Weekend Production

Over the last four days, the students in the workshop have been working on their final film for the workshop. Really interesting projects emerged. Below is a photo from David Kagan's shoot:

Border

Ever since I have started this workshop, I am feeling more and more inspired and excited about what I am doing and what I want to do in the future in regards to filmmaking. 

Our assignment for the workshop is to create a 5 minute video piece that communicates the idea of "Border" whether it be used as literal as we want, metaphorical, symbolically or  psychological. I tend to really love these assignments. It has a constraint but still leaves you to choose a story that is unequally about you or about what you want to communicate. 

My piece is called "Dear Father" The context will be about the borders between father/daughter relationships. I will not reveal anymore details about it till its showed April 3rd at the Lang Theater. I will be heading out to shoot it in an hour. Tristan (one of the other students in the workshop) will be collaborating with me as a DP, and another student/teacher assistant to Prof. Andrew Lund who will be shooting the making of! I love the making, the creative process, and the actual production of any creation more then the final product. 

I am so excited and have even posted an event on facebook inviting all my fellow artist friends and filmmakers. I am also so excited and looking forward to seeing what all the other students have created. 

Shirin Neshat and Shoja Azari are very inspiring and I enjoy the group discussions we have at the workshop. Shirin has a very humble quiet expression when talking about her experience and expressing her brilliant ideas. Shoja has a very funny sense of humor, he makes the whole class burst in laughs. I think its also very generous that they provide the workshop with a catering for lunch (very sweet!!) 

Aside from the workshop, they have invited all of the students to an outer event, where Shoj'a son was performing in a band doing the vocals and occasionally playing the electric guitar. I went with three of my friends, and we all enjoyed and loved the contemporary fusion of instruments which combined an electric guitar, accordion, harmonica,  the big acrostic classical base, and a trumpet. It was amazing. I got to meet Shirin's editor Sam, for her film Zarin, and a few lovely people in the industry. It was a great night! 

Looking forward to the next meeting...

Till then

The Workshop

What a fantastic workshop! Everyone is truly enjoying the discussions around film and art and in between. It has been such a great opportunity to listen firsthand to the experiences of Shirin Neshat and her collaborator Shoja Azari as they each discuss their process when it comes to filmmaking and art.

A couple of pics from the workshop below:

It's a flurry of activity as everyone arrives to the workshop.

Students listening intently.

The workshop participants are busy at work on their short films. Check back to hear more updates and see their finished products. More pictures to come soon!

Shirin Neshat Screening & Installation

What an amazing screening and installation! The Hunter Community was so grateful for the opportunity hear Shirin Neshat discuss her work after the screening along with her collaborator Shoja Azari.

Check out some pictures from the event below:

It was a packed house!

Shirin Neshat

Q & A after the screening. (Left to right: Shanti Thakur, Shoja Azari and Shirin Neshat)

Shirin Neshat's video installation Turbulent ('98) as
screened at the event. Shoja Azari pictured in video.

Turbulent ('98) as screened at the event.

Today/Tonight

Shirin Neshat in person!

Thanks Sam. I got it

Shirin Neshat

The main event in this year's visiting filmmakers series is the master class workshop given by acclaimed artist and filmmaker Shirin Neshat which will be held from March 24-27 and April 1 & 3. The visit will include a public screening of her three recent short films Zarin ('05), Munis ('08) and Faezeh ('08) which were developed at the Sundance Filmmakers Lab.

The work of Shirin Neshat addresses the social, political and psychological dimensions of women's experience in contemporary Islamic societies. Neshat work actively resists stereotypical representations of Islam and her artistic objectives are not explicitly polemical. Rather, her work recognizes the complex intellectual and religious forces shaping the identity of Muslim women throughout the world. Neshat often expresses her themes through installations which show two or more coordinated films concurrently on multiple screens, creating stark visual contrasts through the juxtaposition of light and dark, black and white, male and female.

As a photographer and video-artist, Neshat was recognized for her brilliant portraits of women entirely overlaid by Persian calligraphy (notably the “Women of Allah” series). She also directed many videos, among them: Shadow under the Web (’97), Turbulent (’98), Rapture (’99), Soliloquy (’99), Fervor (’00), Passage (’01) (w/ Philip Glass), Tooba (’02), The Last Word (’03), Mahdokht (’04). Neshat also makes more traditional narrative short films, including Zarin (’05), Munis (’08) and Faezeh (’08) and she is currently in post-production on her first feature film Women Without Men, an adaptation of the novel by Sharnush Parsipur.

Neshat gained international recognition in 1999, when she won the International Award at the XLVIII Venice Bienniale with her video installations Turbulent and Rapture, a project involving almost 250 extras and produced by the Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont which met with critical and public success after its worldwide avant-première at the Art Institute of Chicago in May 1999.

According to an article in Time, Neshat seeks to “untangle the ideology of Islam through her art.” However, it is widely recognized that Neshat draws on a wide range of Western and Eastern influences, including commercial cinema. “I try not to define for myself whether I’m an artist or a filmmaker,” she says, “I think film is the most democratic art form… I’ve never thought of my work as innovative, but I never followed any set of rules.”