This screening is a part of the series "Hesitant Eyes, Turbulent Bodies: Documentaries on Contemporary Iran and Afghanistan".

What we see is not always what we expect to see. What we hear might just be static noise coming from afar. Nevertheless, we always yearn to see, to absorb, to imagine, to go beyond the here and now—especially if there is no other way to connect but through images. These three films by young Afghan and Iranian filmmakers are, above all, stories meant to unsettle the imagination. They create movements that flow between the films, between cities and urban landscapes, and between countries. They present visual experiences that not only urge the viewer to reflect but also to pause, to feel unhinged, and to observe the precarious lives of bodies whose passion and fierceness are often obstructed by a plethora of violence and uncertainty.

The Lowland (2021): Lowland is an intimate portrait of a community of undocumented migrant Afghan children, living and working as garbage collectors in the margins of Tehran. Over the course of five years, the two filmmakers, Sepideh and Aidin, documented their encounters with the children first as ethnographers and volunteer teachers, and later as filmmakers. The film is an assemblage of personal everyday stories and gestures shared by the children of the Lowland as powerful individuals rather than mere child workers.

Location: Critical Media Lab, Peterson Hall, Room 108.