Film UbuWebBahman Maghsoudlou (b. 1946)
Ardeshir Mohasses & His Caricatures (1972)Bahman Maghsoudlou is the recipient of Iran's Forough Farrokhzad literary award for writing and editing a series of books about cinema and theater (1975), including Iranian Cinema (1987, New York University's Center for Middle Eastern Studies). He was presented this award at the fourth Forough Farrokhzad awards ceremony, held at the Central Palace for Young Adults in February of 1975.
Maghsoudlou wrote, directed and produced a short documentary on artist Ardeshir Mohasses called Ardeshir Mohasses and His Caricatures in 1972. This would turn out to be the first in a series of films on Iran's most important artistic figures, although the follow-ups would not be produced for many years afterwards. In 1998, he produced Ahmad Shamlou: Master Poet of Liberty which was subsequently followed by Ahmad Mahmoud: A Noble Novelist in 2004 and Iran Darroudi: The Painter of Ethereal Moments in 2009, the latter two for which he also served as director. The most recent addition to this series is an update to his earlier film on Mohasses, entitled Ardeshir: The Rebellious Artist. Maghsoudlou had long wished to update his earlier film on his friend and the inspiration came after two occurrences in 2008: a long overdue retrospective of Mohasses's work at the Asia Society in New York City and the artist's untimely passing. The new film features interviews with prominent critics and friends from around the world and emphasizes the eternal truth in Mohasses's struggles with censorship.
As a producer his films have been to more than 100 film festivals world wide.These films include:
The Suitors, selected for the Cannes in 1988; Manhattan by Numbers (by Amir Naderi), selected for Venice and Toronto 1993; Seven Servants by Daryush Shokof, selected for Berlin, Toronto and Locarno 1996, and Silence of the Sea, selected for the Mannheim Film Festival 2003.
He is currently producing and directing a feature length documentary on the history of Iranian Cinema entitled, Iranian Cinema, Searching for the Roots: 1900-1979, and the documentary The Life and Legacy of Mohammad Mossadegh.
Having organized the first ever Iranian Film Festival in New York in 1980, he organized the International Short Film Festival: Independent Films on Iran, which was held in October 2007, in New York. In 2009, Maghsoudlou authored the book Grass: Untold Stories which detailed the background stories related to the making of the 1925 silent movie, Grass. A major part of the movie had been filmed in Maghsoudlou's native Iran.
A graduate in cinema studies from the City University of New York (Staten Island) with a PhD from Columbia University, Maghsoudlou lives in New York.
He recently became a member of the prestigious list of PEN American Center in 2011.
Maghsoudlou has served as a jury member for a number of prestigious international film festivals. Most recently, he had the honor of being the lone non-Spanish member of the jury for the 3rd Edition of the IBAFF, International Film Festival (held March 5th through 10th in Murcia, Spain), serving alongside a group of notables of the Spanish film scene, including Alberto Elena.
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