ALBORZ, WE CLIMB MOUNTAINS (2023): Screening & Conversation

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ALBORZ, WE CLIMB MOUNTAINS (2023)

FOLLOWED BY DISCUSSION WITH THE FILMMAKER & GUEST SCHOLAR

Join us for a film screening of ALBORZ, WE CLIMB MOUNTAINS (2023) and discussion with filmmaker Maryam Sepehri in conversation with Dr. Mahdi Ganjavi. Film is in Persian with English subtitles. Discussion will be in English and Persian.

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About the film

ALBORZ, WE CLIMB MOUNTAINS (2023, 86 min), tells the story of Alborz high school during many tumultuous years in Iran’s modern history, from the perspectives of its graduates and teachers, as well as famed Iranian educator Dr. Mohammad-Ali Mojtahedi’s own voice from archival recordings; it tells it with humor, fondness, and nostalgia for a bygone era. It exemplifies what has been lost in the years since the 1979 Revolution and why today so many among the bright and promising young Iranians sound critical of current policies and administrative mishandling of one of their country's once top educational institutions. Watch the film trailer here.

Organized by the Northwestern University Colloquium for Global Iran Studies (CoGIS), and co-sponsored by the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities and the School of Education and Social Policy. 

About the guest speakers

Maryam Sepehri is an award-winning, Iranian-American documentary filmmaker.Initially earning a medical degree, she went on to work in a lab where she quickly realized her heart was in filmmaking and so educated herself in her true vocation. After achieving a B.A. in filmmaking and an M.A. in photography she pursued documentary filmmaking, focusing on human expression and learning. She has made several well-received documentaries, winning a number of prestigious awards as well as having a number of short stories published. 

Mahdi Ganjavi, PhD (University of Toronto), is a distinguished historian of education in the Middle East and currently teaches at the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on the transnational history of books, education, print, and translation, as well as the politics of archives and counter-archiving practices in the contemporary Middle East. Ganjavi’s book, Education and the Cultural Cold War in the Middle East: The Franklin Book Programs in Iran, (2023) has received the Middle East Librarian Associations (MELA) 2023 book award.

FREE & OPEN TO ALL

Contact The Block Museum of Art for more information: (847) 491-4000 or email us at block-museum@northwestern.edu