The Glass House: an Introspective on Iran
Taking a look at modern day Iran, Hamid Rahmanian’s documentary, The Glass House, follows a group of girls from the country’s underclass trying to break the chains of Iranian social segmentation by attending a one-of-kind rehabilitation center in uptown Tehran. With a virtually invisible camera, The Glass House takes viewers on a never-before-seen tour of the underclass of Iran with these girls’ brave and defiant stories of abandonment, drug addiction, sexual abuse, and hatred.
While Rahmanian’s career began in animation–earning a a B.F.A. from the University of Tehran in Graphic Design and a M.F.A. in Computer Animation in 1997 from Pratt Institute–he’s made what some would say is a seamless and fruitful transition into live action as he’s garnered nominations from two prestigious groups for his work. In animation the director won a student Emmy and was nominated for a Student Academy Award for The Seventh Day. His first 35 mm film, a 19 minute short, An I Within (1998), received Kodakʼs “Best Cinematography Award” and won “Best American Short” from the LA Intʼl Short Film Festival.
Shooting the movie on location in Tehran, Iran, Rahmanian’s goal was to develop a piece that could speak to a broad, international audience.
“We wanted to make a film that erased the boundaries of ‘place,’” Rahmanian says. “Our girlsʼ problems are not the issues of Iran but of modern urban societies. Our challenge was making a film that audiences around the world can relate to.
“We did not want people to come away from the film thinking these were the problems of others, like ‘Poor Iranian girls… Glad those are not our problems.’ By creating an un-ethnic modern soundtrack, choosing super wide shots of Tehran to emphasis the anonymity of the city, and following subjects that are confronting modern dilemmas, we were able to remove the label of ‘Iran-topic’ from the film and tell a universal story that audiences around the world can connect to and hopefully come away inspired,” Rahmanian says.
On top of directing, Rahmanian acted as cinematographer on The Glass House, shooting standard def DV,–and also did the editing for the documentary. Other postproduction work was done at Burbank’s Level3 Post, and FlickerLab, New York.
