“The Glass House,” a film that documents the lives of young women in Iran, will be presented by the Mary B. Martin School of the Arts at East Tennessee State University on Tuesday, Sept. 14, at 7 p.m. in the D.P. Culp University Center’s Martha Street Culp Auditorium.This film is the first to be screened at ETSU as part of the South Arts Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers.

Following a screening of his feature film, director Hamid Rahmanian and the audience will engage in a discussion about the film and his work as a filmmaker. A reception will take place afterward.

A description of the film states, “The fringes of Iranian society can be a lonely place, especially if you are a teenage girl with few resources. The girls of ‘The Glass House’ take us on a never-before-seen tour of the underclass of Iran as they strive to pull themselves from the margins of society by attending a one-of-a-kind rehabilitation center in uptown Tehran.

“This groundbreaking documentary reflects a side of Iran to which few have access: a society lost in its traditions with nothing meaningful to replace them, and a group of courageous women working to instill a sense of empowerment and hope into the minds and lives of otherwise discarded teenage girls.”

Rahmanian is originally from Tehran. He earned a master of fine arts degree in computer animation in 1997 from Pratt Institute and was nominated for a Student Academy Award for his animated film, “The Seventh Day.” He has worked for Disney and recently completed his first feature-length fiction film, “Daybreak,” which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers is a unique, interactive program that brings independent filmmakers and their films into communities throughout the nine-state region served by South Arts, a not-for-profit regional arts organization. Founded in 1975, South Arts is supported by funding and programming partnerships with the National Endowment for the Arts and the state arts agencies of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Special support for Southern Circuit is provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The film screening, discussion and reception are free and open to the public. Donations of canned food items will be accepted for distribution to a regional food bank or other charitable organization.

For more information or special assistance for those with disabilities, call the Martin School of the Arts at (423) 439-8587 or visit www.etsu.edu/cas/arts.

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