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Farhang Foundation and the UCLA Film & Television Archive present
A Celebration of Iranian Cinema Screening

Directed by Jeff Kaufman
Featuring Ann Curry, Shirin Ebadi, Narges Hosseini, Reza Khandan, Jafar Panahi, Taghi Rahmani, Marietje Schaake, Mansoureh Shojaee, and Nasrin Sotoudeh

October 9 - 15, 2020

Screening includes a post-screening conversation with 
Jeff Kaufman, writer-director-producer, Nasrin; and 
Dr. Neyereh Tohidi, Professor Emeritus and
Director of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at Cal State University, Northridge. 
Moderated by Paul Malcolm, UCLA Film & Television Archive.

Secretly filmed in Iran by women and men who risked arrest to make this film. NASRIN is an immersive portrait of the world’s most honored human rights activist and political prisoner, Nasrin Sotoudeh, and of Iran’s remarkably resilient women’s rights movement. In the courts and on the streets, Nasrin has long fought for the rights of women, children, LGBT prisoners, religious minorities, journalists and artists, and those facing the death penalty.

"Nasrin - the woman and the documentary - will make you angry at injustice, and give you hope. This is a must-see film!"

Gloria Steinem

"Nasrin Sotoudeh is an extraordinarily brave woman. I urge you to see this timely and important film!"

Margaret Atwood

"Nasrin Sotoudeh should win the Nobel Peace Prize. She is a hero for our age."

Nicholas Kristoff, New York Times

"Nasrin Sotoudeh is Iran's Nelson Mandela."

The Independent

The Subjects

Nasrin Sotoudeh

In the courts and on the streets, Nasrin Sotoudeh has long fought for the rights of women, children, LGBT prisoners, religious minorities, journalists and artists, and those facing the death penalty. She began her career a bank employee. On the side, she wrote for newspapers and journals under different names about the violation of human rights and women’s rights. She started to practice law in 2003, and has often worked as a human rights activist with her husband, Reza Khandan. They have two children. Sotoudeh was arrested in June 2018 for representing women who publicly protest Iran’s mandatory hijab laws, and she was sentenced to 38 years in prison, plus 148 lashes. Even in prison she has continued to challenge the authorities. In 2020 she launched a hunger strike to protest poor health conditions and the risk of Covid-19 in Iranian prisons.

Ann Curry

Ann Curry is an American journalist and photojournalist, who has been a reporter for more than 30 years. Curry has reported from the wars in Kosovo, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Afghanistan, Darfur, Congo and the Central African Republic. In 2009, she travel to Iran and interviewed Nasrin Sotoudeh for the NBC Dateline special “Behind the Veil: Inside Iran.”

Shirin Ebadi

Shirin Ebadi is a former Iranian lawyer and judge, a human rights activist, and the founder of Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially women's, children's, and refugee rights. 

Narges Hosseini

In 2018, Narges Hosseini stood on an electricity box on Tehran’s Revolution Street and removed her headscarf to protest Iran’s mandatory Hijab law. She was immediately arrested and soon represented by Nasrin Sotoudeh. The prosecutor said she had attempted to "encourage corruption through the removal of the hijab in public." A graduate student of sociology, she was later sentenced to two years in prison, with all but four months suspended.

Reza Khandan

Iranian activist Reza Khandan is the husband of Nasrin Sotoudeh. A designer and graphic artist, he has been imprisoned several times, most recently from September to December 2018 after he posted on Facebook about human rights violations in Iran. He was charged with acting against Iran’s national security and supporting “anti-hijab” action and still faces a six-year prison sentence.

Jafar Panahi

Jafar Panâhi is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, and film editor. His feature film debut, The White Balloon won the Caméra d'Or at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. In 2010 Panahi was given a 20-year ban on making films, but he has continued to make acclaimed movies, including Taxi which featured himself as a Tehran taxi driver and Nasrin Sotoudeh as one of his passengers. It won the top prize at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2015. In 2012 Panahi was co-winner, with Nasrin Sotoudeh, of the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

Taghi Rahmani

Taghi Rahmani is a journalist, author, and political activist who has spent more than a third of his life in Iranian prisons. He is married to Narges Mohammadi, another prominent Iranian human rights activist currently under imprisonment in Iran after being recently handed a 16-year sentence. In 2011, Rahmani immigrated to France with their two children where he now lives in exile.

Marietje Schaake

Between 2009 and 2019, Marietje Schaake served as a Member of European Parliament for the Dutch liberal democratic party. During that time she was instrumental in the presentation of the Sakharov Prize to Nasrin Sotoudeh. She is now the international policy director at Stanford University’s Cyber Policy Center and international policy fellow at Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence where she focused on trade, foreign affairs and technology policies. Marietje is affiliated with a number of non-profits including the European Council on Foreign Relations and the Observer Research Foundation in India and writes a monthly column for the Financial Times and a bi-monthly column for the Dutch NRC newspaper.

Mansoureh Shoajee

Mansoureh Shojaee has been one of the leaders of the Iranian women’s rights movement for over 20 years and involved in politics for more than 30 years. She was one of the creators of the One Million Signatures Campaign for Equality and co-founder of the website The Feminist School. She was imprisoned several times in Iran, and now lives in exile in the Netherlands. Shojaee is the founder of The Iranian Women’s Movement Museum, and of the online platform the Iran Women’s Movement Documentation Center.

The Filmmakers

Jeff Kaufman

Jeff Kaufman produced, directed, and wrote the documentaries Every Act Of Life (2018 Tribeca premiere, aired June 2019 on American Masters), The State of Marriage, Father Joseph, The Savoy King: Chick Webb and the Music That Changed America, Brush With Life: The Art of Being Edward Biberman, and Education Under Fire, plus a number of short films for Amnesty International, programs for The Discovery Channel, and The History Channel. He also edited/designed a book based on the film Every Act Of Life, contributed cartoons to The New Yorker, and illustrations to The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, wrote/illustrated several children's books, and hosted daily radio shows in Vermont and Los Angeles.

Marcia S. Ross

Marcia Ross produced the documentaries Every Act Of Life, The State of Marriage, Father Joseph, and The Savoy King. Additionally she has an over 3-decade career as an independent casting director and casting executive, serving 16 years as EVP for Casting at Walt Disney Motion Pictures, and 5 years as VP for Casting and Talent Development at Warner Brothers TV. Some of her film and television credits include Clueless, Cujo, thirtysomething, Murder in Mississippi, 10 Things I Hate About You, The Princess Diaries, Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, The Lookout, Enchanted, Oblivion, and Parental Guidance. She has received career achievement awards from the Casting Society of America and the Hollywood Film Festival.