Mehdi Yarmohammadi’s Speech at the Sahar Manchester Festival

Mehdi Yarmohammadi — founder and secretary of the Khorshid Independent Film Festival, director of the Independent Short Film Support Platform, and jury member of the previous edition of the Sahar International Festival in Manchester — who had recently been invited to the third edition of the festival in England to speak about the future of cinema, published the text of his speech as follows:
On “The Future of Cinema”
Since its birth, cinema has lived through a turbulent and eventful journey. From entertainment to travel storytelling, from creating fantasy worlds to documenting the lives of different peoples; from industry to art, and from celluloid to digital.
Today, however, after many years, cinema has reached maturity. It has stepped beyond the borders of storytelling and realism into the world of video art and experimental expression — a world belonging to thinkers and visionaries who no longer see cinema merely as entertainment or spectacle, but as a powerful medium for redefining the fundamental concepts of this century and presenting the theories needed by people in today’s world.
And this is the maturity of cinema.
Cinema has arrived at an important station: the station of experimental cinema — a place where, in my belief, it will live through some of its most significant years.
In truth, experimental cinema, as the primary path of influential and culture-shaping filmmaking — encompassing all its artistic and intellectual dimensions — functions as a kind of think tank in today’s world. A think tank for expressing the ideas, thoughts, and perspectives of intellectuals who wish to make the world a better place through creative expression and personal understanding, which is undoubtedly an essential part of anthropology itself.
A civilization based on redefining concepts that were once called “fundamental values,” but whose true understanding has now become one of the greatest challenges of modern humanity.
Humanity, trapped in a crisis of identity, searches for new and contemporary meanings. Close-ups, framing styles, and forms such as tragedy, fantasy, comedy, and others have courageously blurred the boundaries between philosophy, psychology, anthropology, physics, music, painting, graphic arts, performance, and cinema itself — all to breathe new life into human studies through the medium of cinema.
Today, experimental cinema is moving toward auteur art: a multidimensional art form whose creator is a thoughtful artist seeking to present a theory to the world, either through a unique subject or through a fresh perspective on an existing issue.
And the future of cinema belongs to these thoughtful artists — those who, with exceptional intelligence, carefully chosen subjects, and singular perspectives, become pioneers of modern anthropology.
The cinema of the future awaits thinkers who will come and, through their deeply personal cinema, artistically shape the world into a more beautiful and hopeful place for future generations — drawing from their studies, explorations, research, understanding, and unique life experiences.
I would like to end my speech briefly, in the form of a poetic message addressed to filmmakers around the world:
«“Dear filmmaker, I speak to you from Earth…This is where I live…
Today’s world is a world of war, competition, and endless cries of ‘I am better than you.’A world obsessed with superiority, ruled by people who are not truly superior at all.I know this well…
I also know that you have taken refuge beneath the bright, star-filled sky of your dreams… but…
I want to invite you back to Earth…Beside the people who still drink water, still breathe, and still miss you…Those who still smile in response to the small smile born inside your films…Those who still remember spring because of the scent of flowers in your cinema…
Hello… welcome back to Earth…
This is the place that you and I must build hand in hand…
Here, people search for traces of hope and beauty in our films…
Look… where have you hidden your beautiful dreams within your films?
Rise, and turn your eyes toward spring, so the spring wind may wash the sorrow from them…
Create your most beautiful dreams.Perhaps Earth itself will become beautiful in the mirror of your dreams…And be certain that, in return for such beauty, the sky itself will come down as a guest to Earth…
Cinema is waiting for you to arrive with your most beautiful dreams…”
With respect to all filmmakers around the world,
Mehdi Yarmohammadi»