"Despite limited resources, state censorship, and the countrys precarious place on the world stage, Iranian cinema has become popular among both film aficionados and scholars. Most of the attention, however, is directed toward feature films, but here Vaziri, a filmmaker herself focuses on documentaries and their creators. Based on personal observation and ongoing interviews with the documentarians, she examines their work and how they function within the restrictions placed on them, while exploring their relationships with other filmmakers, with domestic and foreign audiences, and with both Iranian and international institutions. The state censorship and other limits on artistic productions have actually caused films about social change to proliferate, even while dealing with such controversial topics as womens rights, changes to marriage and divorce laws, and western music and culture. Vaziri discusses the different styles and aesthetics of documentary filmmaking, including the role that older poetic traditions play within the craft. With the advent of digital photography in the 21st century, opportunities have increased for younger filmmakers as well as women to challenge the status quo of pre-Revolutionary and especially post-Revolutionary documentaries. The documentarians she examines, however, come from various perspectives and backgrounds-religious and secular, conservative and liberal, traditional Iranian and Western-influenced. She explores not just the production of the films themselves but the quest for funding and then the distribution and reception of the films to both audiences within Iran and abroad at various film festivals, in addition to the new opportunities that streaming allows"-- Provided by publisher.