Sunday February 28, 2010, at 6:30 PM
SPECIAL PROGRAM:
IN MEMORIAM OF FORUGH FARROKHZAD

FILM SOCIETY CELEBRATES
THE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY WITH TWO FILMS BY
SHIRIN BAZLEH, AN ACCLAIMED IRANIAN WOMAN FILMMAKER
Special Guests:
Pari Amini: Painter
Reza Badiyi: Director
Shirin Bazleh: Producer, Director and Film Editor
Mojdeh Habibi: TV Host and Artist
MOTHER TERESA:
INTIMATE PORTRAIT
In English
Lifetime’s Intimate Portrait Series takes you into the lives of the exceptional women who have made a difference in the world.
Mother Teresa, an Intimate Portrait, a Gracie Award winning documentary, was produced a year before Mother Teresa’s death in 1997. The documentary follows the life of Agnes Bojaxhiu, the youngest of three children born in the former Yugoslavia, and her
journey to distant India where she became one of the most powerful and recognizable faces of the 20th century for changing the world, one person at a time.
Against the backdrop of a densely populated Calcutta, the filmmaker was given unprecedented access to Mother Teresa’s Homes, including the Lepers Colony, Home of the Dying and the Disabled, and others. Together with Mother Teresa’s personal biographer, Navin Chawla; Historian, journalist Bachi Karkari; and Actor, Humanitarian Martin Sheen, and Mother Teresa herself, we get a comprehensive and intimate portrait of one of the most fascinating and admirable women of our time.
Agnes left her mother, her friends and family at 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland who were the only missionaries serving the poor in India. In 1928 she arrived in Calcutta where she became Sister Teresa teaching geography to local underprivileged children within the walls of Loreto Compound. In 1939 after taking her final vows, she became Mother Teresa.
Starting in 1942 Mother Teresa witnessed religious warfare and famine tear India apart. Calcutta’s
streets teemed with destitute war refugees, abandoned children and lepers. She was no longer satisfied with her life as a cloistered nun and during a six week retreat to Darjeeling, Mother Teresa received what she called “Call Within a Call”: God wanted her to forsake her life at Loreto, and serve the poor. She made an unimaginable and shocking request from the Catholic Church, to leave Loreto Order for an uncertain future to serve the poor on the streets.
The documentary explores the hardships and challenges that Mother Teresa endured in order to answer her Calling and form The Missionaries of Charity, where she served and transformed the lives of thousands of people worldwide in 120 countries.
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JOURNEY TO ABADAN:
A PARADISE LOST
In Persian with English Subtitles
two films by:
SHIRIN BAZLEH

In 1992 filmmaker Shirin Bazleh returned to Iran after a 20 year absence. She was anxious to visit her beloved hometown Abadan where she was born and raised while her father worked at the Abadan refinery. The 8 year Iran-Iraq war had just ended, and travel to that part of southern Iran was restricted. The only route was to take a train from Tehran to Ahwaz and then a bus to Khorramshahr. From that point, a private van would take her and her cousins to the neighborhood where they grew up and had the best memories of their childhood.
The film is a subjective journey of Bazleh reuniting with her past.
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SHIRIN BAZLEH: Born and raised in Abadan, Iran, Shirin Bazleh was interested in photography and journalism from an early age. After finishing high school in Tehran she moved to the United States and received her BA in Mass Communications from Emerson College in Boston. She then moved to Los Angeles and completed her graduate studies at Loyola Marymount University with a degree in Communi
cation Arts with emphasis in Film Production. Her thesis short film, The Duet, was released theatrically for Academy Award Student Film Considerations and was shown numerously on the Z Channel.
Bazleh started her professional career in the film industry as an assistant editor at Saul Zaentz Studios and Lucas Films in San Francisco where she worked on a number of feature films including Francis Coppola’s Godfather III.
In 1985 Bazleh began editing television documentaries with CNN’s two hour special Iran, Behind the Veil. She then moved to Australia where she was creative director and editor of Paradise of Martyrs for ABC Australia which was awarded as runner up for Australia’s Best Documentary by the Australian Film Commission in 1987.
Since 1993 Shirin Bazleh has been working in Los Angeles as director, producer, writer and editor on over 100 hours of network and cable television programs. Her credits include co-producer and editor on Bravo’s 6 hour Special Series, Maimi Slice 2004, co-writer and editor on A&E’s 12 hour Investigative Report series, Parol Board 2002, co-producer and editor on MSNBC’s 2 hour Special Truth About Acquaintance Rape 2001.
In 1997 Baz
leh won a Gracie Award for producing, directing and editing Mother Teresa, an Intimate Portrait for Lifetime Television. This was Mother Teresa’s only participation in a television program in 8 years. Bazleh also produced The Young Kennedy Women for the same Lifetime series about the new generation of Kennedy women.
Bazleh has also worked on a number of documentary features, including Passages directed by Gabriela Bohm 2005, and co-writer and editor of By Many Names 2007, directed by Paul Fouce.
Shirin Bazleh’s most recent television credits as an editor include Obsessed for A&E, Homeland Security USA for ABC, and Operation Wild which will premiere on Discovery’s Planet Green Channel in January of 2010.
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Sunday April 11, 2010, at 6:30 PM
FORBIDDEN BORDER
a film by: HENRY CHAR
Special Guest: Henry Char

HENRI CHARR: Writer, producer, director Henri Charr has over a decade of experience making films for domestic television and overseas distribution. His solid track record encompasses a diverse slate, from thrillers to dramas, action-adventures to family and comedies. His films have been translated into every major language, released theatrically and aired on international TV. Worldwide. After graduating from film school Mr. Charr received a grant from The American Film Institute, to produce his first documentary film, “Janice”. His next film, “A Film about Film Making”, won the prestigious Chicago International Film Festival for the Best Educational film. He was later invited to serve on the Festival's Jury. In the early 1990s, Charr made a series of feature films that have been some of the most shown titles on HBO, Showtime, The Movie Channel, Cinemax, TNT, TBS, Animal Planet and other channels. In the mid-l990s, Charrs film. “My Uncle: The Alien” was a selection at the Brussels Festival of Fantasy, Thriller and Science Fiction Films. It was broadcast on HBO domestically and has been in popular re-runs since. In 1997. Charr created and Executive Produced “Hollywood Safari”,a TV series for the whole family. Based on his successful feature film of the same title. The hour-long show premier on Animal Planet Channel in 1997 and ran successfully through 2000. Charr followed up with “ Little Heroes “ a rip-roaring action comedy. Televised on Animal Planet from Dec 17, 2000. to March 11, 2001, as Movie of the Month", the film was so popular it became a franchise that spawned two sequels. That where release to DVD by Warner Brothers. In 2002 Charr produced and directed the Action-Adventure film “Wildfire”, which has received great reviews in The New York Times as an “Edge of your seat adventure”. Distributed by Universal Charr’s talent as a director is once again demonstrated in his latest productions, “Abe & Bruno” a Family Adventure Comedy about a Motion Picture Trainer that lives with his best friend, a 600 pound Gorilla, and “Heart of Fear” a heart warming Suspense Drama of a female FBI agent that overcomes all odds to save a little boy who losses his mother on a brutal murder. In 2009 he produced & directed “Forbidden Border” a contemporary story of a girl that travels to Mexico to purchase live saving medicine for her ailing mother only to find herself wrongly accuse and imprison by a corrupt system that involves, the mighty pharmaceutical companies trying to stop Americans from crossing the border to purchase inexpensive medicine. Currently Charr is producing “Redemption” a Suspense Thriller Feature Film about a man searching for forgiveness for a crime that escalated into a major disaster where reality is not always the truth and forgiveness is not always achievable.
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Sunday May 16, 2010, at 6:30 PM
Sound In Cinema:
An evening exploring the art and technology of sound in Iranian motion pictures and the important role it plays in shaping the image.
A Tribute to Yousef Shahab: Recording Engineer
Special Guest: Yousef Shahab
REPORT
a film by: Abbas Kiarostami

With Shohreh Aghdashlou and Korosh Afshar Panah
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Dear Friends of the Film Society:
Film Society is also offering the following services:
Film and Video Production
Film and Video Editing
DVD Authoring
Sound Sweetening
Audio and Video Clips for the Web
Web Design
please contact: 818-667-8846
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Film Society
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