Workshop presented by Homa Sarabi and Yasaman Baghban

This panel investigates the strategies employed in post revolutionary Iranian cinema to resist the rigorous and unforgiving censorship apparatus imposed after the regime change. Recurring themes and protagonists, such as children, villagers, nomads and working-class urban citizens were not merely evasions of censorship, but a deliberately poetic and allegorical visual language with deep cultural roots. Filmmakers such as Abbas Kiarostami, Bahram Beyzai, Jafar Panahi, Amir Naderi and Majid Majidi developed forms that satisfied the new moral-aesthetic of the Islamic Regime while also retaining space for layered critiques. Drawing from theories of allegory and close readings of five films, this panel will show how films can translate restrictions on gendered representation—especially urban modern womanhood—into ethics of looking, parable structures, and self-reflexive modes, where cinema is a tool and subject of resistance.

Presenter Bios

Homa is an Iranian-born artist, educator, and curator, living in the U.S. Working across film, installation, and socially engaged practices, her work explores the intersection of personal and political, investigates collective memories, and researches contemporary histories. She teaches media and visual arts, and her curatorial interest spans from experimental cinema to international, independent, and documentary films. Her practice bridges the poetic and the political, often drawing from research, collaborative processes, and her roots in Iranian culture and literature.

Yasaman Baghban is an experimental and documentary filmmaker, educator, and film programmer based in the United States. She earned an MA in Cinema Studies from Tehran University of Art and an MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts from Duke University in 2023. Her short films have been screened at international festivals including True/False, the Atlanta Film Festival, the Female Eye Film Festival, Cucalorus, and others. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Visual and Cultural Studies at the University of Rochester. Her research interests include transnational, diaspora, and political cinema, as well as essay films, archival practices, and nonfiction art studies.

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