This is Not a Film is a day-in-the-life documentary of Jafar Panahi’s experience of being under house arrest, filmed almost entirely inside his apartment in Tehran, as he creatively expresses his frustration of not being allowed to do what comes so naturally to this passionate writer and filmmaker: make films. Jafar Panahi, the Iranian writer/director of internationally acclaimed films such as The White Balloon, The Circle, and Offside, is under house arrest and a twenty year ban on making films, leaving Iran, and talking to the media. This is Not a Film is a courageous effort by Panahi and his co-director Motjaba Mirtahmasb to fight against censorship and for the human rights of not only his colleagues in the Iranian film industry, but of filmmakers everywhere.

This is Not a Film was smuggled from Iran to France on a USB drive inside a cake, and supported by the international film community including filmmakers of the highest profile. Panahi and Mirtahmasb’s film will be shown to audiences around the world despite efforts in the filmmakers’ homeland to censor their voices.

March 27 through April 1, 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the Ann Arbor Film Festival, the longest running independent and experimental film festival in North America. The festival will present over 40 programs with close to 200 films over the six-day event.