...and happy Iranian New Year to all!

Thanks so so very much to you, all my generous backers. That sure was intense ~ thanks for bearing with my constant email pleadings. A toast to your patience. I can't wait to really dive into the project and get it up off the ground. I would not have been able to do it any time soon without your support. Please stay tuned to your email regarding questions / info about your rewards. I'll be contacting each reward level one by one this coming week.

I'll try to keep updating this Kickstarter page with my progress on the project. But feel free to write me at peopleyouthinkyouknow@yahoo.com to join my email list ~ I will probably be more able to keep you up-to-date that way.

Here's one update for now: I'm going to be interviewed tomorrow (March 20) on the local Iranian radio station here in the LA area - KIRN 670AM - at 6PM (Pacific time). Tune in if you can (especially if you speak Persian!) and I'll do my best not to bore you! I'll be speaking about both my recent music video award as well as P.Y.T.Y.K. If you don't catch it, I'll try to somehow get a hold of it and post it on the site. Who knows, true to form I may even take a camera with me...

Once again, thank you all so much ~

As you may know, today was the first day of the Iranian new year (what a way to start it off!) ~ I hope you all have a wonderful year filled with wine and song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch...

(for some reason I keep getting errors when I try to upload this video, so there's a link to it on YouTube)

Cheers ~
Alborz

The Iranian New Year predates Islam by well over a millennium - if not more. But like most Persian culture it's stuck around and adapted to fit the mold of the times. Here's my cousin in Iran giving me a crash course in 2 1/2 millennia of history and politics...in under 1 minute - not to mention a brutal diagnosis of Iran's problems:

Hello again backers - there's been a slow stream of new pledges over the last few days. Thank you all immensely. Now what we need to do is turn that stream into a waterfall. So here's a little goal that might help:

PYTYK is 50% funded. If everyone who has funded thus far finds one kindred spirit to match their own pledge, we'll be set! So think hard about that one person who loves good documentaries, in-depth looks into history/politics/cultures and/or who loves me as much as you. Contact them and encourage them to match your pledge. Then feel free to ignore my subsequent emails :)

...unless you want to keep watching my little video countdown to New Years ~

***
When Iranians want to say they miss someone, they say "your place is empty." As in your place at the dinner table - or more broadly, your place in my life.

Here we go folks. Five days till Spring, till Iranian New Year and till the end of fundraising emails from yours truly. Only 5 days left and just over $2700 left to raise. Other projects on Kickstarter have raised over three times that in the final few days! So it's very possible ~ please help me get the word out to your friends and family. We're right down to the wire so please don't hesitate to help out in anyway you can!

There has been a lot of interest for the project lately: I've been approached for a mobile-distribution deal (more info on that in the future) - and have been getting generous fan-mail from people stumbling onto the project saying things like "I am really impressed with your premise for your project, and the diligence to which you are trying to put the intangible thing of a greater cultural meaning into both words and film. I have been looking for something like this for a while now!" (thanks Riis - and I hope you don't mind my blurbing you).

Also, the music video I posted a few updates back received 3rd Prize at the Farhang Foundation Film Festival. The contest was to create a music video that somehow showcased Iranian heritage. I accepted the award yesterday at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art where I also helped generate more interest for P.Y.T.Y.K. (by, along with other things, being interviewed by Voice Of America).

Now, here is a video of my (characteristically facetious) acceptance speech - luckily, everyone seemed to get a kick out of it (it's preceded by a clip from the music video):