Event
Film Screening with Director Persis Karim
3340 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
"The Dawn Is Too Far: Stories of Iranian-American Life" — a 55-min. documentary shares the complex personal and social histories that have brought Iranians to the San Francisco Bay Area for more than fifty years.
Based on the stories of 8 individuals who live, work, and contribute to life and culture of the San Francisco Bay Area, "The Dawn Is Too Far" portrays the history of local Iranian Americans and the challenges they have faced as a group struggling to find acceptance and understanding in the long shadow of larger political and historical events. This film has an immediate connection with the larger Iranian American community in California and across the US, as well as other immigrant and diaspora groups. This film has the potential to spark urgent conversations about American identity in a time of growing fear and divisiveness.
This film explores the history, struggles, and impact of four generations of Iranian immigrants to the Bay Area, despite having been continuously "othered" by the tense relationship between the US and Iranian governments and negative media headlines since 1979. It captures the resilient and complex character of this immigrant community, its challenges and successes, as well as the ways it has contributed to the Bay Area's culture and communities.
Featured Speaker
Persis Karim is the Neda Nobari Chair of the newly-established Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies and a professor in the Comparative and World Literature department at SFSU. She received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and master's degree in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. From 1999-2017, she was a professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at San Jose State University, where she taught courses in English, American literature, world literature, ethnic literature, creative writing, and Middle Eastern studies. She coordinated their Middle Eastern Studies minor program from 2010-2017 and was the founding director of their Persian Studies Program.