(Photo by Jamal Salehi)

Renowned classical Persian poet Hafez Shirazi was commemorated in a ceremony held at his mausoleum in Shiraz in the presence of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Tokyo Fest To Screen ‘Lifeline’

An Iranian movie ‘Lifeline’ will be screened at the 25th Tokyo International Film Festival.
Director Mohammad Ebrahim Moayyeri has traveled to Tokyo to promote the film, which will be shown in the section Winds of Asia-Middle East--Film Panorama of Asia-Middle East.
‘Lifeline’ is about the labors of the workers who install electrical transmission towers in the northern Iranian forest town of ‘Galougah’, according to Press TV.
A large number of films from across the world will be competing in the festival, which runs until October 28.

Spanish PhilosophyUnder Scrutiny

A session will be held in Tehran to assess the works and ideas of Spanish Philosopher Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo.
According to the public relations office of the Book City Cultural Center, the session will be held in the presence of noted philosopher Ebrahimi Dinani and Spain’s ambassador to Iran, IBNA reported.
Among the 20th century writers, essayists and thinkers in Spain, Jugo enjoyed a specific status and his ideas had a great influence on existentialist philosophers. Not only a literary critic and philosopher, Unamuno was a poet and novelist as well.
Unamuno’s philosophy was not systematic, but rather a negation of all systems and an affirmation of faith “in itself.” He developed intellectually under the influence of rationalism and positivism, but during his youth he wrote articles that clearly show his sympathy for socialism and his great concern for the situation in which he found Spain at the time.
The session is scheduled for October 23 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the release of ‘The Tragic Sense of Life in Men and Nations’ by Unamuno.
The keynote guests of the event will be Gholamhossein Ebrahimi Dinani, Pedro Viena, Bahaodin Khoramshahi and Najmeh Shobeiri.

Mirza Bedil Confab In New Delhi

An international conference on Persian-speaking Indian poet Mirza Abdul Qadir Bedil Dehlavi (1644-1721) was held at the National Islamic University in New Delhi.
The conference, which was attended by several Iranian, Tajik and Afghan scholars, was held from October 17-18.
During the conference, the head of the Persian Language Research Center Alireza Ghazveh made a short speech about Bedil, Mehr News Agency reported.
“It is an honor for the Persian language speakers to have such a poet in their geographical region”, he said.
Bedil not only is a Persian poet and philosopher, but also the best poet in the Indian poetry style,” he said.
Bedil is wise man who knows math, music, philosophy and other subjects, the Iranian cultural attaché Ali Fuladi mentioned during the event.
He also pointed to the impact of Bedil’s poetry on contemporary Iranian poets including Mohammadreza Shafiei-Kadkani, Seyyed Hassan Hosseini and Ali Moallem.
The spirituality in the poems of Bedil is derived from Iranian poet Molana Jalaleddin Rumi and other Muslim intellectuals, he said.
The head of the Cultural Center of the Islamic Republic of Iran in India Ali Dahgahi also talked about Bedil during the event.
“It is an honor that the ideas and thoughts of Bedil are known in the world and we are proud that these ideas are rendered in the Persian language,” he said.
Bedil Dehlavi was a famous Persian poet and Sufi born in Azimabad, present day Patna, India). He mainly wrote ghazals and quatrains in Persian and is the author of 16 books of poetry, which contain nearly 147,000 verses and include several from the Masnavi.
He is considered as one of the prominent poets of the Indian School of Poetry in Persian literature, and has his own unique style. His books include Telesm-e Hairat, Chahar Unsur and Ruqaat.
The event was held by the Persian Language Department of the National Islamic University, the Persian Language Research Center and Iran’s cultural attaché’s office in New Delhi.

Over 1,000 Book Titles Marketed

During the period of October 6-10, a total of 1,081 titles were released in Iran, most of them belonging to the field of practical science.
According to IBNA, religious books ranked second with 176 titles.
The other books belonged to the fields of children, literature and social science with 155, 136 and 119 titles, respectively.
Among the published books 896 titles were compilations and 185 were translations.

Armstrong Will Direct Cage in ‘Left Behind’

Legendary stunt coordinator and second unit director Vic Armstrong is making a very rare jump into the director’s chair for the rebooted ‘Left Behind’ movie.
Armstrong is in negotiations to direct Nicolas Cage, who is making a deal to star in what producers hope will be a new trilogy based on the mega-successful Christian-themed books written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, THR.com wrote.
Paul Lalonde, who was one of the producers of the original independently-made series that starred Kirk Cameron, is producing the action thriller with Michael Walker.
The movies were political thrillers that focused on the ‘End of Days’ and the ‘Rapture’.
Those beliefs are again the focal point of the new movie but the story will be more in the mold of a classic disaster movie.
The plot unfolds during the first few hours after the ‘Rapture’ and focuses on the survivors.
Producers are working with a budget in the $15 million range, and are aiming to being shooting the first movie spring 2013 in Baton Rouge.

Denver Museum Features Van Gogh Artworks

Becoming van Gogh, an in-depth exploration of Vincent van Gogh’s unconventional path to becoming one of the world’s most recognizable artists, is on view at the Denver Art Museum from October 21, through January 20, 2013.
The exhibition examines critical steps in the largely self-taught artist’s evolution through more than 70 paintings and drawings by van Gogh, along with works by artists he responded to, ArtDaily wrote.
Organized by the DAM and curated by Timothy J. Standring, Gates Foundation Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the DAM and Louis van Tilborgh, Senior Researcher of Paintings at Amsterdam’s van Gogh Museum, Becoming van Gogh brings together loans from more than 60 public and private collections from across Europe and North America to tell the story of a number of key formative periods throughout the artist’s career.
“This is a unique opportunity for our audience to discover how van Gogh arrived at his iconic style and gain new insights into his influences,” said Christoph Heinrich, Frederick and Jan Mayer Director of the DAM.
“We are thrilled to bring together an exhibition that will give visitors new insight into one of the world’s greatest artists.”
By focusing on the various stages of van Gogh’s artistic development, Becoming van Gogh illustrates the artist’s initial foray into mastering draftsmanship, understanding the limitations and challenges of materials and techniques, learning to incorporate color theory and folding a myriad of influences, including other artists, into his artistic vocabulary.
No other exhibition has focused so intensely on van Gogh’s personal growth and progression in his journey toward his own personal style.
Becoming van Gogh will take visitors on a journey through the artist’s stylistic development via his dramatic paintings and drawings.
Throughout each section, critical developments in his personal style are called out, illustrating how van Gogh’s well-known signature form developed.
The exhibition begins with a focus on how van Gogh imbued his early works with energy and verve as he strove to master drawing with graphite, ink and washes; how he begin to understand color with watercolor paintings; and how he began to test his skill with oils on canvas.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH):

Respect one who ruptured his relations with you.