Goodbye mon Porto Leone!

Last month was full of changes. It was a fusion of here and there. A true Porto Leone!  

Voila a brief visual update of my life since the beginning of spring: 

March 21st 2015- Farvardin 1st 1394 

Celebrating Iranian new year in white snowy Montreal among our home-made green sprouts. 

Eventually, I had to say Goodbye to flamenco and my dance-mates. "Bye! I'm leaving for a while! See you soon!", I shouted as loud as I could. Once again I was shocked to realize that more than half of them had never heard my voice before.

My last nights in Montreal were full of young, beautiful, marching girls and boys with red roses in hand marching and chanting side by side the police. It might look surreal but that's how this city lives. My last mission was to give an orange lipstick to my friend : a magical night with "Lady danger" on strike. 

My first mission in Tehran was to look for a book I had been dreaming of getting for a long while. A book I tried to read in French a few times before I surrendered. The Persian(Farsi) version of this book is sold but only via black market: Which means you can buy it but at least twice the regular price. So I preferred to pay half the price and buy it in its English version in Tehran. Now,would I be able to unlock this mystery and fully read "The name of the rose"?

Sometimes a serious, philosophical conversation in a café is enough to reboot your mind and get you through jet lag in the blink of an eye: "You can't read a worm's mind as a worm is unable to read your feelings!". 

If you walk in my neighborhood in the early afternoon, the chance that you meet a cat is much much higher than spotting a human being. These guardian cats look tough at first sight. They sit down in very strategic spots all around the neighbourhood. I often try to find a shortcut not to bother them or I just stand far away and look at them, watching their terittory. Soon after,  they give their back a sexy curl and gently start walking away from me. All of a sudden, these harsh, tough-looking dudes  become the most beautiful, seductive creatures in the world. Isn't that why I love movement so much?  Isn't that why I partnered my life with Animation? 

Back in Tehran means back to my old project: "Le foot stories!".

A random sketch - too hard to translate! 

But,  

for the next few months: a new film to start and thousands of white pages to ink and draw!  

To be continued! 

     

The ramparts of Warsaw 1943-1944/ Les remparts de Varsovie 1943-1944

A few months ago, I finished a collaboration with André Bossuroy for three animated segments as part of the documentary: "Les remparts de Varsovie 1943-1944/ The ramparts of Warsaw 1943-1944"

This documentary was shown on ARTE, on the day of the Warsaw insurrection. 

To watch the animated segments click on the images below: 

Animation-Part1

Animation-Part2

Animation-Part3

"1st August 1944. Nearly two months after the Allies land in Normandy, the young people of Poland rise up in Warsaw to free themselves from the Nazi yoke. Betrayed by Stalin who is encamped, weapons at hand, on the far bank of the Vistula the Polish Resistance one of the strongest in Europe with its Home Army the Armia Krajowa faces the world’s most powerful army alone.

Three young Europeans, Alexandra (France), Maria (Poland) and Roman (Germany), meet in Warsaw to enquire into these events; here they meet witnesses who took part in the Warsaw Uprising or lived in the ghetto. Beneath their white hair we can recognise the men and women who formed the living ramparts of freedom in the face of Nazism. They were between 12 and 20 years old at the time."

To watch the full documentary follow the link below: 
at-home-in-europe.tv/blog/remembrance/

Credits

A film by ANDRE BOSSUROY

Reporters: Alexandra JASTRZEBSKA, Maria Kinga ZIELINSKA, Roman KROKE

Animation: Parissa MOHIT

Music: Florian SERAUL

Production: MEDIEL with the support from the Programme Europe for citizens Active European Remembrance from the European Commission

Belgium, 2014

"Like a pig in Tehran" at Café Aunja

poster designed by "Amir Saboury"

Tonight is the opening of an expo of my daily visual sketchbook at café Aunja.

One year ago in the busy, crazy metro of Tehran, I decided to write down what I was hearing around me. It was too interesting to be forgotten. I started to draw and to write a few words as captions for each image. I posted them on my instagram as it seemed to be very fashionable in Tehran.  As I didn't know anyone on this platform I let myself free to write what I wanted. A few weeks after I came back to Montreal and I started a new job.  After nine years of living here, Montreal for me is still a city to discover, a society to de-code. Montreal is full of hidden stories which are not easy to see or to hear. People talk less but if you succeed to read their minds, they have a lot to surprise you. Montreal's silence makes me ponder, think and take my time to observe. This is a gift I will take away with myself to wherever I go.

These drawing were originally accompanied by texts in Farsi. I'm happy to get a chance to translate 46 of them in French and English.  A lot of concepts and ideas I had in the original texts are not translatable. So a lot of texts are way too different in the English and French versions. At the end they are different ways of telling the same stories. I'm now very curious to see how it will work.

These drawings from a Montrealer's journal are named after a Bosnian proverb: "Like a pig in Tehran!"

I want to thank Elham Yousefi and Hamed Masoumi, the couple behind the idea of Café Aunja, a place which is much more than a café to me.

The translations of these texts are done by me but are beautifuly final-touched by someone who interprets me even better than myself : Jean-Christophe Leblond.

Autour d'une table

In October ,"Autour d'une table" was presented at the Oaxaca film festival in Mexico in the international competition. In November it was presented at Animated dream in Estonia in the category of Animated documentries.

Programme jeunesse Iran at FNC 2014

A bit of update on the last two months:

Last summer and fall, I was invited to work on two programs for children and youth for the Festival de nouveau cinéma (FNC) for the "P'tits loups" section. These two programs of Iranian animation films were presented on the 13th of October in Montréal.

"P'tits loups" is the youth section of FNC which focus on cinema for younger audience and their family.

"Story of red pencil" by Alireza Chitaie

"The sparrow and the boll" by M. Ahadi

"Autour d'une table" at DC Shorts film festival

I will be in Washington DC for this weekend to attend the DC Short fest and to present may latest short, Autour d'une table (Around a table) in the official competition.

As usual I will Instagram my experience!