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FRIENDLY PERSUASION: IRANIAN CINEMA AFTER THE REVOLUTION  
United States
1999 / Video / Color / 112 min.

Iranian cinema has widely been hailed as the most original national cinema of the '90s. Although a film renaissance altered the shape of filmmaking in Iran in the late '60s, it was only following the 1979 revolution that full international attention was brought to Iranian cinema and made it a staple of international film festivals. FRIENDLY PERSUASION examines the realities of the Iranian cinema by framing several key questions and providing responses through commentary, scene analysis and interviews with Iranian filmmakers. The questions address issues of censorship, film ratings, representation of women and the important children's movement. Those interviewed represent three generations of Iranian filmmakers, from the new wave visionaries (Abbas Kiarostami, Dariush Mehrjui, Bahram Bayzai, Masoud Kimiai) to the post-revolutionary trailblazers (Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Rakhshan Bani Etemad, Ebraheem Hatami Kia) and the emerging new generation (Majid Majidi, Jafar Panahi, Tahmineh Milani). Addresses with great insight and intelligence many of the key difficulties surrounding the making of film in Iran today. -- John Petrakis (Chicago Tribune) FRIENDLY PERSUASION... serves as a splendid introduction to films from a country that has established one of the world's finest national cinemas. -- Kevin Thomas (Los Angeles Times)
Script:  Jamsheed Akrami.    Phot.:  Dan Nocera, Shahram Asadi, Albert Xavier, Jamsheed Akrami.    Ed.:  Jamsheed Akrami, Dah Nan Kou.    Mus.:  Ahmad Pejman.    Sales:  Jamsheed Akrami, Jam-Hi Productions, 2 Laird Place, Cliffside Park, NJ 07010 (�tats-Unis), t�l.: (201) 941-9395, fax: (201) 941-9395, e-mail: [email protected].   
Jamsheed Akrami
Born in Iran in 1950, Jamsheed Akrami has published extensively on Iranian cinema and edited the Iranian film magazines Film and Art and Film Quarterly. He teaches film and television at William Paterson University and is a visting professor at Columbia University. He has made several films and videos, including: Once Upon A Time... (1982), Your Life in Your Hands (1984), DREAMS BETRAYED (1986) and Many Things to Tell You (1996).