Arts and Entertainment

Docunight film screening to be presented during alternate date in July

A trilogy of short films selected for July 11 event

“Exilic Trilogy” is the July 2018 selection for the Docunight: Iran via Documentaries series. The film will be shown at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, July 11, on the second Wednesday of the month due to the previous week’s holiday. Credit: Penn State. Creative Commons

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — International film buffs and individuals interested in films created in or about Iran have been gathering on the first Wednesday of each month for more than a year for Docunight: Iran Via Documentaries film screenings.

This month, however, due to the Fourth of July holiday hours of operation, the film will be shown one week later at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, July 11, in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library, on the University Park campus.

July’s film selection is a compilation of three arthouse docudramas collectively titled “Exilic Trilogy” (2015), filmed in Persian with English subtitles. Directed by Arsalan Baraheni, an exiled Iranian-Canadian filmmaker based in Toronto, the films present a musician (Soleyman Vaseghi, a.k.a. Soli), a painter (Gholamhossein Nami) and a poet (Reza Baraheni). At once biographical, poetic and musical, these documentaries collide with social, political and philosophical manifestations.

The trilogy begins with “Light and Sound,” featuring well-known exiled Iranian musician Soleyman Vaseghi (Soli), in a film about the light within the mind of the artist and the sound which Soli produces through his music in exile. The second film, “Frame & Wall," follows painter and visual artist Master Gholamhossein Nami, who fled Iran for social purposes. The film is a visual art poem which deals with the frames and the walls of this outstanding Iranian painter. “Alchemy & Dust,” the third installment, starring exiled Iranian poet Reza Baraheni, is a poetic docudrama shot by Baraheni’s son that documents the life of poet and filmmaker, father and son, poetry and camera.

The Docunight series is an initiative to encourage cultural exchange and understanding of Iran through documentaries. The films are about Iran, set around or in Iran, or made by Iranians, and are co-sponsored by the Iranian Student Association and Penn State University Libraries. Film events are generally scheduled for the first Wednesday of each month and are free and open to the public.

For more information on this event, or for questions about accommodations or the physical access provided, contact Mark Mattson, global partnerships and outreach librarian, at 814-863-2480 or mam1196@psu.edu in advance of the event.

Last Updated July 18, 2018