An evening devoted to the 90th anniversary of Hasan Seyidbeyli, film director and People’s Artist of Azerbaijan

23.12.2010

Assembly hall
Time: 17:00
Organizer: State film fund

A film-evening devoted to the 90th anniversary of the film director Hasan Seyidbeyli took place on 22 December 2010, in the Assembly hall of the Museum Centre.
"Creativity is, first of all, toil, deep and interesting observation, sleepless nights, frequent remorse and little joy. Then again research and terrible torment – this is true creativity". The author of these words, the prominent Azerbaijan film director and screenwriter Hasan Seyidbeyli, devoted all his life to the Azerbaijani cinema and created unsurpassed masterpieces.
He was born on 22 December 1920 in Baku. From 1938-39 he studied in the sound technician faculty of the Leningrad Institute of Film Engineers. He began writing in 1942 and continued his education in 1943 at ASIC (the S. A. Gerasimov All-Russia State Institute of Cinematography) in the directing faculty (in the workshop run by S. Eisenstein and G. Kozintsev). Many of our cinema’s greatest achievements are connected with the name of Hasan Seyidbeyli. Documentary films were made from his scripts: ‘To the Native People’, ‘Under the Hot Sky’, ‘On the Distant Coast’ (with I. Gasimov), ‘Soviet Azerbaijan’ (1 series, with N. Yarova), ‘Perfection’; a short film ‘The Incident on the Road’ (with I. Gasimov); and the animation films ‘Tora and Zara’ and ‘Thanks, Friend’.
Hasan Seyidbeyli directed the first colour film "From Baku to Goy-gol". He also made film-sketches: ‘In the Gardens of Guba’, ‘In the Valley of the River Tartar’ (he was also co-author of the script) and ‘The Great Road’.
Hasan Seyidbeyli directed or co-wrote the scripts of a number of films: ‘The Telephone Girl’, ‘Nasimi’, ‘We Remember You, Teacher’ (‘Our Jabish Muellim’), ‘Find that Girl’. The film ‘Nasimi’ was awarded ‘Best Film’ at the VII All-Union festival held in Baku.
Seyidbeyli was chairman of the Union of Cinematographers of Azerbaijan from 1963 to 1980. This unforgettable and outstanding film director, Hasan Seyidbeyli, died on 25 June 1980, in Baku.