ABBAS KIAROSTAMI: IMAGE, VOICE AND VISION

Conference - Films

Kiarostami 101
Jamsheed Akrami (producer, director, and editor)
Dan Nocera (camera)

In this introductory collage, clips from an interview with Kiarostami are interwoven with scenes from his films. The clips follow the evolution of Kiarostami's work from the early shorts and featurettes he made for the Institute for the Development of Children and Young Adults (Bread and Alley, The Break, The Experience, and The Traveler) to his Koker Trilogy, the sweet but devastating essay on the roots of authoritarianism in a traditional society (Homework), and his moving meditation on identity crisis (Close Up).

Also covered are well-known motifs, including Kiarostami's playful handling of rolling objects and his persistent use of sheltering vehicles that provide refuge for his wandering characters as they reflect upon their precarious existence.

In the interview, Kiarostami fondly recalls his interest in making films for children and acknowledges that working with children affected his own view of the world. His remarks on his favorite films include a candid appreciation for gentle films that allow him to take a nap during the screening.

USA, 2001, 20 min.

A Walk With Kiarostami
Jamsheed Akrami (producer, director, and editor)
Donal Gilligan (camera)
Simon Willis (sound)

American-based film professor Jamsheed Akrami talks to Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami in a spontaneous video interview, which offers a frank and funny view of Kiarostami rarely seen before.

The interview was conducted over a span of two days during the Galway Film Fleadh in Ireland in 2003. In the first segment, on a ferry trip returning from Aran Islands where Robert Flaherty shot his classic Man of Aran, Kiarostami makes a few self effacing remarks and draws an unexpected parallel between the dearth of women and scarcity of water in his films before he discusses transformation of reality as it is 'framed' in photography and film.

In the second part, shot on a rainy summer afternoon, Kiarostami is shown hard at work capturing the Irish landscapes of Galway with his still camera. The interview primarily focuses on Kiarostami's fascination with nature photography. He justifies his interest in working in several media as a restless attempt in countering his fear of inadequacy. Later in the piece, Kiarostami regrets not having enough hair to look more adequate in front of the camera.

USA, 2003, 31 min.

Lines Look Like Wind
Filippo Trojano (producer, director, and editor)

Lines Look Like Wind, is an adventure in a museum in Italy. It is the story of child and a young man who go together to see an exhibition of photographs by Abbas Kiarostami. They want to know the photographs; they don't want to leave them voiceless. Nothing in particular happens. They talk about the photos and then ... Then they travel through the snow, and into the land, meet different characters. A big tree, seagulls, a child who cries, a horse, a dog, a shell, a fairy and, eventually, a tunnel. They confront each other; they carry each other, until they get to the sea. There they part.

The child moves fast in the space of the museum. The young man is calmer. They talk and play with images. They move together and together they discover other images, made of blacks, whites and greys. They touch them with their fingertips. They touch them with their ears. Until a new encounter changes the scene. A woman, in an incomprehensible language, recites the poem of the photographer-poet-film director. It tells of a flower. It leaves us with a silence.

Lines Look Like Wind is about the union of the visual and the acoustic image.

Italy, 2004, 12 min.