Sundance Film Festival Filmmaker Detained in Iran
The New York Times and the film blog Hot Splice are reporting that director James Longley was briefly detained along with his translator in the aftermath of the Iranian elections. Longley was the winner of the 2006 Sundance Film Festival Best Director, Documentary Award for his film IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS. He has been working in Iran on a new documentary when the riots broke out this weekend. His translator, who is Iranian, was beaten by the Iranian security forces and also briefly detained before Longley could get him released.
From James’ Email posted on Hot Splice:
“About three hours ago I was interviewing people on the street in downtown Tehran with my translator, not far from the Ministry of Interior building.
There were some riot police about 100 meters away at the other end of the street.
A couple people spoke to the camera – one young woman was saying that “The riot police are beating people like animals. The situation here is very bad; we need the UN to come and help with a recount of the votes!”
At about that time a plain-clothes security guy started grabbing my arm, and together with several uniformed police they dragged me and my translator off to the Ministry of Interior building.”
Check out the full text of Longley’s impassioned email about the incident here.
And see the New York Times ongoing reporting on the post-election protests and crackdown, including Longley’s arrest, here.
