Saturday, April 12, 2008

Author/director of Persepolis speaks on art, Iran and humor

By Chad Jones

On Friday evening the DMA's Arts and Letters Live series presented a lecture by artist, author and director Marjane Satrapi, creator of the film, and book series, Persepolis at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Photo by why can't iPhones zoom in?

Marjane Satrapi in UTD's Conference Center building. The event marks possibly the first time an academy-award nominated animator was told "YOU ROCK!" by a lecture attendee and said animator responded by thrusting devil horns from behind her seat at podium.

"Lots of people refer to me by the term 'graphic novelist,'" Satrapi told the packed auditorium of faculty, students and fans of varying ages. "Me, I do not like this. This is something my publisher made up, and it is something for people to say so they do not feel dumb about reading a 'comic.'"

Both mediums of Persepolis portray, in a powerful and contrasting black and white, Satrapi's upbringing in Iran — a ten-year-old at the onset of the Iranian Revolution who later began her teens during the Iran-Iraq War in 1980-88 until her parents helped her flee to Vienna at the age of 14.

Satrapi described how her style of graphic nov—er, comic—er, her work—was inspired by widely-known works such as Maus: A Survivor's Tale, and she professed her goal is the same as all visual artists.

"I wanted to tell a universal story, and images are so universal. No matter what language you speak, if you see a crying face, you know it is crying."

Nominated for an Academy award last year, the film version of Persepolis (which ultimately lost out to Ratatouille, c'est la vie), relies on a steady stream of humor and irony, poignancy, despair and joy.

"And I knew I could only tell this story through humor," Satrapi said. "Not lightheartedness and not cynicism - but humor, which is the spark of life. I wanted to tell the story without falling into cynicism, which is so easy for me to do, for everyone to do."

"With this form of story-telling, the image becomes part of the narration. The drawer puts himself in the position of God."

Satrapi also recounted being from Iran and how, when living in Austria and France or encountering the average person, she would feel the need to justify where she was born.

"Back in 1984 we [Iran] were the world evil. Now we are only part of the Axis of Evil, so you can see we improve," she joked.

Satrapi said her work attempts to humanize the turbulent events of a country and a people still ill-regarded by most of the modern world. She was met with more laughter and a bit of whoo-ing with a follow-up point:

"Even in a democracy, the president and the government does not represent the people. I think Americans are quite aware of this lately."

After living in Austria, Satrapi returned to Iran to attended college and ultimately left again to live in France. She currently resides in Paris.

"Many people talk about culture clash, the clash of civilizations," Satrapi told the filled auditorium. "What does this mean? The world is not divided between cultures. The world is only divided between stupid fanatics and the rest of us."

"France will be my wife, but Iran will always be my mother. And sometimes your mother is loud and crazy and does things that embarrass and upset you, but I have only one mother."

Before rushing outside to smoke a cigarette prior to signing books, Satrapi discussed the somewhat-bumpy transition between the books and the film — mainly the difficulty of taking the solitary act of drawing and suddenly having to work with a staff of 100 other people.

"For the first six months I was praying God to kill all of them," she said. "And then of course at the end, I fell in love with them all, and we all had to leave. That's life."

The event was part of the Dallas Museum of Art's 2008 Arts and Letters Live series

Related stories

• New on DVD: In Bruges, 10,000 B.C., Definitely, Maybe, Honeydripper, Charlie Bartlett and Persepolis (June 24, 2008)
• Pegasus News Week in View: No VIPs at SOBs edition (April 17, 2008)

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