Docunight began in 2014 as a monthly screening in a room in San Francisco — one documentary about Iran, once a month, for whoever turned up. It is now a library of hundreds of films, and the screenings still happen.
Documentary is how a country keeps a record of itself. For Iran, much of that record is scattered — held in private hands, surviving on a single print, or never shown outside one festival. A great deal of it has never been subtitled.
We license those films, scan them where no usable copy exists, subtitle them into English, and put them somewhere they can be found. The catalogue runs from 1925 to last month, and includes work by Iranian filmmakers and by outsiders who pointed a camera at Iran. What matters is that the film is about this place and the people in it.
A large part of our audience is Iranian and lives elsewhere. For them, and for anyone else curious, this is the closest thing we can offer to going and looking.
We pay filmmakers for the right to stream their work, on terms they agree to and can end.
Where the only copy is a worn print or a fading tape, we scan and repair it.
Every film carries English subtitles, most of them made by us rather than inherited.
Docunight still runs in-person nights in dozens of cities. Sitting with other people in the dark is the point.
“A country without documentaries is like a family without a photo album.”
Patricio Guzmán — Docunight is the album.We take submissions year-round and read every one. Documentary about Iran or Iranian life, any length, any year.
Submit your film →Campus-wide access, classroom screening rights, and help building a syllabus from the catalogue.
For institutions →Dozens of cities and counting, run by volunteers. Berkeley, Toronto, Chicago, London, Berlin.
See the calendar →