Docunight Presents: Iranian Women's Stories
Four documentaries, now streaming on the Criterion Channel, embody the adopted slogan of the current protest movement: Woman, Life, Freedom

Nurse Liang Shanbo and Actress Zhu Yingtai are mismatched cousins who just inherited a rental home from their late relative. When they moved in, they discover that a room has been rented out to a man named Ben, who turns out to be a criminal gangster. One night, when Ben returns home, bloodied and injured, he collapses into Yingtai's arms and whispers a code in her ear before he dies. Not knowing what the code leads to, Yingtai and Shanbo are later visited by a man claiming to be Ben's brother who wants to solve the case. In the meantime, gangsters believed to be involved with Ben's murder want to retrieve the code from the girls, whom they think were told by Ben what it actually unlocks.
Four documentaries, now streaming on the Criterion Channel, embody the adopted slogan of the current protest movement: Woman, Life, Freedom
Its predictability shouldn’t distract from the enjoyment that the pure cinematic imagination behind the camera elicits. It is a movie of crises both moral and mortal, oozing with CGI, and thoroughly enjoyable.
Stand and Deliver is an inspirational classic from 1988 starring Edward James Olmos as Jaime Escalante, and his class of rag tag students in East Los Angeles. It’s the story of how a new teacher shows a motley group of students in the inner city with backgrounds as gang members, dishwashers, and mechanics — the power of self-determination. He teaches the teenagers to believe in themselves through algebra and calculus.
"The Haunting of Hill House" isn't your typical horror story. Based on a novel by Shirley Jackson, Netflix's masterpiece and limited horror series takes you on a emotional rollercoaster ride, by turning our perception of mental illness on its head. It's an unforgettable story about a loveable family, who grapples with tragedy and love after living at the foreboding Hill House.
While Peter’s heroics might have been a bit unrealistic at times due to his lack of experience, I will always support the civilian taking down the establishment.
I understand that this would have been consistent with the language used by that generation, due to its role in the medical profession, however as someone who has family members with Down Syndrome I took it very personally.