>> From the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. >> Mary-Jane Deeb: Thank you for coming. I'm Mary-Jane Deeb, Chief of the African and Middle Eastern Division and I'm delighted to welcome you in our reading room for what promises to be a very exciting film. We're going into children's books today. But before we go any further, and I do this for all our programs, I say something about our division. We're a division that's made up of three sections: the African, the Near East, and the Hebraic sections. We cover -- We're responsible for the collections from 78 different countries in their vernacular that is in the languages of those countries. We collect in all fields except for clinical medicine because there is a national library of medicine. We don't collect also in the technical aspects of agriculture because we have a library of agriculture. But with few exceptions, we collect in every field, from every direction, every way. And our reading rooms are places where readers come to be served. They sit and we bring them the books that they can use to do their research. But this division, like the others and like the Library of Congress in general, is not just a place where books are put on shelves, where we just buy them and hoard them, so to speak. We want to share them and to share more than simply the books. We want to share also the knowledge of the cultures, the societies, and the people who produce those books, to share their ideas, to share their culture, their values, their art, and their contribution to world civilization. And so we invite speakers, we invite filmmakers, we invite poets, we invite historians, social scientists who have done research, some of whom have used our collections, some who have used other collections, to come and talk about the books, the research, the people of these societies. We do exhibits as well. And relevant to these exhibits is the Persian Book Exhibit that we had a couple of years ago. And that was a remarkable exhibit, the first of its kind. It was called A Thousand Years of the Persian Book. And we had the Persian book specialist here, Hirad Dinavari, who contributed in the selection of the books. We have Fatemeh Keshavarz from the University of Maryland who brought in her knowledge and her knowhow to help with putting this exhibit together. We had many parts of the library that came together from the digital part of the library, to preservation, to the exhibit part, all came together. Over ten divisions in this library contributed to putting together this exhibit on the Persian book. But the exhibit is also part of the type of thing that we do that is sharing with the world the civilization, the culture of the societies that we represent. So the exhibit was then followed by a lecture series, a series with experts who came and in collaboration with the University of Maryland under Fatemeh Keshavarz's guidance, we brought in a number of speakers and had, well it went up to what, 14 presentations over the period of six months that talked about the Persian book. So we had the exhibit and then we also had the series of talks. And it was so successful that we decided we really should continue with this series of books and with the series on Persian civilization, culture, history, and the production of books. And so we did. So last year we had a number of speakers who spoke about Persian philosophy. And this year we're also doing arts, literature, films. So the program you're going to be seeing today is part of that series. I will not go into it because we have Fatemeh here who will describe this program, but it is a continuation of what started with the Persian Book Exhibit and in partnership with the University of Maryland. So I'm really excited. I haven't seen the film. We have the son of the children's books writer Mr. Yamini Sharif who is here with his family. I would like to recognize them all here because it's exciting [applause] to have not only a film, the producer of the film, and the family and the descendents of those of that family who has worked on those children's books. And now without further ado, I'd like to introduce Professor Fatemeh Keshavarz who will be addressing and talking about the program. Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Fatemeh Keshavarz: Thank you so much, Mary-Jane. It's been a pleasure and honor really with working with friends here at the Library of Congress, Hirad, Mary-Jane, and others who have been giving us this wonderful opportunity to bring moments from the Persian culture and literature and art to a much bigger public. I remember we were taking numbers down and saw that in the first series we had over 700 people coming to this room to listen to those things. So that's just wonderful. And we are going on with this and we're going to have the focus on film and performance, so we will have this year many other experts to be talking about literature, Persian literature as it comes to life either on stage or through illustrations and visual beauty that represents the art and the culture. Again, I'm not going to say a whole lot about the film because you're going to see it. Let me just say we've been trying to do this for over a year and I'm absolutely delighted that we finally are able to do this. And let me just tell you that as I grew up in Iran, just seeing even before I could really read properly, when I saw the name Yamini Sharif, I knew that a beautiful poem, a beautiful song was coming because my parents would read it to me. Later on, of course, in school, we had it. We had it all. So for me, he was the representation of a kind of art and beauty that was accessible to me, but at the same time was really at the highest level. So he had this ability to bring this complicated and complex art of poetry writing to children which is tremendous. He did a lot more. The film is going to talk about establishing a school, doing his own childhood education, establishing the first magazine, but I'm not going to duplicate that information. But it's tremendously happy occasion for us to have Mr. Homan Yamini Sharif and family here with us. And what a wonderful thing that he produced, even though his own training, I shouldn't maybe say "even though," his own training is in engineering, but like many other people coming from engineering or medical backgrounds, he has a tremendous interest in Persian art. And obviously he grew up in a household in which this poetry was celebrated. So what a wonderful thing that he produced children's songwriter, this documentary that we are going to see and we are going to also from now on make it available to our Persian classes, to be able to actually learn about him. So Mr. Yamini Sharif, Homan Yamini Sharif, established a children's book, I'm sorry, the Yamini Sharif Foundation, which works with the Children's Book Council of Iran, so it's a very interconnected, interdisciplinary enterprise in which still the interest in education of the children is at the forefront of their ideas. So without further ado, I'm going to welcome them. And I don't know if you're saying anything about the film beforehand, but I know you're discussing it afterwards, but it's really entirely up to you. [ Inaudible Audience Comment ] Okay, so Mr. Homan Yamini Sharif, please welcome him to the podium. Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Homan Yamini Sharif: Thank you very much for coming here today to watch this documentary together. I'd like to thank the people that made this possible, this event, which is really an honor for us to be here in the Library of Congress. Dr. Keshavarz from Roshan Institute, University of Maryland, and Dr. [inaudible] who from last year followed up and supported us in making this possible. I'd like to thank the Library of Congress, Mrs. Mary-Jane and Mr. Hirad Dinavari that very warmly supported and received the suggestion so that we can have this. I will very briefly talk a little bit about how we came out to make this documentary. The documentary itself goes through the history and how this, my father was interested and how the children literature was developed in Iran, which my father played a very major role in that. But to make it short, I, as a child, was very fond of my father. So I used to listen to him a lot and he would tell me about his childhood and his interests and very difficult childhood that he had and you'll see in the film. And I learned a lot about his life and his education and how he came to become interested in children's literature and got involved in writing and magazines and so on. At the same time I was also a subject of what he was doing. I was audience as well because I was right at the age that he was writing for. So when the Kayhan Bacheha, which everybody knows here, when it came out, started, my father started with another of his colleagues, I started reading that. I read the first textbook that was written by my father as a national textbook for the first graders. So I read that and so on until I read it -- So I became very familiar with the poetry in his works and how he developed and all the chronology of it as well. Then as I grew up and I went to high school and I realized that his fame is just growing in Iran and everybody knew him, which was kind of natural to me, but then after I came to United States as a student, went back, worked there, and I saw that this has become a more than normal. He had -- Because of generation that read the textbooks and went to school that he established with my mother and all the books and different things and magazines, so and that became very interesting for me because that there was somebody that started from even not zero, negative, as you will see in this film, with no support, not only no support but all the hurdles that you can think of in front of somebody, going back about 80 years ago in Iran when children were really not even counted as human beings. They were just in a transition period, a waiting period to grow up. That's all it was, to grow up and just take some burden off the shoulders of the parents. So it was very interesting that that person, without any support, could come and become somebody who could really play this major role in the children's literature and became very famous. So that by itself was very interesting. And Iran is a difficult environment for the people that they don't have any support. So you have somebody that can come up with this very interesting story, that's why I thought I would like to make that documentary and then we thought about it. The environment in Iran at that time was not -- But recently, because documentaries are very popular, it became easier to make it. So and at the same time, Children's Book Council of Iran a few years ago had a tribute to my father and that also was very interesting. From that tribute came a major article in Iranian newspaper [inaudible] and the person who wrote that article was the person who later on became the director of the film, Mr. Hooman Zarif. And he actually called me a few years after we had that tribute and now I'm thinking for years to make this documentary. He called me and said, "I want to make a documentary about your father." And I said. "That's pretty good." And he wanted me to support. I said, "Well, you have full support but what do you know about documentary, you're a journalist?" He said he just made a documentary about another person who was known to Iran, Hossein Gol-e-Golab, and who was a lyric and composer and he has made that famous national anthem of Iran, the people, [inaudible]. So I went to Iran. We looked at it and he said that was possible. The time was good to make it and it was pretty much the last window we had because all the characters that you see in this film, the major characters in the Book Council of Iran, Children's Book Council, they were at the age that they probably could not do it anymore. You will see [inaudible], Parviz Kalantari, which is a famous illustrator, book illustrator in Iran. He is now in coma and still lives for over a year, except a couple of other characters, they just passed away. My mother is not in state to participate. So that's all. It was very opportune time and we managed to make this film and well we hope you enjoy it as much as I did in producing it. Thanks so much. [ Applause ] >> Hirad Dinavari: A quick book essentially notes for the end. We have little surveys on your chairs. Feel free to fill them out after the film. We would love to hear your opinion and know what you think about the movie. I'm about to start the film. After the movie, we will have a few minutes for questions from Homan, which I'm very grateful for him and his family for coming all the way from California for this. And at that point we look forward answering to any questions you may have for him. Let's start the film. Thank you. I would like to everyone for staying. I know it's a little -- [ Applause ] Thank you. I realize it's a little over an hour but the film was worth it. I am so grateful to Mr. Homan Yamini Sharif for being here and their lovely family for coming all the way from California. Our film crew has another event to film at 2 o'clock. So we really don't have that much time. But I would like to give a few minutes for questions for Homan, if you would come up here, and take a few questions. We really need to wrap it up within three to four minutes. Thank you. Any questions, feel free to get up and ask. >> This question [inaudible]. It would seem to me that the foundation has been laid for international children's literature. I'm overwhelmed. I'm so very, very moved by what I've seen and learned, and yet I can feel that it's this universal [inaudible], it's all of the children everywhere. >> Homan Yamini Sharif: Exactly. Well, I think there are two probably periods in our life that this [inaudible] really becomes meaningful as a child and then at the end of life, that wholeness comes back to us. So it is pretty much the same concept and same stories here as probably has been in one way or another has been repeated in other nations and they came of people from different period of time when children were not really paid attention to and they started writing and bringing a new world to children. >> Hirad Dinavari: Any other questions? No? All right. >> Can you just tell us how long it took to put the film together? >> Homan Yamini Sharif: Well, it took about two years and the reason it took this long was it had to be done during the trips to Iran and getting all these people together and finding time for them, the different conditions they were enduring took some time. Also, it was difficult to edit and I had to be present for the edition, because for the chronology and all different relative subjects had to be taken care of. We also we wanted to do more filming but the conditions in Iran were in such a way that if you wanted to film, you know, in public places, you had to go through certain getting permission and all that and we did not really have the time to do it and so we had to come with different creativity to do this. >> I have a question. >> Go ahead. >> Just a brief one. When you are filming, you are talking, you're in a beautiful environment outside with the trees and then it rains, where was it [inaudible]? >> Homan Yamini Sharif: It was a house that was -- Ironically, it was very interesting, the [inaudible] in Iran, the television, radio and television, approached us when they heard that we are filming this and they wanted to get the license to make the film. But because they would make it the way they wanted, I said, "Well, let me make it and then if you like it, then we'll, you can use that." But they helped us and said, "How can we help you?" It was very interesting to have that cooperation. And one of the things they did is they have different contracts with different places. When they want to film, they can go there. They said, "What do you need?" I said, "We'd like to be in an environment which looks like my father's childhood." So they arranged this. This is a village north of Tehran, in [inaudible] area. So we went there and we did the film. >> So my question is for the footage for the film, all the photographs and items, did you get most of it from inside Iran or did you look elsewhere as well and how much archives are there from people you interviewed that they gave you or sharing their [inaudible] with you? >> Homan Yamini Sharif: The archives, all the documents and other film, pictures and reviews and all that came from our own archives. My father had a very good archive while he was alive collecting different books and magazine, literature and his own books and we preserved that and we kept it and we collected as much as we could. So we have archives in the Foundation and we used this. >> That's wonderful. >> And who is illustrator? Did you father paint or your sister? >> Homan Yamini Sharif: The illustrator that talked in the film was Parviz Kalantari. Parviz Kalantari is a well known illustrator for children's books and he was also a close friend of my father and illustrated several books for him. He has won several international awards for his work. And as I mentioned, it's one of the unfortunate things that happened that he had a illness that took him to coma and he's still in coma in Iran. >> Hirad Dinavari: Okay, thank you very much, everyone. Thanks -- >> Homan Yamini Sharif: Thank you very much for coming. Thank you. [ Applause ] >> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress. Visit us at loc.gov.