With the people of Iran now targeted by the goons currently running the United States and Israel, Donald Trump’s recent and explicit threat to destroy their very “civilization” has only lent even more ...

There is pleasure in watching international cinema. When a film from far beyond Hollywood’s pull upends your sense of what movies can do, you begin to wonder how you ever thought you understood the ...

Why is Christian Science in our name? Our name is about honesty. The Monitor is owned by The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and we’ve always been transparent about that. The church publishes the ...

These films provide some insight into the problems of Iranian society and help transform the Iranian “devils” into humans ...

Archival photograph on the back cover of 'Pipeline Cinema: The Cultural Infrastructure of Oil Extraction in Iran and Iraq.' (UC Press, 2025) by Mona Damluji (Courtesy photo) A new book by UC Santa ...

Since 2012, only one country has won the Oscar for Best International Feature twice: Iran. The achievement is all the more remarkable for the stringent censorship that filmmakers in the Islamic ...

Late Iranian director Bahram Beyzai’s revered classic “ Bashu: The Little Stranger ” (1985) is soon to be re-released in ...

A new book by UC Santa Barbara’s Mona Damluji examines an unexpected intersection of culture and industry: the relationship between documentary filmmaking and the petroleum industry in the Middle East ...