The News of Month; July 2020

The Role of Art Center in Documentary and Oral History

Compiled by: Iranian Oral History Website
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2020-7-28


Note: According to the Iranian Oral History website, "The News of Month" is the title of a series of reports on this website. These reports take a look at news related to the subject of the website in written and cyber media. In the following, you will read the news about July 2020.

►Iran's Labor News Agency (ILNA) announced that the fifth meeting of Iran's Research Council of the National Archives and Library was held and Shahram Yousefi ‌, Professor of the History Department at the University of Tehran, was introduced as the editor-in-chief of the Oral History Quarterly.

► In an interview with Tasnim, Col. Amir Abbas Asmand, Director General of the Foundation for Preservation of Relics and Dissemination of the Values of the Sacred Defense of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province, stated that compiling the oral history of Sacred Defense's commanders have been started for some years by this center. He added: "one of the important needs and strategies for deepening and formulating the culture of Sacred Defense is to working on oral history."

► Colonel Hojjatollah Naserpour, Director General of the Foundation for the Preservation of Relics and Dissemination of the Values of the Sacred Defense of Lorestan Province, also stated at the meeting of the Sacred Defense Coordination Council in Poldakhtar that the oral history of Sacred Defense in Poldakhtar needs to be documented to preserve its investments.

►The Sacred Defense Documentation and Research Center, in continuation of its activities in the field of publishing oral history, has published a series of memoirs of general "Hassan Rastegarpanah". This book has been compiled by Reza Sadeghi in twelve chapters. The Iranian Oral History website has completely introduced the different sections of this book.

►"Reflection" is the title of Jamaran Oral History Program, which is recorded by Imam Khomeini Cultural Center in the presence of Jamaran[1] residents, bodyguards, and relatives of the Imam, non-political persons and his neighbors, and published in the form of a semi-long film and short reports in cyberspace. The latest part of this collection is dedicated to Hamid Reza Naghashian, Imam Khomeini's protection team and the collector of the Forqan group, and it was recorded on the anniversary of the event in 7th Tir (28th June 1981)[2].

► The gathering of authors of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad’s Sacred Defense oral history was held on the 24th of July in the meeting hall of the General Office for Preservation of Relics and Dissemination of the Values of the Sacred Defense.

►Seyyed Abbas Salehi in the farewell and introductive meeting of the director of Arts Center, which was held in Andisheh Hall, said: "Arts Center was one of the institutions that tried to express its indebtedness to those eight years of Sacred Defense. The role that the Art Center played in Iranian Documentary and oral history is very considerable. The Art Center was one of the fundamental parts of a social and historical documentary. We owe much of our oral history to the Art Center.

► The book "Like All Cedars", memoirs of  Seyyed Ismail Siadat from the Revolution and Sacred Defense compiled by Mohammad Reza Eslami and published by the General Office of Foundation for Preservation of Relics and Dissemination of the Values of the Sacred Defense of Semnan Province.

► Brigadier General Baghaei, the former commander of Air Force, during his visit to the Museum of Sacred Defense, stressed the need for accurate collection of documents of Sacred Defense and said:" In addition to compiling the oral history of the 8 years of the imposed war, the written history of the sacred defense must also be compiled."

►The documentary "For History", which was broadcast on channel "Ofogh Sima". The fifth part was dedicated to the cases related to the assassination of "Martyrs of the Altar". In these series, which can be considered as the oral history of the revolution, we witness conversations with the officials of the time in different periods about the subject under discussion. In the fifth part and according to the subject called "Martyrs of the Altar"; the assassination of four of these great martyrs is investigated.

►The documentary "Mask Coup" is also a narration of the planning for the operation "Mask Coup" and the factors of its failure that is done through a conversation with informed people and archival images. This documentary, directed by Mehdi Emami, was broadcast on the channel " Ofogh Sima" on Tuesday, July 7, at 6:00 PM.

►Seyyed Ali Paknejad, the governor of Kangan city, said in the meeting of the council for promoting the culture of self-sacrifice and martyrdom of this city: "The oral history of the sacred defense will be compiled in Kangan city."

► The book "From Qasrdasht to Qasrshirin" is the oral history of Colonel Aziz Gholi Nikpour, one of the warriors of the Sacred Defense era of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Provinces, written by Seyyed Ali Hosseini and has been published in 384 pages and 1100 copies with the support of the General Office of Foundation for Preservation of Relics and Dissemination of the Values of Sacred Defense.

► In an interview with Fars News Agency, Somayeh Zoghi, author of the book "Women's Liberation Day", said that one of our goals in compiling the oral history of women of the Revolution and sacred defense is to show that the Islamic Republic is not only opposed to women's activities in society, but in some cases, knows social activities as woman's duty; This means that they should not be indifferent to the problems of society and do what they can.

►Hossein Mostafapour, Director General of the Foundation for Preservation of Relics and Dissemination of the Values of the Sacred Defense of Gilan, announced at the meeting of the Coordination Council of the Foundation for the Preservation of Relics and Dissemination of the Values of the Sacred Defense that 50 books related to the teachings of Sacred Defense in the field of oral history are going to be published in the current year.

►The head of Quchan’s Islamic Culture and Guidance Department announced that Professor Mohammad Jabani, an oral history researcher, a writer from Quchan, passed away on July 18 at the age of 96 in Razavi Hospital in Mashhad. This researcher-writer was born in Quchan in 1928 and during his life, he wrote books for people of Quchan and the natural geography of Quchan such as "Quchan Culture", "Education in Golestan Saadi", "Khankhati", "What should we do with children deprived of their father's love?"

►The documentary series "Sarmashgh"[3] continues the process of collecting the oral history of political prisoners before the revolution in the garden of the Qasr Museum with the presence of Rezvaneh Dabbagh (son of Marzieh Dabbagh), Tahereh Sajjadi, Hamideh Nankoli, and Manzar Khair to review memories and events during the struggle and imprisonment in Qasr Prison especially in the field of chastity and hijab. This four-part documentary has been made available to the interested addressees virtually on the Aparat channel, Palace Museum.

► Reza Pourhossein, Senior Advisor to the Deputy Director of IRIB, said at the farewell and introduction meeting of the director of Documentary and Ofogh channel, noting that the production of documentaries with diverse content and revolutionary discourse has always been the concern of the director of the Documentary channel, He said: "as I am familiar with  Mr. Yazdi, the new director of the Documentary channel, it is, of course, concern for him as well, and my suggestion is that we should pay more attention to oral history in new works and do negative and positive things in this regard."

► The first meeting of the working group of the Khorramshahr People's Resistance Headquarters with the priority of oral history was held on July 20 in the meeting hall of martyr Jahanara, the General office of Foundation for Preservation of Relics and Dissemination of the Values of the Sacred Defense of Semnan Province. Sardar Abbas Yousefi, Director General of the Foundation for Preservation of Relics and Dissemination of the Values of the Sacred Defense of Khuzestan, said at the beginning of the meeting, which was attended by several veterans of the Sacred Defense of Khorramshahr: "The resistance of Khorramshahr’s people in the first days of the war, and even before that time, should be documented and published as soon as possible."

 


[1] The area where Imam Khomeini's house was located

[2]  A powerful bomb went off at the headquarters of Islamic Republic Party (IRP) in Tehran, while a meeting of party leaders was in progress. Seventy-three leading officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran were killed.

[3] Role Model



 
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