This interview was conducted for my video on Coup 53 and All the President's Men. You can find that video here:    • Watergate, Iran & Rewriting History |...  

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Fore more info on Coup 53: https://www.coup53.com
Taghi's Twitter:   / tagz23  
Coup 53 on Twitter:   / coup53  

If you would like to reference this interview in your own work, feel free! Please provide a link back to this video, and credit Maggie Mae Fish.

For a transcript of this interview, go to: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1M...

0:51 Maggie asks Taghi for an overview of the film and the process
1:10 Taghi's backstory and the film's backstory
2:43 Maggie asks about Taghi's experience as a kid in Iran
6:26 Maggie asks Walter about his perspective on Iran before joining the team
6:47 Walter talks about growing up in New York in the McCarthy Era, his previous knowledge of Iran, and how he got involved in Coup 53
10:25 Maggie: "You didn't find out about Darbyshire until 2018"
10:39 Taghi talks about why it took so long to make Coup 53
11:50 Maggie asks about making the movie in the face of adversity
12:19 Taghi: "I thrive on 'No'"
13:52 Taghi's challenge to PhD students about surveying documentaries about Iran
15:19 Maggie asks Taghi and Walter about Eisenhower and the Dulles brothers
20:16 Maggie asks Walter about politics in 1970s film (Godfather as critique of capitalism)
22:41 Maggie asks about making political art/film
23:24 Taghi: "Start local... the local will become global"
24:11 Maggie asks about staying motivated in the face of adversity
24:48 Taghi talks about the point of no return and what he learned making Coup 53
26:37 Maggie asks about recreating the "truth" in documentary
35:19 Taghi on the filing cabinet scene: "That's the scene that makes every Iranian viewer cry"
37:33 Walter explains why Taghi had to be in the documentary
40:40 Maggie asks what movies Taghi and Walter discussed during the process
43:21 Walter quotes Cocteau: "Style is a way of telling complicated things simply." Elaborates on the editing challenges they faced
47:06 Taghi talks about the "toolbox of filmmaking devices."
48:30 Maggie asks Walter what has been lost or gained in the shift from analog to digital
48:59 Walter: "Almost nothing has been lost that cannot be recovered in some way."
50:36 Maggie asks about psychadelics
51:12 Walter: "I found my drug in the material itself."
51:19 Maggie asks Walter to talk about Return to Oz
54:46 Maggie asks Taghi: "Why won't the British admit their involvement in the coup?"
58:17 Maggie asks Taghi: "What has been the reception of Coup 53 in Iran?"
1:00:04 Maggie asks Taghi and Walter about the power of film to change minds, and Walter explains his theory of "instincts, emotion, logic."
1:04:13 Taghi on how Coup 53 tapped into BLM and anti-colonial protests in the UK and India
1:07:40 Twitter question for Taghi about the "elastic truth" in documentaries
1:08:52 Maggie asks Taghi and Walter about the depiction of the Middle East in Hollywood
1:13:37 Maggie asks Taghi what he hopes lies in the future for Iran
1:15:33 Twitter question for Walter about editing on the big screen vs small screen
1:18:25 Taghi on self-distributing Coup 53, and the mini-sequel, Coup 53.1

More film analysis from Maggie:    • Maggie Does Media Analysis