Bam 6.6, a documentary about the Bam earthquake of 2003 in Iran, is finally readied for release on DVD. Here’s my interview with the producer/director, Jahangir Golestanparast. The production chronicles the ordeal of American tourists Tobb Dell’Oro and his Jewish fiancée, Adele Freedman, after they are buried under the rubble. It highlights how grief-stricken Iranians make a special effort to treat the couple’s injuries and comfort Adele afterwards. Bam 6.6 has been screened at the 2007 United Nations Association Film Festival and several U.S. conferences and universities. Mr. Golestanparast is scheduled to show and discuss his film at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC at 7 pm on January 9. Please refer to www.essenceofiran.com for details.
Cinema has been a big influence in your life. Tell us about that and how you came to the decision to make this film?
JG: When I was a kid, I was always interested in film. I even skipped classes to see movies, maybe starring John Wayne or Burt Lancaster. At the age of 15, the movie In Cold Blood motivated me to become a filmmaker when I grew up. While attending college in London, financial requirements stopped me from attending film school.
But I did not give up. After I moved to southern California, I enrolled in some film classes and every time I returned to Iran, I recorded my experiences on video, which I shared with family and friends when I returned. Since footage of everyday life, ancient architecture, tea houses, bazaars, and villages in Iran are not commonly known in the United States, people persuaded me to produce travelogues of Iran.
I completed my first travelogue in 1997 and called it Esfahan, A City Known as Half the World. That film was well received in many major universities in the United States. Then in 2001, I produced Iran: a Video Journey, showcasing more cities.
But making travel documentaries did not satisfy me. I had all my life longed for a film that would picture the Iran I carried in my heart, the one I grew up in. The Iran that shimmered with poetry, beauty, architecture, hospitality, and love of life. I wanted my American wife, my children and the rest of the world to know the terrific things I knew about Iran, but such a film did not exist.
When the massive earthquake of 6.6 magnitude struck Bam and I read about Adele and Tobb, I thought everyone should learn about goodwill ambassadors like them and the kind treatment they received in Iran. That is the idea behind my new documentary, Bam 6.6 .
Why did your production take three years to complete?
The production took four years actually, for a variety of reasons. Initially there was no funding or institutional support. I had to get a second mortgage on my house to finance the productions costs, but that was not enough. Gradually I met other talented film enthusiasts who recognized the potential and helped me develop the story and the message. My burden was eased some after I received partial funding from the Messiah Foundation, for which I am very thankful.
Why is there no narration?
I wanted my viewers to hear the story directly from the Iranians and Americans featured in the film. This way the only passion and opinion expressed come from the film’s subjects themselves. The story comes straight from the individuals who experienced the disaster and unexpectedly found the best in each other.
I understand that shooting this film was at times an emotional experience for you and your subjects. I have heard that many viewers at your public screenings have cried, too. Have those been tears of joy or sorrow? Please explain.
My own emotions have been a mix of both, because this is a story of humanitarian triumph in the midst of utter misery and grief. I think what moves Bam 6.6‘s audiences is the compassion that surfaces in the film that is inherent in all of us. Tobb insisted on touring Iran out of his fondness for the peoples of the Middle East and his desire to reach out to Iranians after they were marked as the “axis of evil.”
Adele had to overcome her initial fears about what seemed like a dangerous country for a Jewish American, only to face terror when the building that was supposed to keep the couple safe came down on them. What came next – the outpouring of generosity and care from the Iranians who had so much else to worry about – dispelled any lingering doubts she might still have about Tobb’s attraction to Iranians.
You have said that making this documentary transformed you personally. What do you mean by that?
The complex yet subtle web of interactions in Bam gives us all more faith and hope than we often allow ourselves to have about each other and humanity. In today’s confusing world, most of us hunger for that. People naturally feel grief for victims of war and disaster even if they are far away. But the scale of Bam’s devastation was also a grim notice about how short and fragile all life is and how petty some of our everyday concerns are. When I got involved, it was at first terrifying and later comforting to me to realize how much we all depend on each other. I now appreciate everyone around me and I try to live every day as if it were my last.
You seem to hope that Bam 6.6 will transform the viewers, too. If that is true, how so?
Yes, I hope the audiences will get past the politics of the moment and open their heart to our common humanity as Iranians and Americans. I will accomplish my purpose if my film plays a role in reminding everyone that we are anything but enemy nations. Bam’s American tourists and the Iranians around them on that fateful day realized this. But why should it take a disaster like the earthquake to teach us such plain truth?
You have said you hope Bam 6.6 will be received as an antidote to Hollywood’s infamous movies 300 and Not Without My Daughter. And Adele’s own mother told you, “having seen this film, now I understand why Tobb wanted to go to Iran. People need to see this!” Do your general audiences seem to make those connections, too?
Absolutely. I am happy to report that Bam has changed many American viewers’ feelings towards Iranians. Many contact me to say they understand the culture better now and hope to travel to Iran.
One viewer wrote, “I guess I can say that the movie transcends the political and reveals the real essence of Iran through the discontent and disruption, especially in the Middle East. My hope is that my fellow Americans who have not had an opportunity to visit Iran will at least think twice when a news commentator vilifies the nation or characterizes its people as terrorists. I think Bam 6.6 can help them see beyond the rhetoric the extraordinary Iranian culture and people, for whom kindness, compassion, friendship and generosity are simply the way of life”.
You obviously are impressed by people who reach across social barriers like you do. Is your film your personal story writ large?
Let’s remember that rescuers rushed to Bam from the United States and around the world and material assistance poured in from followers of different faiths. They and Iranian emergency crews did not help earthquake victims of one religious background more than another. The message of my film is that the compassion is universal.
The Bam tragedy is a reminder that we all depend on each other and should show our appreciation to each other even if we are not caught in a natural disaster. So Bam 6.6 is about more than me; it conveys hope and spiritual rebirth like the phoenix which rose from the ashes. What better way to draw attention to this than through the story of Tobb and Adele.
I think several others who filmed in Bam after the disaster contributed footage to Bam 6.6. Tell us more about that, please.
One of the most outstanding contributions of footage came from Jilla Kashef who went to Bam to adopt an orphan and ended up making it her life’s work to help the children then. Her American employer also assisted generously. Ms. Kashef helped set up schools in tents and find teachers to replace the ones who had perished.
Some photos were given to us by Adele and by the couple’s tour guide, Farzaneh Khademi. New York magazine photographer, James Porto, and a childhood friend of Tobb, Maad Abu Gazalah, contributed footage and photos. Many others who believed in the message of this film gave us their material, too.
Goodwill and hospitality are major themes in your film, as if world peace depended on it.
The generosity of Iranians often amazes me when I go back for a visit. With or without earthquakes, I encounter new levels of kindness every time I am in Iran. Last time I arrived late at night in Tehran and my taxi driver took me from hotel to hotel but we could not find an available room. Finally, after cruising for an hour he said to me that he knew a special hotel, which was not a 5-star but would have a room and be comfortable. He took me to his home for the night. I want such trust to develop between nations, too. Every culture has its good and bad points and we have a lot to learn from each other.
So it did not surprise me that a frightened Israeli traveler whose airliner had to make an emergency landing in Tehran last summer was treated with full respect before he left with gifts from the airport authorities!
Thank you and good luck with your DVD release.
