Resident Exile (1981)

Resident Exile
This short film made with my friends and filmmaking partners Michel Negroponte and Alex Anthony was commissioned by PBSs innovative TV Lab in 1980 The three of us saw Kazem Ala an Iranian student and political exile briefly interviewed on a local cable access show in Austin Texas and were very moved by his story We spent a month filming his day to day life in Houston during the IranianAmerican hostage crisis of 1980 The film was meant to describe in subtle ways what it is to be a political exile in times of political crisis PBS found it to be a little too subtle and declined to air it nationally but the film was televised on various individual PBS outlets and seeing it recently I was struck by how a generation later were still dealing with this same situation the clash between Islam and the West The Presidents and Ayatollahs may have changed but politically things are still at crisis level Ross McElwee
DirectorsMichel NegroponteRoss McElweeAlexandra Anthony

Movie Details

Theatrical Release:March 11th, 1981
Original Language:English