The international figures include Betsy A. McLane, Bill Nichols and James Bertrand Longley in addition to famous Iranian documentarians Mehrdad Oskui and Farhad Varahram.

Betsy A. McLane is the director emerita of the International Documentary Association. She has taught courses on film and documentary at Loyola Marymount University, the University of Vermont, Emerson College, the University of Southern California and California State University, San Bernadino and Palm Desert Campus.

She is a past president of the University Film and Video Association, and most recently served as the project director for the American Documentary Showcase, a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State.

Bill Nichols is an American film critic and theoretician best known for his pioneering work as founder of the contemporary study of documentary film. His 1991 book, “Representing Reality, Issues and Concepts in Documentary”, applied modern film theory to the study of documentary film for the first time. 

Nichols has lectured in numerous countries, served on film festival juries on different continents, consults regularly on a variety of filmmaking projects, and has published over 100 articles.

Documentary filmmaker, producer, James Bertrand Longley is also an American filmmaker, whose acclaimed documentary “Gaza Strip” was released in 2002. His “Iraq in Fragments”, which presents a view of Iraq and Iraqis during the first two years of the war in Iraq, was awarded three jury awards at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. His short film “Sari’s Mother” premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival.

Mehrdad Oskui is most famous for his international award-winning documentaries “Sunless Shadows” and “Starless Dreams”.

“Wedding of Zinat’s Son” and “Afro Iranians” are among Varahram’s credits. 

The Documentary and Experimental Film Center (DEFC) as the main organizer of the Cinéma Vérité festival has selected a variety of top documentaries to be screened during the event, which will be held totally online from December 8 to 15 due to a spike in the COVID-19 cases in the country.  

 Source: Tehran Times