Pre Production
Production
Post Production
IRAN 1401 is a documentary aimed at familiarizing western audiences with the current state of the revolution in Iran, the history leading up to it, and the oppressions of the Islamic regime. Although social media and Farsi language channels like VOA and BBC Farsi cover the revolution in detail, there is little to no coverage in western media. The documentary aims to combat misinformation by making this knowledge accessible on major streaming services.
Given the fluidity of the situation in Iran, the documentary acknowledges that much of the information may become outdated in a matter of days or weeks. The production team will rely heavily on interviews, which will shape the narrative and timeline of the film. While a detailed timeline of the finished product is impractical prior to recording interviews and editing, the project goals include compiling a list of potential interviewees and questions that will help shape the narrative.
To this end, the team will travel to prestigious universities and colleges around the world to interview top academic authorities in Iranian Studies, Political Science, and International Relations. The production will begin at Stanford University, where the team will conduct interviews to extract and solidify the narrative for the documentary, allowing them to move forward strategically.
History/Intro: An Enemy from Within
The narrative structure of the documentary will begin by showing Iran and the modern similarities of Iranian lives to ours in the west as many of us are unaware of the reflecting architectural beauty of Iran. We will show our audience what these brave Iranian revolutionaries are fighting for. Not for greed, not for power, they are fighting for basic human rights that many in the west sometimes take for granted. Such as the freedom to choose what to wear in public.
Then in order to bridge past events to the current revolution, we will glance over the important events of the past century, specifically ones that relate directly to this revolution and could inform our decisions today. To explain this dynamic, we will examine the roles of Western Powers had in influencing Iran’s internal affairs during the 1953 coup and the 1979 Islamic revolution and how this interference directly affected the fragmented modern geopolitical sphere today.
Through the interviews, we will uncover the roots of the oppression behind the current regime, and will briefly review the past major protests in Iran - 1999 and 2009 to name a few - then dive deeper into the current revolution and the ongoing regime's human rights abuses since 1979. We will discuss how the Islamic regime’s authorities have ruthlessly cracked down on the protests with excessive and lethal force.
This documentary will briefly cover what external & internal factors have allowed this authoritarian regime to remain in power for decades. We hypothesize that the Islamic Regime’s attempt to drive out Iran’s intelligentsia class played a key role in the decentralization of government opposition. This hypothesis is one of the many questions that will be proven or rejected via the interviews.
Then we will explore the activists, journalists & minorities (the Baha’i, the Zoroastrian, the Kurdish and the Baloch to name a few) and their struggles under the Islamic regime in the past four decades. A free Iran means equality for all of these subcultural groups, not just those in favor with the ruling government. The contrast between the modern lives of Iranian youth today, and the atrocities of the Islamic regime in Iran will create a dramatic contrast between the good and bad, a David and Goliath story.
The Current State of Affairs: the Iran 1401 Revolution
The death of Zina-Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, ignited the 1401 Revolution in Iran on September 16, 2023. Decades of economic hardship and suppression under the Islamic Republic had created a ripe environment for revolution, and Zina's death served as the catalyst for the uprising. The protest that began as a show of solidarity for Zina quickly transformed into a sustained revolution that has now been ongoing for seven months.
This documentary section will examine the events of the past seven months in detail, as told by historians and political figures supported by research from the IRAN 1401 team. It will explore the experiences of Iranian youth both in Iran and abroad, as well as the significance of this leaderless revolution, led by women, and its implications for women's rights around the world.
For the first time, the people of Iran have united across the country to oppose the regime, including those in small villages, which is historically unprecedented. This is another sign that the revolution is nothing like the protests that came before it. (ex. 1999 & 2009)
Our interviewees will discuss how the revolution, if successful, could change the geopolitics of the Middle East and stop the atrocities committed by the Islamic regime. To achieve this, Western democratic nations must examine their past diplomacy, including policies such as the Truman Doctrine and the Global Report & operations like Operation AJAX, to understand why their actions have often gone against the values they promote, negatively impacting the global community and Iranian people. The Iranian people have called for Western democracies to put pressure on the Islamic regime and support democracy in Iran, but actions have not always matched their words.
Ultimately, as narrators, the documentary project will present the evidence and let the audience decide for themselves whether the actions of Western democracies prioritize supporting freedom or furthering their own self-interest.
Conclusion
Finding a solution to this issue is in everyone’s best interest, but Western countries must be willing to fully back the Iranian revolutionaries with action and not just empty talk. If they do wish to support the people then they should have a hardline policy against the Islamic Republic. We have seen this over and over again throughout U.S. history and the contemporary Western leaders are gearing up to make the same mistakes of their forebears. A new, free Iran must solely be created by the Iranian people without influence from any country other than Iran. This is the truest form of a democracy. Created for the people, by the people.
We’re treating this project as a research project in that we are here to learn. Socrates once said that the best form of learning is to teach. So we are learning in order to be able to teach. Meaning we are researching this complicated issue to find the best possible answers to help solve this issue and create a free Iran.
Because we don’t know the answer to these many of the questions we will be asking, we are going to ask the experts to find out during these interviews. We will remain open to learning and adapting throughout this whole production.
We hope that this documentary will inspire our Western audience to fall in love with Iran and the Iranian people. Then, in turn, do their own due diligence & research to combat misinformation and plead with their leaders to not make the same mistakes!
Coming up with a solution to the Islamic Regime in Iran's problem is a very complicated issue and there is no single right or wrong answer in the approach. While the principle is simple, the west should support the Iranian people in their quest for democracy.
Sample Interview Questions
