Arts & Culture

A Response from PAAIA

PAAIA's response can be viewed at //iranian.com/main/blog/paaia/iranian-americans-documentary

BS

Actually, more Iranians escaped from the royal dictatorship than left due to the revolution. It's just that those who left due to the revolution stole enough money to pay for a lot of pr and get CIA funding for this kind of propaganda.

Encouraging + a pinch of "Party Bazi"

Any documentary about our community -  that is largely unknown as a collective to the American public, is encouraging.

However - , I do hope some of the claims below are not true - because I do agree that a documentary should not be funded by the people being interviewed in the same documentary. 

If PAAIA did indeed fund this or support this, I'm very surprised they didn't include others, and the comment here by Kabriat that those in the preview are associated in one form or another with PAAIA, is largely factually correct. Perhaps the broader program itself will be different and we need to watch it. (Even if it isn't, I still believe doing something is better than just sitting around moaning - and am overall encouraged.) By including "others" I mean, people completely not associated with PAAIA - from the dude who's opened up some  random roadside chelo-kabobi in Texas, to artsts like Shirin Neshat to say, the ladies running Moms agains Poverty. Or how about hardcore Democrat activists (to contrast Ms. Ameri, whom I respect, and worked with the Bush admisinstration.) I hope the documentary  showcases the wide range of voices of "Iranian-Americans." That we are Democrats, Independents, Republicans - that we left Iran for 1000s of different reasons - that we respect "plurality." That's the healthiest component of our community - how normal, and wide-ranging it is. Again, we haven't watched the whole program, and let's wait and see. Overall, any action is positive.

"Party Bazi" - ie. a form of Nepotism: - Sadly is such a deep part of our cultural fabric... You can't just wash it out after 2500 years. People do it without even being aware of what they're doing. Nevertheless, you have to start somewhere, and maybe the next time a group funds such a project, they'd make sure those appearing on it would be less glaringly aligned with those associated with their own organization, if that ends up being the case with this documentary. I often wonder how it is that we haven't learned some of the basic tenets of "democracy" after living in the US for some 30 years -  that if you can't tolerate "the other side", have to stick to your own team only,  then you won't be able to sustain your goals in the long run. That's why most monarchies became Republics. Still .... we have to watch the program and see the details first. Overall, and no matter what the dosage of nepotism,  I do think it is an encouraging effort.

Again, its not a documentary

It's not a documentary.  It's an advertisement.  The show is being supported by PAAIA, which in turn is funded in large part by Goli Ameri and has Hamid Biglari and Firouz Naderi as Board Members.  It's not suprising that over half of the individuals interviewed are PAAIA leaders or funders.  It's more to advertise their accomplishments rather than to document the experience of Iranian-Americans.  Think about it, if the show really was about the Iranian-American community, why does it predominantly highlight PAAIA's leaders??

Lets be honest, its just another scam.  It's not a documentary.

And what have Ameri and her family done to Iran?

Can you be clear on this Mr Ghaffari?

Take 2: We watched

the Shahs of Sunset

didn't we?

how much worse this documentary could be?

We have the Shah and his family being paraded in front of us 24/7.

Isn't it true?

Let's not speak of untrue, no one has seen this documentary yet!

The Naysayers only see the tree and not the forest, that's why they get lost easily. 

The problem is we have

the likes of Goli Ameri, who talks about family but forgot what her father, brother and family have done to Iran and continue to do so against the National Interests of the US.  I am disgusted that the likes of Ameri-Yazdi have to represent us here.

Looking Forward

to watch this program, thanks for posting here.

Not a real documentary

Whenever a documentary is funded by the people who are being interviewed, you know its not at all objective.  This is yet another attempt by PAAIA to create celebrities out of their funders and Board members.