اون شب که بارون اومد
Directed by Kamran Shirdel • 1967 • Iran
The Night It Rained (Oon shab ke baroon oomad - 1967), is a modern-day epic that attempts to retrace the true circumstances of a heroic act in the north-Iranian countryside. One rainy night near the village of Gorgan, a schoolboy disco...

برای آزادی
Directed by Hossein Torabi • 1979 • Iran
Pure “Direct Cinema”: Hossein Torabi films the events without knowing their outcome: Processions of mourning and jubilation, scenes after the fire in the “Cinema Rex” in Abadan, southern Iran, in which 377 viewers died; the famous interview with...

قضیه شکل اول، شکل دوم
Directed by Abbas Kiarostami • 1979 • Iran
This banned and rarely seen pseudo-documentary by Kiarostami is a testimony to his seldom acknowledged political shrewdness and his objective, complex perspective on the tumultuous events of the late 70s in Iran, culminating in the ...

ایران، آرمانشهر در تکاپو
Directed by Jocelyne Saab • 1980 • Lebanon
The Iranian revolution leads to the Shah’s downfall and installation of the Islamic Republic. Avoiding the more sensational elements of the news this film questions Iranian society as a whole to try to understand what this wave o...

تهران پایتخت ایران است
Directed by Kamran Shirdel • 1966 • Iran
Tehran Is the Capital of Iran (Tehran Paytakht Iran Ast, 1966-79) documents life in a deprived district in the south of Tehran. The images of destitution in Tehran’s poor areas is accompanied by a variety of spoken accounts: the offi...

ندامتگاه
Directed by Kamran Shirdel • 1965 • Iran
Women's Prison (Nedamatgah) (1965), is the first — and least subversive — film made by Kamran Shirdel under the auspices of Organization of The Iranian Women [sic]. Prisoners and their hardships (especially vis-à-vis their children) are juxtaposed...

قلعه
Directed by Kamran Shirdel • 1966 • Iran
The Women's Quarter (Qaleh, 1966) shows the life of prostitutes in Tehran's city brothels, an area known as Shahre Now. The film closely follows a number of women and communicates how the burden of social constraints led them to surrender in the face ...

جستجو: یک
Directed by Amir Naderi • 1980 • Iran
Amir Naderi's first feature documentary in which he searches for those who went missing after the massacre of ‘Black Friday’ on September 8, 1978.

جنبش آزادی زنان ایران - سال صفر
Directed by Claudine Mulard • 1979 • France
"Mouvement de Libération des Femmes Iraniennes, Année Zéro"
In 1979, Iranian Women invite the American feminist Kate Millett to celebrate March 8, the International Women's Day, in Tehran. On March 7, the religious leader...

تازه‌نفس‌ها
Directed by Kianoush Ayari • 1979 • Iran
Kianoush Ayari’s documentary captures rare scenes of everyday life on the streets of Tehran in the months following the revolution of 1979 — that somewhat utopian period between revolutionary violence and the formation of a full fledged Islamic...

طپش تاریخ
Directed by Asghar Fardoust, Davoud Kanaani • 1979 • Iran
In the early days of the revolution, three young cameramen working for the National TV take their cameras out on to the streets of Tehran to capture the people’s revolution. This documentary, covers the revolutionary events from ...

آداب بهاری
Directed by Ali Asghar Agahbanaei • 1982 • Iran
An experimental documentary that takes world-building to an entirely new level, Rites of Spring showcases fragments of Iran’s history before, during, and after the Revolution of 1979. It begins with scenes of daily life, working-class peo...

فردوسی و مردم
Directed by Hossein Torabi • 1977 • Iran
A documentary about Ferdowsi, the great Persian poet of 9th century, the creator epic Shahnameh (the book of kings). The film examines the impacts of the poet and his masterpiece, almost one thousand years after its creation, on Iran and Iran...

مشهد
Directed by Hossein Torabi • 1970 • Iran
A documentary about the holy city of Mashhad, highlighting the contrasts of faith and modernity under Shah in the Iran’s early 1970’s. Narrated by late poet Ahmad Shamloo.

ایمان
Directed by Hossein Torabi • 1970 • Iran
A documentary about traditions, pilgrimage and faith revolving around the tomb of the 7th Shi'a Imam – Imam Reza – with stunning images of inside the tomb complex.

اصفهان
Directed by Hossein Torabi • 1976 • Iran
City of Isfahan, the ancient Persian capital and its stunning architecture, arts and traditions are pictured in this documentary, while using the backdrop of then Iran in the last years of Shah and drive to modernize the country. Words and narration...

گلاب قمصر
Directed by Hossein Torabi • 1971 • Iran
A documentary about the village of Ghamsar, the historic hub of making rose water in Iran, depicting the traditions of making their famed perfume.

دبی مروارید خلیج فارس
Directed by Kamran Shirdel • 1975 • Iran
In the early 1970s, Shirdel travelled around the Persian Gulf making documentaries about the new states emerging there. In the just-formed Emirates, he befriended Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and the film features footage of...

گاز آتش باد
Directed by Kamran Shirdel • 1986 • Iran
After the Revolution Shirdel continued to make commissioned films as an independent filmmaker. mostly industrials. He made two Oil Films for the Oil Ministry, "Gas, Fire, Wind" is one of them.

پیکان
Directed by Kamran Shirdel • 1969 • Iran
A Short industrial documentary about the Paykan automobile assembly plant using no words.

بوم سیمین
Directed by Kamran Shirdel • 1965 • Iran
"Silver Canvas", the first documentary made by Kamran Shirdel, deals with the art of silversmithing.