Reza Kianian (Actor of cinema and television)

In a world where stress is present in undertaking many actions like doing cinema which is of course no exception, my recommendation to young filmmakers who have just decided to start filmmaking is just one sentence. A sentence that is ascribed to Imam Ali (AS) which says: “be yourself”. When you are yourself, too many strange things happens to you, because in this way you discover yourself. I think if a person wishes to be the only one, he must first discover himself. In other words, in the creation of every human, an infinite treasure has been placed in him that is certainly very different from other human’s treasure. When we go to use the gravels of others’ treasures, we end up being just like him. But if we look forward to discover the treasure that have been set for us when we were created, that has remained intact, and that we are the first to discover, we will no longer be in a disgraced position. In fact it is enjoying the destined share and benefit that God has set for us. Because it is God who have placed that and we use it, so we become unique. That is the same color or light that God loved to spread through His creatures, we will transmit it by discovering ourselves.

The important point is that a lot of people in artworks, at a period, are the eaters of others’ table; that is they try to make a film like others and do as they do. Undeniably one should learn the techniques from others, but we learn techniques to show and speak our own point of view. So we have to apprentice and learn the techniques, and do that with sincerity. But all through this period we should try to learn the techniques and speak ourselves, what I mean is not selfishness, egotism and self-interest, nor expressing oneself as a very important person. All people are important, but everyone must discover himself and discover his own particular look at the world.

In the world of filmmaking as well, a young filmmaker who has just started his job should always try to be involved in self-recognition through the process of his life. Because in my opinion no one is better than himself in recognizing his competencies and abilities and giving him prescriptions for his life.

Of course in this path, filmmakers should try to always consider ethics and self-purification. Something that possess a very minor place in the modern world and in our society, and the absence of this issue in our movies that enjoy a huge audience is felt ever more.

Perhaps the films that are made in current times, instead of developing moral messages and educational issues for their audience, try to deal with the surface layers of society and comic and melodramatic issues just thinking of the box office enormous revenues.

Yet still, in a time when raising ethical issues have been neglected in our cinema, organizations like Hozeh Honari have always tried to compensate for the inadequacies of other cultural institutions by paying particular attention to moral issues and values in the art society.

A clear example can be seen in the excellent film production of the last two decades or International 100-sec Film Festival and assigning a special section entitled as Cinema ethics.