Back to All Events

Book Forum - Underground: The Secret Life of Videocassettes in Iran [Past]

In 1983, the Iranian government banned the personal use of home video technology. In Underground, Blake Atwood recounts how in response to the ban, technology enthusiasts, cinephiles, entrepreneurs, and everyday citizens forged an illegal but complex underground system for video distribution. Atwood draws on archival sources including trade publications, newspapers, memoirs, films, and laws, but at the heart of the book lies a corpus of oral history interviews conducted with participants in the underground. He argues that videocassettes helped to institutionalize the broader underground within the Islamic Republic.​​​​​​​​

BLAKE ATWOOD is Associate Professor of Media Studies and Chair of the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Media Studies at the American University of Beirut. His research and teaching focus on the intersection of technology, culture, and politics in the Middle East.

Previous
Previous
March 30

Russia and Iran: Three Centuries of Contention and compliance (1722-2022) [past]

Next
Next
April 12

Book Forum - ReFocus: The Works of Rakhshan Banietemad [PASt]