By Ted Shen
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Her experience convinced her of the importance of film festivals to the state of the art; this Friday she’s moderating a panel discussion at Columbia College’s Ferguson Theatre on the role of festivals in shaping careers and helping filmmakers assert their national identities, as well as in introducing cultural variety to combat the Hollywoodization of art and entertainment. Panelists include festival organizers Michael Kutza (Chicago), Richard Pena (New York), Noah Cowan (Toronto), and Richard Herskowitz (Virginia). “The culture of the festival is a pressing issue,” she says. “We can’t let it be corrupted by money and celebrity. Festivals should remain major venues for upstart filmmakers to get exposure and money for their next project.”
Saeed-Vafa’s own nascent filmmaking career was almost derailed by Iran’s Islamic revolution, which began in 1979. She had studied for a couple of years at the London International Film School in the mid-70s and was teaching at her Iranian alma mater, but she was going through a messy divorce and felt stifled by the straitlaced artistic climae.
In 1995 Saeed-Vafa’s feature documentary, A Tajik Woman, nabbed a top prize from the American Film Institute. The film, which gives voice to Afghan and Iranian refugees in the U.S. in the debate over liberalism versus fundamentalism and the predicament of Muslim women, not only helped her find her own identity, she says, but the accolades also “gave me the confidence in my subject and style–not to mention seed money–for my next project.” She’s been working on a semiautobiographical documentary titled Home in Exile, which she hopes to finish later this year. “Of course I will take it on the festival circuit,” she says, “and who knows, it might even get to Tehran, which would complete the circle.”
