Iranian Film Showcase: Celluloid Underground
January 19 @ 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
The screening of Celluloid Underground is presented in collaboration with Mizna and Archives on Screen. Use Promo code TCICC24 for a $2 discount.
ABOUT THE FILM
After the Iranian Revolution, a movie collector in Tehran hid thousands of films to prevent their destruction by the new Islamic regime. Despite arrest and torture, he refused to give up his secret. His story of resistance and obsession is told by the boy who became his partner in crime, recalled years later from exile in London.
Celluloid Underground is an autobiographical feature-length documentary by Iranian filmmaker, writer and curator Ehsan Khoshbakht, about his experience of growing up in Iran after the 1979 revolution, when his love of cinema became the catalyst for his rebellion against the Islamic regime.
It’s the story of his friendship with the mysterious Ahmad, a maverick film collector who hid thousands of banned 35mm prints and posters in basements in downtown Tehran, to save them from the fundamentalist fanatics. Born just after the revolution, Ehsan grew up obsessed with all the movies he wasn’t allowed to see. He became Ahmad’s closest collaborator in the underground cinematheque, before escaping to a new life in London.