Video about Iran
Here's a reason to ignore the camera phone videos of Tehran that I found on YouTube awhile back.Juliette Zener, who teaches comparative government at Newton Country Day School in Newton, MA., wrote that she "came across this fantastic BBC documentary on the lives of average Iranians from Feb of this year."
She added, "Thought you might like to pass it along to folks on your list serv."
I haven't seen the whole thing yet, but I do recommend that you consider using it with your students studying about Iran.
I'm always thankful for images that fill in the blanks left by my lack of imagination and textbook descriptions. This video does this many times over.
The one-and-a-half hour video is Rageh inside Iran. It comes from former BBC reporter Rageh Omaar. The BBC description says,
"Rageh Omaar embarks on a unique journey inside what he describes as one of the most misunderstood countries in the world, looking at the country through the eyes of people rarely heard - ordinary Iranians.
"It took a year of wrangling to get permission to film inside Iran but the result is an amazing portrayal of an energetic and vibrant country that is completely different to the usual images seen in the media.
"Rageh soon discovers that Tehran is a complex place and uncovers a city of extremes of wealth and poverty, where some people survive on less than a dollar a day and others shop till they drop in glitzy shopping malls.
"Iran is a country that bans women from riding motorcycles but where 60 per cent of the student population is female. It is also a youthful place, with two thirds of Iran's 70 million population under the age of 30.
"Rageh meets with local people to hear their personal stories and feelings about the current state of affairs in Iran. There are stories of taxi drivers, wrestlers, business women, people working with drug addicts and the country's leading pop star and his manager - the 'Simon Cowell' of Iran.
"Rageh Inside Iran transcends images of angry demonstrations and burning flags to reveal a country that isn't without its problems but which is also fascinating, dynamic and hospitable."
The scenic shots and the faces and voices of individuals really do make my mental pictures of the place and the people more realistic than the images inspired by the black and white words in books.
It's a long program, but it looks like it should be pretty easy to select segments to use in class. In addition a number of related videos are accessible at the GoogleVideo site where the program is offered.
And in case you want shorter segments already packaged, I searched for Rageh at YouTube. Several scenes from the program (4 - 10 minutes) are available there.
If you're going to be teaching about Iran in the future (even next semester), now's the time to take a look at this video and begin preparing teaching plans to use it.
Labels: civil society, culture, Iran, pedagogy, political culture
posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:22 AM
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