Interdition and identity: film and theater censorship in Iran Islamic Republic

• Grant number: 10/20886-5
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: May 01, 2011
• End date: April 30, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Communications
• Principal Investigator: Ferdinando Martins
• Grantee: Ferdinando Martins
• Host Institution: Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Many histories that arrive on western culture about the Islamic Republic of Iran are about the restraints to the right of information and artistic expression. However, the simple comparison the freedom of expression in western countries and the interdition practices in Iran are not enough for the understanding the complexity of the censorship femonena in this country. The project presented here deals with the censorship of cinema and theater in Iran after the 1979 revolution. It aims to investigate the governamental interdictions in order to comprehend the political and cultural parameters of the censorship practice. For such, it analyses the censorship and other ways, official or not, of retrainting the freedom of expression, from 1979 to 2010. The project includes bibliografical, documental, iconographic and AV research; researching trip; and interviews. In this way, it intends to build a spacial topography of the artistic field in Iran in order to put in evidence the relation of the agents with the censorship institutions and authorities, as well as other instances of repression. Besides, it contrasts the perceptions os the censorship practices and their interdictions to the reception of Iranian cultural products in the West. Doing so, it intends to get to a large comprehension of the artist fields and the censorship fenomena, considered as important issues for the contemporary world. (AU)