Part I

I talk with Ray Haratian, a Persian actor I work with, who asks me why I want to make this film.

“I want to see whether I can integrate into the Muslim community in Los Angeles.”

“Okay, but where is the conflict? What is the mystery?”

“The conflict, for me, is to see whether I can see the world the way they see the world.”

“How will you know if you’ve accomplished that?”

“I don’t know.”

“It doesn’t sound like much of a conflict, nor a documentary.”

“I guess I want to know who is right: Edward Said or Samuel Huntington. Is there a clash of civilizations? Or are we truly interdependent peoples, all swimming in the same water, together?”

“But why you? What makes you qualified?”

“Because I’m willing. Because I want to.”

“But you’re not Muslim.”

“Isn’t that the point? The point is to discover whether I can see the world from their perspective.”

“What will that accomplish? What’s the point of making a documentary about THAT?”

“Maybe if I can integrate and befriend and learn about the Muslims living in Los Angeles, and if they see that I’m interested in recording them as people, as opposed to enemies or objects, that maybe it will prove Huntington wrong.”

“Sounds sort of hippy to me. And you didn’t answer the documentary question.”

“I’m no hippy. I define myself as a liberal libertarian hawk.”

“A liberal libertarian hawk - that doesn’t make any sense. And you still didn’t answer the documentary question.”

“Let’s table the documentary question for a moment. You lived in Iran when the Ayatollahs came to power-what was that like?”

“I’ll tell you about the Ayatollah’s – they stole the revolution. And believe me, when the day comes when they start killing Ayatollahs, I’ll be over there with a machete.”

Yipes! But what did I expect? Ray lived in Iran during the revolution. He talks in detail about the day when Ayatollah Khomeini came to power promising free water, free electricity, and oil revenue distributed to all the people. He promised better schools, less Western decadence, and more Islam. The government is to serve the people, not the people to serve the government. Who could object to that?

The politics of fear quickly took over in Iran. A cultural revolution occurred; the Ayatollah’s punishing artists and intellectuals. Iraq attacked Iran and eight years of bloody war followed. The U.S. supported Saddam Hussein for fear the Islamic Revolution would spread. During the war, Ray suffered nerve damage on his arm, which has not grown since he was 13 years old.

Ray is Americanized, having lived in Los Angeles since he was 14. He came to America alone after the injury, to live with his aunt and uncle. In Iran, his family was religiously strict by our standards, no alcohol, no pre-marital sex, that type of thing. He freely admits not carrying on the traditions of his parents; sex and booze are an integral part of his life.

Ray is too much like me. We have no potential conflict.