History and Letterboxd Posts

You ever wonder how historians create periodization? What gives them the idea to say this event or this year is more important than another?

Kim Ghattas’ book Black Wave focuses on the year 1979 as crucial to understanding the Middle East. I wrote briefly of the Iranian protests last month (24th post!-hurray) so it has been a subject on my mind. This was a book that I simply could not put down. It is a history book that reads like fiction and it helped connect so many dots about what in the world has happened in the last 50 years.

Ghattas points out that the 1979 Iranian Revolution was a watershed event for the Middle East but the world as well. If anyone has heard me in the last twenty years, I have said the same thing. However, here is the catch—the year is also important because the Grand Mosque siege in Saudi Arabia also occurred. She claims that these two events put these two countries into a crash course together, Sunnis and Shias, that would bring along most of the Middle East into endless conflict. And here we are today with a staggering number of Iranian activists dead.

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For all the articles and think pieces I have read over the past month, this one — “What Iran’s Dead Loved and Hoped For” by Arash Azizi— is probably the article that had the biggest impact on me. It features a 24 year old college student, Raha Bahloulipour, who was studying Italian literature and loved cinema so much she had many Letterboxd posts. Letterboxd is a social media site where people post their movie reviews. Providing a masterclass on how to write history using social media, Raha’s online presence was how Azizi crafted his narrative. Because of her “exuberance” about film and literature, her story resonated with Azizi. And yes, this is now history because Raha is dead—one of the many young Iranians who were murdered by the state weeks ago.

To the historical observer, the impact of history often reflects one’s own experience. Why this event and not another? With the events in Iran there is much righteous indignation expressed toward the crowds that usually mobilize in response to human rights violations and state sponsored violence (ESPECIALLY TOWARD WOMEN) on such a large scale. However, the response was rather timid.

Again, the personal can often help connect to the historical no matter what moment in time or what far away place the historical event is happening. We read history with eyes invested to find familiarity. As I read Azizi’s piece, it reminded me about my son.

Last month I took my 12 year old to watch a movie being played with a live orchestra at Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa. For the last few years, I go attend at least one or two classical concerts with my 79 year old father usually as a Father’s Day or birthday present. My dad played opera and classical music on his record player then CD player all the time.

My sons love movies, but especially my youngest who just started his own Letterboxd account. The music I would often listen to with my kids were movie soundtracks. We have Spotify playlists of our favorite soundtrack hits (so many John Williams songs). My sons love movies so much they sat still to watch Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey late last year. I couldn’t do that as a kid because I found the movie long and boring, but here are these young budding cinema study kids appreciating the aesthetics of the film, including the choice of music. Even when he wrote up a slide presentation about the film for class, he wanted the soundtrack playing in the background.

I had my son read about Raha. He was sad about what happened to her. The story opened his eyes to the heavier events in this world. He also said she has a Letterboxd account like me.

It should not take a Letterboxd account for me to feel any type of connection between a young Iranian college student and my own child, but this is what history does—history provides countless stories but it is usually just one that captures your attention, and to some degree haunts you.

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I had plans to go deeper into the use of 1979 as a historical tool for this blog post. However, Azizi’s article changed my plans. Raha’s story is the type of narrative that can quickly get forgotten in history. History is obsessed with great men and the wars they wage. We get sidetracked by the big political planners, what they do or don’t do. And frankly, I have grown tired of their posturing.

It can be difficult to focus on the Raha’s in history if we are not in a posture of thinking counter-history. This is not counter as not true, but a challenge to the narratives that just go through the motions, repeating the same old stories—history that we expect to happen.

1979 carries a lot of emotions for many Americans. Of course, for Iranians of the diaspora, but also for many Central Americans who were fleeing the violence from their oppressive governments like the Salvadoran one that murdered Archbishop Romero in 1980. There is historical amnesia toward so much of this history, because 1) we live in a ahistorical society and 2) the history is filled with so much trauma. Even though my father is from a Central American country, I had to personally study so much of this history because it simply was not covered in the curriculum.

However, counternarratives like Bad Bunny’s halftime performance visually retold history in an affirming, celebratory way on the national stage. This was not a history without struggle but one that features people overcoming big obstacles. It was very Puerto Rican but also very Latino. The performance left me stunned because it was not what I was expecting. Again, so many people I know felt connected to his story. Good job, Benito.

If historians are going to actually influence the culture, telling these counternarratives then it needs to utilize music and movies because these are two mediums that young people take the time to write reviews on their Letterboxd account, both in Los Angeles and Tehran.