OFFSIDEDirector: Jafar Panahi, Country: Iran, Release: 2006, Runtime: 93 min.
Norma Rae meets Bend It Like Beckham?
Girls like soccer, whether it is kids in the U.S. following in Mia Hamm's shadow or girls in Iran hoping their team makes it to the World Cup. In Iran, however, there is the added thrill, or difficulty, for the girls since they aren't allowed into sports stadiums for fear they will hear men cursing. Several other lame reasons are given about why it women are banned from the event but the essential tension is created - how will they get in and what happens to those caught. Dressed as boys, several girls get part way into the stadium only to be caught and held just outside of viewing the pitch. Their frustration and that of the young soldiers charged with watching them is palpable and funny. When one soldier fashions a mask from a face poster of a player for one of the girls to wear when walking to the bathroom, no one could hold in the laughter at the comedic results. I remember the thrill of trying to sneak into clubs before I was of legal age. These girls are just as sneaky, but more daring. Some of them look so much like young boys one wonders how the guards caught them .. and how many are sitting in the stands unnoticed.
Refreshingly straightforward, the film simply explores the absurdity of some of the Iranian policies towards women. Perhaps the lighthearted and honest approach with Offside was too easy to relate to and understand unlike Panahi's more symbolic and abstruse film White Balloon. The former has been censored in Iran. What would they do with footage of the Women's World Cup team's shirt-waving victory in 1999? Grab a niece, sister, or mom who doesn't mind reading subtitles and enjoy Offside to make up for the lost rial at the Persian box office.
preceded by
FOURTEEN
Director: Nicole Barnette, USA, 2005, 7 min.
"A young woman and her family prepare to celebrate a milestone."
This film starts off softly, with beautiful shots of gifts tied with bows, a woman preparing a cake, and early morning preparations for the celebration. Slowly we see something is not right, - the downward, sad look of the mother, a glance at a reflective quote on the wall. The audience slowly figures out what is happening and a gasp is heard under the collective breath. Superb short film with a decidedly feminine and disturbing touch.
4 comments:
I hit the link for "sneak into clubs" because I couldn't control my curiousity as to where such a link might lead. Was it a link for old St Mary's Street haunt of our youth? Some mall-club? Some new and very trendy manhattan club? Some article about the epidemic of sneaking into clubs? I have not been to a "nightclub" in decades. My curiousity was piqued.
So then I get there. I cannot, in any circumstance, put Mels and the Lawrence Kansas Journal together. How does that happen? Do you actually read the Lawrence Kansas Journal? Did you do Grad School there? What's the connection?
Well, it would have been a great thing to link to clubs we used to sneak into. Unfortunately I couldn't rmember or find listings for any of the hot spots - Changes, the beachy places on St. Mary's St., that place on the Riverwalk - began with a B??? So I just added some goofy quotes from folks about crashing clubs.
I do remember all the colored markers and getting my two best friends into places without cover charge or ID by drawing the hand-stamp on them. Unfortunately they would have difficulties drawing on my hand and one memory is of them asking one very high guy coming out of the club to draw the stamps - a Hardy's star - on my hand. Needless to say it didn't work and I got kicked out. Fun memories though!
Hey --
My star drawing wasn't that bad! (Or did it just look good through my drunken eyes?)
I'm enjoying your blog, but find myself wondering -- when do you work?
-mdk
ps...Are you thinking of the Bonham Exchange?
The Bonham! Of course! And I totally knew it was you leaving the comment m. I don't recall if it was the drunk/high guy who drew the star, you, or d after he botched it so bad. Either way, you and d got in fine but I got blocked! And I tried to rush in so they wouldn't really bother looking too hard at my hand but they followed me in and I think noticed that I was heading your way. I believe you and d got kicked out later, or you decided to not leave me in the parking lot alone too long. Ah, what great friends I had in high school! I miss ya! And wasn't there a club called Changes and one called Bones? My brain cells aren't what they used to be. Oh! And I sooooo remember d freaking out when a bee got trapped in the car! Oh the fun memories.
I think you had the better memory, though - even remembering my first boyfriend from Catholic - John, I think? He always sent flowers - so nice. Looked like a young Randy Travis. So sad that I had to go to summer classes at UTSA to find a date from an all boy's school. R.E.L. was not the best place for me and my social ineptitude.
Since I'm a single gal who has given up dating, it is easy to find time to write. Work is fantastic! That pulls me in from 9ish to 6ish, then I go to something - film, dinner with friends, theater. I get home and avoid cleaning or unpacking (still have boxes in my living room post-move) and write a bit. I sort of like it until I re-read something I posted and notice I have spelling or grammar errors in it. I hate proofing anything I write and pay the price for it later.
Hope to get to Texas soon and see you, C and Z.
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