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"It's really strange, you start smelling certain smells
that you have
missed for so long," Diaan says. "You store things
in your memory,
especially in your early years, and they all come back."
While speaking at one of the screenings for "Iran Is
My Home" at the LA
Film Festival, Diaan says that when one makes a travellogue
documentary, you
share a story. As people let off sighs in the audience, during
a scene late
in the film showing Diaan return to the house that he grew
up in, the
filmmaker later addressed the mostly Iranian audience by stating
that the
scene, as well as the rest of the film is like a gift brought
back when a
friend or relative goes on vacation.
"A lot of Iranians have not been back," Diaan says.
"They miss what I
have missed when I went back, so I brought them a souvenir."
At first when one views "Iran Is My Home" in the
beginning, it does
feel like a travel documentary. Despite having just a small
camera, the
film's quality is similar to that of other known docudramas
on travel
including "Travels in Europe with Rick Steves" or
Michael Palin following
the footsteps of Jules Verne's fictional character Phileas
Fogg in "Around
the World in 80 Days." Having the film document the everyday
life of
Iranians, in a non-political manner, was one of the reasons
why programmers
chose the film to be screened at the Festival.
"What we liked about the film was that it did not take
an overt
political opinion of Iran," IFP LA Film Festival Director
of Programming
Rachel Rosen said. "To me, it dealt with a country as
well as the people,
without the typical soundbites."
Despite the film showing the people of Iran and not making
a political
statement, Diaan feels that it would be strange if he attempted
to go back
and make a follow-up documentary to "Iran Is My Home."
He says that the film
does nothing to offend the existing regime, but there is too
many people in
charge of too many different areas of the government, and
with his
television show being signaled back to Iran, he would be easily
recognized.
"In a country like Iran, all it takes is one person
who doesn't like
you at the airport or on the street and you end up in some
committee or
prison getting questioned," Diaan says. "There is
no central system."
Diaan initially left Iran in 1976 to complete his high school
studies
in Columbia, Missouri, where a cousin of his had already been.
He says that
he had put an ad in the paper, that a "beautiful Missouri
family" answered,
which read 'Young Iranian boy looking for a family to live
with.' After high
school, Diaan stayed in Columbia and attended the University
of Missouri. It
was during his university studies that the Islamic Revolution
in Iran
occurred in 1979, preventing his dream of returning to become
the Johnny
Carson of Iran. Instead he headed for Los Angeles, where a
lot of his family
members have been since the 1950s, and where he has been ever
since.
It is in Los Angeles where Diaan has somewhat made his dreams
come
true, being like his hero Carson, and hosting his own talkshow
"It's a Mad,
Mad, Mad, Mad World" Thursday nights on Channel One.
The first half of the
show uses Diaan's sense of humor by throwing in satire and
sarcasm at the
odd news of the world, news that he finds to be ridiculous.
The second half
is more serious as Diaan employs his communication skills
to interview
leading Iranian-Americans in the community.
Besides his television work, Diaan has also ventured into
the world of
radio, where he hosted a show on KIRN 670 Los Angeles for
a brief nine
months. Despite loving radio, he found working for a commercial,
profit-driven radio station to become tiring, especially since
they did not
pay him. He points out that the does not mind working for
free as long as it
is for a cause, which he does on Channel One, a channel like
many other
Iranian-American based satellite channels that are struggling
to stay alive.
"I do the TV because I reach the Iranians inside of
Iran and I want to
offer them something fresh," Diaan says. "Whether
(these television
stations) make money in the end or not, they are contributing
to
freedom-seeking people. If they are learning things back home
that they
could otherwise not have access to, why not?"
Diaan firmly believes that change is coming to Iran and he
prays for
democracy. If change does come sometime soon, he has no idea
how the country
would be governed. With a population between 60 and 70 million
people, Diaan
believes that these people are intelligent and beautiful and
can decide
their own fate.
"I really don't know what the people are ready for and
ultimately it is
the people who make their decisions. I'm not inside,"
Diaan says. "I don't
want to lecture on the outside about something that I'm not
an expert in."
As for his film, Diaan feels that he has done something special
with
"Iran Is My Home." He says that it feels like everyone
who saw it, enjoyed
it and that is has universal appeal. Diaan continues by stating
that he had
a young audience that loved it and an older audience that
loved it, now the
only thing preventing the film from reaching a much larger
audience is
finding a distributor.
"I think I was very blessed that I did something that
had pretty broad
appeal," Diaan says. "So I'm inclined to take it
to the public. I want to
put it to work and let everyone come see it."
Ghosts of Hollywood
The Billionaire Boys Club
Joe Hunt was a charming, smooth and young
con-artist at the center of a financial scandal and murder
story that came to symbolize the 1980s greed and yuppie arrogance.
Along with four other young men, Joe Hunt conspired to kidnap
Hedayat Eslaminia, a wealthy Iranian political exile living
in California, and force him to sign over his assets to his
son, Reza. In fact, Reza was among the five conspirators.
This is the story of the so-called Billionaire Boys Club.
Joe Hunt concocted the whole idea of the Billionaire
Boys Club or “BBC” in the early 80s, as a sort of investment
company as well as an exclusive social club for him and his
friends. Other than Reza Eslaminia, a recent inductee, the
founding members were Joe Hunt, Dean Karny and Ben Dosti,
who had met as youngsters in the prestigious Los Angeles Prep
School, the Harvard School. Hunt was the charismatic leader
of the group. In the words of one of his victims, he “mesmerized
us.” Later, this charming and at the same time completely
amoral personality would be diagnosed as “psychopathic.”
In an era and place where image was everything,
it was not difficult for three attractive and well-dressed
young men from an elite background to charm gullible investors
into giving up their money. In reality, Hunt was not investing
this money at all. Instead, he was using whatever he brought
in to pay the rent, throw lavish parties, and build up his
fleet of cars. The BBC’s idyllic life was short-lived due
to Hunt’s outrageous over-spending and soon the members came
under heavy pressure to settle their outstanding financial
debts. They needed a quick plan.
By all accounts, it was Reza who suggested
the kidnapping plan to Joe Hunt, even pointing out that they
had a perfect cover: The crime would be attributed to his
father’s enemies under Ayatollah Khomeini’s rule. The BBC
went so far as to pick a “safe house” where Mr. Eslaminia
would be detained, and Hunt appointed himself the “torture
master.” He seemed to look forward to the role, at least,
according to Dean Karny.
On the night of July 30, 1984, the kidnappers
went into action.
Dressed in brown UPS uniforms, Hunt, Karny,
Dosti, and Jim Pittman, a powerful black man who had been
a former security guard, drove to the home of Reza’s father.
Once inside, they knocked out Mr. Eslaminia with
chloroform and put him in a trunk, which they carried in a
U-Haul from the San Francisco area back to their base of operations
in Los Angeles. It was a hot night and the sounds coming from
inside the trunk indicated that the captive was gasping for
air. Concerned about attracting attention, the kidnappers
did not check on Mr. Eslaminia’s condition until they arrived
at their destination. When they finally opened the trunk,
they discovered that their victim was dead. Unfazed, the murderers
took the trunk to the safe house they'd rented, ate dinner
next to it, and talked about what to do next. They finally
decided to remove the body from the trunk, wrap it in a tarp,
and then deposit it in Soledad Canyon.
This was the turning point for Dean Karny
who, feeling sick about the events of the night, decided to
turn his colleagues in to the police. Based on his testimony,
Hunt, Dosti and Reza Eslaminia ended up behind bars for life,
without parole.
In 1987, NBC aired a miniseries starring Judd
Nelson as Joe Hunt, in which, amazingly, several of the former
BBC members were paid consultants.
In 1998, the U. S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
threw out the case against Reza Eslaminia, based on a technical
error in the trial. Upon his release, Reza launched a lawsuit
against Ben Dosti and 20 other individuals for the murder
of his father.
Dean Karny was given a new identity. As stipulated
in his agreement, the prosecutors helped him to pursue a legal
career, and he passed the California Bar examination.
Joe Hunt is still behind bars and continues
to file appeals and motions against his verdict, the latest
one being a writ of habeas corpus filed in June 2003. His
legal efforts have so far cost over 2 million dollars in California
taxpayers’ money.
Many years after the murder of Hedayat Eslaminia
was orchestrated by his son and his friends, two affluent
young men from Beverly Hills loaded their shotguns and killed
their parents, eager, like Reza had been, to collect early
on their inheritance. After their arrest, Erik and Lyle Menendez
would claim that they had been inspired by the story of the
Billionaire Boys Club.
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