Editors' Note: On a Press Booklet for Black Eyes (1936)

Abstract

ABSTRACT:A 1935 press booklet—mostly in Persian, with one section in English—high lights Iranian actress Fakhri Vaziri as the major attraction of Black Eyes (1936). Black Eyes was the third of the first five Iranian talkies by Abdolhossein Sepanta, all of which were produced in India. The earliest of these productions was directed by Ardeshir Irani in collaboration with Sepanta. Only the first of these features, The Lor Girl (1933), remains accessible for viewing in a form that is more than a collection of fragments. In the absence of the film, the booklet for Black Eyes offers an opportunity to consider the relationship between publicity materials and films in a transregional context. It also points to the specific challenges that visual and print ephemera posed to colonial film policy in light of a 1935 debate over the censorship of promotional materials.