Namak Magazine - Redlines and Deadlines Documentary

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The Art of Journalism:
Filmmaker documents reformist newspaper, Sharg
by Maggie Pour
Namak Magazine, Summer 2005 - pg. 18

Taghi Amirani had been planning on making a film about Iran for several years. After thirty documentaries, Red Lines and Deadlines, a film about journalism in Iran’s highly censored media, is his first about the country. The Iranian-born filmmaker was waiting for the right subject all these years. “It was like a long courtship,” he said. “I had to do something different to the usual clichés that come out of Iran.”

Amirani never forgot the day his family’s first television was delivered to their house in Southern Tehran. “I was hooked,” he said. “I can still smell the old black and white Telefunken set.” Amirani first picked up a camera sometime when he was between ten and twelve years old; filming and photographing his family was his first hobby. “I had a Super 8 projector and would screen Harold Lloyd and Laurel and Hardy movies for my siblings in my bedroom,” he said. Some afternoons, Amirani would skip school to go to the cinema, and thanks to his father, cameras and projectors became his toys.

What inspired Amirani to make a film was Shargh, a leading pro-reformist newspaper in Iran. “Some have the option of leaving and shouting from abroad. But [these journalists] choose to stay,” he said. Journalists in today’s Iran are working under tough conditions and their daily struggle reveals a great deal about life in Iran. “Shargh presented an opportunity to hold up a mirror to some parts of contemporary Iranian society,” said Amirani. Most Western coverage of Iran is simplistic, just black and white. But Amirani wanted to make an honest film.

Amirani believes that “things are far too complex in Iran.” The documentary features editors constantly evaluating what stories to print without crossing the indefinable Red Line – an ever changing set of censorship rules imposed on Iranian press. Some journalists argue it is necessary to self-censor to prevent crossing the Red Line if they are to survive and continue having a relationship with their readers. “They don’t see any value in heroically crossing the Red Line, getting shut down and losing that vital link with the people, which they have so painstakingly established,” said Amirani. As Shargh’s Director of Policy, Mohammad Atrianfar said in the film: “the art of a journalist is to be able to write about society’s problems in such a way people understand, and in a way the government can’t touch you.”

But one day Shargh did say too much and the government closed the paper. It returned under the same name, unlike so many others, only when editor, Mohammad Ghoochani, apologized. “The staff learned not to criticize the leaders,” said Ghoochani. “So the press is retreating, like soldiers, only to advance again.”

This conflict between the press and the regime is shaping the movement for reform. According to Ghoochani, critics of the regime have learned to accept that confrontation is not constructive in bringing reform. Journalists, along with reformists, have learned that planting the seeds of democracy requires the press to play a game. According to Amirani, journalists and reformists believe in gradual reform from within. “They believe sudden changes in Iranian history have not worked,” he said.

According to one Shargh staffer, Sahar Namazikhah, social affairs reporters are at the forefront of cultural change and have become the link between the people and authorities. A high percentage of journalists across the country are female (as reflected in Shargh’s staff) and so women are seen as leaders in advocating change. According to Amirani, journalists believe this is because women are more aware of social issues and have a better understanding of society’s problems. “Although they wouldn’t make this grand claim that they’re teaching democracy to their readers, they are trying to reform a culture that is not fully familiar with democratic norms,” said Amirani.

Amirani’s message for aspiring filmmakers interested in bringing Iranian issues to the screen is to immerse themselves in the country and try to understand its complexities. Since clichés sell more easily in America, it is the filmmaker’s responsibility to try harder to bring issues to the screen and fix Iran’s problems politically, socially and culturally, according to Amirani. “Go there,” he says. “Dig deep. Don’t swallow Western ideas of Iran and do not regurgitate what you think people [in America] want to see.” A good documentary should reveal more than just the surface subject, but must have layers. “Iran is not black and white. It’s more like a colorful and intricately woven silk Persian carpet that can appear different in different lights.”