Actor Nora Armani on Socially Relevant Film Festival – SRFF

Fred Richani of TSC on mnn. We have right here via Zoom a very special guest. She is a well-respected actor filmmaker curator film festival organizer. She’s the woman behind the popular Socially Relevant film festival right here in new York city we’re talking to the great Nora Armani. Nora. Thank you so much for the time. How’s everything going? Thank you. Thank you so much, Fred. Thank you for inviting me to your show it sounds great it looks great behind you with the skyline and everything. Yeah, excited to be here. Thank you. Well, we’re happy to have you on and you talk about my backdrop. I see your backdrop.

Before we dive into your incredible career. I want to talk a little bit about the Socially Relevant film festival. That’s coming up in just a few weeks at the time we’re recording this. Can you tell anybody especially in the new York area why they should check it out virtually and in person? Yes. Yes. I am so excited that we are going back to the in-person festival this year. As you know, I mean this as you know or viewers might not know that this is our ninth annual edition of the festival. I started the Socially Relevant film festival nine years ago and at the time. It was like a tiny little endeavor.

We didn’t know where we were going and I am so happy to say that thanks to the filmmakers who trusted us with their films. Thanks to our sponsors and partners and a wonderful festival team for whom I am ever so thankful. We have been able to carry on and come this far the ninth edition is a hybrid edition of the festival in which we have some films, which are screening in person and others or actually most of the films are also screening online, but only after the in-person section wraps. We are opening at the lincoln center on march 16 with two amazing films. One of them is called their algeria.

It’s a documentary about a algerian couple who has moved to France in the 50s and then after 62 years of marriage. They decided to divorce and it’s amazing because the granddaughter of the couple wants to lena sualem whose film. This is investigates the reasons why and all the silence and why they did not talk about the history and the background and all that. So it’s a fascinating by autobiographical piece, but at the same time it reflects the algeria France situation and all that implies and a divorce basically, which is also the divorce of algeria from France and the second film on opening night is called the road to the lemon grove and it’s a comedy?

It’s a light-hearted Italian Canadian co-production the Canadian part is part of our special focus this year, which is called voices of Canada and it’s sponsored by the Canadian consulate general and telefilm Canada and we have a number of films that come into that, category into that selection and that’s at the lincoln center then on the 18th 19th and 20th, which is the weekend of that week. We moved downtown to the cinema village, which is one of the few remaining art houses in new York, as we all know and we follow the rest of the program with a number of short films documentaries and narrative features the entire program is on the festival website.

As people want to see that http://www.ratedsrfilms.org where you can find your heart’s content and come and see the shows have the concept come about to not just have a film festival one that is well Socially Relevant. Yeah. Well, the idea of the Socially Relevant film festival came to me because originally I was appalled by all the violence that is around us, not necessarily films that dwell upon violence because if you want if you don’t want to see violent films. You don’t go to see them. You have a choice, but I’m talking about big billboards and posters and all this violence that is all around us attacking us infringing on our privacy and we have no choice.

I’m not going to walk in the street with my eyes closed. It’s right there. So I that was something that really struck me and I felt we need to offer an alternative form of entertainment, but also I also talk about violent forms of storytelling violent forms of movie making in abrupt cuts loud music. Special effects that is like supposed to dazzle you or wow. You as opposed to just sitting down and telling me a story about human people human interests real lives real people. So that was basically the idea behind it and I’m happy to say that in the nine years that we have existed so far.

In the eighth previous editions. We have screened over 550 films from 39 countries and we have a selection of 64 new selections new films that are being offered to the this year between the in-person and the online section the online section kicks in on the 20th of march and extends until the end of that week the 27th that is incredible first of all much respect props to you and your crew for everything you do is fantastic that’s an insane number, but I gotta imagine when you first got into acting, when you first got into show business. Maybe at the top of your head. It wasn’t a I want to start a film festival and be a curator, you know, and deal with all this stress.

It’s rewarding, but it’s stressful as well. So, take me back in the day yo. How did this all kind of come about for you did you grow up in show business. Did you always want to be an actor. Do you see yourself on the behind the camera on the stage. How did it all come about for Nora? No, actually the putting together a film festival couldn’t have been the furthest away from my thoughts because I had been invited as an actor performer filmmaker myself to guest curate other film festivals back in the day. Like I’ve done a lot of film festivals I’ve even produced films one of my feature film productions as a co-producer.

I was living in France at the time as a French co-producer. It was a palestinian film haifa, which was a german French dutch and israeli co-production. So, it was like a bunch of things that were coming together. And I felt wow. This is amazing to be doing this and I knew what it takes to organize a film festival. So I was saying no, no, no, I don’t want to get into that and funnily enough like ten years nine years ago. I had to do it because a personal tragedy happened. My cousin and my uncle were victims of a terrible hate crime, in the middle East and to commemorate them.

I wanted to do something meaningful and the idea of this festival came about and then now I am. It’s my baby. It’s like, not only this is my baby all these filmmakers are my babies and I feel like I have a responsibility because we shine the spotlight on filmmakers whose voices would otherwise not be heard because they’re tackling difficult topics and it’s not terribly commercial in the big blockbuster sense of the word commercial. So, we have to give them that platform, but as you said I’m an actress first and foremost and I have had an international career touring with my self-penned or otherwise plays winning some awards.

I must say modesty aside and I’ve also done my fair share of television, whether in the United states or United kingdom or France and armenia, especially where I am also armenian and not from armenia, but from the diaspora. I was born in egypt and I also was starring I started an on egyptian television series. So it’s like a long journey, the actress always gets forgotten when I’m doing the film festival. So every now and then she comes up and say, hey, hello, I’m here don’t forget me. But I don’t forget because recently I did my one woman show on theater row in new York and I have been accepted again for the next edition of United solo theater festival which will be coming in the fall with a new show.

So the actors is not put to sleep yet. That’s amazing and much respect to you and you know, I’m so sorry you and your family you went through that. But I’ve interviewed a number of people who’ve gone through. You know, unfortunate tragedies and you know, during these tragic times, you know, they not only find a way to find strength and resilience, but they find a way to make a positive impact in other people’s lives and that’s kind of helped them in the healing process. Would you say that the Socially Relevant film festival has helped you in that healing process, not only being able to give back.

But to elevate so many people in the process? Absolutely, I believe in the strength and the power of art of storytelling of sharing and all that to come out of any sort of whether personal or social or national disaster or traumatic experience, it’s always by sharing the pain by share talking about it by identifying with others who have gone through that I remember one day. I was having this conversation with my father who also is very much concerned because we’re talking about his brother here and his niece and my uncle and my cousin and I said, I can’t believe what happened to us. And so on and I was like commiserating and he stopped me, right there.

And then and he said, no, no, no, no don’t think like that look around. You see how much misery there is in the world. How everybody is having their own fair share of tragedies of traumas of sad things that are happening and don’t think that we are singled out everyone has their Cross to Bear. So to speak, so don’t feel like that. And then suddenly it woke me up and I said, yes. He is right, you know, we need to talk about it, but I don’t want to talk about it because I want to gain the people’s sympathy and say, oh poor Nora. Look what happened to her.

No, but because I want people to know that they are not alone everybody who feels at some point in their lives that they are alone that only things are happening to them and part of the reason the strength behind this festival is that by talking about these human interest stories and about topics that sometimes even I’m not aware of and I learn every day as a learning experience we open and shine the spotlight on these people and suddenly we feel wow, wait a minute. I was thinking that the fact that my cat died was a terrible tragedy, but look at this some people right now as we speak are being bombed upon.

In the ukraine for example and two years ago the same thing happened in armenia. Not very many people talked about it, but that’s another story and it’s like misery is part of our human experience and we shouldn’t shy away from talking about it. I sincerely appreciate somebody who is Lebanese American you elevating, you know, so many middle Eastern voices and of course also you for you and your cause. I mean that armenian voices. I mean, it’s just it’s crazy to think about how much is going on that, you know, the news, you know doesn’t talk about specifically when it comes to Lebanese cinema and really, you know, middle Eastern cinema as a whole what kind of drew you to showcasing it more especially the last couple of years where to the point where you actually have a Lebanese cinema section.

That’s right last august we had a full set, we did unbroken it was called unbroken because everything broke with the explosion, but people’s spirits hopefully were still unbroken memory and identity in Lebanese cinema and we partnered on this series with the Lebanese American university in new York and together. We put together this series of films, which were already known some of them were very well known titles some of them were new. One of them for example was having its Lebanese. It’s new York premiere 1982 film, which is now doing wonderfully in international distribution. So we are happy to say that we were the new York premiere of that film and a bunch of other titles that were much better known like the ziad duary’s insult because they were films that had already been out for a while like the insult was an oscar contender.

In that year and a whole set of very well known Lebanese filmmakers who came to our call and showcase their films under this title this year as well. We have two films feature films both are documentaries actually of feature length. One of them is called beirut the aftermath and it is screening in person at cinema village on march 18 on Friday evening at the 8 p.m and the other one is called enough lebanon’s darkest hour this was not about the explosion, but it was being shot five years prior to that. And it has talks with many important personalities and political figures and everybody who are throwing the spotlight on the whole corruption situation and the political backdrop and everything that kind of led to what happened in the explosion and the unaccountability of it all.

So they are both very very powerful films. You can check them out on our website and we have a small animation film that is going to be screened also in person on the 18th, which talks about the explosion itself. It’s a five-year-old little girl who’s about to blow the candles from her birthday cake and then the explosion happens. And we know the rest. I mean it shows what happens to this little girl. So it’s very very poignant and like you say I mean there isn’t enough. Actually it’s wrong to say there isn’t enough being done in the United states visa he middle Eastern cinema because there isn’t being done enough in the United states vis-a-vis all other cinemas not just the middle Eastern cinema.

It’s very American cinema or is very much ethnocentric. It’s like very concentrated on Hollywood the blockbusters the big movies that make a lot of noise although I must say there are a lot of exceptions there are online services like indie pigs for example. Who is a partner of the festival there is the co-and media group with the quad cinema where we started nine years ago they have a fantastic collection of films a lot of european titles that get screened on a regular basis, but these couple of art houses that remain still in new York are rather the exception than the rule and hopefully we see more of them in the show in the near future.

Do you think your film festival and all these amazing filmmakers that you work with do you think you guys are all helping kind of shift the tide. I mean, the cinema is in a very weird spot now, right with COVID and everything else. And some people were only coming out, you know for blockbusters and of course, as you kind of noted there’s still like a lot of gatekeeping, you know in Hollywood. It’s very, you know, ethnocentric, but we see I think particularly with TV and streaming audiences are a lot more sophisticated like they want diverse voices. They want to hear different stories. I mean, hell for a period the number one show on Netflix was a you know a south korean drama and squid game.

So I mean, I feel like it’s shifting in the right direction, but somebody who’s in it. You know, almost really 24 7 do you feel like it’s going in the right direction? Yeah, I think you’re absolutely, right there because even Netflix I mean, look at Netflix there are all sorts of different countries different subtitled lots of subtitled material where it was really rare before to see subtitled film the American public was not accustomed to reading subtitles and watching a film that is speaking in a non language. Other than English, but now there is an abundance of these series on Netflix which indicates that there is definitely a market for it.

And we are also starting an education section an education channel. So to say where we will be showcasing a select number of our films that represent a little bit more of an educational value even though technically speaking any film by definition has a certain level of educational value and I noticed that when I was over all these years as a curator as a festival artistic director. I have learned so much from all the films that have been presented to us because sometimes a documentary would come about a topic that I had no idea about and I would go? Oh my god, I didn’t know this?

And if the film is well made. I mean to say from the point of view of production values and the storytelling and it’s not dragging on and becoming repetitive or anything like that immediately it’s in because I want to share that newly gained knowledge with a whole host of other people and part of the idea behind the education channel will be that to make available all these titles that could be and I would must say that when we started the Socially Relevant film festival. X number of years ago actually nine years ago. There weren’t any other films like the one we are doing there were festivals that were focusing on one particular issue like the real abilities film festival, which has been around for a very long time with whom.

We have partnered at some point there is the real recovery film festival, which is about recovered alcoholics lgbtq films there are all sorts of festivals that focus on one particular niche or issue ours is open to everything and recent years have shown that other film festivals have come up. I don’t think it as a oh, they’re copying us or something like that on the contrary. I’m flattered that our example has set people in that direction there is the awareness film festival there is the social justice film festival there are film festivals that are kind of Socially Relevant film festivals, but under a different name. Well, they have to go under a different name because Socially Relevant is our trademark and unfortunately it’s ours.

They can’t use it, but it’s good to see that this is springing up like an echo or you know, there is a wave that’s coming on absolutely. I interviewed this one actor, I’m hal ozen who’s done, you know, blacklist the other series and you know, he had one point, you know, poignant lie excuse me where he said, you know, art is doing you a favor and it’s true. Especially when it’s you know, our showcase that, you know, at your film festival where again, it is more of the human interest you strip away a lot of the special effects something wrong with that, but just, you know, to have your just the true storytelling the real human connection, you know, from the screen to your seat.

I mean, it’s that it’s definitely touching for sure. Yeah, I mean, cinema is very powerful the visual element today everybody has stuck to a screen, you know, whether in front of you on your in your hand on television. We are constantly facing a screen and what do you put on that screen is what will shape generations to come. So the content is very very important. And it’s like that you feed something to a baby it grows up thinking. I mean, along those lines. So, it’s very important. How we set a Legacy. How we shape future generations instead of mindless things. You know, somebody was telling me the other day.

Your letters to the filmmakers are too detailed and too long and I’m good. You know, this is the tick tock generation, you have to be brief you have to just say something very quickly and I said, well unfortunately this is not the tick tock film festival. So when I do the tick tock film festival. I will be very very brief, but sometimes you need to describe explain and I like being in communication with the filmmakers because I do this having the filmmaker as the core as the center of it. And it is done by a filmmaker myself as well for filmmakers. And it’s a platform that I open up and up after that what they make out of it.

It’s also their business. So, it’s a it’s we play this game together with the filmmakers. And yeah, and as I was saying because I keep going back to the festival because we are so close date wise we’re opening on march 16 at the lincoln center’s ellen monroe film center and but the actress is coming up soon after that you just mentioned blacklist Redemption. I was on blacklist Redemption on one of the episodes happy to say. And I was on casualty the UK bbc based television series on a couple of episodes there egyptian television golden Boy these are the television things done a number of feature films.

As a lead actress, I must say. And lately I’ve been doing quite a number of auditions and keep fingers crossed that soon one of them will materialize into something I have a reading coming up next monday a Zoom reading and I also do a bunch of things as a director. I directed a Zoom play about immigrant women called I migrant woman translated from an Italian play by valentina akava and I casted five actresses to play the three roles. So it was double cast in some cases and eventually edited it together. And it became a short film, which made the festival rounds. A little bit even winning me an award as best female director of a short.

So I although all through Zoom exactly. So, I can’t complain. I can’t say that. Oh my god, the covet came. I was locked down, and we couldn’t do anything because we took the festival online the last couple of years. And I was able to do that play, which ended up with a film, which etc. So we like life gives you lemons why don’t you make lemonade Socially Relevant film festival. You can visit raided raidedsrfilms.org. That’s rated srfilms.org, you can also check out Nora Armani.net Nora. Thank you so much for your time. Before we go anywhere else. We could find you in addition to the Socially Relevant film festival anything else you’d like us to know about?

Yeah, well, maybe we the best thing to do is to subscribe to our YouTube channel because what we are going to the Socially Relevant film festivals YouTube channel I’m in to say because right now we are doing meet the filmmakers regular meetings with them. Every tuesday thursday and saturday these are also simultaneously broadcast on our Facebook page and after the festival. We are going to continue these broadcasts bringing industry partners talks with some of the filmmakers like more in-depth. And so on it will be like a year-round thing a meeting of sorts and it would be wonderful to have reactions from audience to see what else would they like to see and we’d be happy to collaborate and with you as well.

Fred, it will be fantastic to collaborate together and share some of this content I’d be happy to make it available to you absolutely. Would love that. We’ll definitely check it out and I’m definitely looking forward to checking out the Socially Relevant film festival beginning march 16th. Again, you can check it out at ratedsrfilms.org Nora. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much and looking forward to seeing you in person at our opening and thank you for having me on your show.