Posts tagged : "Cinema and arts"

Kourosh Ziabari - Democracy in Exile: As nationwide protests have gained steam in Iran following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the so-called morality police in September, the Islamic Republic has confronted dissent with new levels of severity. As of Sunday, 488 protesters, including 68 minors, have reportedly been killed, and with some 18,000 protesters arrested, detention facilities are overflowing. After several reported executions in the province of Sistan and Baluchestan, some of which haven't been documented, two protesters were hanged to death in a span of four days in Tehran and Mashhad. As the crackdown widens, artists and athletes who express solidarity with the protest...

Kourosh Ziabari - The New Arab: Many residents of Minneapolis, Minnesota, cross over the Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge every day or move past it. It offers a unique vantage point to the well-liked Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, epitomised by the iconic $500,000 Spoonbridge and Cherry sculptural design. Most of the locals recognise Whitney, a Twin Cities philanthropist and civic leader who was married to the 1980 Independent-Republican gubernatorial candidate Wheelock Whitney and passed away in 1986. But to many Minnesota denizens and visitors of the Garden who happen to walk over the bridge spanning an interstate highway, or at least catch a glimpse of it from afar, the story behind the structure is almost undisclosed, unless one is...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: For nearly two decades, the global media coverage of Iran has functioned in such a way that the name of the country has been bracketed with a pernicious nuclear program and malign conspiracies to destabilize the Middle East and beyond. That Iran has been receiving bad press for a long time is not a mystery or the allegation of a jingoistic mind. It is an inevitability attested to by the pundits and commentators of media organizations that let bias sweep through their reporting. There are plenty of reasons to feel bitter about Iran, perceive its regional role as counterproductive and consider its brand of statecraft as erratic. The Islamic Republic’s foreign-policy adventures have been...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: Much of what the global media report about Iran these days revolves around its unpopular nuclear program, its involvement in proxy conflicts across the Middle East, and its human-rights violations. Yet the concealed face of Iran is that it is the inheritor of one of the most magnificent art heritages in the world history, reflecting a 5,000-year-old cultural tradition that many people are incognizant of as the nation’s artistic and cultural contributions are eclipsed by its political isolation. The London-based Victoria and Albert Museum, which bills itself as the world’s leading museum of art and design, has announced that it will stage the UK’s biggest exhibition on Iranian art, design and...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: Few artists in modern times have been able to connect Iranians of different generations as dexterously as Mohammad Reza Shajarian has done. On the surface, he is a singer like hundreds of vocal artists worldwide who release albums, perform concerts and entertain their audience. But the sublime heritage maestro Shajarian has left throughout six decades of practicing arts at the highest levels makes him an icon more special than a normal artist with limited skills and a limited discography. For Iranian art connoisseurs who listen to and study music professionally, and for Iranians who happen to listen to random tracks from time to time, the name of Mohammad Reza Shajarian resonates with the craft of...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: Two high-ranking clerics in Iran have issued fatwas against the production of a movie based on the life of the 13th century Iranian poet and mystic Rumi and his spiritual mentor Shams Tabrizi, reigniting a long-simmering, divisive debate about the role of religious authorities in the public life of Iranians. Born in 1207, Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi is a celebrated Persian poet, theologian and Islamic scholar whose didactic epic Masnavi-yi Maʿnavi (Spiritual Couplets), comprising six books of poetry that amount to 25,000 verses or 50,000 lines, has enormously influenced mystical thought and literature throughout the Muslim world and is commonly referred to as the “Persian Quran.” Rumi, known as...

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: Miniature painting is a genre in Persian and Indian art that has survived the passage of time. Indo-Persian miniature painting, a common heritage of the two nations, was originally an artwork adorning text that reached its climax of glory during the 15th and 16th centuries. Miniature paintings illustrate religious, mythological or literary themes and plots. In the 17th century, miniatures mostly depicted love scenes and, in the 18th century, shifted to portray flowers and birds. Ambreen Butt is a Pakistani-American miniaturist and painter born in 1969 in the historic city of Lahore. She has been called a “leader in revitalizing the centuries-old form of” miniature. Butt received her...

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: Photography is the art of discovery and observation. It is about finding the unexpected in ordinary settings and capturing the beauty and wonders of life at specific moments in time. Giving new perspectives to what otherwise might be missed, or considered banal, is one of the missions of photography — of seeing and capturing emotion and all the details that fill our lives. To the photographer, his or her vocation is a window to the world and a way of expressing oneself. The prominent American photojournalist Burk Uzzle once said that photography “is a love affair with life.” Today, photography is no longer dominated by highly-trained, professional artists. Digital gadgets and smartphones...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: Iran’s 1979 revolution was such an all-encompassing movement that it influenced almost all aspects of life. Shortly after the kingdom of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was toppled, revolutionary entities were established to take charge of emerging responsibilities in the new theocracy: revolutionary courts, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution. Iran’s movie industry was not impervious to the ripple effects of the revolution. Many actors and actresses who had appeared in shah-era films left the country, fearing persecution by the religious zealots. Censorship was rife and films produced in the early years of the revolution were heavily vetted to ensure the...

Kourosh Ziabari - International Policy Digest: Charles Dickens, the Victorian British author is remembered even today for his novels and novellas like Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, Our Mutual Friend, The Pickwick Papers and David Copperfield. I had the opportunity to interview Lucinda Hawksley, the great-great-great-granddaughter of Charles Dicken. She is a distinguished member of Charles Dickens’s family and one of his few living descendants. She is an art historian, public speaker and broadcaster specializing in literature, art, history and social history from the 19th and early 20th centuries. As a volunteer speaker of the Whales & Dolphins Conservation Society, Lucinda Hawksley has travelled across the world and appeared...

Kourosh Ziabari - International Policy Digest: Arts and culture can bridge the gaps between nations in times of division or when political tensions arise and daily life is difficult. When leaders exchange verbally aggressive words or believe that their national security interests are threatened, it is the authors, artists, entrepreneurs, academicians and even students who bear the burden of eradicating enmity and eliminating hostilities between countries. Keyvan Shovir is a young Iranian visual and street artist who combines Iranian traditional culture with contemporary pop culture in his art to showcase the beauty of Iran to those who are unfamiliar with its people and culture. Shovir is credited with being a pioneer in Iranian...

Kourosh Ziabari - Stony Brook Independent: Cinema is a thriving industry in Iran. It has always been a platform for the artistic dissemination of thoughts and ideas that cannot make their way to the state TV, be summarized in articles in newspapers or discussed in one-sided talk shows. Iranian cinema has been punctually winning a sad and dejected nation honor and pride in difficult and taxing days. It is well-known in our part of the world that good work and reliable products sometimes emerge under intensities and difficulties. Iranian cinema is no exception in being an industry, which has often made progress under pressure, restrictions and limitations. Junk cinema Despite boasting of names such as Asghar Farhadi, even Iranian...