Issue 6 | April 2011 | “Revolutions In Progress” Special

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Editorial by Bradley Tuck

“To put it in a nutshell: we have to be bold enough to have an idea. A great idea. We have to convince ourselves that there is nothing ridiculous or criminal about an idea”

Alain Badiou

“He is sentenced to six years for wanting to make a film. A film he hasn’t even made. Six years in prison on an idea for a film.”

Rafi Pitts, talking about Jafar Panahi

Ideas are great and powerful things. A great idea can have far reaching effects. In December 2010, Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi was imprisoned for 6 years and banned from making films for the next twenty, simply for having an idea. Panihi certainly isn’t afraid to defend great ideas in the face of danger (a risk he took in his film The Circle which challenged Iran’s treatment of women). He stands as one of the great testaments for filmmakers who aspire to ideas. The charge of “assembly and colluding with the intention to commit crimes against the country’s national security and propaganda against the Islamic Republic” is clearly an attempt to suppress ideas and Panihi knows it. In his final statement before being sentenced he declared:

“You are putting on trial not just me, but Iranian social, humanist and artistic cinema – a cinema in which there is no absolutely good or absolutely evil person, a cinema that is not in the service of power or wealth, a cinema that does not condone or condemn anyone … a cinema that is inspired by [addressing] social malaise and ultimately reaches out to humanity.”

This issue is dedicated to all those who take up the eternal struggle for great ideas, those who risk death and imprisonment to use cinema for the service of justice and equality. This issue is dedicated to a cinema that serves neither wealth, nor power; but a cinema against social malaise, that reaches out to humanity. This issue is dedicated to the eternal revolution.

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Just a Spoonful of Sugar… by Bradley Tucker

Another (Communist) Planet by James Marcus Tucker

Imperfect Cinema by Allister Gall & Dan Paolantonio

EXPLODING CINEMA by Daniel Fawcett

Revolutions in Progress: A Film Challenge by One+One Editors