Iranian filmmaker Tahmineh Milani, arrested earlier this year by Iran’s Revolutionary Council, faces execution if she is convicted of supporting anti-revolutionary groups outside of Iran and threatening national security through the misuse of the arts. At issue is Milani’s newest film The Hidden Half, which depicts tensions within Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Even though the Ministry of Culture approved the film for release, an Iranian court judge found nothing anti-fundamentalist in its content, and Iranian President Mohammed Khatami supported Milani after her arrest, she will still be tried. Filmmakers from across the globe, including Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Ali Kazimi, Ang Lee, Steven Soderbergh, Spike Lee, and Oliver Stone, have released a declaration of solidarity in support of Milani and are petitioning leaders in the Iranian government to drop the charges against her. Milani is a feminist and a well-known filmmaker in Iran. Her case is the first in which the Revolutionary Council has taken direct action against a specific filmmaker.
Media Resources: Declaration of Solidarity with Tahmineh Milani, LA Times, 10/26/01
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