The Glass House
Synopsis
The fringes of Iranian society can be a lonely place, especially if you are a teenage girl with few resources to fall back on. THE GLASS HOUSE follows four girls striving to pull themselves out of the margins by attending a one-of-kind rehabilitation center in uptown Tehran. Forget about the Iran that you’ve seen before. With a virtually invisible camera, the girls of THE GLASS HOUSE take us on a never-before-seen tour of the underclass of Iran with their brave and defiant stories: Samira struggles to overcome forced drug addiction; Mitra harnesses abandonment into her creative writing; Sussan teeters on a dangerous ledge after years of sexual abuse; and Nazila burgeons out of her hatred with her blazing rap music. This groundbreaking documentary reflects a side of Iran few have access to or paid attention to: a society lost to its traditions with nothing meaningful to replace them and a group of courageous women working to instill a sense of empowerment and hope into the minds and lives of otherwise discarded teenage girls.
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The Filmmakers
Hamid Rahmanian Filmmaker, Producer
Hamid Rahmanian is a filmmaker and graphic designer. He holds a B.F.A. from the University of Tehran in Graphic Design and earned a M.F.A. in Computer Animation in 1997 from Pratt Institute in New York City. He received “The First Place College Award” (a student Emmy) from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and was nominated for a Student Academy Award for his animation, THE SEVENTH DAY, among other awards in 1997. His first 35 mm film, a 19 minute experimental short, AN I WITHIN, received Kodak’s "Best Cinematography Award" and “Best American Short” from the LA Int’l Short Film Festival. Mr. Rahmanian has made three documentaries on video: BREAKING BREAD (2000), SIR ALFRED OF CHARLES DE GAULLE AIRPORT (2001) and SHAHRBANOO (2002), all of which have been well received by the media and worldwide audiences. In 2003, Mr. Rahmanian co-founded ARTEEAST. In 2005 he completed his first feature length film entitled DAY BREAK, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. He completed THE GLASS HOUSE in the fall of 2008 where it premiered at IDFA in The Netherlands and Sundance Film Festival in Park City Utah in 2009.
Melissa Hibbard Producer
Melissa Hibbard is a photographer and filmmaker. She earned her BA in Moving Image Arts in 1996 from the College of Santa Fe where she studied documentary filmmaking. Upon graduation, she moved to Los Angeles and worked in the film industry as an art director on feature films for five years. Her photographs have been exhibited in the US and abroad over the past 6 years. She produced four documentaries on video: BREAKING BREAD (2000), which premiered on PBS and SIR ALFRED OF CHARLES DE GAULLE AIRPORT (2001). Both have been well received by the media and worldwide audiences. SHAHRBANOO (2002) premiered on PBS where it received among the highest ratings for an independently produced documentary. THE GLASS HOUSE (2008), produced in association with Sundance Channel, premiered at International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in November 2008 and Sundance Film Festival in 2009. In 2003, she co-established a non-profit organization – ARTEEAST - its mission statement to promote the arts and cultures of the Middle East and it’s worldwide diasporas in the United States; she was a board member and the ArteEast Online Director through 2007.
Festivals & Awards
Sundance Film Festival
2009
Official Selection
IDFA
2009
Official Selection
ZagrebDox
2009
Winner - Special Mention - International Competition
Nuremberg International Human Rights Film Festival
2010
Nominee - Open Eyes Jury Award
OSCE
2010
Winner - Human Rights Award
Reviews
“The women's stories are heartbreaking and their voices hold strength…[they] have spirit to spare.”
-Eye for Film
“In superb cinema verité style spanning 18 months, THE GLASS HOUSE deftly portrays a spirit of hopefulness…skillfully examining the mostly hidden lives of young women, teetering on the fringes of Iranian society in modern Tehran.”
-WomenandHollywood.com
“Hamid Rahmanian and screenwriter-producer Melissa Hibbard grew close to the teens who formed a bond with them allowing the pair to capture intimate and heart-wrenching moments. Though Rahmanian decided he will never show the film in Iran–he even turned down a documentary film festival in the Islamic Republic that invited the film–in order to protect the young women, he did show it to his subjects who passed along their own review–they thought it wasn’t dramatic enough.”
-IndieWire