How did the Iranian society become “cinema-oriented”?/ TV House is a documentary

Charso Press: Yaser Faryadars, deputy director of Documentary Network and former director of Sourah Documentary and Television Center, pointing out that Mehdi Ansari, the director of the documentary “Where is Capra?” Known for his research documentaries, he said: In this documentary, the director intends to solve this issue for his audience, whether cinema is a mirror of society or whether cinema is supposed to show people what they want to see.

A documentary about Iranian movies, most of which are bitter

He continued: Mehdi Ansari presents his documentary with the question that Iranian cinematographers are involved in, and it is a sentence that we have heard many times. Is cinema a mirror of society? Or a society that is in a bad state, can it present a good state to the people? Where most of our cinematographers have made works with social issues, most of them are bitter. Although these films are required by society, unfortunately, they constitute the majority of our cinema portfolio. The documentary maker raises this issue in the form of a critical work.

According to Faryadars, this documentary has been able to cope well with the narrative of the subject, but it remains to be seen what the general audience’s reaction is to it when this documentary is aired on TV. It goes without saying that the work is completely understandable for the academic community, and perhaps this is one of the strengths of the documentary.

Pointing out that it would have been better to talk with the filmmakers themselves instead of using the conversations of the filmmakers in different circles in this documentary, he asked: “Where is Capra?” It looks like an article and the narrator is the main actor of the film, maybe not interesting for the general audience. It would be better if this documentary maker had a conversation with a few researchers or filmmakers in the same cafe space, and I wish this happened in the context of the conversation and the work would be a bit more mature in terms of research than the current situation.

“Where’s Capra?” Looking for a society that has become “cinematic”.

“Where is Capra?” said the former director of the Documentary Center of the Cinematic Organization of the Art Field, stating that Iran’s society has become a so-called “Norvian” cinema society. It is exactly looking to investigate this issue. Although it may not attract the general audience, it may be interesting for some audiences to hear the story of the American cinema of the 60s so that it becomes a part of our cultural society.

Faryadars added: This documentary has been intended from the beginning to do a specialized and research work that can be understood by the general audience and at the same time tell the audience that we need hopeful works, not bitter works that make the society worse. On the other hand, our main problems are that we don’t have a variety of genres and the audience can’t see different genres, that is, if they ask an audience to name five sports movies, they won’t be able to name them because all the movies they remember are movies with social issues and they are so repeated. It has become a genre in our cinema if it is a subject like other subjects.

He emphasized: This issue must be resolved for our cultural and artistic elites in the first stage. If we look at the statistics, we will find that 5 to 7 people out of every 10 people go to the cinema in America every week. But in Iran, 2 to 3 out of every 10 people go to the cinema throughout the year. Perhaps one of the most important reasons for this is that the audience does not see their dreams on the screen. Of course, I’m not against making a bitter social film that shakes the society, but people have different tastes, they like to see different works, and basically the criticism of “Where is Capra?” It is also about the same thing.

The deputy official of the documentary network reminded: I recommend to the audience that “Where is Capra?” to watch because this documentary can answer the question of the audience that why they feel that Iranian movies are not good and do not satisfy them.

At the end, in response to the question of how a documentary can create a demand in society, Faryadars said: the main home of a documentary in the world is television, and the topic that a documentary deals with can spread through television, become a social demand and To solve it, then broadcasting such works and basically documentaries on TV is very important. Most of the big documentary companies also make films for television and by broadcasting them frequently, they make the audience at least know the active cultural elements of the society and know what they are doing.