14 - Friday, May 21, 1999 - North Shore News Breaking through frontiers of thought @ The films of Dariush Mehrjui at the Pacific Cinematheque, 1131 Howe St., May 23 - June 9. “The army guards the frontiers of the country, the Ministry guards the frontiers of thought.” — Ministry of Art and Culture (MCA) Tran, 1964. (cwwwnimas.com/IranMedia/Melrjui Lhtm[>) John Goodman This Week Editor pohang@nsnews.com MASTER filmmaker Dariush Mehrjui is a man of extremes. His work centres on issues crucial to con- temporary Iranian society yet his conceptual frame- work is significantly influenced by Western culture. Born in 1940 to a middle-class Muslim family he became interested in European art as a teenager. Mehojui enrolled in the film program at UCLA in the carly '60s, but was disappointed by the Hollywood-centred curriculum and switched his major to philosophy. He returned to Tehran where he worked as a jour- nalist and scriptwriter before making his first film in 1966 Diamond 33 — a James Bond spoof. Mehrjui has the distinction of having had his films banned in both the Pahlavi era and after the 1979 revolution deposed the Shah. The Cow (1969), one of the first films to receive govern- ment funding, was banned by MCA after its release. After a pro- logue established the story took place in the past domestic distri- bution was allowed. A version was smuggled out of Iran in 1971 and received awards at Venice and Chicago film festivals. After Ayatollah Khomeini rose to power artists were forced to stick to a strict Islamic code and the government oversaw all steps of film production. Mehrjui, unwilling to work under these conditions, moved his family to Paris in the early "80s. They returned to Tehran in 1985 where the filmmaker continues to make his thought-provoking cinema. Mchrjui’s interest in Western art brings into play names not usually associated with Iranian culrure — the still-banned Bazoo (1992) is an adaptation of Luis Bunuel’s Viddiana, and he has lasekel Michae! Becker News Editor michael@nsnews.com WHEN it gets right down to the nitty-gritty, you’re never as hip as you think you are. South African trumpeter and composer Hugh Masckela is about as cool as they come. Fed up with the abuses of the apartheid regime in South Africa, Johannesburg-born Masekela went into self-imposed exile in the U.S. with the help of Harry Belafonte in 1961. In 1968 Masekela scored a number one hit with Grazing in the Grass. He’s been married to “Mama Africa” Miriam Makeba, herself once mar- tied to Black Panther leader Stokely Carmichael. Despite ANC censure, Masekela and Makeba performed with Paul Simon on the Graceland tour. Masekela’s 1987 hit Bring Him Back Home became the anthem for Nelson Mandcla’s world tour after he was released from prison in 1992. Masekela met his moment of humbling revela- tion while on stage in Nigeria one night in 1973, AFRO-SOUL-JAZZ expo- nent Hugh Masekela. ffs with friend and fellow musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Kuti, a musician, band-leader, composer and Nigerian politi- cian, died in 1997 from compli- cations due to AIDS. In their distinctive ways, Masekela and Kuti are responsible for some of the most potent blending of African rhythms and jazz lines. Masekela was in Vancouver on Wednesday for a show at Richard’s On Richards with North Vancouver-based Alpha Yaya Diallo. Asong on Black To The Future, Masckela’s most recent dise and available on the Shanachie label in North America, pays stylistic tribute to Kuti. The cune’s title — JJC/]]D — gives a cryptic nod to Masckela’s epiphany regarding the coolness factor. Explained Masekela, “JJC means Johnny Just Come. It means a new arrival, somebody thar just got here yesterday. JJID means Johnny Just Dropped. He just got off the airplane. It’s a West African, Nigerian pidgin English. “The joke actually is thar Fela was a dear friend. When I first went to Nigeria as his guest es also made films based on Rimbaud, Ibsen and J.D. Salinger. . Miners §= spite this body of work Mehrjui is the least well-known in the Photo from Dartush PMehrjut's Leila 1997 LEILA Hatami stars in the title rele of Dariush Mehrjui's 1997 film Leila, set for screenings June 4 and 7. frip with his band in 1973, ] couldn’t stop playing. It just felt so good. His band was just fantastic. His place was packed. He introduced me, *This is Hugh Masckela, this is my friend.’ People applauded and he said, ‘He is JJC.” And everybody went *}JC! and I didn't know what it meant. “LT kept bowing and said, ‘Thank you, thank you very much.’ And he said ‘JJD! And they said "Yeah? And I said, ‘Thank you, thank you.’ “I played a few more songs and every time I played they went ‘JJC! And J went, ‘Thank you, thank you.’ There was a girl I was going our with that night in Nigeria later and she said, ‘Hugh I really respect you, but I didn’t realize you were so dumb.” “I said, ‘Why?’ She said, ‘A friend calls you JJC, JJD in front of all those 5,000 people and you say, ‘Thank you, thank you.’ I said, ‘What does it mean?’ She told me and I went back to Fela and said, ‘You bastard. How could you say JyD2 . “He said, ‘Hugh i just wanted to show you that when you are in a new place, never mind how hip you are: there are some things that are going to make you look square until you learn the place.”” Ar 60, Masekela is back in South Africa. He still tours extensively. Black To The Future reveals the very hip *Afro-Soul” man in fine form. See Mehrjui Page 18 Playing in L.A. Better, stronger, faster. Shaun Conlin Contributing Writer LOS ANGELES: Stealing thunder from Sega and their heavily hyped home video game console known as the Dreamcast, scheduled for North American release September 9, 1999, Nintendo announced at E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo) plans to release their next gaming system late in the year 2000. . Promising heated com- petition with Sony’s recently affirmed sequel console the Playstation 2 (working dde), Nintendo’s new Dolphin See DVD-ROM Page 27 CINEMAS:16 HOCKEY OPERA:18 BOOKS:22 SUMMER CONCERTS:24