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Quiet Since March? New Horizons of the Mind, Liberation, Pain, and a Few Screenings Along the Way
I went to Iran in March and stayed with my dad, while also spending time with few friends in Tehran during the latest round of attacks. It was a difficult decision to go. In the end, I had to pay a price on many levels, and the traces it left may not fade anytime soon. When I returned, I learned that The Walnut of Knowledge had won an award at the Ann Arbor Film Festival. It was comforting to know that while we were living through bombs and uncertainty, audiences on the other side of the world were watching the film and perhaps finding a connection with it. Receiving the Kodak Cinematic Vision Award i s a great encouragement, and the support will certainly help with a future project. The Walnut of Knowledge has also screened at the Oberhausen Film Festival , as well as at Alchemy Film Festival . I would love to organise some cosy screenings of the film in Bristol, and especially in Tehran. We shall see. Here is a review for the film in the Michigan daily .
In and Out Again- Every time a piece of you is ripped
It didn’t take long for me to be back in Tehran again, this time for a family situation which was, and still is, difficult. “Sandwich generation” is what they call it, and I can completely feel it in skin and bone. Life in Tehran, on the surface, seemed as usual. People trying to resume some kind of normality, while there were no missiles or drones flying above. But scratching beneath the thin layer, the economic hardship and suppression seemed stronger than ever. While attempting to find my way through various bureaucratic, legal and emotional circumstances, I managed to run another Super 8 workshop with Left Bank Collective . This time, we worked directly on film using scratching, bleach and paint, and then projected the results. There are few joys in life that I can compare with working with young people. It was amazing how the simple act of painting and damaging film, as a collective activity, could have such a healing quality — especially at a time when everything felt so hea...
A whole universe in the bark of an old tree
Step by step, we are getting closer to the studio shoot day of the new film and I am so excited to work each member of the team. The shoot days with Matt Davis , surveying the bark of an old Walnut tree in Bristol with his macro lenses was amazing. A whole universe lives in the cracks of the bark of an old tree. Ripple Effect has been screened in few places. The great Ultra Cinema Festival which I really hope I can attend one year.It was amazing to watch the film along with many great films in Laussan’s LUFF festival , meeting and making new friends. Next stop will be Kassel Documentary festival. In the mean time, there are even more world events to digests. The American election, seems like world’s election and we are all waiting what effect the choice of a nation will have on us all in different countires.It seems the world order needs revising.
Slow and steady editing "Walnut of Knowledge"
I am doing my day job and trying to edit Walnut of Knowledge.I have amazing material with the help the great team I was lucky to work with and loads of personal and family archive along with lots of sounds and conversations I have colleted like a magpie. Editting is like knitting and some times like surgery.It is about layers of information and how to gradually inject them in to the main base line of the film. It takes time to find the connections and injection points but when you find them and they seem to work, it is the greatest pleasure.






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