living toys

as a kid, whenever you get a new toy, every moment is full of joy and happiness. You constantly look at it, can't wait for play time so you can go play with it. It doesn't take long for the toy to seem less special though, and then it's time for you to want to peek inside it and see how it works, throw it around, and test its strength against the other toys. eventually you'll end up damaging it so bad that it no longer functions ... you get tired and the poor thing is buried somewhere in your memories.

It's almost the same story with new people in life... they all seem so shiny at the beginning, you enjoy their company, but it takes merely a few weeks for you to grow tired... then it's time to push them to extremes and see how well they survive! those who stick around may have a chance to actually get close to you... others are forgotten, as easily as they once entered your life.

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No more Tv-links!

One of my favorite websites, tv-links.co.uk, has been brought down by Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT)and the owner has been arrested and is being held in jail for now. I think it's absolutely retarded! There is a petition going on, if you were a regular like me.

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kitchen malfunction

hmmm, Guacamole omelet: disgusting, especially if you've messed up the eggs so they're not all cooked, arrrgh!

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More from VIFF

This'll be my last VIFF post, hopefully. Unless I go watch a movie tomorrow, of course! :)

I watched a few good movies in only two days and I'm all excited, my head still filled with images from the last one I watched only a few hours ago, Bliss. It was a Turkish movie about a young village girl that gets raped. Village's "Agha" decides that she has sinned and only death will erase this dishonor (you can imagine how I felt throughout the movie I guess!). So they send a guy to kill her and he's not happy about it and the two disappear. It was filmed so beautifully, with amazing scenery, and great acting from the lead actress (she was so cute!) that I was shocked! I think that this movie must be a commercially successful one in Turkey, not one of those artsy independent ones. Anyway, it's screened again next Monday in Vancity theater in Vancouver, if anyone's interested. I liked the movements of the camera in the movie and also the score, it was so sad that I cried at the final credits, even though nothing was showing on the screen! (I'm a woos when it comes to the movies though!)

I also watched Persepolis...need I say anything? It was all I expected and more! I thought the book was pretty awesome, but seeing those figures in action was a totally different experience and I absolutely loved it. Eevery Iranian that has a chance should watch it and feel proud (and force their non-Iranian friends to watch it too!) :) Reading the two books will help too.

Another superb movie was "the diving bell and the butterfly"... it told the true story of a man that got affected by the "locked-in syndrome"... so basically, he was paralyzed from head to toe, and the only part working in his body was one eye! (and his brain, of course). And then this guy went on and wrote a book (!!!)- through a very cool communicating system that one of his doctors created - about his experience. It was greatly made, and felt really strange. It has won the best director award in Cannes, so it should be pretty easy to find on DVD later on, a must see for all you movie fans out there!

And finally, a relatively good movie - but not great - was Jellyfish, a movie from Israel. It's the first feature film from the director and it was definitely a good first movie. I didn't exactly love it though!

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I do not defend my president, but...

I came across this article through sibil tala's blog and thought it had some great points in it about the famous homosexual-related comments of Iran's president in Columbia University.

"...At the risk of being accused of defending him, I want to point out that Ahmadinejad did not say that queers do not exist in Iran at all. He said “we do not have ‘hamjensbaaz’ the way that you have it in this country.”
...It is no news to anyone that he represents one of the most socially conservative officials in Iran. But he is correct to say that homosexuals do not exist THE SAME WAY that they exist in the US."

I think it is the realization of the term "tof e sar bala" when I have to defend a man that represents almost everything that I hate about the way my country is run today, but well, can't just stand there and nod while people make jokes about Iran.

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A dream-like movie

You're gonna have to cope with my movie posts until the festival ends. Last night I went to watch "en la ciudad de Sylvia"(in the city of Sylvia) and "Unas fotos en la ciudad del Sylvia" (photos in the city of Sylvia) , two back to back movies from Spanish director, Jose Luis Guerin.

"en la ciudad..." shows us this young man (super good looking!) that sits in a street cafe and watches women. We don't know why (and we won't find out for a long time).. but that's not the point. The way he looks at these women and makes sketches in his notebook is what's interesting. The way he notices little things and movements. Then he starts following this one woman and the chasing scene is just absolutely beautiful... I can't describe it, you have to watch it for yourself.

The movie felt like a dream... it had an amazing quality to it... for one thing there was almost no dialog in it... there were a lot of different sounds though (and they did a superb job of sound recording and editing I thought), you could hear the wind, the street musicians, people walking and talking, everything. But what blew my mind was the imagery... every frame could be a perfect photo... the camera shot each location from many different angles... of course, it really helped that the movie was shot in Strasbourg, the old streets and buildings introduced so much character into the movie.

the second movie, that was screening for the first time, was actually a slide show of these old photos that the director had taken in Strasbourg before making the film and had used to get ideas. You could instantly see how he had translated the images into the movie and if you enjoy photography, you'll enjoy this slide show as well. It is absolutely silent though, I could hear the theater seats creaking and people whispering and all!

The movie had a very simple plot, and according to what the director said at the screening, he intended for the viewers to enjoy this simplicity. I know I did.

Here's a very short clip from the movie:

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free woman and modern life

So today, on an impulse, I went to watch a documentary in the Vancouver International Film Festival. It was called "Flying: confessions of a free woman". It's actually a six hour documentary that is split in two and there are two 3 hour shows. I only watched the first part tonight and hopefully will get a chance to see the second part next week.

This movie totally made up for the bad weekend! It's kind of interesting that both "10 + 4" and "flying..." were documentaries about the life of the director, filmed by handheld cameras, and still the latter was so much more dynamic, interesting, and enjoyable. The movie has this interesting style of "passing the camera around".

So basically all through the movie, Jennifer Fox (the director) and her friends film each other while talking about relationships, traditions, sexuality, freedom, and lives of modern women. You can relate to so much of what's being said, and the interesting point is that the interviews are with women from all over the world: USA, Europe, South Africa, and India. It's amazing how similar the issues are for the so-called modern women, women that are educated, have careers and are not following the paths of their mothers. It kind of makes you rethink what is "natural" and what is not. Why do all these traditions haunt us although we keep telling ourselves we're free? Just like in day to day lives of women, you see anything in this movie from pregnancy to infertility, from marriage to divorce, cancer to brain tumor, and so on, and that's why it feels so real.

I can write pages and pages about "Flying...", but you should watch it for yourself. I know that it has been sold to some TV channels (like BBC, Arte, and so on) and it'll also be out on DVD next spring. I encourage everyone to watch it, man or woman. In fact, in the Q & A session after the movie, a man (Iranian, I guessed from his accent) made a pretty long speech just to thank Jennifer Fox for the sacrifices she has made in her personal life to make this movie.

Here's the movie's website: www.flyingconfessions.com check it out!

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