In Search of Cyrus the Great fundraiser

Saturday night was a big night that my cousin Cyrus Kar and my whole family had been anxiously anticipating for a long time. We are all big supporters of his documentary film In Search of Cyrus the Great, which chronicles the life and leadership of the Persian King, Cyrus the Great. The fundraiser, held at the Freud Theater at UCLA, included lectures by scholars Dr. David Stronach, Dr. Abbas Milani, Dr. Jennifer Rose, a dance performance by the Djanbazian dance troupe, amazing singers Sussan Deyhim and Dariush, stand up comedian Max Amini, ACLU legal director of Southern California Mark Rosenbaum and Miss Canada Nazanin Afshin-Jam who was a lovely mistress of ceremony.

It made me so happy to see all of these people volunteering their time and energy to support my cousin. Almost 400 people came to be a part of the benefit. He has sacrificed so much to tell the story of Cyrus the Great. Each of the speakers at the fundraiser were so certain that Cyrus Kar was the person who should be telling the story of Cyrus the Great through his documentary. Not just because of his passion about Persian history, but because he has been relentless about researching and finding out the truth and speaking to every professor, historian, and archaeologist to better understand and verify the story of Cyrus the Great.

Here is my cute cousin Cyrus Kar. When he was introduced and walked in, everyone in the theater stood up and gave him a standing ovation. It was very moving and I'm so glad he was appreciated in that way.

Here's my mom with Mark Rosenbaum and Dr. Abbas Milani. Mark is the attorney that spearheaded the effort to get Cyrus out of jail in Iraq. He's awesome, my family loves him and the whole group of ACLU attorneys and staff. Dr. Milani is a Stanford professor who's speech was really compelling. I wish I could have recorded it and included it in this blog.

These are some of the items that were up for silent auction.

These dolls are all handcrafted, each represents a different ethnic tribe that has existed in Iran.

Here is Anjelica and Uncle Amir in the top row and Ameh Shalah and Mamanjoon before the show started. I didn't get pictures of all of my family and our friends there. Sorry to everyone who I didn't post a picture of.

Here is my Aunty Zarin and Shashar.

My mom and her girls.

For more pictures and highlights, check Cyrus' website http://www.spentaproductions.com/ and he will surely post an update of the fundraiser soon. Right now he's busy finishing up his documentary since he's been busy with the fundraiser for the last couple of months.