Festival Boycott in Iran

The festival was established in 2007 by the Iranian "Documentary & Experimental Film Centre" under the provisional title "Cinema Vérité". In 2008 the festival presented extensive national and international competitions, devoted retrospectives to Richard Leacock and Jorgen Leth and ran a special programme on Polish documentary films. Despite various restrictions, the festival still managed to critically reflect on the everyday reality in Iran and to initiate a debate on civil injustice in Iran. With the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this important cinematic work now seems impossible.

Against this background, 142 Iranian film-makers have called for solidarity through a boycott of the festival:
"Cinema Verite is an important festival and has managed in its previous 2 years to invoke an atmosphere of debate and reflection, which is essential to documentary film-making. Unfortunately, in recent weeks extreme restrictions have been placed on our documentary filmmakers wanting to capture what is occurring in our turbulent society. We can see so many films that potentially could have been made these days, but we are not allowed to make them. Therefore, due to our commitment and respect for the truth and the reality, we have come to the decision to not take part in the forthcoming festival, either as documentary filmmakers, critics or viewers."