Abbas Kiarostami workshop 2- 10 May 2005
The London Film School and the Iran Heritage Foundation, in collaboration with Channel 4 and Hot Property Films, present a nine-day intensive workshop, led by the celebrated Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, as part of the London wide festival of Kiarostami’s work. Abbas Kiarostami has run filmmakers' workshops in the past few years, most recently in Turin, Italy and Sao Paulo, Brazil. These courses, encompassing the arts of direction and screenwriting, have had an extraordinary impact on their participants. Kiarostami deals with the most basic questions of screen form, with the filmmaker's relationship to their audience and their story, with illuminating simplicity. Participants will make films on DV during the workshop. Through the support of Channel 4, The Iran Heritage Foundation and the French Institute, the workshop is being offered free of charge. Twenty-five participants will be recruited through competitive application. The selection panel includes representatives from the London Film School, FilmFour, the National Film Theatre and Hot Property Films. The selection panel will be looking for candidates who can bring a knowledge of independent world cinema and creative skills to the workshop process. Technical film training is not essential. The deadline for applications is 25th March. The workshop and films will be produced by BAFTA- winning producer Janine Marmot for Hot Property Films. Marmot has built a reputation as a producer of innovative cinema for a world wide audience. Her credits include ‘Bodysong’, directed by Simon Pummell and ‘I Could Read the Sky’, directed by Nicola Bruce. Ben Gibson, Director of the London Film School said “Very few people have the creative and intellectual clarity to invent cinema from its most basic elements, from the ground up. We are very lucky to have the chance to see a master like Kiarostami thinking on his feet.” Press information: Kate Hughes, London Film School
Tel 7838 9642, email: k.hughes@lfs.org.uk The London Film School The London Film School was founded in 1956. Its graduates include Mike Leigh, Michael Mann, Tak Fujimoto, Bill Douglas and Roger Pratt. Since 2001 the LFS, under its current director and independent producer Ben Gibson, and Chaired by LFS alumnus Mike Leigh, has re-invented itself as one of the world's key graduate film conservatoires. It offers a 2 year MA Film-making course and is launching a 1-year MA Screenwriting course in September, both validated by the London Metropolitan University. The school is also building a range of events and workshops outside the main degree programmes, attracting participants from all over the UK, at all levels of filmmaking experience. In the last year the school has mounted events at the French Institute (Scenario!) and at the Edinburgh Film Festival. As well as the one week Abbas Kiarostami workshop, The London Film School is co-presenting an ‘In Conversation’ event with Kiarostami and Mike Leigh at the V & A on 8th May. The Iran Heritage Foundation The Foundation is a UK charity established in October 1995 to help promote and preserve the rich culture and heritage of Iran, both ancient and modern. This remit is interpreted generously and the Foundation encourages a wide range of activities on a worldwide basis, intended to provide a forum to facilitate the study and understanding of Iran's culture among students, the academic community and the public at large. Visit www.iranheritage.com for further information. The workshop is part of Abbas Kiarostami: Visions of the Artist Abbas Kiarostami is the most internationally celebrated Iranian cultural figure of the 20th and 21st centuries. A prolific and critically-acclaimed filmmaker, artist, photographer and poet, his work is effortlessly simple and conceptually complex in equal measure. This spring, a London-wide programme of events celebrates the achievements of this artist and his impact on contemporary culture and society both inside and outside Iran. The festival of Abbas Kiarostami’s work will raise awareness of the dynamics of cultural creativity in today’s Iran, and is organised by the Iran Heritage Foundation, as part of their tenth anniversary celebrations.  Front Page |