SAN DIEGO, CA.- On Thursday, June 18, 2009, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego will host the one-night-only San Diego premiere of celebrated Iranian-American visual artist/filmmaker Shirin Neshat's first feature-length film, Women Without Men. The screening will take place at 7 pm at MCASD's La Jolla location. Tickets are $15 general admission and $10 for MCASD Members/Students.

Set in Tehran in 1953, Neshat's screen adaptation of exiled Iranian writer Shahrnush Parsipur's magic realist novel of the same name chronicles the experiences of five women when Iran's democratically elected government was overthrown by the CIA-supported shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

In addition to screening Women Without Men, MCASD also will screen a small selection of the artist's short films, including "The Last Word" (2003). Neshat will be present at the Museum and will participate in a Q&A session following the screening.

Neshat developed her screenplay at the Sundance Institute's 2003 Screenwriters Lab. Her award-winning short films have screened at numerous international exhibitions and film festivals including the 1999 Venice Biennale, the 2000 Whitney Biennial, the 2000 Telluride Film Festival, and the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, among others.

The New York-based artist's brilliant repertoire of poetic short films and videos evokes a rich and haunting palette of striking visual metaphors that explore from within the rich lyricism, mystery, sensibilities, and contradictions of Islamic culture.

This special screening of Women Without Men and selected short films is the first time that the work of this internationally known artist/filmmaker will be shown in San Diego.