Documentary Series
AFI is proud to sponsor and produce an ongoing series of documentary shorts dedicated to safeguarding and promoting artistic freedom globally.
NAMJOO (2018)
Director: Kamran Taheri Moghaddam
Country: United States
Duration: 00:12:16
NAMJOO is a short documentary film featuring visionary Iranian musician Mohsen Namjoo. Namjoo fled his native Iran when the country’s repressive regime made it impossible for him to create, perform, and distribute his visionary music, considered dangerously controversial by the government. In 2009, Namjoo was sentenced in absentia to five years’ imprisonment for setting passages of the Qu’ran to music.
Though he has been living outside of Iran for many years, he refuses to be silenced, and continues to compose, record, and play his music internationally. The film, produced by AFI alongside filmmaker Kamran Taheri Moghaddam, was selected as a finalist in the law and social justice-themed FOLCS International Short Film Competition.