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Tuesday, January 7, 1997

* Meeting on National Front in New York
* Abadan Society
* Video clips of Iran
* Cyrus the Great gets greater
* Internet magazine in Persian
* The Bakhtiaris
* Farsi.com
* The White Balloon: "International cinema at its best"
* Film International's latest online issue
* "Salam Cinema" on Australian TV
* The Crucible
* Hottest online film sites

From: Center for Defense of Democracy in Iran <CDDIRAN@aol.com>

Center for Defense of Democracy in Iran presents:

Future prospect of the National Front of Iran

Speakers:

* Dr. Mansour Farhang, university professor Subject: "The new challenges of the National Front of Iran"

* Dr. M. Eghtedari, National Front of Iran - Washington D.C. Subject: "The need for revitalization of the National Front of Iran"

Time: Saturday Jsanuary 18, 1997 6 P.M. to 9 P.M. Place: Goddard Riverside Community Center 593 Columbus Avenue 88th St. & Columbus Avenue New York City

Admission: $5

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From: Abadan Society Homepage <//pages.prodigy.com/FBJJ13A/abadan.htm>

The "Abadan Society" originally was the theater group in Abadan, Iran. It now is a group of people that worked primarily in Abadan, Ahwaz or M.I.S. for the Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), on loan from U.S. or European oil companies. Therefore, most of the members are European, Canadian or American and worked in Iran from the 1940's to the 1970's...

***

This site has only one page. But you can contact members by sending a message to an email address provided at the site. Go to

//pages.prodigy.com/FBJJ13A/abadan.htm

New/Improved Web sites

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From: Homayoon S. M. Beigi <beigi@internetserver.com>

We have a lot of Iranian stuff on our web site at:

//www.internetserver.com

Some examples:

-- Video clips from Tehran (including Alborz High School)
-- Videos from Isfahan and Shiraz and pix from various places coming soon
-- Five-party chatline for Iranians
-- Persian cookbook
-- Can post events
-- Extensive Iranian links

We are putting up something new every day.

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A few months ago we recommended that you take a look at this site. We recommend that you go back again. This may be the difinitive Website on Cyrus the Great. It has grown and improved. And it is well-organized, attractive and an enjoyable read.

Go to:

//www.magna.com.au/~abtir/per

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"United Pages" is an Internet magazine in southern California published in several langauges, including Persian.

To see their site, go to:

//www.unitedpages.com/farsi/index.html

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This site provides organized, detailed information on the Bakhtiari region and people. Since our last visit a few months ago, its content has grown considerably.

Go to:

//www.cyberus.ca/~firouzb/

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Farsi.com apparently offers a Persian teaching program. This site is has many missing links but is still worth a look.

Go to;

//www.farsi.com/

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From: Reza F. Bourghani <davood@ix.netcom.com>

Films Heard 'Round the Water Cooler

David Sterritt
Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Thursday, Jan 02, 1997

NEW YORK -- It was a good year for movies that made people think. This doesn't mean the best pictures of 1996 had messages to please every taste, or that they expressed their ideas in crowd-pleasing ways. Entertainments like "Twister" and "The First Wives Club" sold more tickets than most (maybe all) of the films on the following list.

But the movies named below typically generated lively dinner-table discussions among avid moviegoers, and they're the ones most likely to spark fresh interest when they hit the TV and home-video circuits. Those were the main criteria used in selecting them, along with old-fashioned movie virtues like excellent acting and a concern for human values that speak to the mind and heart as well as the ear and eye.

And of course, creative filmmaking is essential. Processes like editing and ci nematography give the story its moment-to-moment shape, making the difference between a vivid experience and a bland one.

In alphabetical order, then, here are one critic's choices for the most thought-provoking pictures of the past 12 months...

The White Balloon. A little girl wants a new goldfish to make her New Year celebration perfect, but her trip to the pet shop is interrupted by numerous adventures. This is a charming example of Iran's long tradition of making sensitive movies about children. Directed by Jafar Panahi, it's easily the year's most winning advertisement for the joy of international cinema at its best...

***

To see full list of movies, go to:

//www.csmonitor.com/todays_paper/graphical/today/feat/freeze.guide.html

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Film International, the English version of a magazine published in Iran, has been online for more than a year now.

See the Winter-Spring 1996 issue which has just come online. The site has a new/improved look.

Go to:

//www.neda.net/film/

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From: Masoud Sadegh <intcons@ix.netcom.com>

Here's a good news for Iranians in Australia:

The Iranian film "Salam Cinema" directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf will be shown on the SBS channel at 9.30, Thursday, January 9, 1997.

Also according to SBS program manager who is going to visit Iran next Feb. there will be at least three other Iranian films going on the air during January including Khomreh directed by Ebrahim Frouzesh.

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"The Crucible," written by Arthur Miller more than 40 years ago, is very much a drama of its time. Its story deals with the religious hysteria and literal witch hunting that swept an American town in the late 17th century. Its real subject is the political hysteria and figurative witch hunting that swept much of American society in the 1950s, when anti-Communist crusaders like Sen. Joseph McCarthy and the House Committee on Un-American Activities stalked the land...

***

To see a review in The Christian Science Monitor, go to:

//www.csmonitor.com/emonitor/our_place/tv_film/film1.html

"The Crucible" is playing in U.S. movie theaters now.

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From THE WEB magazine (Jan 1997):

-- CineMedia claims to be the Internet's largest film and media directory. One look and you won't doubt it for a second:

//www.afionline.org/CineMedia/CineMedia.home.html

-- Film.Com is fed by thirty-plus professional film critics and includes a slew of researchable databases:

//www.film.com

-- The Stanley Kubrick Quick Information Page is devoted to the greatest living filmmaker:

//pages.prodigy.com/kubrick/

-- Godzilla. Need we say more? AAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWRRR!!!

//www.ama.caltech.edu/users/mrm/godzilla.html

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