Cinema Vérité to offer workshops by world’s top cineastes

The 14th Cinema Vérité, Iran’s major international documentary festival, has scheduled to offer online workshops and panel discussions by top Iranian and international documentarians and critics.

Betsy A. McLane, Bill Nichols, and James Bertrand Longley as well as famous Iranian documentarians Mehrdad Oskouee and Farhad Varahram are among the workshop holders.

Director emerita of the International Documentary Association, McLane has taught courses on film and documentary at 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 is was president of the University Film and Video Association, and most recently served as the project director for the American Documentary Showcase, a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State.

An American film critic and theoretician, Nichols is best known for his pioneering work as founder of the contemporary study of documentary film. His book ‘Representing Reality, Issues and Concepts in Documentary’ (1991), focuses on modern film theory to the study of documentary film for the first time.

Publishing more than 100 articles, he has lectured in numerous countries, served on film festival juries, and consulted regularly on a variety of filmmaking projects.

Longley is an American filmmaker, documentarian, and producer. ‘Gaza Strip’ (2002), ‘Iraq in Fragments’ (2006), and ‘Sari’s Mother’ (2006) are among his acclaimed and award-winning documentaries.

Oskouee is mostly famous for his award-winning documentaries ‘Sunless Shadows’ and ‘Starless Dreams’. He has also served as jury member at a number of international film events.

Varahram is director of some acclaimed documentaries, including ‘Wedding of Zinat’s Son’ and ‘Afro Iranians’.

Earlier, the Cinema Vérité organizers announced that a selection of documentaries praised at 2020 edition of several international events would be reviewed during a special section titled “World’s Best”.

This year, the event has also dedicated a special section to screening documentaries on the COVID-19 pandemic.

The organizers of the festival have received more than 130 submissions on the pandemic in the COVID-19 category.

The top works in this category will be honored at the closing ceremony, while the international section of the festival is non-competitive this year.

The 14th edition of the Cinema Vérité will be held online due to the coronavirus outbreak on December 8-15, 2020.

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MG/MG