Sunday, September 13, 2009

Future updates @ www.azadi.dj

Dear readers,

All future updates will be posted directly to www.azadi.dj from here on out. If you've been jumping to this blog via the azadidj.blogpost.com please revert and go direct:

azadi.dj

Thanks!

JA

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Great websites documenting the murdered

We have been working on a memorial montage but interactive sites have already existed. The latest is wonderful:

http://neverforget.us/


I noticed a bug or two, but it brings together many elements that I have not seen in some of the other memorials listing the dead, murdered, arrested and missing.

To censor or not?

As readers of this blog know, self-censorship has reared its head into the edit suite many times since I returned from Iran.

It seems that it was both a gift and somewhat of an artistic compromise that I was one of the only documentarians in Iran for the weeks surrounding the June election. What a unique experience and yet one I must tread now with precision through the memory of footage.

Of course, due to the fact that I ran free with no government interference (well accept for the times where I was almost arrested and the other times when I was followed and the other times that my phone was bugged), I ran free. To identify myself is not an option at this point.

The Iranian government, especially of late, is just a little too paranoid for its own good; I cannot trust them but then again, who can?

Okay, I understand that the fascist trajectory that the regime is now following begets censorship, but what I will never understand is how the arrests of ex-vice presidents, paralyzed journalists (through a failed State-assassination attempt) and now the reporters for Karroubi, himself the ex-Chairman of the Parliament, are fit for 21st century societies.

Should I follow with censoring the almost violent written response to one of my YouTube videos? Would this make me a better person or the same personification of the fascist regime now known as Ahmadinejad's second term as the unelected President of Iran?

For the YouTube quote, please click HERE.

Oh yeah, and let me know if I should censor as well or let all comments run free by leaving a comment yourself!

Best,

JA

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Less than a month to go before Ahmadi Protest!

I am editing like a green flag waving with might to finish doc before the 64th UN General Assembly. Still proceeding with caution to deliver context and content without negatively impacting the community of Iranians that I filmed for three weeks both before and after the Iranian election in June 2009. Being the only foreign documentary filmmaker who was able to film throughout these weeks was both the biggest treat for democracy as well as perhaps the only unflinching document of what occurred.

We have seen the countless videos filmed from the streets and rooftops documenting the unspeakable violence inflicted on Iranians peacefully rallying against a system that ignored their voices. When the footage emerges from the rapes and deaths that the regime intentionally inflicted on detained people, will the UN demand accountability.

Let me know what your thoughts are on the clips so that I can proceed.

Yours,

Jahan Azadi

Friday, August 7, 2009

A more sinister reading, hopefully that which is ignorant

Unlike in Iran, please excuse the past few days of quiet on this blog.

On Wednesday, when a dramatic showing of opposition to Ahmadi's swearing in ceremony, there was a general reading of the celebratory hug/"shoulder kiss" between the Supreme Leader and Ahmadinejad: the Supreme Leader is pushing Ahmadi away as if he were the plague of death.

I re-watched it, and the CNN commentator was almost announcing the situation as if it were an American football playoff, which may have impacted my reading. But is it not Ahmadinejad who is the one in control? Is it not he who is going in for a "shoulder kiss" a sign of power over he who is kissed, which is like when a little boy who feels that he has grown into more responsibility attempts to show this to his father through spite?

And if it is Ahmadinejad who feels emboldened with the shake-up in power, I cannot think of anything more sinister that may face the Iranian people. Although most states, especially the US, have presidential policies that effectively believe all Iranian common citizens are terrorists until proven otherwise, these bodies of power have hopefully decided to take a different slant and instead determine that all Iranian cabinet members may be terrorists until proven otherwise, and the grand majority of Iranians are against the tyranny that has been playing out for the past two months.

In this time, Ahmadinejad has passed legislation that allows for internet sniffing beyond what the US even allows; he has dismissed the intelligence minister and now is the acting minister; he has revved up the hatred as found in the three million strong militant aspect of the basij & the Revolutionary Guard and they are more organized and ready for a drawn out siege on the freedom of the Iranian society; more than one hundred fifteen people have been executed by the Iranian state in the past two months (as an aside, GW Bush took almost six years to execute 152 Texan prisoners); and at least ten people who have been detained, but not charged with any crime, have been murdered while in basij custody (this last point is confirmed by the Iranian government which originally stated 20 people have been killed in the streets changing that number to 30 corresponding to those murdered while in police protection).

While in Iran, Ahmadinejad was infamous before he was appointed mayor of Tehran and later elected in 2005 as president of Iran. Before I continue, it must be stated that sometimes in Iran information is passed from person to person, sometimes not allowing for fact checking to occur. I mention the following story to highlight that perhaps unproven facts have a very powerful effect. In the first years after the revolution, Iran had imprisoned thousands of people, executing a great many of them. Many were enemies of the state, either through their words and less often, through their violent acts. Word got around to international organizations that work with human rights: they requested to visit Iranian prisons and determine the treatment that was being offered. The day before, 7000 of these prisoners were executed, with bullets. Ahmadinejad went around with the handgun after the initial shooting to make sure each prisoner was in fact dead, shooting whoever he thought was still alive in the head at point blank range. By the next morning, when the inspection occurred Iran passed with flying colors and Ahmadinejad had his first kills in this vein. For the longest period of time, I at least felt okay that Khamenei was the Supreme Leader because I didn't think him as ruthless as Ahmadinejad: now I am even more frightened with the latest thought, which I hope proves to be ignorant, that the level of sinisterness is much more elevated with Ahmadinejad securing a buffer of insulation allowing him to kill, imprison and otherwise destroy.

The only thing that keeps my faith alive is that the Iranian people overthrew the Shah in a people movement which was summarily stolen by the Islamic factions of society. The Iranians still have vivid memories of the tyranny that existed under the monarchy and its supporters. They also have the present thoughts that the only regime that has time and time again proven itself to be worse than the Shah, is the present non-democratic condition. As an Iranian may say, "Thanks god" that the majority of Iranians are against the present condition and just like the Shah, a shake down will be coming. This shake down will be designed, implemented, organized and responsible to the Iranian people who live in Iran.

I hope, in this last paragraph, that I have never had a less ignorant thought.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

AN ASIDE TO A PRELUDE: Ahmadinejad Supports Democracy, albeit outside of Iran



YouTube offers an interesting phenomenon ~ that of being able to go back in time using the anthropology of media to pull from the archives and understand anew. In this case, Ahmadinejad sat down with an American journalist. Although edited out from the official broadcast, here Ahmadi exerts his incredible feelings of the need for Palestinians to be able to express themselves and participate fully in democracy. In these first few days after the election, many Iranians began to question why Ahmadinejad so fully supports Arab democratic participation and was so keen on stopping it in his own country. Beginning on this day, Tuesday, seven weeks ago in Iran on June 16th, for the next three days would be some of the largest and most peaceful marches seen in Tehran (the Saturday, Sunday and Monday protests and marches were all meet with violence by the regime).

Monday, August 3, 2009

Monday June 15, 2009: The rooftops come alive, elevated beyond the regime from below



Monday was the day it all changed. Yes on Saturday and Sunday, the authorities killed people; they stormed universities arresting people, throwing some students out of windows and tear gassing those who looked on for too long. The Basij militia had clearly been on the streets during the nights over the weekend as well. As we made our way to the June 15 march, scenes of the police state were everywhere: a drill line of young Army soldiers marched; on the highway we passed a driver's Saba car with both the rear window completely smashed out and the front windshield smashed to a pulp ~ clearly this driver had not seen the Blues Brothers for he drove it normal, without sticking his head out the driver's window in a grotesque fashion; on the other hand, he was probably not in the mood to be funny. Later on the freeway we passed a rogue element of Basij numbering approximately 50 on their small-engined motorcycles with a further group of them piled into the back of a pick-up truck ~ they were decked out in make-shift camouflage, clubs some meters long and very long and thick chains. To be honest, I didn't like what I say ~ who would? Already on Saturday I had shared with others that I thought the Iranian government would shortly be kicking journalists out of the country ~ some of the big name Western magazine journalists fled for fear of their safety on this day. I dug my boots in and waited patiently for what was coming ~ we just didn't know if it would be colored with more red or as we hoped, peacefully diffused with green.

Hmmm, what a difference four years makes!



This video compares and contrasts the acceptance ceremony of four years ago (2005) to Ahmadinejad's latest appearance at the side of the Supreme Leader who approves of his next four years.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Sunday: June 14th, 2009 - Calls of Congratulations from the World Leaders"




By Sunday, everybody had the same logic to explain the results, just different numbers. One person thought that the authorities had simply mixed the names and the numbers, giving Ahmadi Mousavi's 63% with Mousavi getting Ahmadi's 33%. Others thought it went further then that: 80% for Mousavi, 15% for Karrubi, and Ahmadi getting around 5%. We were next to the husband of a college professor when the basij stormed the campus shooting of tear gas wildly. People were still feeling the sting of robbery, but Ahmadi's statement of dirt and dust at the news conference shown sure didn't help out. The government continued to bus in people to fill the streets in support of Ahmadi. The green movement didn't need this type of fabrication. Nonetheless, a few world leaders to call Ahmadi and offer their congratulations, many coming from countries without fair elections, or no elections. It does show also just important Iran is to the region through its relationships with other parties/countries/organizations, for instance Hizbollah. There was a major feeling in Iran that the Ahmadinejad cabinet directs too many resources to people other than Iranians receiving the distinction of being considered more Arab than Iranian. I hope that he begins to place as much important on ethics and people's choice in the days to come as he did in the days after the election. For up to date project information, please visit http://azadi.dj

First Week Playlist



Embed playlist using this link: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FDD08E96DAFB2CC9

Saturday, August 1, 2009

SATURDAY: June 13, 2009 - Even the victors don't celebrate



The soonest I could get to a TV was around 3:45 AM on Saturday, less than four hours after polls closed. The efficiency of the Iranian government absolutely amazed me. First, more than 40 million paper ballots were cast. The authorities did not allow the ballots to be counted on site - instead all of the votes, from all 45,000 polling stations stretching across a land larger than Alaska, were transported from each station to the Interior Ministry, as ordered in an unprecedented move by its head, a multimillionaire ally of Ahmadinejad (http://bit.ly/19sxJO for original article).

On Election Night, we were directly facing a polling station, yeah, we just "happened" to be facing it. Polls were originally supposed to close at 8PM; there were still too many people in line so it was extended to 10PM; again, that was not going to get through the line, so it was extended a second time until midnight. I guess the polling station we witnessed ran out of ballots for it closed an hour early, with people still in line.

Returning to the question of efficiency, the Iranians can count. Granted, they are amazing money counters, but still. Who can possibly count 40 million votes in less then three and one half hours. It boggles my mind: it took Minnesota eight months to count the Franken/Coleman votes, all 2.5 million of them. How can the Iranians count so much faster? In Minnesota they average about 312,500 votes that they can count in a single month: Iran, on the other hand, manages around 11.5 million votes per hour! Now that's what I'm talking about. I'm sure that the government response to voter fraud accusations included the procedure so that other countries can learn from it because its probably not fraudulent, but damn, it is a wee bit too freaky for my taste! I mean, that is just too damn fast, right?

The first shot of the posted video was shot at 3:43 AM on Saturday morning ~ at that point Ahmadinejad was in front of Mousavi, 66% to 31%. Less then twelve hours later, the final result was announced with Ahmadi winning handsomely - he was on a role. In the first round of his first campaign, in 2005, he won less then 20% when 63% came out to vote. In the runoff, again in 2005, when less then 48% came out to vote, he won around 61% of the vote. In 2009, when almost 85% came out to vote, which should have helped Mousavi more than Ahmadi, the latter actually increased his performance to 66%, er, the latter 63%.

I only had one question: why were there so few people that were happy? I mean, its more like a mourning period than a celebration. To have seen the tens of thousands of Mousavi supporters in the week before Election Day, and clearly there are twice as many Ahmadi supporters, but were are they? Eating potatoe pies or what?

We did hear of violence and death in Tehran. We didn't see any where we were ~ but on each street corner was one person by themselves holding the V sign with their fingers or wearing a small green ribbon. If there were more than one, trouble would have come their way. I wanted to cross the river to the Mousavi side but someone thought it best if I stayed in the dark shadows ~ he wasn't sure if it would be safe for me with the Ahmadi supporters. I thought to myself I can take on 20 people by myself ~ but tens of thousands, that could have been a very serious problem.

NOTE: as with the prior two video clips, music has been added. Song info will be coming soon.

Friday, July 31, 2009

FRIDAY June 12 2009 - Election Day - 85% Turnout



I will update this section soon, but briefly this short video shows the massive outpouring of voters to cast their voice and choose the next Iranian President. After all the days of observing the tens of thousands of Mousavi supporters in the day and at night, although we all knew that he would win there was clouded visions that something terribly wrong was going to occur. In the days before the election SMS were going out across the nation warning people against wearing green to the polls; to bring their own pens because the ones provided would be filled with erasable ink; and to attempt to vote at universities. Regardless of which candidate one supported, everyone asked everyone else if they had voted yet that day: the answer was always yes. Iranians take their democracy more serious then any other country I've seen.

Again, similar to Thursday June 11th video, audio has been added. A song by the same artist was chosen. Additional song information will be provided shortly.

For more information on the Azadi DJ Iranian Election Doc series, please visit www.azadi.dj

Thursday, July 30, 2009

THURSDAY June 11 2009 - One Day Before Elections - 30 Martyrs



This was shot in Shiraz on the last day before the Iranian election. We had been out and about when someone told us that someone was killed the night before, in Shiraz, while partaking in one of the small Mousavi rally groups. It wasn't clear if it was thought to have been intentional. I remember driving through a village, alas, each and every Iranian village, town and city have countless portraits of the martyrs from the Revolution and the Iran Iraq War. I wonder today as I post this, the 40th day after the deaths of those on June 20th including Neda and tens of scores, how many martyrs will the government kill. Will their painted faces fill future frames? For those into cinematic symbolism, there are 30 portraits of martyrs shown: this is a direct commentary on the official State death toll standing at original 20, and now includes an additional 10 killed while detained. How many more and when will they have enough killing of fellow Iranians who are only participating in their system subscribing to non-violent action?

It is important to mention that the audio is added to the visuals in this video. There is audio that had to be cut so a decision was made to play some music instead. More song info will be forthcoming (artist, rough translation of lyrics, etc). For more information on this Iranian Election doc project, please visit www.azadidj.blogspot.com

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Wednesday: June 10th - Last Day of Public Campaigning for the Iranian Election 2009



After Tuesday night's Mousavi public rally, we decided we needed to stretch our legs and we made a dash out of town. Not really, but I figured that I would charter a helicopter; you see, only the police and army have copters in Iran. As some will recall, I absolutely love 125cc, so I took one for a spin. You must get what I'm doing here, right? Actually, we had hired a private taxi to go to Kish to pick up a duty free DVD player and the driver's wife's brother's sister's cousin's son's friend's cat got sick, so we stopped off in Shiraz. I'm glad we did; the cat has eight more lives and we saw what the rest of the country looked like in the build up to Election Day.

Shiraz was just as dramatic during the last night of public campaigning. Only one more night to put posters on your car (don't do it tomorrow because it will be impounded at best); just a few more hours of dancing in the streets; green hijabs will still be sold out in the weeks to come, but tonight is the night so put it on and wave it like you just don't care!

Although almost all Tehrani bazaaris said they support Mousavi, including the one who picked us hitchhiking (see Monday June 7th 2009), there was not as much paraphenia as Shiraz: every wire, wall, window was decked in Mousavi's green and Ahmadinejad's red.

Later that Wednesday night, all tucked in at my cousin's house, I reviewed the previous four nights of footage. I imagined if I were a visual forensic specialist: based on this footage, which candidate has the most supporters?

If I were Ahmadinejad, I would be green with envy, because everyone knew the answer to that question. Just one more night to celebrate and then one more day of patience until election day. With all of these numbers, how could Mousavi not handsomely win?

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Tuesday: June 9, 2009 -Mousavi Public Appearance @ Radio & TV - Tehran Iran - Seven Weeks Ago




The excitement continued to build. After a busy day we decided to hold a mock election on this Tuesday night. We were voting for who could sing the best Mousavi chant. In the end Aliakbar won. I wanted to make a joke to a youngster who was younger then 18 yet older then 15 that his vote wouldn't count. You see, in the last election, where Ahmadinejad won in the run off, the age of suffrage was 15: one and half years into his presidency, Iran changed the age to 18. In the end I didn't, though I probably should have extended the joke to all those present in the room, for, it would later appear, that none of the votes counted.

This was Mousavi's last public appearance before the election that I witnessed. In Iran, all public campaigning which includes the candidates and their supporters stops on the day before election day, in this case Wednesday night, June 10th, 2009.

What is most interesting in this video is a) the complete freedom of expression between police, army and both the supporters of Mousavi and Ahmadinejad. Clearly, there are very few Ahmadinejad supporters, but nonetheless, there was almost no violence between the two camps that I saw (except for the cut arm in the June 8th clip). Also what this clip documents like no other source material, is the chants of the Mousavi camp, how they start, who leads them, how they shift and how they are so creative.

As stated, subtitles will be coming soon, but it is very important to note for the time being the following:

1) 44 seconds in - Mousavi supporters scream at flag waving Ahmadi supporter "LIAR, LIAR, LIAR"
2) 1:05 minutes in - Mousavi supporters seated are chanting, "If there is any cheating, Iran will not sleep. If there is no cheating, Ahmadi will come in fifth place out of four candidates."
3: 2:25 minutes - Mousavi candidates changing up their chants leading to: Mousavi we love you!

The debates in the Iranian election played an enormously important role in generating even more interest in the election, after all, this election would be the first one where public debates between candidates would take place. Unlike other political systems, Iranian debates were between two candidates at once, instead of, for instance, all candidates for a party's presidential nominess as is found in the US system. As an aside, instead of two possible candidates for president, there were four candidates in the Iranian election of 2009: Mousavi, Karrroubi, Rezai and Ahmadinejad (in no particular order).


Jahan Azadi

Monday, July 27, 2009

Monday: June 8th, 2009 - Tehran, Iran - Seven Weeks Ago



This is what occurred on Monday, June 8, 2009, actually seven weeks ago in Tehran Iran. Earlier this day we had gotten caught up in the traffic that resulted from the government buses that carried Ahmadinejad supporters. We received a call about the massive Mousavi rally that spanned the entire 20km of Vali-e asr. Simply put, there was no way we were going to reach it especially with the clutch in the taxi burning out. Instead, we took the Tehran metro all the way to the end of the line. With each stop, the conductor would hold the doors long enough to allow Ahmadi supporters to jump from car to car praising his and the Ayatollah's health. Tehran metro cars are actually three cars connected so you can see very long as well as travel in between the cars ~ it was packed with thousands of people. The authorities have recently changed one of the last station's names and made it a Shahid stop - that is named after a martyr, yet the map in the car as well as the physical letters on the metro stop did not convey the new naming scheme. Only with the announcement did we know that the station name. A woman on the train, in her 40s or 50s, spoke in a very loud voice ~ "Where is Mirdamed!?!? What are we not stopping!?!" She knew better of course but was trying to make a point of the martyrdom the state places on some ignoring those sacrifices of others. One of the Ahmadinejad supporters, appearing to be in his 20s, responded its changed, Thank God and praising the martyrs. The back and forth between the young man and the older woman progressed until the end of the line when she finished and put him into silence mode "One God, we all have the same God." His eyes pierced and I thought a knife was going to come out, really.

Getting out of the subway, there were no taxis that would go in the direction we had to go because of the very serious traffic from the Ahmadinejad back-up. Everyone would wave some one down to no avail. We decided to walk down the exit ramp to the freeway ~ not sure way nor who's idea it was. A fancy car stopped upon my hitching thumb and a bazeeri invited us to take us were we needed to go. It was surreal ~ a very sharp dressed man, who had decided to join the Mousavi camp and distribute CDs, fliers, and flow charts that connects all of Ahmadinejad's ministers through marriage.

We waited until night fall and ventured out again.

This is what we saw.

Merci, Jahan

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Sunday: June 7th, 2009 - Tehran, Iran - Seven Weeks Ago

This Sunday, July 26, 2009, will be exactly seven weeks from the first rally I documented (Sunday, June 7th, 2009). For the next three weeks with each day, a corresponding vision of what was occurring in Iran, seven weeks ago to the day, will be presented. Don't worry how I got my hands on the footage, or more importantly, escaped the Basij and got the footage out of Iran. With these caveats, I will let you know that what I present each night over these next three weeks without fail, will be the rawest of raw footage. If you were to ask many filmmakers if they would allow their raw footage to be seen by anyone other than the creative team, you would be snickered at with a reassuring smile 'not in your life'. Smiles and all, this rule must be broken for I cannot fathom a bigger exception than what is in the present. This first installment was filmed on Vali asr, Sunday, June 7th, 2009: Five Days Before Election Day. Chodafez, Jahan Azadi

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Introduction: "Iran Seven Weeks Ago" Documentary Series

I was in Iran.

I am green with power to fully begin to discuss what happened in Iran.

Since returning in late June/early July, I have been hesitant, not knowing how to craft the documentary that I shot there.

(Never say) never have I been so cognizant of identity, censorship, safety, screams, democracy, participation, violence and repression with a film that I have edited as I am now with the present hundreds of gigs of footage, interviews and photos documenting the weeks around the 2009 Iranian election. (In late 2003, I did not produce a screenplay I had written entitled "Threesome" out of fear that I would be visited by a US government agency; as it turns out I should have made it after all: they came nonetheless; but that's another story).

I have tossed and turned with narrative structures and devices to deliver the scope of what is cinematically possible to convey in vibrant and operatic magnitude what began in Iran before the election, on election day, and the weeks after, marked with massive peaceful rallies ,greeted with severe government violence, and continuing into the current position of reconfiguration and popular dissent. I filmed the movement without even realizing it. For me, I felt like I didn't sleep a wink. Beginning with the first night of arrival, everywhere one looked, TVs broadcast debates between the four candidates. There were marked differences in charisma, honesty, expertise, and persona. I happened to be staying in Central-North Tehran. Vali-Asr is one of the world's longest roads: it is the longest boulevard in all of the Middle East running the distance of the city: the metro stammers over more than 18000 km2. I live in nYc which doesn't compare in size: the frogger dimension of crossing a street in Cairo may apply, for I even saw a woman hit by a 125cc.

In the full week before Election Day (June 12), each night, thousands came out in droves driving and dancing the Vali Asr strip. It was amazing to see the almost lack of government interference each of these nights. Alas, I did come too close to a Basij and saw some of their handy work. Later, police gave chase and we ran and screamed to safety, well most of us anyway. The last night of public campaigning was Wednesday June 10. State run TV gave a couple of hours to Ahamdinejad playing preference, while the green supporters came out in great numbers.

In a separate entry, I will describe Iranian public political campaigns but in brief and in relationship to US campaigns, there is limited fundraising. Certainly none of the candidates spent more than $1 billion US dollars as Obama and McCain did in 2008 or close to the $300 billion Bloomberg will spend over his three campaigns running from 2001-2013, alas in a city with only eight million inhabitants. Political campaigning in Iran has two sides: Ahmadinejad supporters will be provided transportation in government provided buses (thousands for his largest rallies), will be treated to a delicious chelo kabab lunch or dinner and possibly paid with cash money, or perhaps a sack of rotting potatoes. Opposition candidates' supporters will seemingly have a meeting place and whoever shows up shows up. There are no volunteers in t-shirts directing people where to stand or which route to take; all the cars, faces, people, hijabs and posters are color-coded and created on an individual basis; instead of pop music blaring out of campaign speakers, it rocks it from random cars and their dancing passengers; from what I could tell, these first nightly unorganized and spontaneous rallies formed the basis for the massive and demonstratively powerful movement that would come beginning with the day after the election; instead of playing music that US candidate supporters can sing along with, Iranian supporters, again on an individual basis, make up their own exceptionally creative slogans and chants interspersed with renditions of 1979 revolutionary songs sung in the key of g(reen). The best ones radiate across the plethora of voices picking up to a deafening crescendo of spirit, belief, conviction and passion in democracy, participation and strength in numbers. Equally important, they are passed via text messaging reaching a broader audience. The green chants are quickly reworked by Ahmadinejad supporters to refocus their message back to Mousavi; it would be hard to find an expert on either side who would claim that Ahmadinejad and his supporters are more creative and inspiring than the green supporters.

This is all to say that I have never ever seen anything like what I saw in Iran. Every single democratic republic should be envious.

This brings us back to those hundreds of gigabytes. This Sunday, July 26, 2009, will be exactly seven weeks from the first rally I documented (Sunday, June 7th, 2009). For the next three weeks with each day, a corresponding vision of what was occurring in Iran, seven weeks to the day in the past, will be presented. I believe I am one of the only people to have documented the Iranian election of 2009. Don't ask how I got there. Don't worry how I got my hands on the footage, or more importantly, escaped the Basij wrath and got the footage out of Iran. With these caveats, I will let you know that what I present each night over these next three weeks without fail, will be the rawest of raw footage. If you were to ask many filmmakers if they would allow their raw footage to be seen by anyone other than the creative team, you would be snickered at with a reassuring smile 'not in your life'. This rule most be broken.

The final film will resemble the footage shared over the next three weeks only insomuch as it will be crafted using the visuals. For example, the final cut will permit the story to be more fully told. Moreover, full faces of the participants will be able to be shown. Perhaps one day I'll even be able to release under my Christian name. Those future thoughts have no place in my head or on your screen at this time. Right now is the present and man, is it happening. I support the human rights, civil rights and justice movement that is here, and is occurring now. If you are on the outside of Iran, do not heed pundits or experts who rationalize and predict where this green wave is rippling, splashing and crashing with resounding people power. If you are in Iran, we hear you so loud and so clear; we support you; and we are doing whatever it is we can to demonstrate our incredulous support for your cause, and as you know better than any of us presently on the outside, this is your cause. I went to every rally where I knew I wouldn't be picked up by Basij on first sight; I recorded every Allaho Akbar; I spoke with those who were filming and posting; I talked to man, woman, under 30 and over 65. I cried. I almost wet my pants. I was one inch away from being in a secret detention center, blindfolded, handcuffed, interrogated and beat. I was followed. My camera was almost confiscated. I had to erase footage on another camera which was searched by baton-wielding Basij after they forced our taxi off the road ~ the bearded one on the back of the bike almost stuck his head in through the window as he screamed ~ I'll take one cinematic causality. All of that and then some is to come, but for now and starting on Sunday will be raw, unedited sections that correspond to the same day seven weeks ago in Iran. I offer this just to share it, to give some perspective as to what occurred and to share the document of what really started the week before the election and what will continue indefinitely until there is change in Iran - you can count on it.

I do not have the time to finely hone and craft the visuals and audio as I would like. As such, be prepared. Everything will be edited as it occurred - no sequence can be shifted in time, that is, everything you see is presented in a 100% commitment to chronology of the events - a true Bressonian touch for the green movement itself, documented, provides the emotions in the moments when they occurred, in the sequence in which they occurred. The only thing is that scenes will be omitted or edited in duration, but not placement in their chronological order. As you can imagine, this will be an enormous undertaking in itself - regardless, with each evening a new video will be presented reflecting the day in Iran seven weeks ago. It's a bit ambitious and I don't know if the posting will occur at 10PM to coincide with the Allaho Akbars shouted from roof tops or at 4AM.

Until soon,

Jahan Azadi


azadidj AT gmail.com

www.azadi.dj

* The video clips from the series may not be used in any commercial production, media platform or broadcast without license. They can be used for education, discussion, enjoyment and excitement with no further permission needed.

IN BRIEF: Three Week Iranian Election 2009 Documentary Series

What will follow, starting on Sunday, July 26, 2009 will be the release over a period of three weeks raw footage from one of the only documentaries that captured the Iranian Election of 2009. This is not to say that this is the completed documentary - not at all!

I am sharing this footage to do my part in keeping the movement alive, especially with those outside of Iran, who did experience in person, in action, the events leading up to the Iranian Election and the weeks that came after.

It is one thing to read the Western press, many times offering slanted and misinformed views. It is another thing to see all of the citizen journalism video reportages that have been posted on video sharing sites by the Iranian people themselves. In addition, after the international media were kicked out in the days after the election, the information that did get out was sometimes second and third person reports.

I was there. I filmed the entire process. This is what happened.

I do not know when the doc will be released but that is the least important part of this whole story. What is essential is to communicate the amazing democratic movement that was witnessed within Iran. As some of you may know, I do not like the predicting that many journalists/experts state. I will make only one prediction: the green movement will be remembered and relived as something just as important as the movements led by Gandi, MLK as well as African independence movements amongst others.

It is as if the Iranians have shown the world what is democracy, what is freedom.

I hope you enjoy this experimental project positioning an "episode" released each night that corresponds to that day in Iran seven weeks ago. Please check in daily and enjoy!

Best,

Jahan Azadi

azadidj AT gmail.com