Before the 1979 revolution, revolutionaries and students used Iran’s street walls as a means to protest. Today, Iranian authorities only tolerate state-sponsored graffiti and wall paintings. Murals in Tehran and other Iranian cities usually show martyrs of the eight-year war with Iraq and revolutionary figures. Under the Iranian municipality laws, writing on walls or advertising without official permission is a crime.
Street Art and Graffiti artists in the country’s major cities, however, refuse to be silenced. They are taking huge risks to make less anti-Western political statements, spread the message of peace and love, and address the issues of children and women rights. It is another thing that their work is wiped off the walls within hours of its creation.
Directors of Mutiny of Colours, a documentary about five Iranian street artists, captures their day-to-day lives, their struggles with police, and their projects they have or are going to paint on the walls of Tehran. It highlights the history of street art in Iran, struggle of young graffiti artists, and how they face and overcome the risk of being prosecuted for “satanism and slogan writing against the nation”.
“The main reason we’re making this documentary is that we still hope someday the government and people will know the truth behind Street Art. It’s all about Peace, love & freedom of expression. Period!” say Zeinab Tabrizy and Paliz Khoshdel.
The filmmakers launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $50,000 to release the documentary in July 2016 but they could only raise $12,895.
This Article (Mutiny Of Colours: Iran’s Defiant Street Artists Spread Love) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and AnonHQ.com.
