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.