Film Screening: The Glass House (2008, 92 min.)

• Event Date: Saturday, February 27, 2010
• Time: 7:00 pm (CST)
• Location: Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL
• Cost: Free Admission

• Film

Hamid Rahmanian, Director
Introduction and panel discussion lead by Professor Hadi Esfahani, Director, CSAMES
Panel participants: Noreen Sugrue (Research Associate, WGGP), Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi (Associate Professor, History), Ritu Saksena (Associate Director, CSAMES)

The Glass House, a featured film of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, skillfully examines the mostly hidden lives of young women, teetering on the fringes of Iranian society in modern Tehran. Marginalized by their families, these women have found a saving grace in a day center formed by an Iranian expatriate. Marjaneh Halati opened the center to give downtrodden young women a voice, thus empowering them with the life skills they need to succeed on their own. Many of these teens previously spent time in a jail, hospital, or state home because they had no other options. The young women see Marjaneh as both a mother figure and a mentor, and cherish her frequent visits from London. In superb cinema vérité style, spanning a period of 18 months, The Glass House deftly portrays a spirit of hopefulness as these young women, former victims of their society, are given the chance to express themselves and transform their difficult circumstances into new beginnings.

Film site (at sundance.org) (external link).

This event is presented by the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (CSAMES) in cooperation with the Spurlock Museum, and cosponsored by the Women and Gender in Global Perspectives Program and the Persian Cultural Association.