Fight Feast (Bazm-e Razm) is about the vicissitudinous story of Iranian music between 1979-1989, the years just after the revolution through the end of the Iran-Iraq war. The narrative of restrictions and obstacles told by musicians, composers, and state authorities. The confrontation between music and politics. The simultaneous narration of two stories: the story of young people who sacrificed their lives for their homeland, and the story of musicians who on one hand entered the battlefields by their own language and on the other hand kept Iranian music alive and thriving.

The Story of Boulevard is a documentary about Keshavarz Boulevard, one of Tehran’s important streets, The film is in effect a line-up of histories, events, and narratives of the place and it’s deep-rooted desires and contradictions waxing and waning, a course that makes Boulevard a collective belonging.

Davood Ashrafi is an independent filmmaker based in Tehran. A graduate of Cinema from the University of Art and a member of Khane Cinema. He worked for years in feature films as a camera assistant and is now a cinematographer. In his work, he is interested in the intersection between documentary and fiction film. His documentary The Story of Boulevard won the Art & Experience prize at the 11th Cinema Verite Festival and Best film with the focus of Tehran at Shahr 7th International Film Festival.

The Mannequins of Ghale Hassan Khan tells the story of the birth and life of some mannequins. They are all created in the same way but their faith is not the same.

Sam Kalantari, bornin 1976 in Tehran, is considered to be the fourth generation of Iranian documentary filmmakers. He began filmmaking academically the same time as he entered university to study civil engineering, he entered the realm of Iran’s professional filmmaking scene by making his first short film “The Unknown Desire” (Tamanaye Majhoul) in 2001. After completing his studies in Ireland, he entered the international realm of Iranian cinema as the director of films “from the House No.37” and “He”.

‘October 13, 1937’ is a documentary about Iranian-Armenian maestro Loris Tjeknavorian, an Iranian Armenian composer and conductor. He is one of the most celebrated cultural figures in Armenia and Iran. As one of the leading conductors of his generation, he has led international orchestras throughout the world: in Austria, UK, United States’ Canada, Hungary, Copenhagen, Iran, Finland, USSR, Armenia, Thailand, Hong Kong, South Africa, Denmark, and Israel. His compositions have been performed by major orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Halle Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestra Helsinki, American Symphony Orchestra in New York, Tehran Symphony Orchestra, Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra, Haifa Symphony Orchestra, the Mexico Symphony Orchestra, London Percussion Virtuosi, Strasbourg Percussion Ensemble and English Chamber Orchestra.

Tjeknavorian himself said the film is about a mad person, and “I have always said that the mad people make the world and the wise ruin it”.

“When I was told they were going to make a film about me I was afraid, since we are all making changes every day, I never thought about the replies to the questions in this film and gave the responses immediately. I am still a child and I never want to leave this childhood of mine because that world would have no pleasure for me.”

In 1963, Professor Carl Orff granted Loris Tjeknavorian a scholarship, which allowed him to reside in Salzburg and to complete his opera, Rostam and Sohrab, based on a story from the epic Shahnameh.

Winner of The Jean-Loup Passek Award for the best short or medium international film of the Filmes do Homem – Melgaço International Documentary Film Festival in Portugal.

‘The Season of Warm Breezes’ follows a teacher in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan Province who tries to eradicate illiteracy among female residents. She, who had been unlettered till the age of 12, sticks to her roadmap to educate girls and women.

Winner of Special Narrative Award, ARC festival in Germany, The Grand Prix at the 4th International Documentary Film Festival and Transmedia (RIOS) in Portugal, The Best Documentary film at the Lifft India Awards in India, and The Best Foreign Language Documentary Film Award in 2017 Cardiff International Film Festival in Wales.

‘Weavers of Imagination’ recounts the life of a number of visually-impaired people who weave rugs together and how the simple fact of working together fills them with a great sense of happiness.

Dust-Flower-Flame, ​is a documentary film by Shabnam Tolouei, about the life of Tahirih Qurratu’l-Ayn, a woman of letters, the effect of whose presence on women’s equality movement in the 19th century during the reign of Qajar has continued up until today. After the Islamic Revolution of 1979 in Iran, it is forbidden to write or talk about Qurratu’l-Ayn. Even her name, or pages and chapters about her, have been removed in later editions of historical or literary books published in Iran. Instead, many sponsored books have been published, in numerous copies, to tarnish her character as an apostate and even a prostitute.

Exilic Trilogy consists of three arthouse docudrama films from Arsalan Baraheni, the exiled Iranian-Canadian filmmaker based in Toronto. The films present a well-known musician (Soleyman Vaseghi, a.k.a. Soli), a painter (Gholamhossein Nami) and a poet (Reza Baraheni). The films are biographical, poetic and musical, colliding with social, political and philosophical manifestations.

The first film is called “Light and Sound”, starring Soleyman Vaseghi (Soli), a well known Iranian musician who was forced to leave Iran after the 1979 revolution when music got banned by the regime. The film is about the light within the mind of the artist and the sound which he produces through his music in exile.

The second film is called “Frame & Wall”, starring Master Gholamhossein Nami who is known as one of the most important Iranian painters and visual artists. He simply had no political reasons to leave Iran but left for social purposes and ended up in Canada. The film is a visual art poetry which deals with the frames and the walls of this outstanding Iranian painter.

The third film is called “Alchemy & Dust”, starring Reza Baraheni, known as one of the greatest Iranian poets. He was forced to leave Iran about 20 years ago when he was blacklisted after signing a letter regarding the removal of censorship in Iran. This poetic docudrama is shot by Baraheni’s son, who suffered exile with him. The film is about the colliding of a poet and a filmmaker, a father and a son, the poetry and the camera.

Mehrdad Mehdi, one of the pioneers of street music in Iran, decides to get his old band members together to start a street music festival in Tehran. There are lots of obstacles and difficulties on this road which makes for a heartfelt and engaging story.

Watch what takes place in Tehran from sunset to sunrise when most people are deep asleep! A stunningly beautiful visual journey through the lives of Tehran’s night shift.

In 1971 three young musicians set out to perform the euphoric rock’n roll and Latin hits of their time on the stages of Tehran. Bahram Amin Salmasi (bass guitar), Baram Saidi (guitar) and Eini Keivanshokooh (drums), along with Eric Arconte (percussions) and Andranik Asatourian (piano) formed the band ‘Scorpio’. Through their covers, they soon became very popular amongst enthusiasts of popular western music. They covered almost every big rock hit and brought them live to their fans in the nightclubs and discos of Tehran. Forty years later, their memories give us a taste of the early days of the rock music movement in Iran.

Javad Yassari’s songs are emotional roller-coasters of love, loss, and loneliness. His songs have become the voice of a very old but overlooked part of Iranian culture: that of its hard-working, hard-drinking, tough, rough and devout downtown men and women. He rose to fame in the late 70’s in Lalezar, Tehran’s club strip where he sang in smoky theatres and cabarets. The revolution of 1979 turned the lights out on Lalezar and Javad’s music went to dingy venues in Dubai and small European towns, and the occasional Tehran wedding, though his music lived on through bootleg cassettes and CDs.

Out of Focus profiles the artist Afshin Naghouni. Born and raised in Iran, he suffered a catastrophic spinal cord injury during a birthday party in Tehran when he fell from the seventh floor of a building while trying to escape from Iranian police. He was able to move to Great Britain seventeen years ago for treatment and has rebuilt his life, getting married and now working as an artist from his wheelchair.

Max, one of the millions of immigrants in the world is trying to find his Promised Land. He was brought up as a Jew in Tajikistan and immigrated to Israel at the end of the Soviet Union. In his search for a place to call home, he met an Uzbek girl who he married and moved to the UK with. Yet, he still feels that he doesn’t belong there. In his quest of belonging, he decides to travel back to Tajikistan after 25 long years. This story reflects the Director’s own struggle of living in exile, who began living vicariously through Max in his emotional return back to his homeland.

Shahriar Siami Shal launched his cinematic career with several short documentaries created while attending an Iranian Youth Cinema Society film-making course. In 2002 he made “The Secret of Woodcock” which introduced him to Iranian national television, followed by several documentary films and series for TV. In 2008, he made “Of Men and Motorcycles” as part of the BBC World Service Trust workshop. Shahriar has not been able to return to Iran since then, due to the government of Iran’s hostile approach to the BBC World Service’s Persian TV, where he is employed. He is pursuing an MA Directing Documentary degree at the National Film and Television School. “Out of Focus” is his first feature documentary after immigrating to the UK. He also made four documentaries in the National Film and Television School that “Promised Land” is the graduation film.

Acclaimed photographer Seifollah Samadian, a long-time collaborator with Abbas Kiarostami, turns years of behind-the-scenes footage shot during their close creative partnership into a beautiful, understated and inspiring tribute to this giant of cinema by simply allowing us to watch, without commentary, Kiarostami at work.