Cinema-Eye; From André Bazin to Eroticism in Cinema

"Vitrin" is a platform for familiarizing with ideas and activities occurring within the Iranian community worldwide and in the virtual world, which you may be unaware of. Starting this week and periodically, a website or virtual activity will be featured in "Vitrin," introduced to you, and a conversation will be held with its organizers and idea creators. You can also email us at [email protected] to have your website featured in "Vitrin."Website Name: Cinema-EyeAddress: http://www.cine-eye.org/Field of Work: CinemaUpdate Format: GraduallyIdentification:Responsible Manager and Editor-in-Chief: Parviz JahedEditorial Board Members: Mehdi Omidvari, Vazrik Darsahakian, Farid Esmaeilpour, Ali Mousavi, Maziar Attari"Cinema-Eye" aims to view cinema from a different perspective, analyze it, and present it to its audience. Beyond academic and theoretical discussions, this website allows you to follow independent world cinema, stay informed about festivals and their events, read critiques and discussions, and become acquainted with new cinematic books. Additionally, a special section is dedicated to documentary and experimental cinema.The name "Cinema-Eye" is derived from a term coined by the prominent Russian filmmaker Dziga Vertov in 1923: "... I am Cinema-Eye, I am a mechanical eye, I show you a world that only I can see... Free from the confines of space and time, I align myself with any or all points of the universe and at the same time can record them. My mission is to create a new conception of the world; thus, I can discover the unknown world in a new way."Interview with Parviz Jahed; Independent and Free from Limited Geographical BoundariesTo learn more about the details, goals, and programs of the "Cinema-Eye" website as well as its printed publication, we sat down for a conversation with Parviz Jahed, the responsible manager and editor-in-chief of this cinematic platform."Cinema-Eye" was launched with what goal, and what part of cinema is it supposed to introduce and critique?As someone who writes and thinks about cinema, I realized over the past few years, while living in London away from Iran, that there is a gap in serious theoretical cinema studies and film criticism in Persian outside of Iran. The goal of creating the "Cinema-Eye" publication was to fill this gap as much as possible and respond to a cultural and theoretical necessity in the field of cinema.Regarding which part of cinema we introduce, I must say that "Cinema-Eye" is a publication that is released with an aesthetic and theoretical approach in the field of cinema, but its approach is not purely academic; it is also interested in current discussions, events, and developments in independent and artistic cinema worldwide and covers them as much as possible."Cinema-Eye" is a challenging publication and is therefore ready to publish serious and provocative cinematic content. The publication of such content may not be possible due to censorship limitations in domestic cinema publications. From the beginning of "Cinema-Eye," our intention was to create a connection between the space of criticism and cinema studies inside and outside the country. To this end, we invited critics, writers, and cinema researchers from inside and outside Iran, university instructors, and students of film and media studies to collaborate, and now that more than two years have passed since the start of our publication, I believe we have largely succeeded in achieving this goal.Did you initially think of a printed publication and then design the website? Does the website have an independent identity from the magazine or is it merely a reflection of the articles published in the magazine?From the beginning, we intended to publish the magazine online because we are indeed in an era where many printed publications, whether cinematic or non-cinematic, have been shut down or are published online or as e-books. However, since designing and creating a website was not an easy task and we also did not have the funds for it, we decided to publish it in print and distribute it in an "on-demand" manner on Amazon. After publishing a few issues, we realized that this publication also had demand inside Iran, and many enthusiasts messaged us on the magazine's Facebook page asking how they could read it and requesting us to find a way to distribute it in Iran; however, it was not possible for us and the "H and S Media" company, the publisher of this magazine in London, to distribute the magazine in Iran and reach its enthusiasts. Consequently, the necessity of creating a website arose again because through it, we could connect with a broader audience inside Iran. Thus, the "Cinema-Eye" website began operating on April 19, 2014, and after that, in addition to the magazine, which we publish quarterly, the "Cinema-Eye" website, while pursuing the same path and goals as the magazine, aims to become an active cinematic site for all serious and dedicated cinema enthusiasts. This website is currently only in Persian, but we plan to gradually bilingualize it and have an English section to connect with non-Iranian audiences.You have a special focus on experimental and documentary cinema, an area that usually does not hold much significance among cinema publications and websites...That's absolutely correct. Avant-garde, experimental, and documentary cinema are very important to us and fall within the cinematic scope we intend to introduce, examine, and analyze. Documentary cinema is one of the most important branches of cinema. This has always been the case since the inception of cinema, and today its significance is increasingly recognized. We see that even major film festivals like Cannes, which once did not accept any documentary films for screening in the competition or main sections of the festival, have for several years now accepted documentary films in the competition section. Therefore, studies on documentary and experimental cinema and the introduction of its creative figures worldwide are part of the goals of Cinema-Eye.Your approach seems more oriented towards world cinema than Iran... Is there a specific reason for this?Our approach and goal are to cover serious and theoretical discussions of cinema alongside introducing independent filmmakers, so cinema for us does not have a limited geographical domain and encompasses America, Brazil, Spain, Romania, Greece, China, Egypt, Palestine, Vietnam, and Iran. However, in the printed publication, since we focus on a specific topic or filmmaker in each issue, we naturally cannot address Iranian cinema; however, in the website, there are no such limitations, and in addition to critiquing independent and non-commercial Iranian films, we also address issues of Iranian cinema and the situation of independent filmmakers (independent not only in terms of financial and capital aspects but also independent in the sense of being apart from dominant currents of state cinema and mainstream cinema and also in terms of thought) and the challenges they face, as well as the social and political limitations and state censorship they encounter.How historical is your perspective on cinema in "Cinema-Eye" (related to past decades) and how much do you focus on contemporary cinema?Here again, I must differentiate between the printed publication of Cinema-Eye and its website, as the audiences for these two are largely different. Our audience in the printed magazine is mostly a specific group, generally those who, due to their interest or professional specialization, are more in search of theoretical and serious cinematic discussions, while on our website, we deal with a broader and more general audience. From this perspective, when I say our approach in the magazine is a theoretical and aesthetic one, the subject becomes entirely transhistorical and does not have a yesterday or today. Theoretical discussions of cinema never become outdated; rather, new interpretations and readings of them are presented every day. The discussions of André Bazin or Eisenstein regarding realism, mise-en-scène, and montage in cinema are still fresh and hold significance in cinematic studies and do not belong to the past or history. Accordingly, as much as new cinematic theories and fresh approaches in film criticism and cinematic studies from theorists like Deleuze and Žižek to Bordwell and Rosenbaum and Kael are important to us, equally, old theorists and critics like André Bazin, Dziga Vertov, Arnheim, Christian Metz, Andrew Sarris, and Peter Wollen hold importance for us.Regarding filmmakers, is it the same?It is the same for filmmakers as well. For example, in our first issue, we focused on a filmmaker from the French New Wave generation, François Truffaut, and in the third issue, we addressed another filmmaker from the new generation of French filmmakers, Bruno Dumont. Similarly, in subsequent issues, we revisited the cinema of John Cassavetes, a pioneering and independent American filmmaker, and Pier Paolo Pasolini, a prominent Italian filmmaker. Alongside these, we published a special issue on the topic of eroticism in cinema, which due to the limitations and sensitivities surrounding this subject in today’s Iranian society has not been discussed in Persian cinema publications before and has been entirely unprecedented. However, on the website, alongside serious and theoretical discussions, we also publish critiques of contemporary independent and artistic films, news reports from important and reputable film festivals and events, interviews with filmmakers, and news about independent cinema in Iran and the world, which is also appealing to the general audience.The economic feasibility of publishing the printed magazine outside Iran; is it possible to continue operating in print?The challenges of Persian publishing outside of the country are quite apparent to everyone, and it is hard to find a publisher satisfied with the printing and distribution of Persian books or magazines abroad and their financial returns. The reasons for this are quite clear. Generally, the culture of reading and purchasing books among us Iranians is not very common, and unfortunately, this issue is even more pronounced among Iranian immigrants. I personally worked in an Iranian bookstore in London during my student days and witnessed this indifference of my fellow Iranians towards books up close (the daily sales of this bookstore averaged 100 pounds, which did not even cover the rent of the place). Therefore, with such a perspective, accepting the publication of this magazine for the publisher of Cinema-Eye could be a risk, although considering the technology and new publishing system in the West, namely the "on-demand" publication of the magazine and distribution through Amazon, many of the costs associated with publishing a printed magazine in Iran are effectively eliminated, and publishing it does not impose a heavy financial burden on the publisher. However, whether we can continue publishing this magazine under the current conditions, I must say that its survival depends on the financial support of its enthusiasts through magazine subscriptions and annual pre-purchases. In today’s conditions, many serious and independent English-language cinema publications in the West are facing closure. In Britain alone, a few years ago, a very good theoretical publication named "Vertigo" was published, which ceased after a few issues, and all its members and editorial staff dispersed. This threat also looms over us.How are the website's costs covered? Do you have sponsors?From the very beginning, we stated that "Cinema-Eye" is a politically and intellectually independent publication and does not belong to any specific political or religious group, party, or organization. When you do not want to be a platform for a specific group with specific goals or support and promote a specific political thought, it is natural that no one approaches you, and there is no money involved. Initially, we thought that creating and maintaining the website would require a lot of expenses, but with the help of friends and colleagues who collaborate with me out of love and passion for serious and artistic cinema without any financial expectations, we were able to establish it with minimal costs. Therefore, we do not have any sponsors, but we hope in the future to cover some of the website and magazine costs through advertisements and pay our collaborators for their contributions.