An Evening with Anahita Ghazvinizadeh

Anahita Ghazvinizadeh, My Life is Wind (A Letter), 2024. Courtesy of the artist

Iranian filmmaker Anahita Ghazvinizadeh is celebrated for her finely crafted character studies, which often feature non-professional actors in stories of young people facing uncertainty and change. In her latest work, My Life is Wind (A Letter), Ghazvinizadeh follows Myriam, a war refugee newly resettled in Iowa. As Myriam navigates her unfamiliar surroundings, she channels her grief into a letter to the grandmother she had to leave behind. Ghazvinizadeh presents her short film alongside a selection of works by artists whose approach resonates with her own and discusses her distinctive approach to cinema. 

1963–2023, Iran, United Kingdom, USA
Format: Digital
In English, Arabic, and Farsi with English subtitles
79 minutes followed by a conversation with the artists

PROGRAM

The House is Black
Forugh Farrokhzad, 1963, 22 minutes

The only film directed by feminist Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad finds unexpected grace where few would think to look: a leper colony whose inhabitants live, worship, learn, play, and celebrate in a self-contained community cut off from the rest of the world. A forerunner of the Iranian New Wave, The House is Black is a profoundly empathetic portrait of those cast off by society. (Criterion/Janus Films)

Measures of Distance
Mona Hatoum, 1988, 15 minutes

In this rare autobiographical work, British Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum reflects on her personal experience of displacement. In 1975, while visiting London, she was separated from her family when war broke out in Lebanon, preventing her from returning to Beirut. Revisiting the letters she exchanged with her mother during this time, Hatoum overlays images of her mother's body with their words to evoke the emotional toll of their separation.

Bezuna
Saif Alsaegh, 2023, 8 minutes

Saif Alsaegh evokes complexities of fleeing a war-zone by focusing on peripheral details.

My Life is Wind (A Letter)
Anahita Ghazvinizadeh, 2024, 33 minutes

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Anahita Ghazvinizadeh is a director, screenwriter, editor, and educator. Her short film Needle won the Cinéfondation Premier Prix in Cannes Film Festival in 2013, and her feature directorial debut They premiered at Cannes Film Festival in 2017. Ghazvinizadeh was named as one of the 25 new faces of independent cinema by Filmmaker Magazine in 2013, and is an alumnus of the Sundance Screenwriters Lab. She is currently assistant professor in the Film, Video, New Media, and Animation department at SAIC.

ACCESSIBILITY

Conversations at the Edge events have live captions (CART). The Gene Siskel Film Center is fully ADA accessible and its theaters are equipped with hearing loops. For other accessibility requests, please visit saic.edu/access or write cate@saic.edu

TICKETS

$13 General public
$8 Students & seniors
$6.50 Film Center members
$5 SAIC staff & faculty & AIC staff
FREE for SAIC students with a valid ID

All CATE programs are free for SAIC students. Unless otherwise noted, SAIC student tickets are released five days prior to showtime. Tickets must be picked up in person from the Gene Siskel Film Center box office. A student ID is required.

RESOURCE GUIDES

Conversations at the Edge’s resource guides contain articles, interviews, and other material related to upcoming artists and events. Available here.