If you can't be out in the streets of Iran's cities with the protesters, this would be a good time to (re-)watch "Persepolis," Marjane Satrapi's animated memories of growing up under the Shah and the 1979 Iranian Revolution. (BTW, Satrapi herself has reportedly denounced the recent election results as fraud.)
And take a look at Mohsen Makhmalbaf's "A Moment of Innocence," a (sort of) reflection back on his time as an Islamic revolutionary, one particularly bad thing he did back then, and his subsequent evolution away from hardline ideology.
Personally, I'm rather hoped-out. As much as I'd love something wonderful to come out of this mess, I have trouble seeing this revolution lead to a better result than the last one. It just stinks of farce, doing in the name of someone who stinks to high-heavens like Mousavi. Although things have moved beyond him, which may mean that the way for a real revolution...
On that note, now is as good a time as any to call even further attention to Iranian cinema. I've always loved what Ebert said in the preface of "The Great Movies", about how movies are "of all the arts, the most powerful aid to empathy", and Iranian cinema certainly combats the portrait of Iran that dominates our Western culture--- as fundamentalist terrorists, hungry for nuclear war. But as was discussed in your last post, the news has become less about objectivity and truth than sensationalism and distortions. Keeping Iranian films (foreign films in general) out of cinemas throughout most of the U.S. is part of that larger xenophobia, and the mass-media panders to that.
In a recent Guardian article, the Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf said that "Mousavi returned to the world of artists because in a country where there are no real political parties, artists can act as a party."
In that same article he discusses what has added to that image of Iranians as war hungry extremists, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad himself. He refers to him as the Country's equivalent of George W. Bush. And, just as George Bush's leadership seem to validate the worst notions that the international community had about our country and its people (The American Cowboy, money hungry, power hungry, imperialist, and self-centered), so did Ahmadinejad seem to confirm the shallow view that many people held of Iran (or the mid-east in general).
I'm fascinated with the idea of Iranian cinema. But the only one I've seen is Kiarustami's Ten, which was fascinating as a social document, but not a kind of filmmaking that thrills me. Can anyone recommend a film or filmmaker of a different type?
I thought Children of Heaven was a wonderful film.
My comment does not have (much) to do with Iranian cinema...
...but I am reminded of the comment Gwynne Dyer made about the Palestinian election, which Hamas won (at least the part that elects legislators to their assembly - Fatah still won the Presidency in the person of Mahmoud Abbas).
Mr. Dyer commented that everyone in the west at the time liked democratic elections, except when they produce results the west doesn't like.
Now it seems that the Iranian election has produced results the Iranians themselves don't like, and they're dealing with it by themselves.
Though I can't say I'm surprised by this. If Iranian cinema is half as good as Roger Ebert and you have said, Jim, then art once more is both a mirror of society and the star it steers by - at least for part of Iranian society.
Not to be that guy, but there's a gulf of difference between watching a movie and doing something useful. I've got a feeling that the citizens of Iran don't exactly care whether you're watching Peresopolis or Transformers 2 right now.
If you want to do something useful, donate money to the Red Cross or other relief organziations. Those poor people will be needing them by the time this is over.
JE: I see no reason those things need to be mutually exclusive, do you? (That would be as silly as implying that the Obama administration isn't serious about pursuing its political goals because the president is appearing on TV too much!) And after the horrifying death of a young woman named Neda Soltan [http://budurl.com/kh5m], who was shot in the protests this weekend, it might indeed be enlightening to understand the point of view of another Iranian woman, Marjane Satrapi, who wrote and drew "Persepolis" about her own experiences growing up in Iran, under the Shah and the 1979 revolution. Knowledge, understanding and empathy are often necessary preconditions for action.
I agree with JE and Ryan Kelly above -- good movies can help us understand other people we don't know and places we've never been.
The most interesting movies I've seen about life in contemporary Iran are Kiarostami's TEN and CLOSE-UP and Jafar Panahi's OFFSIDE and CRIMSON GOLD.
Btw, we all know that Makhmalbaf is Mousavi's offical EU spokesman, right? How cool is that?
Regarding your response to a comment above, Jim, I couldn't agree with you more. Knowledge is power, but it's also a whole lot more than that; it is what enables us to make morally right decisions. And that is why I insist that movies can be more than entertainment.
Update:
One of the actors in Kiarostami's TEN has been arrested and tortured by the secret police in Tehran:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/anthony/archives/iranian_filmmakers_stand_up_against_post-election_injustices_ten_actor_abdu/
I've seen TEN twice. It's a film in which all of the actors are playing versions of themselves. So now I don't just feel like I know people like the ones in Iran who are suffering -- I really know someone who is suffering. I've spent 3 hours with him. And in that time, he's told me more about his life (at least at the moment the film was made ) than most of my casual acquaintances and co-workers. So much for filmgoing being too passive or otherwise far removed from "real" life.