Saturday, April 1, 2000

Video Interviews and Lectures

2010 
The Night Journey with Bill Viola at Anderson Ranch Arts Center
I demonstrate "The Night Journey" video-game as part of a lecture by Bill Viola at Anderson Ranch Arts Center on August 11, 2010.

2013
My Lightning Talk for Incoming Cinematic Arts Students

2013
On Collaboration, San Jose State University, Game Club
  

2015
An Interview about the USC Libraries for the Scripters Awards






















2015
Iranian Diaspora & the Networked Age, USC Middle East Studies Conference 

2016
Trojan Stories, 15 year Milestone 

 
2016 
Guest Author, IRAN THROUGH BOOKS, L.A. Times Festival of Books




2022

"High-heeled shoes and hijab are both compulsory coverings."
Amir Payam,, BBC,
9 February 2022



Kurosh ValaNejad is not one to talk. The image is his language.

That's why it didn't matter if we recorded the interview in Farsi or English. About 10 minutes after the start of the recording, Alicia Afshar, the filming director, said that for ease of editing, it might be better to record all the interviews in English (such as the conversation with Bianca or Sahar and Tatiana). I asked Kurosh's opinion and he said that this mixture of Farsi and English is better because it is closer to his personality.

On the other hand, it was a paradox that we had to choose between the two. Why does it always have to be one or the other? Unless there is a spectrum between the two sides of anything. If a form doesn't fit our way of thinking, it must be "awkward", it is the underlying stone of all the discrimination that Kurosh experienced and of course reflected in his art.

This attempt to bring Kurosh "in our image" started from the spelling of his name, which we had written as Kourosh without asking, but he pointed out that the birth certificate spelling of his name is Kurosh.

Kurosh ValaNejad studied cinema and digital graphics. The smoothest language he knows is these two arts. Of course, the definition of cinema is different for him. It is not cinema to give a handful of dialogues to a few people to memorize and then repeat that salad of words from memory in front of a camera that is usually placed badly. Cinema and digital art for Kurosh is the expression of emotions with the language of images and only images. In this sense, he can be considered an impressionist who seeks to create "visual symphonies"

Originally in Persian language, translated to English by Google


Interview with Amir Payam, Host of Suitcase, BBC Persian, Season 5, Episode 6.