TEHRAN – Veteran Iranian film scholar Akbar Alemi died of COVID-19 on Tuesday morning. He was 75.

“Father left,” his son, Ardeshir, wrote in a post on his Instagram account. “He was not only my father, he was the father of several Iranian generations. His influence will remain for many years.”

Alemi was admitted to a hospital a few weeks ago after he tested positive for COVID-19.
 
Alemi was the dean of the Animation Department at Tehran’s Tarbiat Modares University.

He helped develop academic cinema during the years it was about to fade away in the country with his TV programs “Other Side of the Coin”, “Seventh Art” and “Beyond Cinema” during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Alemi was born in 1945 in Ahvaz, and was a graduate of cinema from the Dramatic Art College. He continued his studies in England and got his Ph.D. in cinema. 

He has written and translated many books and was active as a jury member of several Iranian and international film and animation festivals. 

He was also a member of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature.

Alemi was one of the pioneers of documentary making in the country and presented modern methods in the documentary genre. 

He had also written several books on photography.

Photo: Film expert Akbar Alemi in an undated photo. (ISNA/Hamid Amlashi)

RM/MMS/YAW