VHS Diaries

Directed by Niyaz Saghari

A tale of the love of cinema in the times of illegal video tapes.

The filmmaker revisits the diaries she kept during the years when video was banned in Iran. Using her personal VHS archive of films as a point of reference, the film explores a very personal film history with audio interviews with film historians, film buffs and those involved in the film black market. This is the story of an underground subculture of cinephiles hiding amongst the first Iranian post-revolution generation, who pursued their love for cinema despite strict government restrictions and the threat of imprisonment.