Tribute to Iranians risking their lives to film dissent

Footage that went viral from Iran in late 2022 showed a woman being shot by security forces while she filmed a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests. Her last words — “Film it!” — helped guide Mehraneh Salimian and her partner Amin Pakparvar as they made their short documentary Memories of a Window, which premiered at the Berlin film festival and is dedicated to the slain woman, Shirin Alizadeh, and to the role of amateur videos in recording and emboldening dissent.

Now studying film in Chicago, Salimian and Pakparvar worked through a large trove of anonymous smartphone clips — they estimate about 2,000 — along with their own footage gathered in Tehran during the 2022–23 “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising. The film emphasises the perspective of people filming from behind car or home windows to hold authorities to account, a practice Salimian describes as “like a threshold, a site that was not in the street, but did not have the safety of the home.” Shirin Alizadeh was among those shooting from a car window when she was hit.

Iran, Tehran

iran, shirin alizadeh, mehraneh salimian, amin pakparvar, documentary, smartphone clips, car window, tehran, berlin festival, woman life