Come see The Crowd at the 2025 Seattle International Film Festival.

"A sweet tribute to those leaving and those who have left." —Michael McKinney, The Stranger

Since the rise of recent social movements in Iran, there has been a new wave of filmmaking characterized by films that openly challenge the rules of state censorship. Such is The Crowd, a first feature from director Sahand Kabiri, who drew on his own experience to create this vibrant portrait of a younger generation who are determined to live life on their own terms.

Come see The Crowd at the 2025 Seattle International Film Festival.

"A sweet tribute to those leaving and those who have left." —Michael McKinney, The Stranger

Since the rise of recent social movements in Iran, there has been a new wave of filmmaking characterized by films that openly challenge the rules of state censorship. Such is The Crowd, a first feature from director Sahand Kabiri, who drew on his own experience to create this vibrant portrait of a younger generation who are determined to live life on their own terms.

In “The Dawn is Too Far: Stories of Iranian-American Life” we share the powerful narratives of individuals from the Bay Area Iranian diaspora community, who contribute to and creatively respond to their history, and indeed add to the richness of this region.

At a time when immigrants, primarily from black and brown communities--from Mexico, to the Caribbean, and the Middle East-- have been vilified and stereotyped as criminals, drug-runners and terrorists, it is especially important to hear the real story of immigrants.

Q & A with the director following the show.

In “The Dawn is Too Far: Stories of Iranian-American Life” we share the powerful narratives of individuals from the Bay Area Iranian diaspora community, who contribute to and creatively respond to their history, and indeed add to the richness of this region.

At a time when immigrants, primarily from black and brown communities--from Mexico, to the Caribbean, and the Middle East-- have been vilified and stereotyped as criminals, drug-runners and terrorists, it is especially important to hear the real story of immigrants.

Q & A with the director following the show.

This documentary is about the life of “Habibeh”, a self-taught painter who, according to her, has created 4000 works with her special tools and techniques during seven years. For “Habibeh”, art is a medium to endure the imposed and unwanted sufferings of her life. Habibeh’s works had not been widely displayed until the making of this film.

There will be a discussion session following the film.

A timely documentary film about exiles in America and the families they left behind, MOUTH HARP IN MINOR KEY sheds light on the dynamics of our contemporary times, beset by globalization and consolidation of capital and media, on the one hand, and by fragmentation and disruptions of nation-states, on the other.

In this film, Iranian filmmaker Maryam Sepehry follows the eminent film scholar Hamid Naficy in the United States and his family in Iran. It is a documentary portrait that elucidates the complexities of personal identity in a globalized world, where individual, national, and transnational forces interact.

Q & A with the director following the show.

"Impasse" a long awaited documentary on the "Woman Life Freedom" movement in Iran , written and produced by Bahman Kiarostami and Rahmaneh Rabani. The film depicts 52 Days of Rahmaneh’s life in the beginning days of the Woman Life Freedom movement after Mahsa Jina Amini's death. English subtitled. Rahmaneh spent her first two decades fully veiled, like her mother Elaheh, as part of a deeply religious family. Now 37, she is at the forefront of Iran’s protest movement and at odds with her father and the culture he created.

Event made possible by a grant from the City of Bellevue

Jamshid, an Iranian American school counselor, builds a world-class Ultimate Frisbee team from the immigrant and refugee students arriving at his inner-city public school in Seattle.

An intrepid filmmaker tracks the Taliban’s first year in power in the wake of the United States’ Afghanistan withdrawal, centering on an air force chief and a low-level fighter as the fundamentalist sect takes over a former American military base known as the Hollywood Gate complex.

As the Taliban takes over Kabul, the staff of Afghan newspaper the Etilaat Roz weigh their options: submit to the censorious new regime, continue their award-winning reporting on corruption, or escape their homeland forever.

Celebrate with us at our Meet & Greet Reception on May 12, 2024 at the SIFF lounge.

As the Taliban takes over Kabul, the staff of Afghan newspaper the Etilaat Roz weigh their options: submit to the censorious new regime, continue their award-winning reporting on corruption, or escape their homeland forever.

One tense day in the life of a Turkish criminal defense attorney (Tülin Özen) as she wrestles with legal and ethical questions in defending a factory worker accused of murder while also keeping her hospitalized mother on life support. From Selman Nacar, the director of Between Two Dawns (SIFF 2022).

With only the voice of his GPS to guide him, Amir drives through the underbelly of Tehran delivering hashish to his clients and friends. Winner of the 2023 Locarno International Film Festival Golden Leopard Award.

Jamshid, an Iranian American school counselor, builds a world-class Ultimate Frisbee team from the immigrant and refugee students arriving at his inner-city public school in Seattle.

With only the voice of his GPS to guide him, Amir drives through the underbelly of Tehran delivering hashish to his clients and friends. Winner of the 2023 Locarno International Film Festival Golden Leopard Award.

An intrepid filmmaker tracks the Taliban’s first year in power in the wake of the United States’ Afghanistan withdrawal, centering on an air force chief and a low-level fighter as the fundamentalist sect takes over a former American military base known as the Hollywood Gate complex.

In this absurdist, formally inventive Iranian movie structured around nine vignettes, a cross-section of Tehran society—fathers, filmmakers, schoolgirls, rideshare drivers—is interrogated by various offscreen authority figures and bureaucrats intent on making their lives harder.

In this absurdist, formally inventive Iranian movie structured around nine vignettes, a cross-section of Tehran society—fathers, filmmakers, schoolgirls, rideshare drivers—is interrogated by various offscreen authority figures and bureaucrats intent on making their lives harder.

Join Peyvand in partnership with the at the Kirkland Library for a screening of Yalda. In Iran today: Maryam (22) accidentally kills her husband Nasser (65) and is sentenced to death. The only person who can save her is Mona, Nasser's daughter.

Join Peyvand in partnership with the at the Kirkland Library for a screening of Ten. A visual social examination in the form of ten conversations between a driving woman and her various pick-ups and hitchhikers by world renown director Abbas Kiarostami

Join Peyvand in partnership with the at the Kirkland Library for a screening of Inversion. With fascinating insights into everyday life in Tehran, the film portrays the 'inversion" of a woman, and her mutiny against male domination.

Join Peyvand in partnership with the at the Kirkland Library for a screening of Cold Sweat. A story about Iran’s national women’s futsal team’s journey to the Asian Games final in Malaysia.