The world première of Dance Iranian Style at the 35th Cambridge Film Festival
Festival diaries by the director Farshad Aria - Day 3
Screening of Dance Iranian Style
At last! It happened; the first public screening of #DanceIranianStyle. I have prepared myself for the worst. That's normal to do, I think, when you try to introduce something different, or somehow new. So, I expected some walk outs during the screening. But it didn't happen. I expected at least some angry walk outs when the film ended. But it didn't happen either. Then the long, but rather beautiful title scene at the end, made me worried: "Will some of the audience walk out now and skip the Q&A?" Only about 5 people walked out, but everybody else stayed.
Now it was time for the most important part, that was about to begin: The Q&A! Tom Woodcock (a film teacher, based in Cambridge) did a great job at the Q&A. Interesting questions from him and later on from the very enthusiastic audience made the first screening of the film (worldwide) a great success. There was only one person who honestly said to feel cheated, because she expected to see a 'different movie'. But except for her the most of the questions were motivated and started with a great appreciation for making this movie, calling it "beautiful" or "touching”. Anybody in the audience who was familiar with the Iranian cinema made undoubtedly a clear link between the film and this tradition of blurring borders between documentary and fiction in the Iranian cinema.
Unfortunately I don't have images or sound recordings ready to share with you right now, but as soon as I have them ready I'll publish and share them with you.
P.s.: the second radio program with an interview with me and a review about Dance Iranian Style was also broadcast Today at around the same time as the screening of the film at the local Radio in Cambridge. The link to the pod cast will be published in less than two weeks.
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Screening of Dance Iranian Style
At last! It happened; the first public screening of #DanceIranianStyle. I have prepared myself for the worst. That's normal to do, I think, when you try to introduce something different, or somehow new. So, I expected some walk outs during the screening. But it didn't happen. I expected at least some angry walk outs when the film ended. But it didn't happen either. Then the long, but rather beautiful title scene at the end, made me worried: "Will some of the audience walk out now and skip the Q&A?" Only about 5 people walked out, but everybody else stayed.
Now it was time for the most important part, that was about to begin: The Q&A! Tom Woodcock (a film teacher, based in Cambridge) did a great job at the Q&A. Interesting questions from him and later on from the very enthusiastic audience made the first screening of the film (worldwide) a great success. There was only one person who honestly said to feel cheated, because she expected to see a 'different movie'. But except for her the most of the questions were motivated and started with a great appreciation for making this movie, calling it "beautiful" or "touching”. Anybody in the audience who was familiar with the Iranian cinema made undoubtedly a clear link between the film and this tradition of blurring borders between documentary and fiction in the Iranian cinema.
Unfortunately I don't have images or sound recordings ready to share with you right now, but as soon as I have them ready I'll publish and share them with you.
P.s.: the second radio program with an interview with me and a review about Dance Iranian Style was also broadcast Today at around the same time as the screening of the film at the local Radio in Cambridge. The link to the pod cast will be published in less than two weeks.
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Festival diaries by the director Farshad Aria - Day 2
Festival diaries by the director Farshad Aria - Day 1
Around midday, after a nice delay-free flight and a one hour ride by a kind driver (originally Bulgarian) from Luton Airport to the beautiful city of Cambridge, in a shiny sunny day, I went to the festival guest desk where an originally Portuguese young girl welcomed me with a nice cup of coffee. Soon after I had my welcome package as you can see in this picture.
It's nice and makes me proud to see my first feature film #DanceIranianStyle, marked with the words "WORLD PREMIERE", among the other films like 'The Company You Keep' by Robert Redford (UK Premiere) and 'The Clearstream Afair' by the French director Vincent Gareng (UK premiere), all in one row in the festival brochure.
However as soon as I entered the somehow quiet building of Cambridge Arts Picturehouse (which is the main cinema for the screenings and also the location of the festival organisation), I became a little nervous. 'If there are not much of visitors for the festival at all, then how crowded I can expect the screening of my film to be?' With this question keep hanging in my mind, I tried to look in the brochure to find interesting films to watch during my stay at the festival. It was still around 3 in the afternoon and there was still not much of festival visitors.
Later on a crowd showed up at last. Around 5 or 6pm some of the films for the same night were even sold out. Even though I saw now a well attended festival, deep down I was still worried about the screening day of my own film. I was still engaged with the idea of witnessing an screening without any audiences. That would be a nightmare! With these thoughts in my mind, right behind me the voice of somebody brought me out of those nightmare thoughts. He was making a reservation for the film Dance Iranian Style. He repeated many time the name of the film and the date of the screening in order to make sure that he gets the tickets for the right film on Saturday. Is it naive to say 'it was a relief to me'? But it was! I decided not to look back to see who that man was. Maybe because I prefer to remain unknown until they have seen the film.
After that I felt suddenly less worried, because now I knew that at least that man and his companions will be watching the film with me at the first public screening of DIS. Even with them only I'll be glad now, but I wish still for a sold out screening!
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Festival Brochure