| Hayedeh, Legendary Persian Diva | |
|---|---|
Premier Poster designed by Kamran Ashtary & Tori Egherman |
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| Directed by | Pejman Akbarzadeh |
| Produced by | Pejman Akbarzadeh |
| Editing by | Mostafa Heravi, Gregory Macousi |
| Distributed by | Persian Dutch Network |
| Release date(s) | 2009 |
| Running time | 100 minutes |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Language | Persian Hebrew |
"Hayedeh Legendary Persian Diva" (Persian: سخن از هایده / Sokhan az Hayedeh) is a 2009 documentary film about the late Iranian iconic singer Hayedeh, made by the exiled musician and journalist Pejman Akbarzadeh in The Netherlands.
The 100-min. documentary was filmed in France, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and USA. The language of the film is Persian with English subtitles.
Hayedeh documentary was released on 20 January, 2010, the 20th death anniversary of Hayedeh. The DVD was released by Persian Dutch Network in Amsterdam.
Contents |
Hayedeh Legendary Persian Diva contains an extensive review of the singers's artistic activities beginning in the late 1960s at Radio Tehran and ending in 1990 in California.
Hayedeh Legendary Persian Diva looks at Hayedeh's career against the backdrop of political and social upheaval in Persia as the nation went from monarchy to revolution to protracted war that forced many of its best and brightest into exile. In one of the first frames of the documentary, the director writes: "Since the 1979 revolution in Persia (Iran), which brought a fundamentalist religious government to power, women have not been allowed to sing in public. All Persian women singers were forced to end their careers and many of them moved abroad to sing. Hayedeh (1942-1990) was one of those who fled Iran."
Hayedeh Legendary Persian Diva includes rare videos, audio clips, photos, and original interviews with the main figures of her career: the songwriters Andranik, Mohammad Heydari, Anooshirvan Rohani, Farid Zoland, Sadegh Nojouki, producer Manouchehr Bibiyan, conductor Farnoush Behzad, music critic Mahmoud Khoshnam, tar soloist Parviz Rahman-Panah, and the last Persian queen Farah Pahlavi. Archival interviews of the lyricist Leila Kasra (Hedieh), singers Mahasti, Moein, Martik, and cinema actor Parviz Sayyad have been used to the film as well.
The documentary has been dedicated to the memory of Amir Zamanifar, a close friend of Pejman Akbarzadeh and Radio Farda's correspondent in Prague who was killed in a car crash in 2009.
Hayedeh, Legendary Persian Diva for the first time was screened on January 24, 2009 at Griffioen Cultural Center, associated to Amsterdam Vrije Universiteit. The event was organized on the occasion of 19th Anniversary of Hayedeh's death in exile. Holland's Persian community and US-/Europe-based Persian-language media warmly received the event. Before the screening, Voice of America's Persian TV, BBC Persian Radio, Radio Farda, etc. interviewed the director and broadcast the trailer.
In April 2009 the documentary was screened in an event organized by Rahaward Cultural Center in Aachen. In the German city some leftist Persian immigrants boycotted the event. Deutsche Welle correspondent wrote: "About 25 people were present for viewing the film, which was a source of bewilderment and disenchantment of the filmmaker and organizers of the event."
Hayedeh, Legendary Persian Diva had its sold-out US premiere at the 3rd Noor Film Festival in Los Angeles on May 1, 2009. After the screening, Persian-American Hollywood director Reza Badiyi, in an interview with Homa Sarshar on Radio 670 KIRN, described itt as a "Chapter on the beauties of Hayedeh life".
The documentary was also nominated as the "best documentary" at Noor Film Festival but according to BBC Persian TV's Aslan Hafezi: "Presentation of unveiled information in the film caused the objections of some of Hayedeh’s relations and fans."
Hayedeh, Legendary Persian Diva was also screened at the 9th International Exile Film Festival in Gothenburg, Sweden in October 2009. Following the sold-out screening at Hagabion Hall and in a review for BBC Persian website, Hooman Khalatbari, a Graz-based opera conductor, wrote: "this is the first Persian documentary which covers all aspects of a singer's career and almost all important figures in the singer's artistic activity are present there". The opera conductor also wrote: "I believe Hayedeh's work will remain as a cultural memento for the next Persian generations".
Hayedeh, Legendary Persian Diva was also screened in December 2009 at the 4th Iranian Film Festival in Zaandam, Holland. The announcement of the screening was published in the national Dutch newspaper Volkskrant.
The documentary was screened at the 8th International Festival of Iranian Cinema in Exile in Paris in April 2010 and will also be presented at the Iranian Festival in Seattle in June 2010.
In May 2010 the leftist Israeli newspaper Haaretz published a comprehensive article about the film by Noam Ben-Zeev, a professor at University of Haifa.
In September 2009 the semi-official Fars News Agency in Tehran criticized Pejman Akbarzadeh for making a film about the "corrupt monarchist singer, Hayedeh".
The documentary has been partially supported by Radio Zamaneh Foundation in Amsterdam, Miec Marketing B.V. in The Hague and Soudavar Memorial Foundation in Geneva, Switzerland.