This presentation introduces the case study of the Syracuse documentary mission in Iran during 1950s. The Syracuse University's Audiovisual Center produced over 100 how-to rural training films, held documentary workshops, oversaw local production of weekly newsmagazines before the arrival of television and supervised the establishment of a documentary infrastructure, audiovisual centers and institutions of media sponsorship and governance in Iran for a decade under a binational contract with government agencies of the United States and Iran and the cooperation of many American nongovernmental entities. Up to thirty-five American universities contributed to Syracuse mission with personnel and equipment, and, additionally, with packages of audiovisual training for Iranians in the United States. Furthermore, the presentation addresses the limitations and opportunities of accessing the archives today in Iran and in the United States. The Syracuse mission has only received survey treatment in existing accounts of Iranian cinema. While the archives of the Syracuse mission are held in National Film Archive of Iran, little access has been granted for a more extensive scholarly investigation and for preservation of films. The situation is different in the United States. The paper-trail archive of the Syracuse mission has recently become available publicly to scholars as part of the larger archives of the United States Information Agency (USIA, 1953-1999) at U.S. National Archives in College Park, Maryland (NARA II). There is, however, almost no trace of the how-to training film titles. Instead, a fairly detailed memoranda record of contracts, scripts, correspondence, reports, receipts and some photographs testify to the foundational role of the Syracuse documentary mission in nation-building through establishing a documentary apparatus in Iran. In contrast to the unavailability of how-to films, digitized copies of AKHBAR-E IRAN Series (Iran News) is becoming available almost in its entirety of 412 weekly episodes of 7-10 minutes (1954-1962) at NARA II. The production of newsmagazine series is credited to Ali Issari, the Iranian liaison with Syracuse team and the office of the United States Information Service (USIS) in Tehran. Episodes of AKHBAR-E IRAN Series provide a high quality and breathtaking documentary report of Iran during 1950s. Researching the transnational dimension of Syracuse mission in Iran makes evident that the literature on national cinema in the Middle East desperately begs detail transnational and critical genealogies that dovetail close examination of film text with authorship, infrastructure, and diplomatic bureaucracy.