Mitra Sumara, a Persian big band in NYC, have released an album “Tahdig” in 2018 on Persian Cardinal Recordings. The band has a fantastic history: “The band is the creation of NYC singer Yvette Saatchi Perez, who was adopted and raised by American parents in Los Angeles. After twenty years of writing and recording her … Continue reading
Suleiman Bakhit is CEO of a Jordanian comic production company called the Aranim Media Factory, after a combination of ‘Arab’ and ‘anime, which sold 1.2 million comics in 2010. He believes that comics can be as influential as the already revered and much narrated myth in the Persian Gulf region. Alladin, Sinbad the Sailor and … Continue reading
You may remember the brilliant animation set in Lebanon Waltz with Bashir. Director Ari Folman brings us The Congress (Israel/Poland/Luxembourg/France/Germany) in which Robin Wright (House of Cards) plays herself as an actress now out of favour with the fickle Hollywood. Based on Solaris by Stanisław Lem (Solaris), The Congress is “both a sobering comment on … Continue reading
The dulcet tones of Marjan Farsad are accompanied here by her own serene animation film. From the upcoming album Blue Flowers the fledgling animation studio Peenedooz have not long ago left school, and things are looking more than promising. This promise was already clear when they made their 4th film school exercise, made on paper … Continue reading
به افتخار روز جهانی گرافیک —————————————— “What’d it be like if the characters of the Persian script replaced the characters that perform in a circus?” We’ll tell you what it would be like, it would be like Charlie Chaplin’s own moustache had run off to start a career of his own, and he’d love that! … Continue reading
Ahead of this week’s Six Pillars to Persia show produced by musician Behrooz Azad, we discuss life in Malaysia. My sister came to Malaysia with her husband for their post-graduate studies, before leaving home she suggested I join her as living overseas life is full of opportunities and experiences that are exciting and interesting. I … Continue reading
Unusually we’ve gone text only for this interview. The animation we are discussing brings to life the Persian classical hero Rostam of The Book of Kings (Shahnameh), in the cartoon Rostam in Wonderland a collaboration between two young men one based in USA (Pouya Afshar) creator, and one in Iran (Souroush Rezaee) writer and animator. … Continue reading
A while back in 2008, we had animator and film-maker Maryam Mohajer in the studio. Her films had been displayed in galleries across London around that time, and since then although we’ve not seen her in galleries as such, she’s moved onto music videos (see below). There’s always an element of both fantasy and childish … Continue reading
Six Pillars 