San Francisco, CA — 18 September, 2018 — Changing the World, One Wall at a Time, a documentary feature film on Education Is Not A Crime – the world’s largest street art and human rights campaign, which raises awareness about education discrimination by Iran’s government against thousands of Baha’is in the country – will have its San Francisco premiere at the San Francisco Baha’i Center (170 Valencia St) at 2pm on 30 September.

Baha’is with personal experience of the persecution in Iran – who now live in the United States – will join the film’s executive producer Maziar Bahari at the premiere.

The film was produced by Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari as part of the worldwide Education Is Not A Crime campaign. It was premiered in 2017 at the Harlem International Film Festival and has been nominated for the 2018 Passion for Freedom Art Prize in London.

The Baha’is, who believe in the equality of men and women, peaceful non-violence, and universal education, have been persecuted by the Iranian government since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, including the denial of their right to higher education.

Education Is Not A Crime raises awareness of this discrimination. The campaign began in 2014 with Bahari’s documentary film To Light a Candle, which was screened in nearly 300 locations around the world, before expanding into a global street art project raising awareness about the Baha’is.

“Changing the World, One Wall at a Time is the story of an ambitious campaign,” Bahari said. “We fought brutality with arts and creativity. The fact that we brought together so many artists – who did not know anything about the persecution of the Baha’is in Iran, and who then created amazing works of art all around the world – shows there is a willingness among people many different backgrounds to join such a struggle.”

The film focuses on twenty murals painted in the iconic Harlem neighborhood of New York City because of its long association with cultural innovation during the Harlem Renaissance and the 1960s Civil Rights movement.

Changing the World, One Wall at a Time also features interviews with popular artists and activists with experience of the Civil Rights movement and the anti-Apartheid struggle in South Africa as well as Iranian activists and Baha’is.

For more information please visit http://www.notacrime.me/thefilm.

About "Education Is Not A Crime"

The Baha'is, Iran's largest religious minority, are frequently jailed on false charges and denied access to higher education. There are 74 Baha'is currently imprisoned and more than 200 were executed in the early 1980s after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Thousands of Baha'is are currently studying through an underground education system known as the Baha'i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE). Not A Crime is working to stop the human rights abuse of young people barred from studying because of their beliefs and is encouraging universities worldwide to admit Iranian Baha'i students. The education campaign started in 2015 with an Education Is Not A Crime Day (the last Friday of February 2015) and screenings of a film Bahari made called "To Light a Candle" -- and now it has grown into a movement. Mark Ruffalo of "The Avengers," Rainn Wilson of "The Office," Desmond Tutu, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and rights activist, and Shirin Ebadi, also a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, have spoken against the persecution of the Baha'is. Nearly 100 universities -- including Stanford and Yale -- currently accept the BIHE certificate.