Ahmad Mahmoud
Posted by By ifvc at 12 July, at 19 : 43 PM Print
Ahmad Mahmoud: A Noble Novelist, the second documentary directed and produced by Bahman Maghsoudlou, premiered at the Berlin Asia-Pacific Film Festival in September of 2004. Since then it has been selected for various film festivals, including the UCLA Film & Television Archive’s 15th Annual Celebration of Iranian Cinema Festival, 2005. This feature documentary is the very first to examine the life and work of one of Iran’s leading novelists.
The film was shot in Tehran in July of 2002 and completed in 2004. The film has been screened at various universities and at Iranian cultural and artistic centers in Los Angeles, Washington, Atlanta, New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, Virginia, London, Paris, and Boston. It was also selected for the 21st Annual Film Festival of Middle East Studies Association of America, (MESA) in San Francisco, 2004, and the International Society of Iranian Studies Film Festival, (ISIS) in Washington, D.C., 2004.
Ahmad Mahmoud: A Noble Novelist has been well received by critics and audiences alike. The former have included the LA Times, Keyhan (London), Nimrouz and the BBC. Mr. Maghsoudlou’s first documentary, Ardeshir Mohasses (1972), was shown at the Leipzig Documentary Film Festival, 1996, as one of the best short documentaries made before the revolution.
Sadly Mr. Mahmoud was never able to see the film he inspired about himself. He died in Tehran three months after shooting was completed. The director had known Mr. Mahmoud for almost forty years. The two men were close friends and Mr. Maghsoudlou was Mr. Mahmoud’s trustee.
The DVD of the film will be released with additional material late in 2006. Mr. Maghsoudlou is currently in the editing room working on two new documentaries, one on painter Iran Darroudi and the other on the history of Iranian cinema entitled Iranian Cinema: Searching for the Roots (1900-1979).
