142 Iranian Filmmakers Boycott the Cinéma Vérité Festival in Tehran

Shortly before its third iteration, one of Iran's most talented and prolific filmmakers, Mehrdad Oskouei, writes from Iran about a boycott of 142 documentary filmmakers against the Cinéma Vérité International Documentary Film Festival that has taken place in Tehran for the last two years.  This follows closely upon the heels of International Festival Director Massoud Bahkshi's resignation from the nascent festival. 

The Cinéma Vérité festival is the only film event devoted exclusively to documentaries in Iran, its third edition due to be held this October.  In the last two years, the festival has been able to establish itself in the world with the help of both the Iranian and international documentary communities.  I was privileged to be a guest at last year's fest, an impressive event that screened close to 300 films.  The 142 artists (listed below) are asking members of the international community to join and support their boycott.  Here, verbatim, is the letter that Oskouei sent:

Documentary filmmakers in Iran have recorded valuable traces of realities about the contemporary Iranian society in the last century.

This cinema has been able to overcome many obstacles throughout the years. During the times of the revolutions, wars and conflicts and also in the last two decades, Iranian documentaries gave us treasures of social and historical documentations of life in Iran.

Cinéma Vérité is an important festival and has managed in its previous 2 years, to invoke an atmosphere of debate and reflection, which is essential to documentary filmmaking.

Unfortunately, extreme restrictions that have recently been placed on documentary filmmakers, in capturing what is occurring in our turbulent society, are unprecedented.

We can see so many films that potentially could have been made these days, but we are not allowed to make them.  Therefore, due to our commitment and respect for the truth and the reality, we have come to the decision to not take part in the forthcoming festival, either as documentary filmmakers, critics or viewers.

Signatures (142):

Mohsen Abdolvahab - Sepideh Abtahi - Farhang Adamiyat - Mahnaz Afzali – Amir Aghababaiean - Abbas Amini - Hiva Aminnezhad - Mohsen Amiryousfi - Mansoureh Arbabi - Mehdi Asadi - Mehrnaz Asadi - Ehsan Asgharzadeh - Majid Asheghi - Ashkan Ashkani - Houshang Azadivar - Bahram Azimpour - Mostafa Azizi - Milad Bahar - Amir Bahari - Mehdi Bagheri - Reza Bahraminezhad - Hasan Bahramzadeh - Rakhshan Banietemad - Misagh Banimahd – Habib Bavi Sajed - Ali Dadras - Reza Dorostkar - Esmaeil Emami - Homayoun Emami - Farshad Fadaieyan - Farshid Faraji - Mohammad Reza Fartosi - Kourosh Farzanegan - Bayram Fazli - Farshad Fereshteh Hekmat - Mehdi Ganji - Amin Ghadami - Mohsen Ghaderi - Rokhsare Ghaem Maghami - Alireza Ghasemkhan - Mehdi Ghorbanpour - Reza Haeri - Maryam Haghpanah - Khatreh Hanachi - Sirous Hesari - Amirhosein Hojat - Mahboubeh Honarian - Elham Hosinzadeh - jila Ipakchi - Hamid Jafari - Mehdi Jafari - Mohammad Jafari – Parviz Jahed - Farnaz Jamshidi moghadam - Ali Kalantari - Pirooz Kalantari - Mitra Karagah - Mehdi Karampour - Behfar Karimi - Mahmoud Karimi - Mahmoud Kazemi - Mina Keshavarz – Loghman Khaledi - Majid Khaleghi Soroush - Mostafa Kherghepoush - Banafshe Khoshnoudi – Firouzeh Khosravani - Keyvan Kiani - Bahman Kiarostami - Parviz Kimiavi - Mehdi Koohiyan - Ramtin Lavafipour - Ali Loghmani - Arastoo Madahi Givi - Mitra Mansouri - Anoushirvan Masoudi - Azar Mehrabi - Farhad Mehranfar - Makan Mehrpouya - Ahmad Mirehsan  - Mojtaba Mirtahmasb - Lida Moeini - Mahnaz Mohammadi - Ala Mohseni - Soudabeh Mojaveri - Ebrahim Mokhtari - Esmaeil Monsef - Mohammad Reza Moghadasian - Mahmoud Moghadas Jafari  - Majid Movaseghi - Soudabeh Moradian  - Soudabeh Mortazaie - Saeed Naderi - Nasim Najafi - Javad Najmedin - Mohammad Nami - Parivash Nazariyeh  - Majed Neysi - Mehrdad Oskoui - Mohsen Ostadali Makhmalbaf - Mehdi Parizad - Vahid Parsa - Maani Petgar - Morteza Poursamadi - Arash Raeisian - Mahmoud Rahmani - Mohamad Rasoulof - Shadmehr Rastin - Mohammad Razdasht - Nahid Rezaie - Panahbarkhoda Rezaie - Fariba Rostami - Ebrahim Saeedi - Naser Safarian - Babak Salek - Saman Salour - Amirhosein Sanaie - Ahmadreza Sedghi Vaziri - Katayoun Shahabi - Pouyan Shahrokhi -  Vahid Sheiykhlar - Mahvash Sheiykholeslami - Kamran Shirdel - Mohammad Shirvani – Ahmad Soleymani – Behrouz Soleymani - Abdolkhalegh Taheri - Ahmad Talebinezhad - Saeed Tarazi - Javad Tavana - Shahrouz Tavakol - Reza Teymori - Farzad Tohidi - Yasaman Tourang - Farhad Varahram - Ahmad Zahedi - Mehrdad Zahedian - Orod Zand - Mona Zandi - Hamid Zargarnezhad - Mohsen Zarifipour - Mehran Zinatbakhsh.