Celluloid Underground
New: Documentaries
•
1h 20m
Directed by Ehsan Khoshbakht • Documentary • 2023 • 80 minutes
Celluloid Underground is an autobiographical feature-length documentary by Iranian filmmaker, writer and curator Ehsan Khoshbakht, about his experience of growing up in Iran after the 1979 revolution, when his love of cinema became the catalyst for his rebellion against the Islamic regime.
It’s the story of his friendship with the mysterious Ahmad, a maverick film collector who hid thousands of banned 35mm prints and posters in basements in downtown Tehran, to save them from the fundamentalist fanatics. Born just after the revolution, Ehsan grew up obsessed with all the movies he wasn’t allowed to see. He became Ahmad’s closest collaborator in the underground cinematheque, before escaping to a new life in London.
In Celluloid Underground, Ehsan celebrates the power of cinema to resist tyranny, and the unsung heroism of the friend who changed his life. From the pain of his exile, he questions whether their shared obsession was worth the price they each paid for it.
Up Next in New: Documentaries
-
The Fish Thief: A Great Lakes Mystery
Directed by Lindsey Haskin • Documentary • With J.K. Simmons • 2024 • 92 minutes
J.K. Simmons narrates THE FISH THIEF, which explores the mystery behind how and why the fish most prized by people nearly disappeared from the largest freshwater ecosystem on Earth: the Great Lakes. The story dramat...
-
Raid on the Atlantic
Directed by Nicolas Van Ingen • Documentary • 2023 • 52 minutes
West African waters have one of the richest fish stocks in the world. This has been a blessing for the people of the region.
Since the 1980’s, foreign powers have rushed to profit from this rich fish stock. European first, then Chi...
-
A Witch Story
Directed by Yolanda Pividal Garcia • Documentary • 2022 • 73 minutes
Young writer Alice was a teenager when she discovered something that changed her life forever: she was a descendant of Martha Allen Carrier, a woman hanged for witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. At 24, after scou...
