The 12th episode of Parse is an excerpt from a talk given by Simran Bhalla where she discusses the founding of Kanoon, or the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults which was established in the 1960s as one of the several governmental organizations established to grow Iran’s cultural productions. Her presentation discusses how technocratic national development agendas resulted in a flourishing of modernist and experimental cinema at the Kanoon. Hence, Bhalla demonstrates the instrumental role of the Kanoon in laying the foundations for Iran’s renowned humanist film tradition.  

Bhalla is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Southern California. She received her PhD in Screen Cultures from Northwestern University in 2021. Her research interests include state-sponsored and institutional films from Iran and India, global modernisms, and architecture and design in postcolonial film and television.