Category Archives: Film

Ngawang Choephel’s “Tibet in Song” – a documentary film about: Never forget the music in your heart!

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevari

Yesterday… I went to work out at my gym. Found a New York Times issue from last Thursday next to my leg press machine.

(photo from Ngawang Choephel's Facebook profile pictures)

Today… went through the paper on the D train bound to Brooklyn this morning, and my eyes were attracted  by the title (p A32) ” Tibetan Ex-Prisoner Evokes His Homeland’s Struggle in a Movie”, written by Kirk Semple. The article is about the Tibetan movie director and music scholar Ngawang Choephel (pronounced cheu-FELL), 44, who was in a Chinese prison for six and a half years, lives now in Queens and his movie Tibet in Song which made its theatrical release in New York City at the Cinema Village Theatre last Friday September 24. It premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2009 where it won the Special Jury Award in the World Documentary Competition. Since then, Tibet in Song has won numerous awards and screened worldwide.

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Link TV feature – Kayhan Kalhor: Songs of Hope

Posted by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Photo by Todd Rosenberg

Filmed in Karaj, Iran and New York City, “Songs of Hope” explores the life and music of Kayhan Kalhor, a master of the kamancheh, or Persian spike fiddle.

The love he showed for the instrument as a child led him to the life as a prodigy who left Iran in 1981 after the 1979 Islamic Revolution so he could continue his musical studies. He is renowned as a soloist and composer and as a founder and member of several ensembles, including Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, with which we see him rehearsing one of his compositions in the film. In 1997 he returned to Iran to renew his connections to his homeland and to teach a new generation of musicians, while establishing a life with his wife. His existence was that of a prolific, peaceful, globetrotting musician.

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Mohamed Badawi’s road movies.

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

The road movie Streets of Cairo was made and produced by Mohamed Badawi (Sudan) and Hubl Greiner (Germany) in January 2007, when both of them recorded at the studio of the Cairo Academy of Music  at the University Asyout. The soundtrack is from Mohamed Badawi’s CD D’Omdurman à Timimoun.


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Introducing Zohreh Shayesteh’s (Iran) documentary film “Picking Apples, Drinking Tea”.

 

About this documentary film

Abyaneh is a historical and ancient village in Iran where time has stood still and its people are as old as the place itself.
Two years ago, filmmaker Zohreh Shayesteh visited the village and took pictures of its women. She returned in 2006 with a video camera. While searching for the women in the photos she met Keshvar, a blunt and feisty woman who became the physical and spiritual guide for the filmmaker in this journey of self-discovery. Thanks to Keshvar and the unexpected friendship that developed between these two women, what was to be a simple video documentary about a village and its people becomes a spiritual journey to a place the filmmaker once called home.

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