Experience The World through The International Art of Cinema
Film Society Celebrates Rumi's
Life, Poetry and Spiritual Teachings
An Evening of Poetry, Film, Dance, Painting and Music
******************************
Sunday September 30, 2007 at 6:30 PM
HOMA SARSHAR, PROGRAM MC, PRESENTS:
FARHANG FARAHI:
REFLECTIONS ON
POETRY OF MOLANA
***************
RUMI: The Wings of Love
Written, Produced & Directed
by:
Shems Friedlander
Narration by: Peter Boyle
In English
Shems Friedlander, who is the author of Fons Vitae's Rumi: The Hidden Treasure as well as The Whirling Dervishes and When You Hear Hoofbeats, Think of a Zebra now offers us a video entitled 'Rumi, The Wings of Love'
Rumi, The Wings of Love takes viewers into a secret world rarely seen by outsiders. Nearly eight centuries after his death, Jelaluddin Rumi, the most popular poet in the English language, is ever-present in the whirling ceremony of today’s Mevlevi dervishes.
Rumi “existed outside the differences which divide men.” In this extraordinary video, Rumi’s universal words and essence are seamlessly interwoven with his history and story of awakening.
Shems Friedlander has been given unprecedented access to document sacred ceremonies. The Halveti zikr, Mevlevi semas, and the Gharib, or secret sema (not seen for over 100 years) were filmed in Cairo, Istanbul, and the Garden of Rumi, in Konya.
This unique footage set to Mevlevi music is enhanced by interviews with Abu Bakr Siraj ad-Din (Martin Lings), Islamic philosopher and author, Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Sheikh Omer Tugrel Inançer, who reveals the hidden meaning of the ney, or reed flute.
Come back, come back,
even though you have broken your vows
a thousand times, Ours is not a house of despair,
ours is a house of hope.
--Jelaluddin Rumi
****************************
In celebration of the life of
Maulana Jalaluddin Muahmmad Balkhi Rumi
and in commemoration of the 800th year of his birth
we will honor his thoughts via
an English rendition of Rumi’s ‘untranslatable verse’ by
Dr. Zaman Stanizai
with simultaneous echoing in the original by
Jahan Stanizai
Dr. Zaman Stanizai will follow Rumi’s steps
in meter, rhythm and rhyme
through a poem in Dari Persian
emulating one of Rumi’s famous ghazals
of a spiritual awakening entitled,
“Monologue of a Sand Grain”
This segment will end with
a five-minute Afghan Video presentation
voicing Maulana’s spiritual quest.
*************************************
Banafsheh Sayyad will perform solo dances
inspired by
Rumi and his teachings.
The award-winning work of Iranian-born Banafsheh Sayyad communicates the universal message of Sufism ina physically explosive yet quietly intuitive way, offering an interplay between trance and precisemovement. Banafsheh draws from her extensivebackground in Persian dance, Sufi ritual, tai chi, and flamenco to present a form that is new and universal yet rooted in tradition. Guided by the Persian alphabet, Banafsheh’s movement creates words andpoetic stanzas that are often based in the work of
mystic poet Rumi, whom she has studied extensively. Her performance beckons each and everyone to break through conformity to find their own individual glory.
Banafsheh has an MFA degree in Dance from UCLA and an MA in Chinese Medicine. She has taught workshops andtoured her solo and ensemble work with her dancegroup, NAMAH extensively in Europe, North America and Australia. Banafsheh recently returned to LA from performing in Europe and teaching 5-day workshops in Persian Dance & Sufi Ritual in Madrid and the Pyrenees in Spain as well as the amazing Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. This past summer, she also participated for a second time in the historic 40-day & night ritual of Sema or Dervish Whirling in Turkey. She will be teaching Ecstatic Ritual on Tuesdays 7-9 PM in The Church in Ocean Park in Santa Monica and will be leading a Sufi Tour to Turkey in December. For more information visit: www.banafshehsayyad.com or www.namah.net
*************************
Persian and World Fusion Music
by renowned Iranian composer, violinist and improviser,
Maestro Loghman Adhami
accompanied by internationally-famed pianist MaestroArmen Ahoronian
Shomal – Composed by Loghman Adhami
Mahtab – Greek folk song
Bidad-e-Zaman – Composed by Parviz Yahaghi
Bahar Delkash – Composed by Darvish Khan
Baroon Barooneh – Persian folk song
Rumi – Composed by Loghman Adham
**************
For Poster in Farsi Click Here
**************
FARHANG FARAHI WILL SIGN HIS COLLECTION OF 4 CDs:
BARAN NOOR
LOGHMAN ADHAMI WILL SIGN HIS NEW CD: SHAMAL
and
ARYANA FARSHAD (EVENT PRODUCER) WILL SIGN HER
DVDs of MYSTIC IRAN and THE AGE of AWAKENING
******************************************
Suggested Donation: $25.00
Complementary Refreshments
*******************************************
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
***************************
Film Society
Felicia Mahood Auditorium
11338 Santa Monica Blvd.
LOS ANGELES, CA 90025
(TWO BLOCKS WEST OF 405 FREEWAYS.
CORNER OF SANTA MONICA BLVD. AND CORINTH AVE.
NEXT TO L.A. PUBLIC LIBRARY)
AMPLE FREE PARKING
(PLEASE ENTER FROM CORINTH AVE.)
Extra Parking is also available at the Corner of Corinth Ave
and Iowa Ave.
Web: www.filmsocietyhf.org
E-mail:
Fayyad@aol.com or Filmsociety7@aol.com
Information: 818-667-8846
Mailing Address:
Film Society
4124 Defender Dr.
Agoura Hills, CA 91301
USA
*********************