00:11I was born in Iran long long time ago and I left Iran because I kind of wanted
00:21to have a better life I wanted to do art freely I wanted to my children I
00:29wanted to be free although still looking back you always miss your homeland
00:47my name is Elizabeth Levy and everybody call me Lily because my mom didn't like
00:53the name Elizabeth I'll always love to work with my hand I always love to get
01:00any kind of clay and when I got graduated there was no university in Iran because
01:07of revolution so I got to artist studio was an art school and they have a very
01:15very very small place for pottery and as soon as I saw that I fell in love with
01:20it every chance I get I go and find a little clay and work well before
01:28revolution I was very young to come but it was just like here and a little bit more
01:35fun but the school was fine you know you go to school you go to parties you have
01:43birthdays you have everything was normal and then when revolution happened
01:49everything changed they separate the school they send the boys to another
01:54school in one day they they told us you can't come to school without covering your
02:00hair and you had to cover completely I went to the Jewish school at that time and
02:07they put the Jewish school on fire we had a lot of you had a lot of problem but in
02:15revolution there are so many people going crazy that they do stupid thing it wasn't legal then to if you
02:25were a Jew they won't let you leave the country this is 25 years ago you basically couldn't get passport
02:34easily I probably wouldn't do what I did then I forged my birth certificate and I changed my name
02:45and then I rescued and then I got the passport but it was also
02:49When I got to the airport that day there was a Special Guard
02:54they usually come in and they they arrest anybody that there are suspicious
03:00They arrested three people and I was one of them and I was just going back and forth between the
03:10special guard to the police, the special guard to the police and having a mom that is Jewish, three hours
03:19airplane, she gave me enough food for like going to a trip for six months.
03:26So I'm carrying all this food with me going from a station to station to prove to them that I'm
03:33not me. So they asked me, who are you? Why are you leaving this country? And I keep saying, well,
03:40I don't know who this is. I don't even know who she is. I don't know her. I know that
03:45I have to leave.
03:45It took me maybe half an hour and 15 minutes before my airplane leave. The airplane left at 7.30
03:55and it was 7.15 and I was just begging and I said, please let me leave.
04:02And the guy came back and said, you know, the only reason you want to leave this country is because
04:08you're a whore. And I didn't want to pick any fight with him because I knew he wants to have
04:14a fight.
04:15And so finally he threw my passport to me and said, just get out of this country. And I just
04:23took my passport and I left. Then they finally closed the doors of the airplane and the pilot turned around
04:33and said, you just left Iranian country.
04:37Everybody's go. It was a moment. There are moments in life you never forget. And these are, you know, these
04:48are the time that you always have to remember.
04:50I remember my parents calling me, telling me after months and months of trying, she finally got her papers, got
04:59her documents all set.
05:02And she was getting on a plane and she was coming to Austria. It was pretty difficult to be able
05:09to leave Iran with the situation, you know, being of the minority religion that we were.
05:16Getting out wasn't all that easy. So my parents told me she actually got on a plane, plane took off.
05:24She's on her way over. She's going to be landing there. I was really excited.
05:41So finally, after a year and so, I came to LA and everybody's little by little get together. And after
05:51four years after that, my parents could leave Iran and join us.
05:57First thing I did in San Diego is how to find the school for art. I really like to continue
06:06with my art. So I went to college and I signed up. And I first day, I was just so
06:12surprised that they have so much in this country.
06:44I was so surprised.
