A shoeless Buddy Hatton filming inside nomad tent in Iran

California filmmakers Buddy Hatton and Larry Won, shooting a new travel film in Iran, spent Christmas at an Anglican church in Shiraz, the so-called poetic capital in the southwest of that Muslim country.

Another pro team of travel filmmakers, Clint and Sue Denn, were also shooting at Christmastime—in Europe and not the Middle East. We will have their story when they return.

Buddy reported that besides a Christmas tree and lights around the altar, they did see two stores selling Christmas decorations.

“People are the most hospitable we’ve ever met on our filmic journeys,” Buddy said. “Filming people in the park having picnics brought several invitations to join them for tea. We had to accept the invitations it in order to film them.”

“In mosques, stores and galleries, invitations to tea were also offered, and with no obligations to buy anything.”

The filmmakers said no liquor was sold but they did see alcoholic-free beer that comes in several fruit flavors “that make it taste like soda pop.”

The Shrine of Shah Cheragh in Shiraz

Besides its connections to two famous poets—Saadi and Hafiz—Shiraz is also known as the city of gardens, nightingales, flowers and wine. The world’s oldest wine—7,000 years old— was discovered in clay jars outside the city. Today, the smooth, fruity red Shiraz wine is probably better known to Americans than the city. And that wine definitely is not from Iran.

Shiraz, with a population over 1 million, is the third largest city in Iran and is believed to be at least 4,000 years old.

The filmmakers described some of the area’s ruins, dating from 1500 BC, “as quite breathtaking.”

They also messaged they are pleased with one of their new cameras, the small, unobtrusive Sony HDR-SR11—that shoots in full 1920×1080 high definition and can record on its hard drive or a memory stick. It’s also Carl Zeiss lens-equipped.

The pair planned to edit on the fly using their laptop.