When Asghar Farhadi won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, he did not pick up his statue in person. But he was in L.A. last year following our election and he spoke with us about his movie, "The Salesman," and then-President elect Trump; R&B producer and musician Raphael Saadiq has branched out to scoring movies and TV shows.
How Raphael Saadiq is quietly keeping R&B on film, TV and the radio
“Cranes In The Sky” by Solange Knowles recently won a Grammy for Best R&B Performance. It was produced by R&B guru Raphael Saadiq.
He’s had an accomplished career that started as a teenager when he landed a gig playing with no less than Prince and Sheila E.
Later he formed his own group, Tony! Toni! Toné! From there, he went on to release four solo albums and produce records for R&B heavy-hitters such as D’Angelo, Whitney Houston, John Legend, Miguel and Solange. But lately, he’s taking on a new challenge — composing for film and television.
Together with frequent collaborator, composer Laura Karpman, he scored the film, “Black Nativity,” and the documentary, “Step.” The latter film is about a girls dance team in Baltimore that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year.
When Saadiq isn't producing records or composing scores, he’s contributing music to TV shows like “Insecure,” “Underground” and “Luke Cage.”
So you get the point, right? This man’s musical fingerprints are everywhere.
Interview Highlights:
On working with Sheila E and Prince:
Sheila was the pilot and Prince was the one signing the checks. I played with Sheila but, on tour, with Prince a lot. Also Lionel Ritchie. Those were the two tours I was on. It was very educational to be around both of those people at the peak of their careers. From Prince [I learned] to be clever and that hard work pays off. He [was] a hard worker — 15 hours a day, sometimes, rehearsing the band.
On producing for Solange's "Seat At The Table":
You don’t have to shape Solange. Solange shapes Solange. And I like that. She’ll pull something out of you that you wouldn’t do for somebody else. As a producer I like for artists to challenge me. I've gotten a chance to work with people who come to me to challenge me, to see their vision and add mine to it.
On working with Laura Karpman on "Step":
We watched it and thought it was great — the girls in it were really captivating. The girls really reminded me of some of the young ladies I grew up with in Oakland. So I felt like I knew these characters. The producer and director were really paying attention to these girls' lives and we thought it was necessary to be a part of it.
Going back to that thing I was talking about with Prince — you have to stay in a room every day and be really focused to make it come together, to make people want to watch it. I didn't get a chance to get to Sundance. I was working. But from what I heard, they did a great job there also. That's from a lot of practicing and a lot of rehearsal and having passion for what you do. That's how it touched me because I was watching it so much. When I was scoring it I was looking at the steps. Are everybody's feet hitting the ground at the same time? Is everybody clapping at the same time? Are they getting frustrated? You can't quit like playing golf. You can't just throw your clubs. You can never throw your clubs. You gotta stay in there even if you're hacking it up.
On the way music reflects an artist's experiences:
Music can shape you in many ways. I know firsthand. I've lost three brothers and a sister. My sister was hit by a car. A guy was running from a cop and the cop chased the kid into my sister's car. She got permanent brain damage and we had to unplug her from the machine — actually, when I was recording that song, "It Never Rains In Southern California." So I still had to go back and make that record and I never really talked about it until years later. The only reason I spoke about it at that point was just to show people [that] you don't have to be mad and put it in your records. Now, if you look back, you can feel me in these records. You can feel how it shaped me. You can hear the soul, you can hear the gut. You come see me at a show and you can feel all that stuff that I carry.
‘Salesman’ filmmaker sees similarities between Americans and Iranians
When the Iranian movie “The Salesman” won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film Sunday night, filmmaker Asghar Farhadi was not there to accept it in person. Instead he sent a message that the Iranian scientist and entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari gave on his behalf.
"I'm sorry I'm not with you tonight. My absence is out of respect for the people of my country and those of other six nations whom have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the US."
He skipped the Academy Awards in solidarity with the people of Iran and the residents of other majority-muslim countries who were barred by President Trump’s order from coming to the United States.
Late last year Farhadi spoke to The Frame when he was in Los Angeles to promote "The Salesman." It was in the days immediately following the election of Donald Trump but well before his travel ban was put in place.
At the time The Frame's John Horn sat down with Farhadi to discuss the movie, the Iranian film industry, and the similarities between Americans and Iranians. Horn asked Farhadi if he had any particular message for then-President-elect Donald Trump. This is what he said:
The most important thing that I can say is human beings of different colors, races, religions are far more similar to each other than they are different. And that it would behoove him to focus on their similarities.
Farhadi's filmmaking is imbued with empathy, so it's not surprising that he'd encourage Donald Trump – or anyone for that matter – to find similarities among our differences.
The main characters in “The Salesman” are actors in a theater troupe that’s putting on a production of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman." At one point, a woman named Rana is assaulted by an intruder. It’s not shown what happens or who did it. The rest of the film is an effort by Rana and her husband to not only restore some normalcy to their lives but also his attempt to track down her attacker. Along the way, the movie explores cultural ideas about gender and sexuality.
Farhadi speaks English but is much more conversant in Farsi. His answers have been translated by Dorna Khazeni.
Click the play button at the top of the page to hear the conversation. Highlights are below.
Interview Highlights:
On the presence of American culture in Iran:
The people of Iran have a great deal of information about the people of America, as opposed to the people of America, who know very little about the people of Iran. I had to spend a few hours at the airport in Tehran [recently] and I was watching people at the airport. And I realized that they were all intently watching all the TV monitors and they were all looking at their mobiles, following the election news from America. This is actually a very positive curiosity, to want to know one another. But not through the media. In Iran, Arthur Miller is extremely well-known. Other American writers and playwrights are extremely well-known, as are American filmmakers. Maybe one reason for this is, since the politicians are warring with each other, the people have — on the contrary — tried to find a way of approaching each other.
On the power of film to change Americans' views of Iranians:
What has occurred — the phenomenon — is that the picture they have of Iran has to do with Iranian politics, and they impose that on the notion of the people of Iran. But these are two very different images. The people are utterly different. It is my belief that each film has the capacity to show a small section of the society in which it's made to the rest of the world. Of course, this is a relative picture of that society. But with a number of films, you can arrive at a multidimensional, fuller picture of that society.
On working around the Iranian government censorship of films:
A certain number of commercial films get made that are just for pure entertainment. They rarely have problems. There are a number of independent films that are made, as well. Some of them meet with some difficulties. This is a challenge between the filmmakers, vis-a-vis the system, to make the film that they have in mind in spite of the limitations. These very limitations have resulted in the filmmakers developing a very unique language over the years that stands out compared to films made elsewhere. Just by way of example, in [my] film, I could not have shown the scene with Rana in the shower and the man entering. But, unconsciously, by virtue of not being able to show that scene, it turned into my discovering a new film language. This is not meant as approbation of the limitations. In the long-term, limitations are always going to destroy creativity. But we can't deny that it has also led to some original filmmaking.
On how audiences in Iran and the U.S. are similar:
What’s really interesting is that the feedback I’ve received from audiences in Iran and in America are extremely similar, but they don’t resemble the feedback I’ve received from audiences in Europe. This is something I could have guessed might happen, because in emotional terms these two peoples resemble each other enormously. In Europe when they see this film they watch it as an audience, but in Iran and in America when they see this film they can see themselves in the film. I’ve always said that where these two cultures are concerned on the emotional plain, their similarities are far greater than their differences.
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