My Favourite Iranian Film: The Lizard aka Marmulak

From Ahangaran to a diametrically opposed piece of culture in the form of my favourite Iranian film, The Lizard, aka Marmulak

"Marmoolak" (The Lizard), a film by Iranian director Kamal Tabrizi about a convict who

escapes prison in the cloak and turban of a cleric and becomes an accidental mullah, was a

huge hit in Iran. Ticket lines snaked around theaters. People bought tickets days in advance,

breaking Iranian box-office records. Everyone, from schoolchildren to grandmothers,

talked about the film. All wondered, out loud, how such an open criticism of the clergy

could receive a screening permit from this theocratic regime.  The film was banned in

Iran after only 3 weeks."

 

See the whole film here.

Music for Martyrs

From Rishi Kapoor to Ahangaran and his music for martyrs; how to die on the road to Karbala during the Iran-Iraq war. He sends chills down my spine for many reasons.

Sadeq Ahangaran: "As I was singing, I was aware some of them would be martyred, some would be prisoners of war, some would be injured and some return. I was completely aware of it."

The Parda Hai girls

 

One of the interesting things about photography compared to film is you don't get random people in photography. If something is worth noticing, it gets noticed, however small the detail might be. Any randomness gets randomed out in the reviewing. This is not the case in film.

Continuing on the Manmohan Desai theme of the previous post, my favourite random film detail comes in the great man's unlikely-but-brilliant epic, Amar Akbar Anthony.

It's the two random girls who are sitting right behind Neetu Singh (as Rishi Kapoor/M.Rafi sings Parda Hai Parda) that fascinate me - their dress, their contrasting demeanour and their behaviour. They stay sitting throughout the song, even when almost everyone else is clapping, dancing and generally giving it some. One looks Goan, the other Bengali. Who are these people - daughters of the director or producer or someone else?  If you know, do tell me, if you don't just make it up.

Listen to the song and watch the girls here.

Below are the lyrics. I love the fact that you have a hindu playing a muslim asking a hindu (playing a muslim) to remove her veil. Then best of all, the film was watched by hindus and muslims the world over, all made in Bollywood, by perhaps the most secular bunch of Indians that ever lived.

Here are the lyrics to Parda Hai.

Let me me pour some wine on this youth

And throw this rose towards a beauty

There is a veil

There is a veil

There is a veil, there is a veil, behind the veil there is a secret

And if this secret is not unveiled by me
Then my name is not Akbar

There is a veil

Wherever I look, people will look there as well

They want to see where my gaze stops at

Oh princess of my dreams, I am Akbar of Ilaahabad

I am a poet of the beautiful, I'm a lover of the shy

I will not leave your side, I will tear apart every curtain (seperating us))

Don't be afraid of this tyrant world, due to grace or pretense

Come, show your face, and make this occassion beautiful

Otherwise by taking your name, I will make some allegation

And if I not dishonor you in this gathering

Then Akbar is not my name

Give thanks to God, (her) face has been seen

But even so, the color of shame is still shining in her eyes

While someone is losing his life, someone else is feeling shy

Someone is shedding tears, and someone is smiling

My beloved frequently enjoys torturing me like this

This is her custom, the cruelty she is famous for

Do hide your face, being angered, but remember this, oh beautiful one

The fire that is your youth, My love is like cold water

And if do not cool your anger

Then Akbar is not my name..

Coolie, Scousers, Harry Enfield and the Bollywood Tamil Stereotypes

Enough of success and collaboration,  to celebrate Liverpool, here is a little bit of Visual History, courtesy of Manmohan Desai, Bollywood film director and master of the unlikely plot.


In Desai's 1983 hit, Coolie, Rishi Kapoor plays second fiddle to Amitabh Bachchan in his role as Sunny. The top picture shows Sunny disguising himself as a Tamil. Note the moustache and bubble perm. The second picture shows Harry Enfield's scousers who were supposedly inspired by Liverpool footballer Terry McDermott. But knowing that Harry Enfield is a big fan of Bollywood, and Amitabh Bachchan in particular, Rishi Kapoor's role in Coolie seems the obvious inspiration for the scousers.  Is Chennai twinned with Liverpool? Perhaps it should be.

The other interesting thing about Coolie is the use of a bird of prey as a hero, which reminds me of Ken Loach's Kes. Ken Loach, Bollywood, Manmohan Desai - can I make something up to tie all those together or is that going too far?

Anyway, you can see Rishi Kapoor being a Scouser/Tamil here.

Steve Davis's Collaborative project

Steve Davis works with prisoners in the United States. One of his projects featured pinhole photography taken by the girls of Remann Hall, in Tacoma, Washington

What is your day job?

I'm the Coordinator of Photography and adjunct faculty member at the Evergreen State College, in Olympia, WA

How did you get involved in this collaborative project?
 

I had been working with a nonprofit group called The Experimental Gallery that brought artists into juvenile sites of incarceration.  This work came from working with incarcerated girls to construct a museum installation, which was to contain some of their photography.  It was more difficult than other similar projects, because this place was not a long term facility, so the participants changed almost weekly.

How did you gain access to the people in the project?
 

I was asked by the coordinator of the Experimental Gallery to both document the arts project and lead a group into their own photographic work, which were the pinhole images.  So, the girls were basically screened and selected by people other than myself.

Is there anything you could not gain access to?
 

Faces, for the most part.  They were off limits for this project.  This limitation had a lot to do with me wanting to give them pinhole cameras.  The long exposures and lack of detail pretty much eliminated any possibility of identification.

What were the problems with photographing this subject?
 

Shooting and giving cameras to the incarcerated is generally  full of problems.  Cameras are confiscated, seemingly benign subjects are off limits, things like that.  And as I mentioned, my group was a revolving door, so the mission had to be simple.

What did you hope to achieve by doing this project?
 

In addition to my own portraiture, I was excited about this work because the girls were not asked to "document" life behind bars.  As their camera exposures would be as high as 15 minutes, the kids had to plan, conceptualize, and essentially perform for the cameras.  It was more theatrical, emotional, and far less literal.  Previously, I worked with incarcerated boys who were given relatively decent 35mm cameras, and they created fairly literal snapshots.   The cheap pinhole cameras that the girls used freed them from the clichés, I think.

Were there any assumptions you had made before the project that you realised did not apply?
 

I assumed I would have a tighter group to work with.  Working with a new set of kids every visit made "teaching" a different experience from what I'm used to.  Other than that, I pretty much knew what to expect, based on my previous experiences with photography and incarcerated youth.

Were there any assumptions you made before starting the project that you realised did apply?
 

I assumed they would be very hungry for attention, and very willing to express themselves visually.  That was certainly true.

How did you fund this project?
 

I didn't.  Money came from grants and museum support, through the Experimental Gallery.

What constituted success for this project?
 

The larger project-- the museum installation was extraordinary, but the photographs that were transferred to the wall surfaces were almost invisible.  So in that respect the photography didn't see much of an audience.  I think it was successful to the girls to create and express themselves.  Eventually, Pete Brook of Prison Photography noticed them, and I think they have since received a fairly large audience.

Collaboration 3: Gemma-Rose Turnbull and The Red Light Dark Room

  

Gemma-Rose Turnbull is an Australian photographer working with sex workers in St Kilda in The Red Light Dark Room.

What is your day job?

I am an Australian photographer, who specialises in photographing the lives of women. I studied documentary photography at the Queensland College of Art, graduating in 2005. I have worked as a newspaper photographer, a freelance photojournlist, a Photojournalism lecturer and a photographer since graduating. 

How did you get involved in this collaborative project?

In early 2010 I was awarded an Australia Council for the Arts Connections Residency to do a residency with non-profit organisation St Kilda Gatehouse to teach, photograph and interview the marginalised women who use their services. More than 250 rolls of film were shot by nine women to produce a hardcover book, which is a combination of their photographs, my photographs, interviews and stories.

I conceived the project after spending two days at St Kilda Gatehouse in November 2009. I was profoundly effected by the service they offered, and on very little money. They are completely donor funded, and I was determined to find a way to use my skills to help raise money for them. We are aiming to sell 1,000 books and raise $50,000 for them.  

           
How did you gain access to the people in the project?

Street sex work, which involves the trading of sexual services for money or drugs at the street level, is a particularly hazardous and stressful occupation. Those engaged in street sex work tend to be the most marginalised, oppressed, and stigmatised. These women face many daily challenges, including physical and sexual assaults, ill treatment by the public, housing instability, incarcerations and continued financial difficulties.

Because of these things it is hard to build trust with and engage women who work in the profession, however working with St Kilda Gatehouse allowed me to build on the trust they had already established. This allowed the project to come about much more quickly than it otherwise would have.

Is there anything you cannot gain access to?

The reality is there are lots of places a camera can’t go with this project. It can’t walk with me into the Children’s Court where I spend a day sitting with one of the women, keeping her company while she fights for custody of her three-week-old daughter, nor can I take it into loiterer’s court. I can’t document the woman I visit in the high dependency unit in the psych ward. I can’t go into a police interview room with it. And I can’t take the image of a woman left diminished in her prison uniform, sitting in jail; a shaky lip and arms carved with scars and tattoos, the visible remnants of her outside life.

What are the problems with photographing this subject?

Photographing people whose permission is compromised by their vulnerability, or by their life controlling drug addiction is an ethical minefield. I have been very careful to not intrude on their lives too much, and have mostly stepped back and allowed them to photograph to their level of comfort.

What do you hope to achieve by doing this project?

The three main outcomes I am hoping to achieve are to engage the women in something meaningful, that in some way gives them a sense of achievement. To raise money to support the organisation that continues to support them, and to produce a body of work that helps humanise the women who work as street sex workers in St Kilda.






Were there any assumptions you had made before the project that you realised did not apply?

I assumed that I would photograph much more than I actually did. The lack of photographing was about gaining trust. It took me a long time to get the women comfortable in my presence, let alone in front of my gaze. They disappear if I pull it out too soon, or push it too far. And I can understand. They are a group of people who are among the most victimised and vilified in our society. Identity is one of the only, very small, powers they can wield. And before they hand their visage over to me, they need to trust I am going to honour that gift.

I feel very reconciled with that though, it’s a collaborative project, and together we have made a whole body of work.

Were there any assumptions you made before starting the project that you realised did apply?

There is always some basis in stereotypes. The images we see of street sex workers are based in accuracy; the majority of them are drug affected, many come from abusive domestic backgrounds and situations and homelessness. But they are, of course, far more than those stereotypes. 

How do you fund this project?

I was supported by grants from The Australia Arts Council, and the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust.


What constitutes success for this project?

Success is measure in tiny incremental goals along the way. It’s someone discovering how to focus a camera, or someone being excited by the photographs they have taken. Someone relishing the opportunity to share their story. For me it’s taking time to get to know and care about the people I am working with, rather than running through their lives and taking their images from them for my own personal gain. 

Collaboration 2: Tony Fouhse and Stephanie

"Ok Tony, did you start this project to get attention on your blog or did you do it to actually help me?"


That is the starting point of Stephanie's interview with Tony Fouhse.
Tony is a photographer, Stephanie is a woman who is a heroin addict. Tony is trying to work with Stephanie to document her addiction and hopefully her recovery. You can read all about it on Drool (with a dedicated website/blog coming later).



What is your day job?

I'm an editorial and commercial photographer.


How did you get involved in this collaborative project?

I have a history, in my personal projects, of collaborating with the people I photograph. In some projects (American States, for instance) that collaboration is fleeting.  In other projects I'll return to the same place and people over the course of 2 or 3 or 4 years.

How did you gain access to the people in the project?

I met Stephanie (who is a heroin addict) last summer while I was shooting USER (which, itself, was a 4 year collaboration with a group of crack addicts).  Of all the addicts I met on that corner there was just something about her that I was really, really drawn to. Her openness and honesty and her ability to get in touch with her emotions, show them to me and allow me to photograph them.  I asked her if I could help her in some way and she asked me to help her get into a rehab program.  She didn't have even one piece of ID so we set about getting her paperwork in order and we are just now beginning to make appointments (to make further appointments) to find her some help.  The Canadian health care system is overburdened and 

everything seems to take a long time.

Is there anything you cannot gain access to?

Lots.  The risk-reduction house (run by a religious organization) where Stephanie lives won't allow me into her room, nor may I photograph the workers there. Some of the government and hospital locations we go to won't allow photography, either. There are also some aspects of Stephanie's life that are out of bounds

What are the problems with photographing this subject?

Stephanie is, despite her openness and participation in this project, also a reserved, private person. There are aspects of her life that she won't give me access to. As well, there are aspects of her life that I'm not interested in photographing. This was never conceived as a "documentary" project.  I'm a portrait photographer and, while there are some "documentary" aspects to what we're doing together, by far the majority of the images are setup, lit portraits. One other problem (if you want to call it that) is that Steph often (about half the time) 

doesn't show up. When she does show up, about half the time she is so fucked up that I spend all my energy dealing with that, trying to help and comfort her, rather than thinking about, or taking, photos.

What do you hope to achieve by doing this project?

Primarily, I want to see Stephanie get into a good rehab program and get straight.  I also hope to get a series of portraits of her that show that trip.

Were there any assumptions you had made before the project that you realised did not apply?

Yes. I (stupidly) thought that her concerns might have a certain overlap with mine.  Of course, other than the trying-to-get-into-rehab-and-get-straight thing, her concerns are totally different from mine.


Were there any assumptions you made before starting the project that you realised did apply?

I thought that I might be able to maintain enough distance to remain, if not untouched, at least slightly removed.  This hasn't happened.....I've been swept up.

How do you fund this project?

I use the money I make shooting for magazines, ad agencies and corporations.


What constitutes success for this project?

See answer to what I hope to achieve with this project.