I made this poster/print as a tribute to Abbas Kiarostami’s Be Tartib ya Bedoun-e Tartib (Orderly or Disorderly), a short film released in 1981.
You can watch it online here, though unfortunately it is lacking subtitles. I was able to find a torrent elsewhere with English subtitles.
I was charmed by the premise of filming the same scenario from an “orderly” and “disorderly” perspective and the resultant complications and breakdowns that ensued. The impossibility of exercising “order” in the final traffic scene helps to underline a sense of doubt and critical engagement with a top-down disciplinary vision of society.
It’s tempting to read the question of “Orderly or Disorderly” in relation to the post-revolutionary environment it was produced in, however in my opinion the film transcends this particular context by evoking broader questions of social control, collective resistance, self-organization and self-destruction that I continue to grapple with.
2 thoughts on “Orderly or Disorderly”
Nice to see some in-links to Docs Populi from your lovely and thoughtful site. I’m doing a talk about the role of political print shops, please share with anyone in the SF Bay Area.
Every movement needs a voice and ever since Gutenberg systemized the concept of movable type radicals have put ink to paper to create multiples of inflammatory documents. Come learn more about the discontents, troublemakers, poets, organizers, and visionaries who set up shop in the S.F. Bay Area from the 1960s to the present.
Thanks for the kind words Lincoln! I’m indebted to the many books and web resources that you’ve published. I wish I could visit the SF Bay Area or that I had friends based there that I could urge to attend. I would love to learn more about the practices and dynamics within political and countercultural print shops.