![\"Actor](\"http:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/SMP_Film_Festival.png\")
<\/a>Photo By: Lance Rothwell\/In Motion<\/figcaption><\/figure>The festival is regularly held in several cities across the U.S. and shows a variety of films, including shorts, features, and documentaries about Iranian culture. On opening night at the Madorsky, there was a dinner followed by speakers at the Southeast Museum of Photography.<\/p>\n
After introductions by Forough Hosseini and SMP Director Kevin Miller, Siamak Ghahremani, co-founder and director of NOOR, spoke of the origins of the festival saying, \u201cIn the summer of 2005, myself and a few other friends were sitting around watching CNN and there was a lot of negative stuff being said about Iran, the government and the nuclear program.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI told them, \u2018I wish we had an organization that would go out in major media and would tell the average non-Iranian, the average American, let\u2019s say, what Iranian culture is really about, what our heritage is about, where we\u2019ve come from, and not everything they watch on Fox News is the truth.\u2019 And a year later we came up with the film festival.\u201d<\/p>\n
He then emphasized NOOR\u2019s purpose, \u201cI\u2019m not here to change anyone\u2019s mind about what Iran is or how rich our history is or how beautiful it is, but the least I can do as an Iranian-American living here for 28 years is to give the non-Iranian community an opportunity for them to decide on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iranian-American Navid Negahban, who has acted in television shows and movies such as \u201cHomeland\u201d and \u201cThe Stoning of Soraya R,\u201d also spoke about the film festival. He talked about the significance of film as an art. \u201cArt is the only country that has no borders. There is no prejudice in true art,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Admission to the event, which attracted a crowd of 100, included a dinner buffet catered by the college, along with a Q&A session with Negahban about his acting career. To close the night, a film screening of \u201cThe Chicken with Plums\u201d was shown in the Mardorsky Theater, a French film with English subtitles about a violinist named Nasser Ali Khan who ends up losing his faith in life after his violin breaks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Brandon Krampert In Motion Staff Writer In mid-February the 6th Annual NOOR Iranian Film Festival came to Central Florida and showed week-long screenings at the Cinematique in Daytona Beach, the Southeast Museum of Photography\u2019s Mardorsky Theater and Rollins College in Winter Park. The festival is regularly held in several cities Continue reading Iranian Film Festival brings culture, compassion to SMP<\/span>