American filmmaker Ramin Bahrani held a press conference on Tuesday, November 4, 2014, in the framework of the 55th Thessaloniki Film Festival. TIFF director Dimitri Eipides attended. The 55th edition of TIFF is hosting a tribute to the work of the filmmaker, screening a selection of his short and feature films.
Dimitri Eipides welcomed Mr Bahrani to the Festival and noted: “Ramin Bahrani is one of the major voices in contemporary cinema, an artist who defines modern American cinema. Bahrani’s stories are characterized by honesty and courage. Most of all his is a realist cinema, and a deeply humane one”.
Ramin Bahrani thanked Dimitris Eipides and said: “It’s a big honor to be in this Festival especially because the invitation came from Dimitri Eipides. I already knew of him and he is of course known internationally as one of the true champions of film, for many years now”.
Bahrani’s film Man Push Cart won the TIFF Audience Award in 2005. “This award helped me so much with my career”, Bahrani noted. “I was broke and homeless at the time. I think that only an audience like the one in Thessaloniki could have given it to me. I got 5.000 euros with the award and it was a big blessing. I was casting Chop Shop at the time, I had 3 interns helping me. I was looking at 2.000 kids, real kids from the street and I couldn’t let interns know that I had no money and no home”.
Commenting on the changes in the American independent cinema landscape he noted: “It’s always been difficult. The main reason that I’m still able to shoot movies is digital technology. It isn’t hard to make a film nowadays. It’s harder to make a movie that has a meaning, something different”.
Regarding the political aspect of his movies he said: “They can be read politically, sure. To this end, I keep watching David Lynch’s films over and over again, and I often wonder what it is that he is doing and why I cannot do it in the same way. How can he combine those dreams and nightmares with politics? I am personally interested in society. Most of the writers I grew up reading seem to have an interest in society: Dostoyevsky, Kafka, Steinbeck, even Faulkner”.
Bahrani believes that film can change people’s lives: “I think it’s every filmmaker’s hope to make an impact, to create some kind of change even if he himself does not know what that change would be. Films often have more to do with the search of the unknown rather than the offering of answers. I myself have seen many films that have had an impact on me, on how I see the world. The same stands for literature. I think good art creates change”. “I always think about the boy in Chop Shop”, he added. “He is so resilient and determined. Sometimes when I catch myself being depressed or in a complaining mood, I just tell myself to “shut up and move on”.
Commenting on his Iranian roots, Bahrani said: “I was born and raised in North Carolina, then I studied in Columbia University, New York. And then in 1998 I decided to go to Iran for the first time in my life. I had planned to stay for six weeks but I ended up staying for almost 3 years. It was a great experience, very different to the one growing up in a Carolina suburb. In Iran, in any occasion - at home, the office, public transport – you see people of completely different social, financial or ideological background, talking amongst themselves, arguing and co-existing. This happens less and less in America. There, it is usually the people who are like minded that are always together. That helped me because when I returned to America I saw things in a fresh way”.
In relation to Iranian films, Bahrani noted: “I’m not very familiar with Iranian cinema. I don’t watch their new productions. The films I usually do watch are about… 25 to 75 years old. Of course in festivals you hear about someone’s first or second film. Its not that I don’t like or appreciate new filmmakers but I prefer to look back”.
Commenting on the spiritual side of his films, Bahrani said: “I’m always very confused about this subject. The main tension between free will and fate is connected to ideas of spirituality and mystery. I think it’s the same in the way I feel about my life. And since we’re on the subject of Iranian cultural influences, there is a poem by Rumi that says: “I’m the stick, you are the ball. Wherever I hit you, you must go. Wherever you go I must follow”. It is in this respect that I’m interested in Kieslowski’s work, in the mystery of it all. I think The Decalogue is one of the greatest cinematic achievements”.
