Iran’s Cinema Vérité opens online in COVID-19 era
TEHRAN –(Iranart)- The 14th edition of Cinema Vérité, Iran’s major international festival for documentary films, went on stream on Saturday with a tribute paid to the celebrated filmmaker Khosro Sinai, a COVID-19 victim.
Due to the pandemic, this year’s Cinéma Vérité will be held entirely online and the programs are available on Filimo, TVA and Hashure, the Iranian platforms providing video on demand (VOD) service for films.
Every day, a number of films will be introduced during the event, while a number of top Iranian and international documentarians and critics will be holding online workshops and panel discussions during the festival.
The Documentary and Experimental Film Center (DEFC) is the main organizer of the event.
A lineup of 30 documentaries will be competing for the Avini Awards during the festival.
The award has been established by DEFC to commemorate martyr Morteza Avini, the writer and documentarian who chronicled the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war known as the Sacred Defense in Iran.
Documentaries on the Islamic Revolution, the Sacred Defense and resistance in the region will be competing for the award.
Twenty-five films on COVID-19 will also be competing in Cinéma Vérité in a special category set up this year to attract attention to this disastrous disease.
A number of top Iranian and international documentarians and critics will be holding online workshops and panel discussions during the festival.
Participating international figures include Betsy A. McLane, Bill Nichols, Andre Singer and James Bertrand Longley in addition to famous Iranian documentarians Mehrdad Oskui and Farhad Varahram.
In addition, Cinéma Vérité will review Chilean documentary cinema during a special program named “Chilean Films Panorama”.
A number of acclaimed documentaries by Chilean filmmakers, including Francisco Bermejo’s documentary “The Other One”, will be screened in this section.
A lineup of world-acclaimed documentaries will be reviewed in the World’s Best section of the 14th edition of the Cinéma Vérité festival.
The lineup includes “Tony Driver” by Ascanio Petrini from Italy; “The Chilean Building” by Macarena Aguilo and “The Cordillera of Dreams” by Patricio Guzman, both from Chile; Radu Ciorniciuc’s acclaimed documentary “Acasa, My Home” from Romania; and, “A Tunnel”, co-directed by Nino Orjonikidze and Vano Arsenishvili from Georgia and Germany.
The World’s Best section of the major Iranian documentary festival will feature a selection of documentaries acclaimed at 2020 international events across the world.
The festival will be running totally online until December 22.
source: Tehran Times