Events > Los Angeles Events > NOOR LIGHTS YOUR WAY TO HOLLYWOOD BY DARIUS KADIVAR
Close Up on Siamak Ghahremani the Co-Founder & Director of the Noor Film Festival
|
| |
|
|
|
“Film is one of the three universal languages, the other two: mathematics and music” -Frank Capra
As one of the youngest nations in the World the United States of America throughout its history has forged its identity upon cultural diversity. It is precisely thanks to this melting pot of races, colors, sounds and sensitivities that it contributed to the invention (*) one of the most attractive and enduring popular art forms that changed not only America but also the World at Large particularly throughout the 20th Century and beyond: The Motion Picture. What was deemed as merely an industry soon became one of the most powerful cultural mediums, which, with each technological breakthrough, pushed the boundaries of individual and collective creativity towards higher standards. However this quintessential American Art form benefited from the works and talents imported from all over the world. Some of Hollywood’s Greatest representatives were hardly American by birth at least. Be them directors such as Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Erich von Stroheim, William Wyler, Billy Wilder or male leads like Rudolph Valentino, Errol Flynn, Cary Grant, Yul Brynner, Richard Burton to Silver Screen Goddess’ like Claudette Colbert, Marlene Dietrich, Ingrid Bergman, Ann-Margret all were “imported” talents who for most wrote some of the most glorious chapters of film history. If European Artists constituted the first legion in Hollywood, they have long been joined by many other nationalities worldwide that have enriched it in ways that are reflected by Hollywood’s unique capacity of reinventing itself while remaining a reference for professional craftsmanship and enduring modernity. Interestingly this has also been true for the highly successful community of first generation Iranian Americans artists today most of whom left Iran during or after the Islamic Revolution of 1979 or were born and/or grew up in the US. Some have since become household names for the American community and have had both critical acclaim and popular success both on Television and the Cinema Screen. To name a few: Oscar Nominee Actress Shohreh Aghdashloo (
|
|
i-font-style: normal">House of Sand and Fog, X-Men3, 24), Anthony Azizi (Commander in Chief), Shaun Toub (Crash, Iron Man, The Kite Runner), Bahar Soomekh (Saw III& IV, Crash). One should also include to this list those in the community who are the fruit of mixed marriages between Iranian and non Iranian parents and whose cosmopolitan identity add an extra flavor of exoticism thanks to such talents as Adrian Pasdar (Heroes, Top Gun), Omid Djalili (Gladiator, The Mummy, Casanova, Spy Games), Catherine Bell (JAG, The Triangle, Army Wives), or Sarah Shahi (The L-Word). To this largely incomplete list of talents one should also include the dozens of Iranian Americans who occupy key positions in the industry as directors, producers, cinematographers, screenwriters, technicians, stunt coordinators or SFX wizards. To name just a few in each category respectively: Legendary director Reza Badiyi (Mission Impossible, Bay Watch, Six Million Dollar Man), Prolific producers Bob Yari ( The Illusionist, Matador) and Lions Gate’s Mark Amin (Saw, The Prince & Me, Cinematographer Darius Khondji (EVITA, Seven), screenwriters Hossein Amini ( Oscar® nominated for Wings of Doves, Four Feathers) and Cyrus Nowrasteh ( The Path to 9/11, Into the West), Oscar Nominated Sound Editor Kami Asgar (Apocalypto) , Stuntman Darren Shahlavi (300 ) SFX wizard Habib Zargarpour. This ever-growing pool of exceptional talents also offers a great opportunity to bridge the Iranian film community at Large working both within the Diaspora or in Iran with that of Hollywood and the independent film society across North America. Iranian American Producer Siamak Ghahremani has filled in this necessary gap by founding the Noor Film F
|
|
|
|
