Ali Limonadi

{{Short description|Journalist and founder of IRTV}} {{Infobox person | name = Ali Limonadi | image = Alilimonadi.png | native_name = علی لیمونادی | native_name_lang = Fa | birth_place = Tehran, Iran | alma_mater = Berlin University of the Arts | occupation = Film director, television producer, journalist | known_for = IRTV }} '''Ali Limonadi''' (Persian: علی لیمونادی) is an Iranian-born American film and television director, television producer, and journalist. He was the founder of '''IRTV''' (acronym for "Iranian television"; Persian:تلویزیون ایرانیان) in Los Angeles, the first television representation of the Iranian diaspora in the United States.<ref name="Bagherpour-2010">{{Cite web|last=Bagherpour|first=Amir|date=September 12, 2010|title=The Iranian Diaspora in America: 30 Years in the Making|url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2010/09/the-iranian-diaspora-in-america-30-years-in-the-making.html|access-date=2022-02-09|website=Frontline|publisher=PBS, KQED|language=en}}</ref>

==Early life and career== Ali Limonadi was born in Tehran. After high school he moved to Germany. From 1962 until 1968, he studied film directing and cinematography at the Berlin University of the Arts (German: Universität der Künste Berlin). "Das Abonnement" is one of his films which was screened in 1967 on that time.<ref name="O'Brien-2012" />

In 1979, months after the Iranian Revolution ended, Limonadi moved to the United States.<ref name="Barboza-2007">{{Cite web|last=Barboza|first=Tony|date=2007-09-16|title=Iranians in U.S. weigh the price of activism|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-sep-16-me-iranians16-story.html|access-date=2022-02-11|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|issn=2165-1736}}</ref> He initially planned to stay for one year.<ref name="Barboza-2007" /> In an interview Limonadi said: "At that time, we thought we would return to Iran after six months. We thought the situation would settle and that people could resume their lives back home. Some of us did not even fully unpack our bags."<ref name="Bagherpour-2010" />

==Post-1979 career== On March 15, 1981, Limonadi launched the first Iranian television station outside Iran named, IRTV (acronym for "Iranian television") shown on television channel KSCI.<ref name="Bagherpour-2010" /><ref name="RadioZamaneh">{{cite web|last1=Akbarzadeh|first1=P.|title=An Interview with Ali Limonadi|url=http://zamaaneh.com/radioblog/2010/05/post_405.html|website=Radio Zamaneh|accessdate=5 May 2010}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Naficy|first=Hamid|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-1rObRhNmGoC|title=A Social History of Iranian Cinema, Volume 1: The Artisanal Era, 1897-1941|date=2011-09-16|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-8223-4775-0|pages=lvii|language=en}}</ref> He had his own television broadcasting studio based in Studio City, Los Angeles, and he would periodically rent it out.<ref name="Barboza-2007" /><ref name="Naficy-1993">{{Cite book|last=Naficy|first=Hamid|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ieg62t355v8C|title=The Making of Exile Cultures: Iranian Television in Los Angeles|date=1993-01-01|publisher=U of Minnesota Press|isbn=978-0-8166-2084-5|language=en}}</ref> He produced the television series, ''Iranian''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=During|first=Simon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vv_ocJqva_kC|title=The Cultural Studies Reader|date=1999|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-13754-6|pages=553|language=en}}</ref> Bootleg copies of his show ''Iranian'' were smuggled into Iran (via Europe) in the 1980s.<ref name="Naficy-1993" /><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Parks|first1=Lisa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cpSGuY4Zf0gC|title=Planet TV: A Global Television Reader|last2=Kumar|first2=Shanti|date=2003|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=978-0-8147-6692-7|pages=383|language=en}}</ref>

In 2007, Limonadi was getting thousands of virus-filled emails which he attributed to "Iranian government agents".<ref name="Barboza-2007" /> Limonadi regularly appears on U.S.–based Iranian media such as ''Voice of America's Persian Television''.<ref name="VOA">{{cite web|last1=|first1=|title=Persian tv weekly highlights 4/9|url=https://ir.voanews.com/a/a-31-2007-04-09-voa15-61728697/589871.html|website=VOA|date=9 April 2007|access-date=9 Apr 2007}}</ref>

==Films== * ''Der Deutsche'', 1966 * ''Das Abonnement'', 1967<ref name="O'Brien-2012">{{Cite book|last=O'Brien|first=Mary-Elizabeth|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-EvefRJtPykC|title=Post-wall German Cinema and National History: Utopianism and Dissent|date=2012|publisher=Camden House|isbn=978-1-57113-522-3|pages=183|language=en}}</ref>

==Book== - ''One hundred years of struggle towards democracy in Iran'' (Ali Limonadi's interviews with politicians); Edited by Qasem Beykzadeh. Iranian Archive and Research Foundation, Los Angeles, 2013. (in Persian)<ref name="Library of Congress">{{cite book|last1=على|first1=ليمونادى،|title=Talāsh-i ṣad sālah-i millat-i Īrān|url=https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/search?searchCode=STNO&searchType=1&recCount=25&searchArg=9781467553674|website=LOC|year=2013|publisher=Bunyād-i Pizhūhish va Ārshīv-i Īrāniyān |isbn=9781467553674|accessdate=4 Feb 2017}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== *{{Cite book|last=Naficy|first=Hamid|title=The Making of Exile Cultures: Iranian Television in Los Angeles|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|year=1993|isbn=9780816620845|author-link=Hamid Naficy}}

==External links== {{Commons category}} * [http://www.alilimonadi.com Ali Limonadi official website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506213816/http://alilimonadi.com/ |date=2021-05-06 }} * [http://mehrhand.com/prod_brief8.html "Das Abonnement"; an Interview with Ali Limonadi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506135212/http://mehrhand.com/prod_brief8.html |date=2021-05-06 }} (in German) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxb-8qwXydM Ali Limonadi's interview with Shapour Bakhtiar, former prime minister of Iran] (in Persian)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Limonadi, Ali}} Category:Iranian journalists Category:Living people Category:Iranian film directors Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Iranian emigrants to the United States Category:Television producers from California