The Fourth Feast at the Center for Planners and Assistant Directors Is Held

The fourth feast at the Center for Planners and Assistant Directors was held on Monday, December 14 to honor George Hashemzadeh, Manizheh Hekmat, Anahid Abad and the late Mahdi Nourbakhsh.
Mohammad Mahdi Asgarpour, managing director of the House of Cinema delivered a speech in which he explained that he would prefer to talk about subjects related to the guild. “Tonight we are hosting members of a guild that has found its true form and deserves praise,” Asgarpour said. “As a representative of the guilds I wish to congratulate you on this praiseworthy trend.”
Pointing out that guild formation, especially in the domain of culture and art, has a definite history, he said: “The formation of some of the guilds even dates to the time when the House of Cinema had not been established. But the special sector which had been trying to take control of the film industry, was summarized in the government sphere most of whose activities were not in harmony with the guilds and aimed at their own objectives. Thus the government institute acted in a way that was contrary to the interests of the guilds.”
Asgarpour remarked: “If guild formations were conceived of as a decorative feature, now it has turned into one of the society’s basic needs. Considering the present volume of productions, the needs and the factors ensuing from these needs there is no other solution but the formation of such guilds. Otherwise we would be facing financial abuses and under the circumstances it makes no difference whether the reigning administration is seriously seeking to establish justice or is making only a propaganda gesture.”
The managing director of the House of Cinema also remarked: “Many people consider guilds merely as a gathering of professionals. I don’t believe that is a big problem, but I believe that such gatherings are only the initial step and that eventually we can draw up a charter specifying our aims. A government manager may consider a group of executives as their generals. But these executives will be changed with the change in the managers’ position and such changes will entail many difficulties.”
Asgarpour concluded by criticizing the policies of television in the sphere of film making and said, “One way of describing the two types of management in television and in cinema would be to consider them as fast food shops and restaurants. But in the past years they have both turned into a single mode of management.”
The other programs at the ceremony included paying tributes to George Hashemzadeh, Manizheh Hekmat, Anahid Abad and the late Mahdi Nourbakhsh.

Ahmad Reza Darvish’s remark in praise of Anahid Abad:
Assistant director’s job is a well-defined and independent profession.
Anahid Abad made a short speech upon receipt of her Diploma of Honor and the prize. “It makes no difference whether I have made just ten films or a hundred. If I find out that I am needed in a film project for just one day I cooperate with all my heart because I derive a special pleasure in my job. It is extremely gratifying to feel that one is helping to realize the ideas and dreams of an artist.”
Ahmad Reza Darvish, who had walked to the platform scene to present Anahid Abad’s gift, said:  “I feel that the prize presentation should have been done by dear friends such as Bahram Beizai, Alireza Davoudnezhad or Varuzh Karim Masihi.”
 He continued by expressing his pleasure at being in a gathering of assistant directors, and said: “I am extremely glad to see tonight a group of filmmakers gathered here after a long time in a spontaneous and friendly gesture and as members of one guild. At a time when silence has turned into a mode of communication and visits among friends has become rare it is a joy to see many old friends and meet new ones.”
He continued by saying that, “I am always asked what it means to do planning. Recently I have thought of a metaphor for the situation. If we were to liken filmmaking to a medical operation in which the surgeon for whatever reason can not continue to operate, then it is up to the assistant director to tend to the patient and plan for the continuation of the operation.”
Darvish pointed out that: “A planning assistant, like any other professional in the cinema, may at times engage in directing films, writing scripts, acting in the film or in any other job in the filmmaking. All the same I am convinced that assistant director’s job is a precise and independent work and that is why there is a guild for this group of the film crew.”

Reza Kianian’s remarks in Praise of the late Nourbakhsh:
“We all know why Mahdi has departed.
In another part of the ceremony Reza Kianian walked to the platform scene and after presenting the gifts to Mahdi Nourbakhsh’s wife, said: “I and Nourbakhsh and other people like Bahram Badakhshani entered the film scene almost simultaneously, and now after the passage of many years one could say that we have gained experience and matured and could be of use to the film profession. And it is sad that Mahdi Nourbakhsh has departed at such a time and thus cinema has been deprived of his experience.”
“We all know why Mahdi departed, and that the cause was the great pressure to which he was subjected,” Kianian continued.
Kianian further remarked: “Mahdi Nourbakhsh was an assistant director who never brought any one to the film set without good reasons. Nowadays, many assistant directors drag actors to the set when there is no need for them. It is one of the duties of the assistant director to call actors to the set when they are really needed.”
The renowned actor concluded by saying: “We will always cherish the memory of Mahdi, although he is no longer among us. In the past it also happened that we could not see one another for long periods. We could say that our group has been augmented in the hereafter and eventually we will see him again.”
In the continuation of the ceremony Homayoun As’adian paid tribute to George Hashemzadeh, who received his gift and then expressed the hope that all his friends in the guild would receive similar tributes.
The fourth tribute ceremony of the center for Planners and Assistant Directors, which was convened after an hour of delay, was attended by large numbers of members of the guild, as well as artists such as Maziar Miri, Morteza Razzaq Karimi, Homayoun As’adian.
It is worth mentioning that Manizheh Hekmat, who had gone on a business trip, could not attend the ceremony and her daughter Pegah Ahangarani received her mother’s gift.