It feels strange, almost surreal. Last Sunday exactly at 13.40 we finished shooting Dance Iranian Style. 
It was a fantastic production time with a great team and now five days later all the hard work seems gone and forgotten. 

We couldn't find a better day to finish the shooting; Sunday April 20th appeared to be the most beautiful day of April 2014 and we celebrated the end of shooting at Maria Heineken Square; happy, satisfied and proud like our DOP said. 
I really hope that we be able to make Roya and other rejected refugees visible through this film, also we hope to present you a good film that has a strong content and beautiful image. it comes a time, hopefully in a couple of months, that I'll announce proudly that the film is ready, ready to be seen! 
So keep an eye on us ;) 

Right now we are heading towards post-production time. Me trying to find funds to cover the post production expenses and our director trying to find a good production company and editor to start with editing. A company who is willing to invest in this movie, made by love and determination. 
 
The first thing that crosses my mind is, to ask you guys whether you know any small foundations which I can approach? I know all the big ones, but I know that there are still small ones that I know nothing of. So if you can help me, please contact me at [email protected]
I'll be always grateful.

Love, Nafiss

I forgot to tell you that we had a visitor from biosagenda.nl on monday. After a very nice chat with Aldo, he went to film the crew and he was very lucky to be present for the shooting of a very exciting scene. I will keep you posted the minute we appear on their site. 

This morning the birds were still sleeping when the crew of Dance Iranian Style drove to the heart of the night looking for Roya who was disappeared in a park. After a while they found her somewhere in the park, sleeping on a stone and cold bench. 

What would you do when you have no place to go, no bed to sleep on, no money to pay for a cup of thee and nobody to talk to?  How would you survive?
This is the story of thousands of rejected refugees, this is the story of Roya. Don't pity her, understand her. Don't feel sorry for her, acknowledge her. Listen to her, give her a face, fight for her. Spread her story. Spread the story of those who flee their horrible situation and look for a shelter in this country. Don't say: It is not my problem, send them back to where they are come from. Don't say they are fortune seekers. And if so, what is wrong with seeking the fortune? (in their case happiness seekers) . Everybody does that, why can't they? 

'Dance, Iranian Style' will not promote illegality, will not accuse anybody, but does want to give a face to these invisible inhabitants of the Netherlands.

After a sunny start and the rainy days that we really needed for our scenes, we now wish for a little warmth. You may not notice it in your daily activities, but it is so cold when you wait and our crew waits a lot.

The good news is that we are on schedule and doing fine. We are following the planning thanks to our diligent Assistant Director Saskia and the hardworking Production Team (Noemi, Annemarie and Asher). I'm not mentioning our director Farshad and our camera & sound team, because it is obvious that we don't have a film without them! 

We have the most finest team ever! It's not easy to work on an experimental documentary on the street and in a cold weather. Specially when you don't exactly know what is going to happen next. But that is how we make this film and that is why we are grateful to our cast and crew for their patience, understanding and above all hard work. 

In the mean time we MUST not forget our Roya, the person who the film is about. The person who tries to survive everyday in cold, rainy and lonely days. She is a symbol of every rejected refugee in the Netherlands, even Europe. With allowing us to film her story and follow her struggle to stay alive, she makes this film possible. But that is not all. By telling her story she stands for every refugee who is forgotten, every refugee who has no place in our nice and cozy homes. We wont forget them, do the same! 

There are a lot of friends who help us during this journey and that makes everything even more beautiful. We stayed at my dearest friend, Fanny 's house when we were shooting at the Maria Heineken Square. She treated us with such a hospitality, our crew is still flurried by it. 
And when we were desperately looking for a red coat and bag, Lovely Jacqueline immediately send us pictures of everything she has in red. Now we use her coat and bag in our film. 

Absolutely dear friends and supporters like Cindy, Basema, Jan Jaap, Clement and Romke who play the police agents in our film and Roy, Marcel, Nathalie, Darifa, Karin and more to come, who participate in any way they can and help us enormously. 
Dear friends, colleagues and relatives, I can't thank you enough! 

We are half way of our shooting time. The exciting scenes are passing by and our director, Farshad Aria, is challenging himself and the crew by improvising shots and experimenting new ways. He is the creative soul behind every scene, every shot and every movement. Although he sometimes makes us and himself difficult, but I believe he will treat us later with wonderful moments.

We are also fortunate to work with talented and great people such as Stefano (DOP), Edon (Actor) and Sahand (Storyteller). They are very much involved with this film and have a enormous contribution. It is an asset to have them in our midst. 

Today Stefano had an accident. He hit his head on something sharp and there was blood everywhere.  I saw that first on Facebook and was immediately in panic. I tried to call everybody, but nobody answered and I thought of the worst! 
Now I know that he is doing alright and can laugh about it with the rest. 

After this terrible accident, I will end this blog with something nice: Time to introduce you to our caterer. From the first day of the shooting we were lucky to have ProDel as our caterer. They provide us delicious Iranian and Mediterranean food with a reasonable prize. I had a pleasure of taste their meals once or twice but our crew enjoys the warm meals and yummy sandwiches everyday and they are very satisfied. 

Below take a look at their tasty products and if you are in Amsterdam at Hugo de Groot Square, take away some or have a meal at their place. 

Today we have a break. I say we, but I am almost never included to the breaks. because there are many things to be done beside shooting the film; foundations to apply to, administrative work and other engagements to attend to. 
Last night I had a nice chat about our film at Radio 5 (NTR- Dichtbij Nederland) with the lovely Naeeda Aurangzeb - the show host of the program- and we talked about Dance Iranian Style, Roya, about living in Iran as a young girl and sometimes enjoying a little freedom disguised as a boy and ...

If you are interested in listening to my interview click on the link below. It is though in Duch. 

http://dichtbijnederland.nl/page/detail/796308

Outside the sun shines and I wish you and our hardworking crew a very nice day. But today is also the Birth Day of our director Farshad Aria. We wish him a wonderful year and a very very successful shooting time.  

Today two days for the prize of one! 

We wished for the rain and we got the rain, so much that we are now completely ready for the good sunny weather again. Yesterday and today we filmed many beautiful scenes in the rain. Some how it accelerated even our rhythm of working. I saw our director and DOP smiling and I knew we have some good moments to take home. 

Yesterday we began at 10.30 and went home around midnight. We really were exhausted. Today we began at 11.30 and the crew is still working. 

You know, we are making a long experimental documentary with fiction elements in it, with a relatively small crew (10 members) and a low budget. So we don't have other choice than being creative all the time. With the weather, transport, catering, data managing, extra's and just about everything. 

If you were rich my friend! I am sure you would help us financially to make this film as beautiful as possible, You would at least help us have a extra car to facilitate things much better. 

But I am very grateful to my dear friends who are rich of goodness and graciousness, who helped me in the past, help me now and I hope that they will continue help me in the future. Also I am grateful to Foundations and Companies that believed in us and trusted us enough to support this film. May the rest do the same!  

I have to run now and get ready for an interview. Tonight at 23.00 radio 5 (NTR- Dichtbij Nederland). Do you like to listen about our film? 
go this link: 
http://dichtbijnederland.nl/page/detail/796308

Yesterday we had two spectacular scenes; At the Dam Square with a couple of young & talented Street dancers, all friends of our lovely Darifa, and the second one was in the Vondelpark with djembe & percussion players Roy, Valentijn and their friends. It was great and our audience had fun too. 

Having scenes like yesterday leads always to see the old friends again and meet new people. We not only realize a film, we produce the new friendships as well. I am greatful for these moments. 

Chang of the weather though makes our crew change the plans. That is normal and happens all the time. It has less effects on director & camera and sound team, but the team that has to work really hard due to these changes, is the production team. We have a great production team with Noemi at the head and her fantastic assistants Annemarie and Asher. Dealing with the supporting characters, props, transport, catering and locations is their everyday activity. 
Every day they make the impossible possible. 

The first film diaries were in Dutch, but from now on I'll write them in English. We have many friends and relatives who can't follow us because they can't read Dutch. 
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The 4th shooting day of Dance Iranian Style was last night. The crew gathered at our office at 19.30 and after a very nice meal (Food Iranian Style!), they disappeared into the night. 
It was a cold night and Roya was cold. After three days of walking around and sleeping in streets, she was eager to find a warm shelter. But finding a warm shelter isn't easy at all, specially when you don't know anybody and have no ID and money to go to a hotel. 

The crew waited along with her, looked for a place along with her and when she finally found one, they again waited as long as it took to make sure it was safe. 

At 4 o'clock in the morning when the crew was sure that Roya could spend the night at a safe place, they left her and went home. Everybody was really exhausted. Waiting make you more tired than anything else in the world. 

The crew waited long but they knew they can go home any time, but Roya and other undocumented refugees are waiting without any hope. Don't forget them! They do deserve a warm home too! 

Gisterennacht diep in het Vondelpark begon de derde draaidag van Dance Iranian Style. Dat moet als je de zonsopgang mee wil maken met Roya. 
Het was geen lange draaitijd, maar de crew was best moe. Zo moe dat ze het heerlijke warme eten hebben overgeslagen en naar huis gegaan. 
Ik was niet op de set, maar heb ook samen met de crew en solidair met hen geen oog dichtgedaan. Het verschil was dat ik niet direct naar bed maar naar kantoor moest, want de eerste afspraak zou op 9 uur op de deur kloppen. 

Eenmaal daar ging de vermoeidheid weg. Lekkere verse koffie, goed gezelschap en een drukke agenda laten geen tijd over voor moe-zijn. En het blijkt dat ik niet de enige ben. Farshad, onze regisseur, Stefano onze DOP en Zeb de tweede cameraman gingen ook niet naar bed. ze moesten de geschoten beelden terugzien. Ook uit de mail bleek dat Saskia onze Opnameleider/regieassistent ook wakker lag te werken. 

De dag ging best sneller dan ik had verwacht; het grijs maken van Edons' haren, onze straatdanser, lukte niet met olie en talkpoeder, dus na lang zoeken op internet, vonden we de oplossing erg dichtbij huis: Backstage op Rozengracht.

En het gesprek met onze super verhalenverteller Sahand ging als een trein. Het verhaal dat hij tijdens de film gaat vertellen is een bijzonder prachtig verhaal. Alles besproken en afspraken gemaakt.

We zouden vandaag (4de draaidag) op het Mercatoplein draaien, maar omdat regen voorspeld was, is die scene gewijzigd. En al staat er nog geen regenteken op mijn buienradar, hoop ik dat het echt gaat regenen. Want hoe kan je een film maken in regenland zonder regen? 

Later meer, voor nu wens ik jullie en ons een productieve dag. 

Na een korte slaap, is de crew vandaag heel vroeg begonnen. De eerste opnames zijn op het drukke Koningsplein gemaakt. Daarna zijn ze naar de Nieuwmarkt gegaan. We zijn afhankelijk van de beslissingen en keuzes die Roya maakt. Het leven van Roya, zoals zij het werkelijk meemaakt, wordt op afstand door onze camera's vastgelegd. Ik ben blij dat het weer meespeelt en dat het niet koud is. Ik krijg bijna een brok in mijn keel als ik denk dat ze iedere nacht op straat moet doorbrengen. Ze wil geen hulp, ze wil geen medelijden, ze wil niet zielig gevonden worden. Ze vecht voor haar bestaan en ze wil het zelf uitzoeken hoe ze het moet redden. En dat is de voorwaarde om haar te mogen volgen, anders ....

het wordt vervolgd....