Arts

2026 UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema Please note: Registration does not guarantee entry if the event reaches capacity. Admission is granted on a first come, first served basis. Patrons who have registered will need to obtain their free tickets at the box office, where seating will be assigned. Any seats remaining 15 minutes before showtime will be released to standby patrons. Screening 1 of 2 Where the Winds Die Year: 2021 Country: Iran Language: Persian with English subtitles Runtime: 13 min. Digital. Color. Farhang Short Film Festival 3rd prize winner A Kurdish city in western Iran, Sardasht was the target of a chemical weapons attack in 1987. Director Pejman Alipour captures the moment the city’s peaceful calm was shattered in this powerful, watercolor-style animated short. DCP. Director/Screenwriter: Pejman Alipour. Screening 2 of 2 Black Rabbit, White Rabbit Year: 2025 Country: Tajikistan/United Arab Emirates Language: Tajik, Persian and Russian with English subtitles Runtime: 139 min. Digital. Color. Tajikistan's submission to the Oscars for Best International Feature Film, Black Rabbit, White Rabbit finds writer-director Shahram Mokri working at the top of his cinematic game. On a film set for the remake of a classic Iranian film, the crew’s armorer worries that a prop gun may not be what it seems and a mysterious young woman arrives to demand an audition. Meanwhile, at a well-appointed villa, a woman recovering from a car accident discovers she may be the target of a murder plot. In Mokri’s inimitable style, long camera takes and elliptical editing blur time and space, visions and reality, history and fiction. DCP. Director: Shahram Mokri. Screenwriters: Shahram Mokri, Nasim Ahmadpour. With: Babak Karimi, Hasti Mohammaï, Kibriyo Dilyobova.

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2026 UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema Please note: Registration does not guarantee entry if the event reaches capacity. Admission is granted on a first come, first served basis. Patrons who have registered will need to obtain their free tickets at the box office, where seating will be assigned. Any seats remaining 15 minutes before showtime will be released to standby patrons. In person: curators Arta Barzanji, Hadi Alipanah (via video) Cinema-ye Azad, or Free Cinema, was an underground movement of filmmakers in Iran that began in 1969, with the explicit aim of creating a fully independent cinema opposed to the mainstream “Filmfarsi” in both form and content, methods and ideals. Where the better-known, contemporaneous Iranian New Wave predominantly consisted of foreign-educated, Tehran-based middle-class filmmakers, Cinema-ye Azad consisted of self-taught filmmakers, sharing resources and knowledge with one another to bring the possibility of cultural production to disadvantaged provinces. At its height, Cinema-ye Azad boasted hundreds of active members, a critical magazine and festivals around the country, but the dream was short-lived as the movement ceased activities after the revolution. Its works, however, are being rediscovered thanks to the dedication of curators and archivists in London and Iran. As part of this year's UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema, the Archive is pleased to present two screenings highlighting the films of two key Cinema-ye Azad figures, Nasib Nasibi and Behnam Jafari. Program curated by Arta Barzanji and Shaghayegh Raoufi with research and archival support from Hadi Alipanah. Film notes written by Arta Barzanji. Screening 1 of 2 From Isfahan to Abarkooh Year: 1970 Country: Iran Language: Persian with English subtitles Runtime: 23 min. Digital. B&W. A report on historical buildings, legends and traditions along the route from Isfahan to Shiraz, passing through regions including Mahyar, Shahreza, Ziaratgah, Aminabad, and Izadkhast. The film mixes documentary observation with the poetic vision seen in Nasib Nasibi’s later works. DCP. Director: Nasib Nasibi. Screenwriters: Nasib Nasibi, Abbas Nalbandian. With: Bahram Ardabili. Screening 2 of 2 How Frightening Is the Darkness of the Soul! Year: 1972 Country: Iran Language: Persian with English subtitles Runtime: 60 min. Digital. B&W. How Frightening Is the Darkness of the Soul! is an avant-garde film poem about drowning in a world of madness in search of true liberation. It highlights the close connections between literary and theatrical circles and the filmmaker's approach to avant-garde cinema. Initially, the main character attempts to escape the monotony of daily life by immersing herself in a world of madness. The film is a journey through the path she takes. Director: Nasib Nasibi. Screenwriters: Nasib Nasibi, Abbas Nalbandian. With: Mahvash Bargi, Farhad Majd Abadi, Shokooh Najm Abadi.

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2026 UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema Please note: Registration does not guarantee entry if the event reaches capacity. Admission is granted on a first come, first served basis. Patrons who have registered will need to obtain their free tickets at the box office, where seating will be assigned. Any seats remaining 15 minutes before showtime will be released to standby patrons. In person: curators Arta Barzanji, Hadi Alipanah (via video). Cinema-ye Azad, or Free Cinema, was an underground movement of filmmakers in Iran that began in 1969, with the explicit aim of creating a fully independent cinema opposed to the mainstream “Filmfarsi” in both form and content, methods and ideals. Where the better-known, contemporaneous Iranian New Wave predominantly consisted of foreign-educated, Tehran-based middle-class filmmakers, Cinema-ye Azad consisted of self-taught filmmakers, sharing resources and knowledge with one another to bring the possibility of cultural production to disadvantaged provinces. At its height, Cinema-ye Azad boasted hundreds of active members, a critical magazine and festivals around the country, but the dream was short-lived as the movement ceased activities after the revolution. Its works, however, are being rediscovered thanks to the dedication of curators and archivists in London and Iran. As part of this year's UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema, the Archive is pleased to present two screenings highlighting the films of two key Cinema-ye Azad figures, Nasib Nasibi and Behnam Jafari. Program curated by Arta Barzanji and Shaghayegh Raoufi with research and archival support from Hadi Alipanah. Film notes written by Arta Barzanji. Screening 1 of 5 Abandoned Heights Year: 1972 Country: Iran Language: Persian with English subtitles Runtime: 18 min. Digital. B&W. Every day, a young man plays his trumpet from the top of a half-finished building while facing the city. Ambiguous happenings around him suggest the outlines of what may lurk below the peaceful surface of society. DCP. Director/Screenwriter: Behnam Jafari. With: Nematollah Gorji, Ahmad Amini, Hassan Seifi. Screening 2 of 5 Scream (Vol. 2) Year: 1972 Country: Iran Language: Persian with English subtitles Runtime: 13 min. Digital. Color. This satirical collage of Iranian cinema stages a confrontation between the ethos of the commercial “Filmfarsi” and the artistic ambitions of the New Wave cinema. In a direct reference to Cinema-ye Azad, the film ends with the arrest and exile of young amateur filmmakers from professional cinema. DCP. Director/Screenwriter: Behnam Jafari. With: Khosrow Haritash, Said Oveissi, Zari Khoshkam. Screening 3 of 5 Let Us Live Year: 1972 Country: Iran Language: Persian with English subtitles Runtime: 13 min. Digital. Color. This film follows the restless lives of two young pickpockets through the labyrinth of seedy streets and shadowy alleyways, in a world where every day ends in triumph or ruin. DCP. Director/Screenwriter: Behnam Jafari. With: Davood Teymouri, Naser Tarighat, Ghazal Irandoust. Screening 4 of 5 Tell the Watchmen Not to Let Sleep Deceive Year: 1970 Country: Iran Language: Persian with English subtitles Runtime: 20 min. Digital. Color. A social portrait of two young lovers that reflects the larger prejudices of society. DCP. Director/Screenwriter: Behnam Jafari. With: Farhad pour Azam, Shirin Jannesari, Behrouz Razavi. Screening 5 of 5 MirNasir and the Ill-Fated Genie Year: 1974 Country: Iran Language: Persian with English subtitles Runtime: 67 min. Digital. B&W. In his cinematic debut, Saeed Poursamimi plays a former inmate who frees a genie from a bottle. After thousands of years of captivity in the bottle, the genie finds himself in a world that has been completely transformed by its people’s beliefs. The two embark on a bitter journey to find the remnants of the forgotten magical realm. Director Behnam Jafari uses stark visuals and provocative metaphors to explore the impossibility of relying on traditional myths in the face of a new world. DCP. Director/Screenwriter: Behnam Jafari. With: Saeed Poursamimi, Hamid Taati, Mohammad Poursattar.

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2026 UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema Please note: Registration does not guarantee entry if the event reaches capacity. Admission is granted on a first come, first served basis. Patrons who have registered will need to obtain their free tickets at the box office, where seating will be assigned. Any seats remaining 15 minutes before showtime will be released to standby patrons. In person: director Parviz Sayyad, actor Mary Apick. Screening 1 of 2 Checkpoint Year: 1987 Country: U.S. Language: English and Persian with English subtitles Runtime: 91 min. 35mm. Color. During the height of the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, a busload of Iranian college students returning to the U.S. after a field trip in Canada are thrown into political and legal limbo when they’re refused entry at the border. A ripped-from-the-headlines urgency drives writer-director Parviz Sayyad’s Checkpoint as the students split along factional lines in their struggle to reclaim their rights and dignity. Executive producer Mary Apick also leads a committed ensemble cast that never loses sight of the fragile, individual humanity ever at risk amid grand ideological clashes. Director/Screenwriter: Parviz Sayyad. With: Mary Apick, Houshang Touzie, Parviz Sayyad. Screening 2 of 5 Dead End Year: 1977 Country: Iran Language: Persian with English subtitles Runtime: 95 min. Digital. Color. This provocative film stars Mary Apick as a young woman who is drawn to a mysterious suitor haunting the dead-end street where she lives, only to discover that he is not what he seems and she and her family may be in danger. A giant of Iranian cinema, writer-director Parviz Sayyad rose to fame as the star of the commercial Samad film and television series before producing some of the key works of the Iranian New Wave, including films by Sohrab Shahid Saless, Ebrahim Golestan and Dariush Mehrjui. Based on a short story by Anton Chekhov, Dead End plays with themes of voyeurism and surveillance in a society on the verge of radical transformation. DCP. Director: Parviz Sayyad. Screenwriter: Parviz Sayyad, Houshang Baharlou. With: Mary Apick, Parviz Bahador, Apick Yousefian.

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2026 UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema Please note: Registration does not guarantee entry if the event reaches capacity. Admission is granted on a first come, first served basis. Patrons who have registered will need to obtain their free tickets at the box office, where seating will be assigned. Any seats remaining 15 minutes before showtime will be released to standby patrons. Year: 2025 Country: Iran/U.S./France/Canada Language: Persian with English subtitles Runtime: 107 min. Digital. Color. Family secrets and betrayals explode in the most riveting video call you’ve ever seen. Writer-director Homayoun Ghanizadeh transforms the familiar stacked boxes of talking heads we all live with these days into a dazzling, high-wire act of storytelling and performance when three generations of an Iranian family are confronted by the son of a former family servant over the fate of the stately family home back in Iran. Ghanizadeh’s riveting, all-star ensemble — Golshifteh Farahani, Payman Maadi, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Ali Nasirian, Shirin Neshat — delivers an acting tour de force that deliberately transcends the bounds of the film’s form. DCP. Director/Screenwriter: Homayoun Ghanizadeh. With: Golshifteh Farahani, Shirin Neshat, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Ali Nasirian, Payman Maadi.

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2026 UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema lease note: Registration does not guarantee entry if the event reaches capacity. Admission is granted on a first come, first served basis. Patrons who have registered will need to obtain their free tickets at the box office, where seating will be assigned. Any seats remaining 15 minutes before showtime will be released to standby patrons. Screening 1 of 2 The Granny and Fishes Year: 2025 Country: Iran Language: Persian with English subtitles Runtime: 27 min. Digital. Color. Farhang Short Film Festival 1st prize winner After ill-conceived irrigation projects and drought rendered Lake Hamun on the Iran-Afghanistan border a dust bowl, hundreds of villagers migrated away, except for an old woman whose solitary routine of gathering up dead fish is the subject of this quietly compelling documentary. DCP. PDirectors/Screenwriters: Maria Mavati, Ehsan Farokhi Fard. Screening 2 of 2 Woman and Child Year: 2025 Country: Iran Language: Persian with English subtitles Runtime: 131 min. Digital. Color. After the powerhouse family drama Leila’s Brothers (2023 UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema) led to a jail sentence in Iran, writer-director Saeed Roustaee returned to Cannes last year with this more diffuse but still devastating story about a woman seemingly under siege from all sides. Parinaz Izadyar stars as Mahnaz, a nurse and widow with two children, including a rebellious teenage son, looking forward to starting over with new partner Hamid (Payman Maadi) until a sudden tragedy and a shocking betrayal sets Mahnaz on a desperate course of revenge against the school system, the courts and her own family. DCP. Director/Screenwriter: Saeed Roustaee. With: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi, Soha Niasti.

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In person: chef and restaurateur Alice Waters. Director Alfonso Arua’s Like Water for Chocolate was an arthouse sensation when first released and still defines the evocative power of food in film. Based on Laura Esquivel’s novel, its sensuous tale of forbidden love unfolds in early 20th-century Mexico when Tita is bound by family tradition to remain unmarried to care for her mother. Prevented from acting on her love for the handsome Pedro, she pours her passion and heartbreak into her cooking which has a magical, intoxicating effect on those who consume it. The intimacy of the heart and the intimacy of the kitchen transform culinary preparation into a powerful expression of desire, rebellion and yearning.—Senior Public Programmer Paul Malcolm Director: Alfonso Arau. Screenwriter: Laura Esquivel. With: Lumi Cavazos, Marco Leonardi, Regina Torné. 35mm print courtesy of the Sundance Collection at the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

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In person: Q&A with actor David Selby and historian Jim Pierson, editor of Dark Shadows Noir: Classic Black and White Photography From the Dan Curtis Productions Archive. Book signing with Pierson before the screening. Guest speaker Made possible by the John H. Mitchell Television Programming Endowment. Premiering on June 27, 1966, on ABC-TV, Dark Shadows (1966–71) represented an outré experiment in daytime television that became an unexpected breakout hit and evergreen cult classic. Created by horror-maestro Dan Curtis (The Night Stalker, Trilogy of Terror), the innovative soap opera, which initially struggled in the ratings, expanded greatly in popularity in its second year with the addition of a 175-year-old charismatic vampire character named Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid). As the eerily atmospheric series evolved to fuse gothic supernatural elements and romance into complex storylines, it developed a passionate youth following and became a pop culture phenomenon. In the process, the videotaped series earned the distinction of being the first soap to spawn a theatrical motion picture spin-off, House of Dark Shadows (1970), and several additional feature films and reboots. The beloved original series ran for over 1,200 episodes before its abrupt cancellation in 1971. In the ensuing decades, the aura surrounding Dark Shadows has only intensified, with the influential program enjoying nearly constant reruns in syndication, luring an influx of new viewers into the mysterious, shadow-drenched world of the wealthy Collins family of fictional Collinsport, Maine. Join us for a celebration of Dark Shadows, exactly 60 years to the day of its premiere, including the debut episode and rare archival footage. Before the screening, historian Jim Pierson will sign copies of Dark Shadows Noir: Classic Black and White Photography from the Dan Curtis Productions Archive. Following the screening, there will be a Q&A with Dark Shadows star, actor David Selby, and Jim Pierson. Programmed and note written by John H. Mitchell Television Curator Mark Quigley.

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Presented by UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Hammer Museum. The Billy Wilder Theater opens 15 minutes before each Family Flicks program.

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In person: director Karen Arthur; editor Carol Littleton; Paula Chambers, daughter of screenwriter and actor Joan Hotchkis; Eric Morris, acting teacher and director of the theatrical production of Legacy. Guest speaker Legacy is the story of Bissie Hapgood, a woman unraveling under the pressures of a vapid and materialistic society consumed with dinner-plate settings, soap operas and sexual frustration. The material originated as a one-woman show in 1973, written and performed by Joan Hotchkis, a versatile talent celebrated for her roles on television series including The Odd Couple and The Life and Times of Eddie Roberts. Karen Arthur, a first-time filmmaker, saw Hotchkis on stage and convinced the actor to adapt the screenplay and star in the film. Independently produced and financed, Legacy, like its peers Wanda (1970) and A Woman Under the Influence (1974), confounds 1970s Hollywood’s expectations with the introduction of a new kind of cinematic woman. Bissie stuns audiences with her honesty that is confrontational, yet heartfelt and a vulnerability that is never sentimental and always surprising. Legacy features an exceptional crew at the start of what would become a set of accomplished careers. Arthur, who would go on to direct The Mafu Cage (1978) and become a prolific television director, winning an Emmy Award for Cagney & Lacey, collaborated with cinematographer John Bailey (Ordinary People, 1980, In the Line of Fire, 1993) and editor Carol Littleton (E.T., 1982, The Manchurian Candidate, 2004). Note written by Archive Research and Study Center Officer Maya Montañez Smukler.

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Presented by UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Hammer Museum. The Billy Wilder Theater opens 15 minutes before each Family Flicks program.

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