Cinéma Vérité to host int’l filmmakers, critics

Some A-list Iranian and non-Iranian documentary filmmakers and critics are to hold online workshops and panel discussions during the 14th Cinéma Vérité, Iran’s major international festival for documentary films.

Acclaimed Iranian documentarians Mehrdad Oskouee and Farhad Varahram will be joining international figures Betsy A. McLane, Bill Nichols and James Bertrand Longley for the online program.

Best known for his pioneering work as founder of the contemporary study of documentary film, Bill Nichols is an American film critic and theoretician whose 1991 book “Representing Reality, Issues and Concepts in Documentary” introduced modern film theory to the study of documentary film for the first time.

Nichols has served as film festival jury in different countries and worked as a consultant in a variety of filmmaking projects.   

James Bertrand Longley is also an American documentary filmmaker and producer whose acclaimed documentary ‘Gaza Strip’ was released in 2002. He has also been honored with three jury awards at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival for his doc ‘Iraq in Fragments’.  

Betsy A. McLane has lectured on film and documentary at different universities, including Loyola Marymount University, the University of Vermont, Emerson College, the University of Southern California and California State University, San Bernadino and Palm Desert Campus.

She recently served as the project director for the American Documentary Showcase, a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State.

Iranian director Mehrdad Oskouee is internationally known for his award-winning documentaries ‘Sunless Shadows’ and ‘Starless Dreams’.

‘Wedding of Zinat’s Son’ and ‘Afro Iranians’ are also among Varahram’s film credits.

Organized by the Documentary and Experimental Film Center (DEFC), the Cinéma Vérité festival will screen a variety of top documentaries. The event will be held totally online from December 8 to 15 due to the pandemic.

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