Cinema Cristal

Laleh Zar is a street in the center of Tehran which was once home to several cinemas, and is today characterized by an array of lights lining the street, which are offered for sale alongside the street. The flow of images through light — cinema — seems to have transformed into a variety of different light sources after the changes that the Iranian revolution brought about. Cinema Cristal recombines these different fragments of light into a new composition, a dance of images in the manner of an experimental documentary. On the soundtrack a series of film lovers, locals and theoreticians tell their memories, stories, and homages related to Tehran’s cinemas. This is a film about the role of cinema as an aesthetic, social, and memorial space.