thanks, Arash!)
Film & Television: Cyrus Nowrasteh Not Without My Daughter Shohreh Aghdashloo The Stoning of Soraya M.
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The Stoning of Soraya M.
The Stoning of Soraya M.
Here’s a new, Iran-focused movie coming soon in the fall: The Stoning of Soraya M., starring Shohreh Aghdashloo, and written/directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh. It’s about a woman who gets stoned in a small town in Iran, and Aghdashloo plays the aunt of that woman, telling the story to an American journalist (played by James Caviezel).
I showed the trailer to Asad, who said, “Jesus, it’s like Not Without My Daughter, times one hundred.” It definitely shares that film’s slick production value, its setting (1980s, Khomeini-era Iran), its marquee names, its focus on the treatment of women in Iran, and its power to shape American perception of Iranians for a long, long time. I’m going to wait until I see the film to decide for myself, but in the meantime, I might pick up the eponymous, non-fiction book the film is based on – an account of Iranian ex-pat journalist, Freidoune Sahebjam, who stumbled into the story while reporting for a French publication in 1986.
Books & Literature Iran & the World: history Iran Mage sex
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Iranian Sex History
A Social History of Sexual Relations in Iran
Mage Publishers is releasing their sexiest title yet: Willem Floor’s A Social History of Sexual Relations in Iran is out this month, and it covers everything from marriage to divorce, sigheh (temporary marriage) to STDs. Get it from Mage, where you can also peek at the contents, or from Amazon (list price is $50 but you can get it for $35 at Amazon).
Update: Iranian.com has an excerpt.
