Hostages

HOSTAGES is a documentary series about the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. On November 4, 1979 a group of militarized pro-revolutionary Iranian university students stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran with the intent of staging a 48-hour anti-imperialist protest. But when they took 52 American citizens hostage, the situation turned into a 444-day long international crisis that impacted the 1980 U.S. presidential election, and continues to impact U.S.-Iranian diplomatic relations today. With the help of archive footage, interviews with researchers, policy experts, and journalists, it offers an in-depth explanation of what led to the country's growing resentment against Iran's authoritarian king, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and how it ultimately led to the Iranian Revolution and the installment of Islamic fundamentalist leader Ayatollah Khomeini at their Supreme Leader. It also explains how the U.S. government's close ties with the Shah, and with other Middle Eastern countries, also fueled the events that transpired. Meanwhile, interviews with some of the former hostages, including Michael Metrinko, Al Golacinski, and Kathryn Koob, and their families, reveal what their lives were like during the 444 days they were held in captivity. Conversations with some of the hostage takers, including Ebrahim Asgharzadeh and Masoumeh Ebtekar, who was the face of the student revolutionary group, and who later became the first female vice president of Iran since the revolution, reveal what their motivations were at the time, and how they think about what they did today. Throughout it all, it highlights the important role that television played in everything that happened.