PCC Events \u2013 May and June 2020<\/h4>\n
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak and for the safety and health of the Persian community, all of PCC\u2019s March, May, and June events\u2014including Jong, Poetry and Literature Night, and Movie Night\u2014were cancelled. The Docunight event was held online for the months of May and June.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/peykmagazine.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Nesa-moving-up.jpg\")
<\/h4>\nDocumentary Night \u2013 May 20, 2020<\/h4>\n
The documentaries Nesa<\/i> (2010) and Moving Up<\/i> (<\/b>2009), directed by Loghman Khaledi, were selected for the month of May. Nesa<\/i> is about a young girl who longs to be an actress and wants nothing more than to perform with a theater group. But, as a young woman from Kermanshah, she is expected to marry and have a \u201cnormal\u201d life. With a family that is desperate for her to capitulate and an oppressive and violent brother, Nesa\u2019s life is a struggle between her love and passion and her family. Moving Up<\/i> is about Shahriyar, a garbage collector and a passionate unpublished novelist. Shahriyar finds it impossible to conform to society\u2019s expectations; rather, he aspires to be Jack London or Dostoevsky. He writes imaginative stories to escape from his dull, prosaic\u00a0life in Kermanshah, a city in Iran\u2019s western region. But his wife, his family, his neighborhood, and all the people around him constantly conspire to hold him back from moving up. Moving Up<\/i> is a powerful, inspiring, and deeply affecting story of an outsider who wants to be an artist, seemingly impossible in the provincial town of Kermanshah.
\nA discussion session was held online, moderated by Mahmoud Pirouzian.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/peykmagazine.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Javan-square-265x375.jpg\")
<\/h4>\nDocunight Online- Sunday May 24, 2020<\/h4>\n
The world online premiere of Formerly Youth Square, <\/i><\/b>directed by Mina Akbari, was the first Docunight program held after several months. With the new format, people can go to the Docunight website, watch the movie at their convenience during the week, and then attend a Q & A session via Zoom.\u00a0 <\/span>Formerly Youth Square<\/i><\/b> is a documentary about a group of reporters who were forced to change their careers or move out of the country after the government shut down their newspapers. Akbari herself was one of these dedicated reporters who has become a documentarian. She meets with some of the reporters and editors, and attempts to reconstruct a memorable picture they took at the \u201cYouth Square,\u201d in front of the newspaper office with whomever was left of them. At the Zoom meeting, Ms. Akbari and two other reporters were present and directed a lively discussion.<\/p>\n The documentary Gracefully<\/i> (2019), directed by Arash Es\u2019haghi, was selected for the month of June. Gracefully<\/i> tells the story of an 80 year old man who was known in his youth for having danced at local ceremonies and celebrations dressed as a woman. Dancing publicly was banned after the revolution and he now lives as a farmer taking care of cows. This film captures one man\u2019s continued pursuit of happiness through dancing. Gracefully<\/i> has won many awards, including the director award at Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival in Japan. A live Q & A session with the director was held online on June 14.<\/p>\n Documentaries previously shown at Docunight events are now available to watch online at the docunight.com site.<\/p>\n We wanted to thank the PCC Youth Committee for volunteering their time to tutor others during the corona virus pandemic.\u00a0 <\/span>It was very helpful to students who did not have the same access to resources as they normal would. This goes to show how the members of the committee are eager to help and improve their community specially during times of need.<\/p>\n Thank to Armita Fazel, Melody Khoshneviszadeh, Donna Mahmoudi, Shakiba Mahmoudi and Melika Khoshneviszadeh for their efforts.<\/p>\n We live in a challenging time. The COVID -19 pandemic has not only affected our health and daily lives, but it\u00a0has also caused drastic financial hardship for most people and organizations like ours. Persian Cultural Center is your organization, and now, more than ever before, we need your support to help us navigate through this crisis and continue our services to the community.<\/p>\n As you know, we receive a large portion of our annual budget from government grants. However, due to the COVID -19 pandemic, the City of San Diego has announced that the arts and culture grants will be roughly cut in half. Also, because of the cancellation of our annual Nowruz Gala, which typically is the main fundraising event for PCC, not only we did not raise any funds, we suffered monetary damages due to cancellation penalties. These huge losses mean PCC is solely dependent on your support. There are several ways you can help:<\/p>\n We appreciate your support at any level. Hopefully, this crisis\u00a0will be over soon and we will go back to our regular gatherings such as Jong e Farhangi, Movie and Discussion Nights, Docunight, music concerts, art exhibitions, along with the celebration of Yalda, Mehregan, and Nowruz as well as cross-cultural events.\u00a0\u00a0Thank you sincerely for considering a\u00a0gift to the Persian Cultural Center to help us continue our important mission.<\/p>\n Respectfully, The Persian Cultural Center general assembly usually takes place on the third weekend of the month of May. This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic the meeting was postponed. We are planning to have the meeting and election on Sunday, September 20, 2020. If the situation permits at the time, the meeting will be held at the location of Iranian School of San Diego, otherwise there would be a virtual meeting and election online. The meeting agenda will consist of the annual report of activities of the past year, projection of the future activities and events for next year, and the election of several new board members who will be replacing the current members whose terms have expired. \u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n If you have been a member for the last year and are interested in running for the board, please contact us by sending an email to pcc@pccsd.org. If your membership has lapsed or you would like to become a member, this is the best time to do so and join us at our annual meeting. Please visit www.pccsd.org.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Thank you, PCC\u2019s Board Meetings Dear PCC Members, Persian Cultural Center\u2019s board of directors holds its meetings every second Wednesday of the month at the Iranian American Center (IAC). The last two meetings took place on May 13 and June 10, 2020. Due to the\u00a0 COVID-19 outbreak, the meetings were held online. PCC Events \u2013 May and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"two_page_speed":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pcc-news"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/peykmagazine.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Gracefully-doc-248x375.jpg\")
<\/h4>\nDocunight \u2013 June 14, 2020<\/h4>\n
PCC Youth Committee<\/h4>\n
Dear community member,<\/span><\/h3>\n
\n
\nBoard of Directors of the Persian Cultural Center<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/peykmagazine.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PCC-Brochure-IN-2019-1-515x189.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPersian Cultural Center<\/span>
\nAnnual Meeting and Election<\/span>
\nSunday, September 20, 2020<\/span><\/h3>\nPlease join us.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\nBoard of Directors of Persian Cultural Center<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"