Stonestreet Studios which instructs NYU film students found an unexpected way to end the school year. Instead of bringing in a famous actor or analyzing a classic film, they had their students watch, comment and then cut a video on an Iranian film ironically titled, "This is Not a Film."
The film is about Jafar Panahi, a well known Iranian filmmaker who in 2010 was convicted by an Iranian court of charges including "propaganda against the regime." He was sentenced to six years under house arrest and banned for making films for 20 years.
Despite the ban, Panahi wrote, directed and starred in a project while on house arrest. Part of the film was shot on a cell phone and smuggled out of the country inside a cake.
Iran 180 and Stonestreet Studios partnered to show a screening of the film to NYU students. Afterwards, Iran180 featured a panel discussion on Iranian film, culture, and struggles in creative expression.
"As Panahi himself so aptly says in the film, 'he's one of the 'luckier' political prisoners because he is an international figure and his case receives notable publicity; there are however hundreds of political prisoners throughout Iran who are in a sense, faceless and whose cases are nowhere near as publicized,'" says Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi a human rights activist and panelist at the event.
"Pahani though uses his position to speak out on their behalf. He is one of the strongest and most eloquent voices emanating from Iran, appealing to the free world for focus on and support for the plight of the people of Iran who have paid dearly in their fight for liberation from the extremist regime in Tehran," says Zand-Bonazzi.
You can see the NYU event here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7plymNiwNZI
twiiter: wsachs
