Contemporary experimental cinema in Iran has been well researched. Following the 1979 revolution, Iranian films in global festivals showcased a country that international audiences had come to perceive as “closed-off” from foreigners, “shrouded” or “veiled” from the Western gaze. Iranian arthouse cinema was celebrated as genre-bending: Documentary, or fiction? Amateur actor, or playful participant? As a new cinematic grammar took shape, it took a handful of Iranian directors to arthouse venues around the world. Today, a new generation of Iranian film directors continue to produce compelling projects within this cinematic tradition, creating films that are experimental, self-referential, often blurring the thin line between fact and fiction. This is in part because Iranian directors know what international festival curators, directors, jurors and art critics have come to expect of their work. In this talk, I explore how experimental documentary filmmakers navigate expectations of their work abroad, alongside local critiques of siah namai (black showing) films at home in Iran. Drawing from interviews and ethnographic research at film festivals, public and private screenings in Iran, this paper theorizes “experimental fatigue” as a response to the insatiable demand of the global market today. I also note the ways in which my positionality as an Iranian-American anthropologist affected my research development. In particular, Iranian state surveillance shaped the development of this qualitative research, providing further insight into the complex and truly “exhausting” state surveillance apparatus that Iranian filmmakers, artists and cultural producers navigate at home and in order to produce works that are seen internationally. While existing scholarship on Iranian cinema predominately contributes to the field of film studies by taking film itself as its object of analysis, this talk is based on ethnographic research and interviews with directors in Iran. Through these methods, this talk contributes new anthropological research to a well-established field of study.