riverrun Global Film Series: Iran: Classics

Opening Remarks:
Anthony Bannon, Burchfield Penney Art Center, Director
Tanya Shilina-Conte, Curator of the riverrun Global Film Series 2016, Department of English, UB

Downpour (1972; 2 h 6 m), Bahram Beyzaie. Restored in 2011 by the World Cinema Foundation at Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata, in collaboration with Bahram Beyzaie. Restoration funding provided by the Doha Film Institute.

Introduced by Bruce Jackson, SUNY Distinguished Professor and James Agee Professor of American Culture, Department of English, UB

The Global Film Series aspires to create a dialogue between local community and institutions of higher education in Buffalo through a selection of films that provide a better understanding of our present existence in the globalized networked world.

The riverrun Global Film Series presents a curated selection of quality films that moves beyond national frameworks to account for an increasingly transnational imagination of film production, reception, and distribution. This annual three-day film series runs from Thursday evening through Saturday night at the Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY. The Global Film Series builds on the success of riverrun's continuing Cinegael Buffalo program, which has focused on Irish film since 2004. Aimed at a better understanding of our present existence in the networked world, the series includes two segments: "Country (or Theme) in Focus" and "Film Future."

The "Country in Focus" segment investigates a dynamic location in the history of world cinema, with an emphasis on recent globalizing transformations rather than national concerns. The "Film Future" segment examines contemporary films that push the limits of cinematic language and are likely to have a lasting impact on the art of cinema. A film scholar and/or filmmaker will provide context for the focus of each year's series in an opening address. The series is free and open to the public and welcomes film enthusiasts, students, and scholars.

The inaugral riverrun Global Film Series 2016 will take place on September 29th-October 1st and focus on Iran. The keynote speaker will be Professor Hamid Naficy, Northwestern University's prize-winning scholar of cultural studies and postcolonial cinema and media. His most recent book is A Social History of Iranian Cinema (Duke University Press, 2011-12), published in four volumes. A special guest of honor at the festival will be Noureddin Zarrinkelk, the father of Iranian animation.

The Series is produced with the support of the UB Department of English, Buffalo State English, James Agee Chair in American Culture, Professor Bruce Jackson, and an Action Grant from the New York Council for the Humanities. Advisory and coordinating board: UB Lecturer Dr. Tanya Shilina-Conte, UB SUNY Distinguished Professor Cristanne Miller, UB Associate Professor William Solomon, President of riverrun Patrick Martin, and Buffalo State Lecturer Laurence Shine.

For more information, contact the 2016 Global Film Series Curator Tanya Shilina-Conte, tshilina@buffalo.edu, or Assistant Director Ajitpaul Mangat, ajitpaul@buffalo.edu.