Masoud Amini Tirani On the Elimination of a Number of Short Films From the Tehran Film Festival
This year, several short films picked by the selection committee of the 35th Tehran Film Festival, have not been granted screening permits from the Inspection and Grading Board of the Cinema Organization of Iran. I know where these inspectors “got the right” to do such a thing. They’re selected and appointed by the Cinema Org and the Inspection Board, but I don’t understand where they got the qualifications to do so. I don’t know and I don’t understand that based on what religious, conventional or occupational law or what virtue they give themselves the right to a say. I don’t know and I don’t understand how they’ve realized they can decide what’s good for me, but I can’t decide for myself!
I don’t understand how they’ve determined: peers and enthusiasts watching short films at a festival where at best there’d be 1000 of them, is not good for them. That how can there be so many meaningless and subpar movies and series (where any awful and vulgar joke goes and hurts our mental and spiritual wellbeing) that have the right to be screened for millions of people, but a handful of short films don’t get the chance for these limited screenings. What do they consider virtuous? And whose good are they trying to determine? What merits or transgressions are in the screenings of a handful of short films at festivals where enthusiasts gather?
I wish at least these good sirs would take a look at the permit guidelines of previous years and tell us why some of these films did get permits before and what change in the rules has caused them not to get those permits this year.
It is a collective wish of short filmmakers to want films screened at festivals under the supervision and responsibility of the festival director. Festivals aren’t nationwide screenings that would need the supervision of the Inspection Board. They’re a place for sharing and rating technical, artistic and communicative achievements of the short film community. As a member of the IYCS festival guideline council, I am sorry that we couldn’t hold up against the righteousness these sirs determine despite our efforts, negotiations and pleading, and the chance to screen several good films wasn’t provided. But, I do know and Understand that their problem isn’t cinema’s present; It’s its future they’re afraid of, so we will keep marching to the same beat