The Program of Tribute to Mohammad Tahaminezhad was held with Speeches by Varharam, Kalantari, Mir Tahmasb and Shirdel

On the occasion of the National Day of Research the specialized Site “Research and Documentary” started operation with a tribute ceremony for Mohammad Tahaminezhad.
During the ceremony, which was held at the auditorium of the House of Cinema on ….., Mojtaba Mir Tahmasb, director of the Society of Documentary Filmmakers said: “For a very long time I had been thinking of arranging a deserving tribute program for Tahaminezhad, and when  members of the site `and Documentary’ proposed it I accepted most heartily. And now at a time when it rarely occurs for people to have a joyful gathering I hope we will have a pleasant evening together.”
Parviz Kalantari, a the representative of members of the site “And Documentary”, delivered a speech in which he said: “The site aims at dealing with the analytic, educational and theoretical problems of the documentary cinema and I hope that with the continued efforts of interested people a mutual relationship will develop between the documentary film makers and members of the site, and the site will become daily more active.”
He also expressed his pleasure at the concurrence of the opening of the site and the tribute program for Mohammad Tahaminezhad.
Afterwards, Mohammad Reza Aslani, Farhad Varharam and Mohammad reza Farzad, as representatives of different generations of documentary film makers spoke about Mohammad Tahaminezhad.

Varharam: Without Tahaminezhad’s efforts our documentary cinema would now have no literary features.

Varharam’s text includes: “For about one century, from before the constitutional revolution up to the Islamic revolution, university centers or interested people have benefitted from the efforts of experts in science, literature and art. The works left behind by these experts were accomplished outside of the framework of university centers, research institute or government encyclopedias.
“Following the tradition of hard work as disciples, these great men have left behind valuable works which now serve as reference source for interested people.
“People like Allameh Qazvini, Malekolshoara Bahar, Kasravi, Moin, Forouzanfar, Pourdavoud, Mosaheb, Hedayat, Shamloo and many others created their works outside of the framework of university centers, research institute or government encyclopedias, and relied mainly on their own devices. They were in fact institutions and created edifices which are inseparable and essential elements of what has been left behind.
“As compared with the Western tradition according to which government and religious institutions or the aristocrats brought together a group of scientists and artists to work and create encyclopedias, the method followed by the above people may seem to be outdated and inefficient. But the point is that the Iranian historical, social and political structure never offered the opportunity for the gathering of a group of encyclopedists.
“Now  several decades after the creation of academic and research institutes and the publication of a variety of encyclopedias, the research notes left by Dehkhoda have not yet been finished, and we nothing about the research notes prepared by Dr. Seddiqi during a 50-year period, and still no institute has been able to produce anything comparable to the five centuries of history of Khuzestan and its unknown kings or a history of the constitutional movement.

“I believe Mohammad Tahaminezhad belongs to the same generation of hard-working, independent research workers and continued their mode of work. Scientific and academic centers have taken advantage of his researches without ever offering him any support. From his student years he was able to palnt a number of trees in the bare desert of Iran’s documentary research.
“Thaminezhad was not at all interested in obtaining university degrees. He could have had several doctoral degrees to his credits but he did not care for that. Many graduates of film making have benefitted from his researches in their dissertations.
“His last university degree was a B.A., but there is no doubt that without Tahaminezhad’s researches in cinema, especially documentary cinema, this sector of our cinema would have had no literature.”
Mohammad Reza Farzad also delivered a short speech in which he introduced Tahaminezhad as a reliable and the same time modest source for students and researches.

Kamran Shirdel: Tahaminezhad’s true worth and personality ahs not yet been understood
Later in the ceremony, Kamran Shirdel engaged in a telephone interview with Mohammad Tahaminezhad and the other participants and expressed his regret that he could not attend the ceremony because of ill health.
He wished Tahaminezhad good health and long life and said: “This tribute program should have been arranged much earlier and personally I believe that Tahaminezhad’s true worth and personality ahs not yet been understood.

Then Tahaminezhad read a short text to thank the participants. The text ran: “There have been many interpretations of a poster drawn with the use of photos of the shooting scene after a long day of tiring work in the dessert. One of the interpretations is that Tahami is at the center of the target. There are of course other interpretations. But really who has created memory up to the present time? What relation is there between today and yesterday? – the memory of today and this moment which has turned a society into a gathering of friends, and the memory of yesterday which variegated? I should of course thank Mojtaba Mir Tahmasb the director of the society and members of the board of directors who have created this moment for me to stand here and thus multiply my image in the mind of each one of you.
“Parviz Kalantari, Mahdi Ganji, Mrs. Hosseinzadeh, and Mehrpouya or Yousef, why did they start the movement? Reviving an image – any image – could be the subject of a research. But people who will speak at this session are brilliant and memorable figures in this country. These people, together with those who have sent texts from various parts of the world, edit a totality, very much like editing a film. They are all standing on the edge of this moment and are looking at the past.
“Mr. Ahmad Mir Ehsan called from the city of Lahijan about my written text and created in me such a strange feeling as if I could write something on the style of the passages project. Tomorrow is another day, but at this moment I am grateful to  my brother, my wife and children and all who have taken the trouble to be present here. Now I see that on the research day I am at the center of target in what others are saying. Thank you!”
The program continued with a roundtable on the “Atmosphere of Social Documentaries in the 80s”.
At the program of the start of the site  “And Documentary” which was coupled with a tribute program for Mohammad Tahaminezhad, artists such as Farhad Varharam, Morteza Razzaq Karimi, Mojtaba Mir Tahmasb, Parviz Kalantari, Mohammad Reza Aslani, Manucheher Moshiri, Rahbar Qanbari, Orod Atapour, Homayoun Emami, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, Mhavash Sheikholeslami and many others were present.
The program was also concurrent with Tahaminzhad’s birthday, and a cake was brought in to celebrate the occasion. Also during the ceremony a letter from one of Tahaminezhad’s old friends was read and a documentary film was screened.