Documentary Educational Resources - Filmmaker / Eshaghian, Tanaz / All Films

From Babylonia To Beverly Hills

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

From Babylonia To Beverly Hills
Buy Now: $295.00

In 1979, the Islamic Revolution in Iran brought a twenty-five-hundred-year-old history to a close for the Jews who left their homeland for America. Uncertain about their safety and fearing religious persecution in Khomeini's Islamic Theocracy, an estimated 80,000 of Iran's 100,000 Jews fled the country. This documentary tells the story of those Jews who reestablished a tight knit community in Los Angeles.

Iranian Jewish families talk about their past in Iran - how the increasingly hostile circumstances forced them to flee their own country in order to secure a better future for their children. They recall the difficulties of starting a new life in the United States. They voice their fears about their children growing up in an alien society, adopting a culture that is far removed from their own. Young Iranian adults, on the other hand, talk about the pressures of confirming to parental expectations, of remaining true to their Iranian Jewish heritage even as they try and carve their own individual identities in modern day American society.

Historical background via the use of archival footage gives a detailed overview of the original Jewish settlement in Iran and their relationship with their adopted country as well as how they fared in the 20th century.

In the American cultural imagination, Iranians are represented by scenes of hard-line religious leaders and unruly crowds crying "Down With America." Very little is known about the religious diversity of Iranians living in America. This documentary helps create a more nuanced view of the culture and religious diversity of Iranians both inside and outside the country.

Selected Screening History

Iranian Jewish Heritage Day Program, Makor, New York, 2003

Athens International Film & Video Festival, Athens, Ohio, 2004

Oakland International Film Festival, California, 2004

Documentary and Ethnographic Film Festival, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, 2004

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Love Iranian-American Style

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 06:41:00 GMT

Love Iranian-American Style
Buy Now: $320.00

Sexual purity, money and a mother's worries come together in this humorous guided tour of America's status-obsessed Iranian Jewish community. The film follows Tanaz, the narrator, a hip New Yorker whose Iranian family attempts to marry her off now that she's reached the age of 25. Tanaz vacillates between soppy American ideas of romance, and a more business-like Iranian approach, and in the end may be unable to execute either.

Her mother was proud of her for going to college and being independent, but now that Tanaz remains single she fears that her daughter is too liberal, Americanized and confused. Trying to bring her back into the fold, her mom arranges dates with conservative Iranian suitors who expect Tanaz to be demure and virginal. Though she feels some shame about her transgressions, she is still repelled that a man would care about purity, especially after she encounters a doctor in Beverly Hills specializing in hymen reconstruction.

When Tanaz breaks from her family's expectations and dates American men, she can't help bringing with her the immense pressure to get married, and the American boys tell her that this obsession kills love. Tanaz fantasizes about simply finding another Iranian "weirdo" like herself - who is caught between two cultures and two very different marital traditions.

"Love Iranian-American Style provides a powerful insight to how family and culture influence how we live our lives and interact in our relationships... If you have ever had problems finding a lasting relationship, you can relate to her in her journey."
— Elizabeth Stannard Gromisch, Feminist Review

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

New York Jewish Film Festival, January 2006

India International Women Film Festival, New Delhi, 2007

American Psychological Association Convention, Boston, 2008

Iranian Diaspora Film Screening, Philadelphia, PA, 2009

Iranian Diasporic Film Series, University of Leeds, UK, 2010

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