Hardly any other media so conspicuously frames its images as film. By focusing on part of reality, the frame determines both what is seen and what is excluded. In film, framing thus becomes a means of control. Taking international and Iranian film and video productions as examples, this panel will examine the power of the camera and the degree to which such images are representative of a filmmaker's country of origin. Which economic, social and political strategies can we identify in the discourse on "art or commerce"? Is an exoticised image of Iran created with a view to its potential commercial success in the West?
The question of staging exile and diaspora in film will be discussed in relation to films produced by Iranians in exile. SPEAKERS Amin Farzanefar studied Islamic culture and German language and literature. His thesis was entitled "New Tendencies in Iranian Cinema". At present, he is writing his dissertation on the mise en scène of the orient in popular cinema in the West. His dialogue with the so-called Islamic world focuses on migrant cinema on the one hand, and on the cinematic presentation of "Orientalism" in occidental cultures and "Occidentalism" in oriental cultures. Mark Nash was a film curator and co-curator of the Documenta 11. He is a lecturer at the University of East London, where he teaches film history and theory. In 2001 his activities included curatorship of the exhibition The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa 1945-1994 in Berlin and Munich and My Generation in London. Azam Riahi studied art history and obtained her doctorate in communications design. Among other things, she has worked at the children’s workshop of the Post- und Kommunikationsmuseum in Frankfurt a.M. and made the inventory of the sculptures at the Landesmuseum Oldenburg and the Freilichtmuseum Cloppenburg. In 1999, she organised gossamer's dream, an exhibition of Iranian exile art, in Frankfurt a.M. Tirdad Zolghadr studied history, political science and comparative literature in Geneva. Since 2000, he has been involved in intensive research and exhibition work in Tehran, Berlin, Zurich and Geneva. He is interested in questions related to art, globalisation and their reception. Together with Solmaz Shahbazi, he wrote and directed the documentary film Tehran 1380. He co-organised the Arab Cinema Week, 2003 and was co-curator/adviser of the FRAMING Conference at the House of World Cultures, Berlin. Language: English / German with simultaneous translation
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