The Iranian Cinema Project & Our Mission

Hello to all

My name is Yusof Nazari and I'm the founder of the Iranian Cinema Project, or the ICP for short. The ICP is a foundation and website dedicated to preserving Iranian Cinema and also to sharing it with the world. Though it might seem antithetical, Iranian films are not often consumed in the country itself. Much of Iranian cinema is deeply transgressive, focusing on issues in Iranian society that are often censored in the artistic and political forums of the country, and it is because of this transgressive nature that many Iranian filmmakers work in clandestine ways to create their films.  Oftentimes, filmmakers flee the country for fear of retribution, while others stay to face the consequences of making their art in such a dangerous environment. It is because of these dangers that Iranian films are often screened in International film festivals and seen by western audiences, celebrated by award shows like the Oscars and festivals like Sundance. In fact, many film critics and academics rank Iranian films amongst the best films ever made, regardless of nation. However, there is an entire underground nature to Iranian film that cannot be separated from its being. While recent films like "A Separation" and "Taxi" have garnered wider recognition, there are decades of Iranian films that aren't as recently popular, or were made so long ago they don't have the benefit of modern preservation technology. As I watched Babak Payami's "Secret Ballot/Raye Makfhi" I noticed the low resolution, and extremely poor subtitling. Why was this the best copy available online? Why is the preservation of so many great movies from one of the world's most celebrated cinematic cultures being ignored? And what can I do to change this injustice? Sure, many of these films can be found on the corners of the internet, mostly on private torrent sites dedicated to preserving movies, but like What.CD, the government can take these down anytime and in an instant, foolishly destroy the last copies of world cinema because some greedy movie executives though there was more money to be made. We cannot trust the movie studios, because there's not a billion dollars to be made in restoring a classic Iranian film, and we can't trust the government, because their interpretation of the law and of the value of art is perverted.

So I decided to start the Iranian Cinema Project. My goal here is to preserve Iranian cinema, and to share it with the world. Because Iranian filmmakers work in secret, I want to catalog how they made their movies, and what consequences they might have faced in their film's releases. I want to dissect their artistry and celebrate the masters of the art form, the Kiarostami's and Makhmalbaf's of the world. It is a heated political era in the United States, an era where Iranian filmmakers are literally being banned from entering many western countries, banned from screening their films in their homeland and abroad. I want to catalog all of the films made in Iran and by Iranian filmmakers, make them available to the public, and if I'm lucky, to have them restored and to have them re-translated correctly. Despite the barbaric nature of its regime, Iranian people and their art is steeped in poetry, and in cultural values and idiosyncrasies that are foreign and confusing to non-Iranians and non-Middle Easterners. Without context, how can the comedy of a movie like "Moment of Innocence" be expressed, or the tragedy of "The Circle/Dayereh" be truly translated to a western audience? How can so many Iranian sayings and parables be expressed? The answer is that they can't. Finally, I hope that this project can reach Iranian filmmakers and people who work in Iranian cinema, so that we can gain more insight and information into how Iranian movies are made, and to bolster this restoration project. What's most important is to share these films with a wider audience. I know that if they are presented correctly, and with care and context, everyone will be able to fall in love with the poetry, beauty, tragedy, comedy, and artistry that Iranian films express. Iranian cinema is some of the most rebellious, transgressive, avant-garde, beautiful, and meaningful cinema in the world. The films stare squarely in the face of human nature and ask the questions that many others fear to ask. I hope that through the ICP, we can all join in and pose these questions together.

Sincerely,

Yusof S. Nazari