7Berkeh – Raheleh Bahador: “Ashurai Film and Photo Festival of Gerash, held for eleven consecutive years, along with Tehran Heyaat Festival, is the oldest festival among the active festivals of its kind in Iran,” said Sajjad Fathi, the head of the Department Culture and Islamic Guidance of Gerash, at the closing ceremony of the 11th Ashurai Film and Photo Festival of Gerash, held on September 16th, 2023.
The ceremony began at 7:30 p.m. by replaying the following films: “Kotal-and Zoljanah” directed by Saeid Qorbani about the rite of Kotal, a religious construction related to the mourning of the third Shiite Imam; “Children of Hossein” directed by Mohammad Saleh Shakeri; the short documentary “Bushehri-Gerashi” about the history of Bushehri mourning in Gerash by Amin Heydari; “Ashura Caravan”, “Karbala”, and “The Whisper of Grief” by Vahid Damsaz from Kadre-Ma Group; and “Gerash in the Orbit of Hossein” by Mostafa Ainehafrooz from Honayen Cultural Group.
Goals and Advantages of the Festival
“The epic of Ashura is the embodiment of identity of all the free and truth-seeking people around the world and the loudest and most charming story of Ashura is narrated by artists,” said Sajjad Fathi, the head of Gerash Culture and Islamic Guidance Department, “photography and Film making deepens this rite. This festival is the intersection of artists, photographers and the community. In fact, the duty of artists is fulfilled when they could transfer this cultural heritage in the best form.”
He emphasized that this festival has two main goals: “the first is utilizing the capacity of art to transfer the Ashurai concepts to the community; and the second is the support and enrichment of photographers and producing photos and films in this field.”
The distinguish point in this year’s event, as Fathi believes, “is the boundless look of the artists further than Gerash as they covered the mourning rites in the villages, too. Adding the film part made the event more comprehensive than before. The mourning event of Gerash is among the rare ones that has both parts of photography and film.”
Salahi’s suggestion for building an Ashura Museum
Abdol-Ali Salahi, the head of Kohan-Parsian Foundation and a popular culture researcher, was the special guest and speaker of this ceremony. Regarding the importance of the ceremony’s photographers and cinematographers he said: “I am a writer and in my opinion, in recording the local rites and traditions, accompaniment of text and photo is a verifying sign on the author’s writing…the author needs to verify his writing and your photos are that approval of his writings. Especially, when I recorded the process of development of Gerash in my book “Sociology of Gerash” I had the urgent need of having old photos which were too rare, unfortunately…but now I am glad that here you are and you record the rites in photo and film, in details”.
“I did not see some topics and rites of Moharram –the first month of mourning the martyrdom of Imam Hossein, the third Shiite Imam- in the photo exhibition and in the films…there is not that old, strange sorrowful atmosphere in some of today’s ceremonies and it is a must-do to be recorded by you.
“I hope you can present your photos in various places. I recommended building an Ashura Museum in an old house like Poorkarimi’s or Sang-Awi Grand Mosque many years ago, to collect all the tools and objects related to Mourning rites and Kotal along with a gallery of your photos. These photos would be always accessible in these museums and galleries and all the people would benefit from them.
“When the artist injects philosophy and thought in his art and chimes it with his emotions, then a masterpiece will be created. Among the topics represented here, there are three visible icons: human, place and symbol. We can bring these three aspects together and convey no emotions. But if we convey the feeling, it will be a more precious act certainly.”
Expressing Gratitude for the Sponsors of the Festival
In this part, certificates of appreciation were dedicated to some sponsors due to their cooperation and support: Gerash Culture and Islamic Guidance Department, Gerash Municipality and City Council, Shabab Al Barkeh Charity Organization, Saleh Restaurant, Association of Health Benefactors, Pelk Photography Studio, Haft-Berkeh Art and Culture Institute, Pandari Media, the Council of Religious Organizations of Gerash, Al-Faraj Charity Organization, Printing and Advertising Complex of Negarin, the Youths of Bani-Hashem Mourning Organization.
Afterwards, the significant role of the pioneers of the field of photography and film in Gerash in organizing this festival was acknowledged: Javad Abafkan, Moslem Poorshamsi, Keyvan Mohseni, Ali Afshar and Yasna Yazdanpanah.
As the host of the event said, “the good thing that happened this year in the 11th period was that a large number of the photos that were presented in the exhibition were bought by institutions and organizations including: ten photos by Gerash City Council, three photos by the Principal of Alemi School, two photos by the head of Education and Development Office, and five photos by Haft-Berkeh Institute”.
Appreciation of the Mourning Event Contributors
This part was overshadowed by Moslem Poorshamsi’s generosity, one of the pioneer photographers in Gerash who has participated in several festivals during these years. He dedicated all the cash awards of these festivals to the contributors of this festival.
Although the film section of this period of mourning event was supposed to be competitive from the beginning, the directors of the event had finally decided to skip the judging of the films and just appreciate all of the filmmakers of this period. The same awards including certificate of appreciation and bank debit cards were dedicated to nine photographers of the event, all of them members of Film and photo association of Gerash: Fatemeh Ebrahimi, Hadi Afshar, Hanieh Amani, Moslem Poorshamsi, Mohammad Hajinejad, Ali Raygan, Sheyda Sharghi, Nazanin Keshavarz and Soheyla Noroozpoor.
See more pictures of the closing ceremony here.
See more pictures of the photo gallery here.
