set to kick off in Northern Callifornia October 22, will feature several films staring Iranians, but not actors and actresses.
The festival will feature more than 40 films from 25 countries, ranging from fiction and documentary to animation and musical.
“Space Tourists,” directed by Christian Frei, features Iranian-American Anousheh Ansari. The Mashhad-born woman became both the first Iranian, and the first self-funded woman, to fly to the International Space Station in 2006.
The documentary-style film follows the real story of Ansari, who paid $20 million dollars to fund her trip to outer space. “Space Tourists” follows Ansari’s journey from training in Star City, Kazakhstan, into space—showing everyday life as it is on the International Space Station.
“Pearls on the Ocean Floor,” directed by Robert Adanto, features Iranian-American artists Shirin Neshat, Negar Ahkami, Gohar Dashti, Parastou Forouhar and Shadi Ghadirian. The 2010 American film will be featured October 22 at 5:20 p.m.
“Pearls on the Ocean Floor” examines the lives and works of Iranian female artists living and working inside and outside Iran. The women each deal with issues of identity, gender and social restrictions. Their art work reveals their native Iran, through encounters between religion and secular modernity, change and tradition as well as contemporary life and history.
“Into the Forbidden Zone,” directed by Richard Mackenzie, Charles Poe, Jody Shiliro, is a French film set to be featured October 22 at 3:30 p.m. It follows author Sebastian Junger and Iranian-French photographer Reza through their travels across war-torn Afghanistan in search of Ahmed Shah Massoud, the resistance leader known as “The Lion of Panjshir.”
The Iranian born photographer, Reza, has been on assignment for National Geographic since 1991. He studied architecture at the University of Tehran, where he began photographing architecture and rural society. Reza has worked for Agence France Press (AFP), as a correspondent for Newsweek, has covered the Middle East and Africa for Time magazine, and traveled frequently to Afghanistan in the late 1970s.
The film festival will be at Boulevard Cinemas in Petaluma. Many of the filmmakers will be present for Q&A after their films screen. More information is at: www.PetalumaFilmFestival.org.