Sunday June 27, 2010, at 6:30 PM
In Memoriam of
HAJIR DARYOUSH
Special Guests: Mina Daryoush, Parviz Nazerian
There will be a panel discussion following the film moderated
by Hassan Fayyad
Film Society in association
with IFVC presentsSACRED ARENA
A short documentary about traditional Iranian gymnasium
BITA
a film by Hajir Daryoush
written by Goli Taraghi
Featuring: GOOGOOSH,
EZATOLAH ENTEZAMI,
PARVANEH MASUMI
Bita is a young and attractive girl devoted to her father. The next most important person in her life is a young journalist whom she loves. Bita’s father dies, and, to make things worse, the journalist breaks up his relationship with her. The two events seem to represent an end for the things she so cherished.
Bita was screened at Venice Film Festival in 1972 and Moscow Film Festival in 1972 and awarded the second best film and best actress prizes at the Fifth Iranian National Film Festival “Sepas” in 1973.
There will be a panel discussion following the film moderated by Hassan Fayyad
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Hajir Daryoush: born in 1938 in Bandar Anzali in northern Iran was an Iranian film maker, described by Javed Jabbar in 1982 as "the leader of the organised progressive Iranian cinema" He committed suicide in Paris, France in 1995.
Daryoush studied cinema at I.D.H.E.C (Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinématographiques) later known as École Nationale Supérieure des Métiers de l'Image et du Son in Paris. After graduation, he married Goli Taraghi a Persian novelist, and the only daughter of a rich journalist. However, themarriage did not last long. His first film "Sacred Arena ", in 1963, was a documentary about the traditional Persian gymnasium. His second film "Serpent's Skin ", made in 1964 was based on D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover" featuring Fakhri Khorvash and Jamshid Mashayekhi. It is believed that he started the New Wave of Iranian cinema with this film. He then returned to making two important early social documentaries "But Problems Arose " in 1965, dealing with the cultural alienation of the Iranian youth, and "Face 75" a critical look at the westernization of the rural culture, which was a prizewinner at the 1965 Berlin Film Festival.] Finally he made his first and last commercially successful film, "Bita" in 1972, about a young woman's struggle to come to terms with social barriers facing her, starring Googoosh.
Daryoush was the president of the First International Film Festival of Iran in 1966, and acted as artistic director for National Iranian Radio & Television.
