1. Copresented by Asia Society and the Global Film Initiative
October/November 2009
All screenings at Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue at 70th Street, NYC
See discount code below!
Focusing on lives of women in contemporary Iran, this mini-film series presents portraits of strong women negotiating their space and freedom in a narrow world of strict social conventions.
For more information, visit Asia Society
Paley Docfest, NYC, NY
October 21, 6:30 PM
25 West 52 Street Map
Q and A with the filmmakers and Marjaneh Halati
Hand Of Fatima DVD cover
The Hand of Fatima is a feature-length documentary structured by two parallel journeys to the remote Moroccan village of Jajouka, where a hereditary band plays music older than history.
The first journey begins in the 1960s, when critic Robert Palmer uncovers “cryptic allusions” to Jajouka in the novels of William Burroughs. On assignment for Rolling Stone in 1971, Palmer finds the place where the musicians spend their days smoking kif, playing music, and “driving possessed tribesmen into mass Dionysian frenzies.”
About this documentary
The fringes of Iranian society can be a lonely place, especially if you are a teenage girl with few resources to fall back on. The Glass House follows four girls striving to pull themselves out of the margins by attending a one-of-kind rehabilitation center in uptown Tehran. Forget about the Iran that you’ve seen before.
With a virtually invisible camera, the girls of The Glass House take us on a never-before-seen tour of the underclass of Iran with their brave and defiant stories: Samira struggles to overcome forced drug addiction; Mitra harnesses abandonment into her creative writing; Sussan teeters on a dangerous ledge after years of sexual abuse; and Nazila burgeons out of her hatred with her blazing rap music. This groundbreaking documentary reflects a side of Iran few have access to or paid attention to: a society lost to its traditions with nothing meaningful to replace them and a group of courageous women working to instill a sense of empowerment and hope into the minds and lives of otherwise discarded teenage girls.
The director’s statement
Finally a timely documentary about Iranians in America. An intimate look at the lives of Iranians who came to the US to find peace and freedom, yet had to face many challenges before they could settle down into a new life.
For more information please go to: www.caughtbetweentwoworlds.com
Produced and directed byPERSHENG SADEGH-VAZIRI and SIMIN FARKHONDEH.
Edited by BAHMAN KIAROSTAMI.
