Gerishna: “Having a local outlook and using our cultural heritage is the best route to globalization,” said Mr. Hormozi, the spokesperson of the City Council of Gerash in the inauguration ceremony of 11th Kal Short Film Festival. It was an apt remark for a festival whose turn toward cultural heritage this year was evident from the beginning. There was even a tour of Gerash cultural sites in the festival schedule, guided by ICOMOS Society of Gerash (see the pictures here).
For three days, from 9th to 11th of March, the amphitheater of Gerash Faculty of Medicine hosted filmmakers from three provinces of Fars, Hormozgan and Boushehr, and special guests of the jury. This year, Amir Shahab Razavian, the well-known filmmaker, came to Gerash for the second time to be the head of the jury, along with Marjan Riahi, filmmaker, critic and the editor of Short Film News Network, and Ehsan Shadmani, who has a good record in Kal Festival for his short films in the previous years. Another jury was appointed for the special category of “Cultural Heritage”: Dr. Hamid Ghasemzadegan, filmmaker, critic and university teacher, as the head of this jury, with Marjan Riahi and Mohammad Kazem Mahmudi, filmmaker and the only Gerashi member of the jury.
41 films were chosen in different categories (feature, documentary, experimental) from among more than a hundred films that were sent to the festival. Although they were projected on the small screen in the amphitheater, they were received warmly by spectators and filmmakers. For the closing ceremony on March 11th, the theater was packed.
At the end of the closing ceremony, nearly every prominent filmmakers were awarded or acknowledged. The award for the best short film went to Negin Aminzadeh for “Don’t Be Afraid of Me”. In the best documentary category, the award went to Sajjad Imani for “I was Tehrani”. And the award for the best experimental film went to Shima Pour-Sahmoddin for “Sunset, Death, Breaking, Silence and Solitude”. The grand award in Cultural Heritage category went to Omid Sharifi and Mohsen Moqaddam for “Vasunak” (Wedding Song). Both awards in the special categories of Gerash and Spectators’ Choice went to Saeed Ravanbakhsh, one of the four Gerashi filmmakers, for “Delusion”.
For the pictures of the 11th Kal Festival, click here (the inauguration ceremony), here and here (the closing ceremony).
مجموعه خبرهای جشنواره یازدهم کل به زبان فارسی
Some words and expressions in this news story:
Cultural Heritage: میراث فرهنگی
Globalization: جهانی شدن
inauguration ceremony: مراسم افتتاحیه
the jury: هیات داوران
closing ceremony: مراسم اختتامیه