{"id":1092,"date":"2009-06-20T08:13:32","date_gmt":"2009-06-20T13:13:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/06\/20\/filmmakers-the-iranian-opposition\/"},"modified":"2021-06-10T10:07:42","modified_gmt":"2021-06-10T15:07:42","slug":"filmmakers-the-iranian-opposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/06\/20\/filmmakers-the-iranian-opposition\/","title":{"rendered":"filmmakers &amp; the Iranian opposition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oOH8Kiwp4Z0?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Two of the world&#8217;s best known Iranian artists, <a href=\"http:\/\/splashpage.mtv.com\/2009\/06\/18\/persepolis-creator-marjane-satrapi-decries-irans-election-results\/\">Marjane Satrapi,<\/a> author of the <a href=\"http:\/\/culturatti.com\/2006\/09\/22\/bringing-iran-to-the-west-marjane-satrapis-persepolis\/\">graphic novel Persepolis <\/a>and director of the Oscar-winning animated feature based on it, and leading filmmaker <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ifc.com\/blogs\/thedaily\/2009\/06\/iran-614.php\">Mohsen Makhmalbaf<\/a>, have been presenting apparent <a href=\"http:\/\/latimesblogs.latimes.com\/babylonbeyond\/2009\/06\/iran-.html\">&#8220;proof&#8221; at the European Parliament that Mousavi actually won the elections<\/a>. This comes in the form of an internal memo allegedly written by Iran&#8217;s Interior Minister documenting the actual results.<\/p>\n<p>The Independent&#8217;s Robert Fisk <a href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/opinion\/commentators\/fisk\/robert-fisk-secret-letter-proves-mousavi-won-poll-1707896.html\">raises some questions <\/a>about the letter&#8217;s authenticity, but acknowledges that &#8220;it divides the final vote between Mr Mousavi and Mr Karroubi in such a way that it would have forced a second run-off vote \u2013 scarcely something Mousavi&#8217;s camp would have wanted,&#8221; which helps lend it veracity. Unfortunately, he continues, &#8220;The letter may well join the thousands of documents, real and forged, that have shaped Iran&#8217;s recent history, the most memorable of which were the Irish passports upon which Messers Robert McFarlane and Oliver North travelled to Iran on behalf of the US government in 1986 to offer missiles for hostages.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This is one of those situations where it&#8217;s not clear whom to believe, because the economy of trustworthiness is nebulous and a little impenetrable. It reminds me of <a href=\"http:\/\/jdeanicite.typepad.com\/\">Jodi Dean<\/a>&#8216;s account of conspiracy cultures in the US, <a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=KO5RouhWyjEC&amp;dq=jodi+dean+alien&amp;source=gbs_navlinks_s\">Aliens in America<\/a>, in which the public-sphere ideal has been so eroded that we are left with an ineradicable &#8220;undecidability&#8221; about fundamental definitions of reality. My operating hunch, or leap of faith, here is that intellectuals and especially artists who have demonstrated accountability to a complex view of the world (that&#8217;s the key) can help weave our way through political confusion. This is a kind of &#8216;cultural ecology&#8217; argument where communicative\/cultural complexity &#8212; in the form of pluralism, dialogism, openness to the many-sidedness of perception, and recognition of the ultimate unknowability\/undecidability\/uncontainability\/inassimilability of things (that&#8217;s the Lacanian\/Derridean\/Buddhist piece) counts for something. My leap of faith, then, without knowing much about internal Iranian politics or culture, would be to follow artists like Makhmalbaf, Kiarostami, and others, and of course to mistrust systems that rely on police rule to crush resistance. Which makes me wonder: If an analogous situation erupted in the US or Canada, who would be the artists, writers, filmmakers, I would trust?<\/p>\n<p>More interesting Iran stuff can be found at <a href=\"http:\/\/iran101.blogspot.com\/\">iran101.blogspot.com <\/a> and in Columbia University&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hamiddabashi.com\/election-june-2009-a.html\">Hamid Dabashi<\/a>&#8216;s perceptive analyses, such as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.payvand.com\/news\/09\/jun\/1176.html\">this one<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/weekly.ahram.org.eg\/2009\/952\/op3.htm\">this<\/a> (once you get through the latter&#8217;s somewhat over-the-top Israelophobia; aren&#8217;t Netanyahu\/Lieberman and Khamenei\/Ahmadinejad mirror images of a sort?).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two of the world&#8217;s best known Iranian artists, Marjane Satrapi, author of the graphic novel Persepolis and director of the Oscar-winning animated feature based on it, and leading filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, have been presenting apparent &#8220;proof&#8221; at the European Parliament that Mousavi actually won the elections. This comes in the form of an internal memo [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[688745,691215],"tags":[5431,16785,352,302],"class_list":["post-1092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cinema_zone","category-politics_postpolitics","tag-art","tag-cultural-ecology","tag-film","tag-iran"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-hC","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1094,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/06\/24\/zizek-on-iran\/","url_meta":{"origin":1092,"position":0},"title":"\u017di\u017eek on Iran","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"June 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm reprinting Slavoj \u017di\u017eek's (copyright-free) analysis of the events in Iran, which were forwarded to Infinite Thought by Ali Alizadeh, who I mentioned in a recent post. It's vintage \u017di\u017eek: by turns provocative, unpredictable, overwrought, and brilliant, in its verve if not necessarily its accuracy, though I think he gets\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/politics_postpolitics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13160,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2023\/03\/13\/3-berlinale-favorites\/","url_meta":{"origin":1092,"position":1},"title":"3 Berlinale favorites","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"March 13, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the benefits of being a Cinepoetics fellow at the Freie Universit\u00e4t Berlin this year is that I was able to see a lot of films at last month's Berlin International Film Festival, thanks to my Cinepoetics accreditation. (Another benefit is simply to be in Berlin, which is such\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cinema&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cinema","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/cinema_zone\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/fB5WVLyADoc\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1091,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/06\/18\/more-on-tehran\/","url_meta":{"origin":1092,"position":2},"title":"more on Tehran","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"June 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Planomenology's Reid Kane has posted an extensive analysis of the Iranian events from a perspective informed by Zizek and Agamben, among others -- the first I've seen in this vein, though I'm anticipating others like it in the left-philosophical blogosphere. The piece draws too much, for my taste, on a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/politics_postpolitics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"i31_19363371.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2009\/06\/i31_19363371.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1089,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/06\/16\/affective-contagion-the-events-in-tehran\/","url_meta":{"origin":1092,"position":3},"title":"affective contagion &amp; the events in Tehran","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"June 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm sure I'm not the only one following these events with excited trepidation and a feeling of almost wanting to be there (but glad also to be watching it from afar). Which makes me wonder: what is it about revolutionary moments that fires the imagination and keeps us, or me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/politics_postpolitics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"i03_19377861.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2009\/06\/i03_19377861.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13029,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2022\/10\/12\/sharpening-our-moral-clarity\/","url_meta":{"origin":1092,"position":4},"title":"Sharpening our moral clarity","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"October 12, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Indigenous intellectuals like Kim Tallbear see the current Anthropocene crisis (climate change, etc.) as a continuation and intensification of the kind of thing Indigenous peoples and enslaved Africans (among others) have experienced for centuries. Her thoughts for Indigenous People's Day, shared on Tallbear's Substack account, are well worth reading. Describing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Anthropocene&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Anthropocene","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/anthropo_scene\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2022\/10\/BB12_Joao-Gomes-Polido_installation-view.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2022\/10\/BB12_Joao-Gomes-Polido_installation-view.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2022\/10\/BB12_Joao-Gomes-Polido_installation-view.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2022\/10\/BB12_Joao-Gomes-Polido_installation-view.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9187,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2017\/05\/01\/may-day-thoughts-on-labor-livelihood\/","url_meta":{"origin":1092,"position":5},"title":"May Day thoughts: on labor &amp; livelihood","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"May 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"May Day (Beltane, Walpurga's Day, et al.) is a good time for reflecting on\u00a0politics, ecology, and possibility. The following can be considered part of\u00a0a\u00a0series on this blog. When neoliberalism is understood as the alliance between economic liberalization and social liberalization -- that is, between those who would \"liberate\" capitalist markets\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Manifestos &amp; auguries&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Manifestos &amp; auguries","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/manifestos-and-auguries\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2017\/05\/o1llH-179x275.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1092"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11905,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092\/revisions\/11905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}