Ramin Serry makes his feature debut with Maryam, a tale of cultures clashing when an Iranian-American teenager raised in the New York suburbs is forced to play hostess to a defiant cousin making his first visit to the U.S. Set in 1979, the film takes place as Americans are taken hostage in Iran by student protesters while the country’s Shah lies gravely ill with cancer in Manhattan’s New York Hospital.

Until the brooding Ali’s arrival, Mary has felt as American as any teenager of her prosperous neighborhood. The hostage crisis changes everything, and as Mary assimilates new information about her family’s past she’s forced to reconcile allegiances that pull her in opposite directions. Then, she realizes that Ali may not have come in peace.

Serry, now 30, grew up outside Chicago where his doctor parents settled after coming to the U.S. to complete their medical education. "Maryam mirrors my own experience," he says. "I was in junior high when the hostages were taken, and it was a difficult time to have attention drawn to me because of my ethnicity. I was thrust into a cultural identity I’d only just become aware of, and suddenly I was an outsider in both environments." Serry ultimately gravitated to communicating on film and got an MFA from Columbia University where he made two shorts, Tom Comes Over to Visit and My Sister’s Wedding. Serry and Shauna Lyon, who produced Wedding, made Maryam with financing from private investors and brought in experienced line producers Jonathan Shoemaker (Six Ways to Sunday) and Derrick Tseng (Chasing Amy) to orchestrate production. Lyon says they had to go to L.A., which has the largest Iranian community in the U.S., to cast when appropriate actors failed to materialize in New York.

Maryam was shot in 35mm by cinematographer Harlan Bosmajian (La Ciudad) over 26 days last fall. Key high school and college sequences were shot at Felician College in New Jersey; other locations included New York Hospital and Fort Lee, New Jersey. Lyon expects to have a print by Thanksgiving, and all rights remain available.

Cast: Mariam Parris, David Ackert, Shaun Toub, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Maziyar Jobrani, Sabine Singh, Victor Jory. Crew: Producer, Shauna Lyon; Co-Producers, Jonathan Shoemaker, Derrick Tseng; Screenwriter/Director, Ramin Serry; Cinematographer, Harlan Bosmajian; Production Design, Petra Barchi; Costumes, Nancy Brous; Editor, Gary Levy; Composer, Ahrin Mishan. Contact: Shauna Lyon, Streetlight Films, P.O. Box 1027, Village Station, New York, NY 10014. Tel: (212) 255-3853, Fax: (212) 414-9084, Email: production@streetlightfilms.com.

Boyd’s Out - Dani Minnick
Follow Me Outside - John Sullivan
Kali’s Vibe - Shari Carpenter
The Magic of Marciano - Tony Barbieri
Maryam - Ramin Serry
On the Q.T. - Yale Strom
Slice & Dice - Rob McCall
Swimming - Robert J. Siegel
Waiting - Patrick Hasson