The Spark is You — film screenings and discussion

This screening curated by Dr Azadeh Fatehrad focuses on experimental film essays produced by Iranian female filmmakers.

The programme showcases some of the most thought-provoking films that reflect on the traces of memory, history and philosophy in Iranian culture through cinematic syntax, poetry and visual aesthetic.

The selected films by Zara Zandieh and Maryam Tafakory look at the duality and shared experience of suffering or pleasure; enforcement and innocence; as well as individuality and universality.

The screening will be followed by a discussion with Professor Griselda Pollock and Dr Azadeh Fatehrad.

All are welcome. Please book your place here via Eventbrite.

This event is supported by the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, University of Leeds.

Selected films

Taklif (Task) by Maryam Tafakory
UK | 2014 | 10 mins | experimental short

Khoshbakhti (Happiness) by Zara Zandieh
Germany | 2015 | 20 mins | experimental short

About the speakers

Dr Azadeh Fatehrad is an artist and curator based at the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, University of Leeds, working in the context of historical representation. Underpinning Fatehrad’s research is a cross-cultural approach that looks at the artistic, social, aesthetic and political implications of ‘existing images’, and their relation to life today. Fatehrad has curated diverse public programmes such as Sohrab Shahid-Saless: Exiles at the Close-Up Film Centre, Goethe-Institut and Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London (2017-18); The Feminist Historiography at IASPIS, Stockholm (2016); and Witness 1979 at the Showroom, London (2015).

Professor Griselda Pollock is a visual theorist, cultural analyst and scholar of international postcolonial feminist studies in the visual arts. Based in England, she is well known for her theoretical and methodological innovation, combined with readings of historical and contemporary art, film and cultural theory. Since 1977, Pollock has been one of the most influential scholars of modern and postmodern art. She is also a major influence in feminist theory, feminist art history and gender studies. Griselda is Professor of the Social and Critical Histories of Art in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds.

Venue

Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art
14 Wharf Road,
London N1 7RW

Image: Image: Still from Khoshbakhti (Happiness), 2015, dir. Zara Zandieh.