Filming/Blogging your return. What's the appeal?

I was at the Noor Film Festival in West LA a couple of weeks ago.


There were some great films, but some of the most interesting to me, given the themes of my research, were the ones that young Iranian Americans had made about their trips to Iran. Whether for the first time, or returning for another visit, none of these young film-makers had grown up in Iran or lived there for any significant expanse of time. But they felt enough of a connection to the country itself to actually dedicate their time, efforts, talents, and other resources to documenting their travels to Iran and telling the stories they had to tell about themselves and about America(ns) and Iran(ians) while doing so.

The three film-makers I am talking about also each have websites that are pretty impressive. Sam Ali Kashani's film "Tehran: Another Side" has film segments on his website, Nooshin Navidi's "Young Republic" is summarized on hers, and Justin Mashouf's "Warring Factions" has a trailer here and his blog is here.

Speaking of blogs, I've also met a number of Iranian American bloggers whose stories of return are echoed in those of Sam, Nooshin, and Justin. "Returnees" who are discovering Iran for the first time more than returning to anything they have known in the past, yet at the same time seem to feel like they're going back to a place they (at least partially) come from. It seems more and more of the second generation is seeking this journey of (self) discovery, and also wanting to engage an audience of others to participate in it with them through making a film about it, or a blog, or both. I wonder why sharing this experience with others is so important, and what the chosen media of film and blogging have to offer over others.