The documentaries are My Name Is Negahdar Jamali and I Make Westerns, Dingomaro, None of Your Business and Ali Aqa, the theater has announced on its website.
The four films insist on the specificity of Shiraz and the south of Iran. At the same time, they exist in a dialogue that acknowledges national boundaries as well as the power of culture to bypass narrow nationalism.
Paraphrasing a famous John Ford quote, the film My Name Is Negahdar Jamali and I Make Westerns, profiles Negahdar Jamali, a director who lives in Shiraz and makes micro-budget Westerns in the desert outside the city.
Dingomaro is a wind that sweeps Iran from the African coast. It’s also the nickname of musician Hamid Said, adopted it proudly to reflect his African heritage.
None of Your Business, which has its world premiere in New York, is named after a song that is played in several versions during the film, and was written by poet Ibrahim Monsefi from the southern region of the country.
Ali Aqa returns to a sympathetic treatment of male obsession. Heidari chose Ali Aqa, a man devoted to the pigeons whom he keeps on the roof of his apartment building.
Born in 1977 near the city of Shiraz, Heidari began directing films after graduating from college. Parallel to that work, he has built up a substantial body of work as a photographer.
Filmmaker and critic Steve Erickson has collaborated in organizing the screening program, which began on April 5 and will be running for one month.
Source: Tehran Times