Abbas Kiarostami
The College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) has named independent filmmaker and celebrated director Abbas Kiarostami as its 2014 Sandra Kahn Alpert Visiting Artist.
Kiarostami will be at Syracuse University Jan. 27-Feb. 7 to conduct a workshop with VPA students. He will also present a series of screenings and lectures at various venues on and off campus. The schedule will be announced in the coming weeks.
Kiarostami is the most influential and controversial post-revolutionary Iranian filmmaker and one of the most highly celebrated directors in the international film community of the last decade. He holds a degree in fine arts and has worked extensively as a screenwriter, film editor, art director and producer. He is also a poet, photographer, painter, illustrator and graphic designer. In 1969, he helped create a filmmaking department at the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults in Iran.
Kiarostami has made more than 20 films, including fiction features, educational shorts, feature-length documentaries and a series of films for television. He was awarded the prestigious Palme d’Or (Golden Palm) at the Cannes International Film Festival in 1997 for his film “Taste of Cherry.” He has directed two films outside of Iran: “Certified Copy” (2010) starring Juliette Binoche, who received the Best Actress Award at the film’s premiere in Cannes, and most recently, the Japanese language film “Like Someone in Love” (2012), set in Tokyo.
Owen Shapiro, Shaffer Professor of Film in VPA’s Department of Transmedia, is coordinating Kiarostami’s residency and workshop. Contact Shapiro at ojshapir@syr.edu with any questions about Kiarostami.
The Sandra Kahn Alpert Visiting Artist Endowed Fund was established by Alpert, a 1945 alumna of VPA, and her husband, Clement Alpert, to bring leading artists and designers to campus for the purpose of engaging in direct interaction with art and design students and faculty.
