This Q&A follows a screening of three fast-paced and entertaining short films introducing young filmmakers from Iran. Presented in conjunction with Maziar Bahari and Malu Halasa’s book Transit Tehran, Young Iran and its Inspirations. These films, MY CITY PIZZA, OF MEN AND MOTORCYCLES and BEHIND THE WHEEL OF LIFE, are produced by Maziar Bahari with the support of BBC World Service Trust and open a window to sides of Iran which are rarely covered in the media.
We are pleased to welcome filmmaker and author Malu Halasa for a post-screening Q&A in association with Parallax Media. For biographies on the filmmakers click on the link on the left side of the page.
PLEASE NOTE: Unfortunately, Producer Maziar Bahari will be unable to attend due to illness.
Maziar Bahari: Journalist and filmmaker born in Tehran in 1967, Bahari’s films include And Along Came a Spider, Mohammad and the Matchmaker, The Voyage of the St Louis, Targets: Reporters in Iraq and Greetings from Sadr City. He is presently completing two documentaries about the 1979 Iranian Revolution and 1953 Coup for the BBC. Maziar Bahari writes for Newsweek from Tehran and Transit Tehran: Young Iran and Its Inspirations (2009) is his first book.
Malu Halasa: An editor and writer and co-author of Transit Tehran, The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie (2008), Kaveh Golestan: Recording the Truth in Iran (2007), Transit Beirut (2004) and Creating Spaces of Freedom: Culture in Defiance (2002). A former managing editor of Prince Claus Fund Library and a founding editor of Tank magazine, she has been writing about the Middle East since the 1990s.
Shahriyar Siami: A graduate of the Free University in Tehran. In 2000, he made his first documentary The Secret of Woodcock for Iranian television. He has since made several documentary films and TV series. In 2008, he took part in the BBC World Service Trust workshop, where he made Of Men & Motorcycles.