Vermont filmfest to screen Iranian short doc ‘The Rock’

The 33rd edition of the Vermont International Film Festival (VTIFF) in the US has scheduled to screen Iranian short documentary ‘The Rock’.

To go on screen as part of the Lunchtime Shorts program, the doc will be shown at the Burlington City Arts on October 26.

Directed by Hamid Jafari, the 25-minute documentary narrates the story of a woman who lives near the southwestern Iranian city of Ramhormoz.

Every day, she goes to the mountain with a sledgehammer and a crowbar in hand to smash and break the rocks so that she can sell them to provide for her family.

The documentary has so far taken part at a number of international film events, including the Matsalu International Nature Film Festival in Estonia, the Apricot Tree Ujan International Film Festival in Armenia, the Baikal International Film Festival in Russia, the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, the Red Wasp International Film Festival, and the annual Irvine International Film Festival in the US.

Slated to represent Iran at the 2019 Academy Awards, ‘The Rock’ has won honors such as Best Documentary Short award at the 2017 New Orleans Film Festival in the US state of Louisiana.

Although the VTIFF shows both documentaries and fiction films, features and shorts, its audience is always clamoring for more documentaries, according to the event’s website.

“They are thirsty for films that raise questions about the world we live in, that challenge them to think and do so in a compelling way,” it adds.

The 33rd edition of the VTIFF is slated for October 18 – 28, 2018.

MG/FM