Eight members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are currently in Tehran for several days of educational and cultural exchanges with Iranian filmmakers, students and others from Iran's artistic community.
The Academy delegation includes actresses Annette Bening and Alfre Woodard (right, with fellow actress Fatemah Motamed-Aria); writer Frank Pierson; writer-director Phil Robinson; producer William Horberg, executive Tom Pollock; Academy President Sid Ganis; and Ellen Harrington, the Academy’s Director of Exhibitions and Special Events. Documentarian James Longley, who was already in Iran working on a project, is also taking part in the proceedings.
The visit was organized as part of the Academy’s International Outreach initiative, which has previously sent filmmakers to Vietnam for similar meetings and seminars with local filmmakers.
According to the Academy's press release, "the Academy group was invited and is being hosted by Iran’s House of Cinema, an association of artists, craftsmen and technicians working in motion pictures. The trip is not sponsored by the U.S. State Department and there are no plans to meet with representatives of the Iranian government. In addition to Tehran, the group will visit Shiraz and Esfahan before returning to the United States on March 8."
Don't expect much information from the mainstream media about the meetings between Iranian and Hollywood artists. Instead, news sources have been focusing on Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's cultural advisor's demand that before they are allowed to meet with Iranian officials the Hollywoodians must apologize for the S&M bare-leg fest 300 and for The Wrestler, in which Mickey Rourke's character rips up an Iranian flag.
But then again, as per the Academy's press release, the artists never intended to meet with any Iranian government representatives. It's quite possible that said cultural advisor got the job because he — like the most cunning of Washington politicians — knows how to manipulate the media both at home and abroad. He certainly got the publicity he wanted.
As quoted in the release, Ganis has declared that "we have been very warmly received and even just our first few days here have been truly enlightening. We have been able to do everything on our planned itinerary and in fact, more opportunities are presenting themselves and we are thrilled to take advantage of those as well.”
I'm not one to blindly believe in press releases, but for once I hope that Ganis' statements are 100% true and that the US media, which has been focusing on one Iranian bureaucrat's inanities instead of providing more information about the exchange of ideas between artists of the two countries, is (as so often happens) way off the mark.
The Hollywood group’s itinerary is also supposed to include "seminars on various aspects of filmmaking including acting, writing, directing, producing and marketing; meetings with film students in both Tehran and Esfahan; and a visit to the set of an Iranian film currently in production." Additionally, each of the Academy members will introduce a film from his or her career, and will watch several Iranian productions.
As quoted in the Los Angeles Times, Ganis remarked that "a filmmaker is a filmmaker is a filmmaker is a filmmaker, with similar needs, similar problems, the same artistic intention, the same difficulty getting the ball rolling."
Photo: Abedin Taherkenareh, EPA
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The media always likes to focus on the worst aspects of anything. If they didn't do that, they'd sell even less newspapers. Everything has to be sensationalized. They can't just tell a story as it happens, giving all the information available.
Artists should be allowed to go where they wish. It's a good thing theyre doing.