Cinema Vérité in Iran

Last year 142 Iranian filmmakers appealed to the documentary community worldwide to boycott the festival Cinema Vérité, see below. Yesterday EDN (European Documentary Network) posted the following text on its site:

”EDN will be present at the The 4th annual Cinema Verite: Iran International Documentary Film Festival. EDN and the activities connected to the organisation will be introduced at the festival. Cinema Verite is the main documentary film festival in Iran. The festival is combining both national and international program sections with a documentary market and a number of side events. Cinema Verite is organised by DEFC – Documentary and Experimental Film Center. This is the main center for production, distribution and promotion of fiction, documentary, animation and experimental films in the Middle East.”

Knowing the censorship that exists in Iran, the letter from the filmmakers from last year and the many imprisonments of filmmakers with controversial views on the society and the policy of the régime, one of course wonders if this is a clever move of an independent documentary membership organisation… or maybe it is exactly what it is, if it means that EDN can help make us more aware of what happens in the country for the filmmakers. I can not say. I was there – as director of EDN – 10 years ago to show European films and create contacts, it was a marvellous experience to meet the creativity of the filmmakers, censored or not.

EDN representatives are welcome to answer on this site, under ”bemærkninger/remarks”.

http://www.payvand.com/news/09/aug/1179.html

www.edn.dk

http://defc.ir/en/festival/index.php?fid=50&yearId=14

Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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