The Art of Living in Danger Poster, 2020
Unwelcome in Tehran Poster: Shahrzad Media, 2012
Braving the Waves Poster: Mani Hashemian, 2016
Name
Mina Keshavarz
Biography
An awarded Iranian documentary filmmaker and producer Mina Keshavarz was born in 1984. Her films are about social political issues with a personal narrative which have premiered in IDFA, Thessaloniki, Busan International Film Festival, Sheffield, Tribeca, London Film Festival including “Profession: Documentaries”, “Braving the Waves” and “The Art of Living in Danger”. Her films have been supported by IDFA Bertha Fund, Sorfond, Fritt Ord, Arte/ ZDF, NRW Cinema Fund and HotDocs International CrossCurrent Theatrical Fund.
She is an alumnus of Berlinale Talents, HotDocs Emerging Docs Accelerator Lab, EsoDoc, Close-Up and Tribeca Film Institute, she is an invited fellow in Nipkow Film Residency in Berlin, Berlin Air Film Residency, Academy of Art Kunste Berlin and Villa Serpantara in Rome.
Mina’s new film “The Art of Living in Danger won Best Documentary Film award in Busan International Film Festival 2020 and has been qualified for Oscar feature length documentary film competition 2021. And has received 10 other International awards. She was also jury member in One World Media Awards 2021 in London and lecturer in ESoDoc/ Zelig Film School in Italy and Griffith Film School in Brisbane, Australia.
She is an alumnus of Berlinale Talents, HotDocs Emerging Docs Accelerator Lab, EsoDoc, Close-Up and Tribeca Film Institute, she is an invited fellow in Nipkow Film Residency in Berlin, Berlin Air Film Residency, Academy of Art Kunste Berlin and Villa Serpantara in Rome.
Mina’s new film “The Art of Living in Danger won Best Documentary Film award in Busan International Film Festival 2020 and has been qualified for Oscar feature length documentary film competition 2021. And has received 10 other International awards. She was also jury member in One World Media Awards 2021 in London and lecturer in ESoDoc/ Zelig Film School in Italy and Griffith Film School in Brisbane, Australia.
Category Tags / Research Areas
Artist Statement
"As an artist and feminist , who has lived and work in a country with powerful ideology against feminist, I am always trying to break sterotypes in my films as a documentary filmmaker. On the other hand I’m coming from a country in the middle east, which the western countries have many sterotypes about us ( specially about women ) in their mind.
When I started my work as a documentary filmmaker, I knew that I want to Show an inmage of Iranian woman in my Works that you can’t find easily in main starem inside and outside Iran. İnside Iran, media covers women who are covered, married and mother, those who prefer their role as wife and mother other than to be active outside home, which is not the real image of women in Iranian society and when I look at the Iranian films which promote a lot in western medias , I see an image of women who are victims and men are monsters, which is not true as well. So I always tried to Show women like myself, my mother, women who Works, studies and fight everyday to achieve their rights. This approach could be also a journalistic approach but I decided to talk about these issues through my personal stories and with a poetic view and narrative.
When I talk about feminism in my society and country, I’m also talking about discriminations in different levels, I talk about supression and control from a totalitarianism system. My Works inspired a lot by personal archives, I like to reconstruct archives and use these materials to talk about history that doesn’t have any place in any historian books".
When I started my work as a documentary filmmaker, I knew that I want to Show an inmage of Iranian woman in my Works that you can’t find easily in main starem inside and outside Iran. İnside Iran, media covers women who are covered, married and mother, those who prefer their role as wife and mother other than to be active outside home, which is not the real image of women in Iranian society and when I look at the Iranian films which promote a lot in western medias , I see an image of women who are victims and men are monsters, which is not true as well. So I always tried to Show women like myself, my mother, women who Works, studies and fight everyday to achieve their rights. This approach could be also a journalistic approach but I decided to talk about these issues through my personal stories and with a poetic view and narrative.
When I talk about feminism in my society and country, I’m also talking about discriminations in different levels, I talk about supression and control from a totalitarianism system. My Works inspired a lot by personal archives, I like to reconstruct archives and use these materials to talk about history that doesn’t have any place in any historian books".