Manoto documentary compiles Iranians' own videos of January 2026 protests and killings

Manoto TV, a Persian-language outlet, has released "This Is Our Story", a four-part documentary on the Iranian uprising that began on 28 December and reached its most violent point on 8 and 9 January. 1 JNS columnist Richard Pollock wrote that the film was released on 26 September and that all four episodes stream free on Manoto's YouTube channel, in Persian with English subtitles. 2 Manoto says the film was assembled from a large archive of material filmed by ordinary Iranians; the Jerusalem Post reports that coverage around the release put the number of recordings reviewed at more than 10,000, and that the four episodes run over seven hours. 1

Manoto is described by JNS as an international Persian-language general entertainment channel founded in 2010 by a London-based Iranian couple. 2 According to the Jerusalem Post's account, the film moves from early economic anger after the rial's collapse to chants against the Islamic Republic and in support of the Pahlavi dynasty, including "Javid shah", then to the mass mobilisation of 8 January, the killings and search for the missing, and finally funerals and 40-day mourning ceremonies. 1 Both outlets say that on 8 January crowds answered a call by exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi to take to the streets, and that security forces then opened fire; the Jerusalem Post adds that Iran's authorities cut internet and phone links with the outside world that evening. 1 2

Footage described by the two writers includes people running from gunfire, a recording warning that shots came from the direction of the Nasimshahr police station, and scenes in Haft Hoz Square, Isfahan, Mashhad, Saveh and elsewhere, with bodies taken to hospitals and morgues. 1 2 The Jerusalem Post says Human Rights Watch verified footage of security forces shooting at protesters, including from Police Station 126 in Tehranpars, and that Amnesty International verified security forces firing rifles and shotguns loaded with metal pellets and concluded the communications shutdown was used while carrying out mass unlawful killings. 1 Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told Fox News on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly that Iran had published identification numbers and death certificates for around 3,000 people killed, about 500 of them security and police personnel, and that higher figures were false. 1

The Jerusalem Post says rights groups and some sources inside Iran have given significantly higher totals and that the blackout made a definitive figure extremely difficult to establish; JNS asserts, without sourcing in its opinion piece, that tens of thousands of protesters were killed on 8-9 January. 1 2 JNS also says the UN Human Rights Council last week concluded that the killings amounted to "crimes against humanity", noted that tens of thousands were detained, and warned that more than 70 people were at imminent risk of a death sentence. 2 Both writers compare the raw footage to recordings from the 7 October attack on Israel; Pollock, who says he watched about six hours, argues Western media have largely ignored the film. 1 2