For many Americans, knowledge of Iran today is limited to the daily drumbeat of news stories about the threat of their nuclear program and the occasional inflammatory rhetoric of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
For an older generation, mention of the country brings back memories of a stern Ayatollah Khomeini, blindfolded American hostages, and money being funneled secretly to Central America. But what do we really know about the people and culture of this country of almost 70 million people?
In the coming months, Link TV will bridge this information gap by presenting a series of special programs designed take you inside Iran: to meet its people, to share in its culture - to get to know this vast, multicultural land from the inside out. Every week, we'll bring you at least one documentary, short, or feature film that will enhance your understanding of Iran.
Bridge to Iran is supported in part by the Ploughshares Fund.
Bridge to Iran programs:
For air times and a video preview click here.
Directed by Maziar Bahari, 2002, 53 minutes
Between July 2000 and July 2001, 16 women were murdered in the Iranian
holy city of Mashhad – almost all of whom had previously been arrested
for prostitution and drug-related crimes. The man arrested said he had
committed the murders because of religious conviction. Director Maziar Bahari
talks with the victims' families, other prostitutes and the murderer
himself.
For air times and a video preview click here.
A look at the work of four important directors as they rise to the challenges of creating artful and thought provoking movies within the constraints of Iran's rigid theocracy.
For air times and more information click here.
Directed by Persheng Sadegh-Vaziri, 2007, 22 minutes
In this Link TV original production, Iranian-American filmmaker Persheng Sadegh-Vaziri visits Tehran on the anniversary of the 1979 Iranian revolution. She talks with a group of Iranians demonstrating for the right to use nuclear power; Sadegh-Vaziri also films an informal conversation of young writers and students discussing their views on the threat of U.S. military action.
For air times and more information click here.
Directed by Kambozia Partovi, 2004, 1 hour 45 minutes
This complex portrait of gender roles in modern Iran follows Reyhan, a
young mother with two children, who longs to re-open her late spouse's
café on the Iranian/Turkish border. She feels pressure from her conservative
brother-in-law Nasser, who longs to take Reyhan as his second wife as
permitted by custom.
For air times and a video preview click here.
Directed by Nezam Manoucheri , 2006, 56 minutes
A naïve young Iranian-American travels to Iran to discover his father's homeland, a journey that takes him all around the country - from the teeming capital of Tehran, to the center of Ancient Persia in Esfahan, and finally to the home of his ancestors: Iran's holiest city, Mashhad.
For air times and a video preview click here.
Directed by Negin Kianfar and Daisy Mohr, 2006, 1 hour 12 minutes
The Birthday follows a young man in Iran in the period right before and after transsexual surgery. Remarkably, because the Koran doesn’t say anything on the subject, trans-sexuality isn't forbidden in Iran and transsexuals don't have to fear prosecution. Still, why would this person choose the veiled life of a woman in Iran?
For air times and a video preview click here.
In this portrait of village life and ceremony, women on the Iranian island of Qeshm speak openly, from behind their burkas, to share their problems about life and the role of women on the island.
