At home movie feast
Going to the movies used to be the only option to see the newest film releases, however a popular option now is to stay home and go online to see some of the latest and greatest.
Film festivals are one way to relax with a glass of wine and enjoy cutting edge and also controversial national and international films.
Currently on is the Show Me Shorts Film Festival. A showcase of the 2021 programme is Farbod Arebili’s short film Forbidden to See Us Scream in Tehran, which highlights the current situation of Iranian women prohibited from singing and performing.
It focuses on an Iranian woman who plans to change things by organising an underground concert. The frontwoman for an Iranian death metal band, she risks everything as she plots to call the cops on her own underground concert in the hopes that the raid will help her secure her asylum in another country.
This topical film sheds light on the reality of banned Western music in Iran which was put in place in 1979, Iranian women not being allowed to sing or perform publicly and live concerts being banned for female solo singers. It has screened at a variety of film festivals including the Oscar qualifying Cleveland International Film Festival.
Director/Writer/Songwriter Farbod Ardebili has been residing in the US since 2014. He is a Sundance Fellow and has written and directed several award-winning shorts. Ardebili has been recognised by numerous international film festivals such as Fantastic Fest, Cleveland International Film Festival, Show Me Shorts, Calgary International Film Festival, Sun Valley Film Festival, and many more.
Forbidden To See Us Scream In Tehran is currently screening in the Show Me Shorts Film Festival until October 21.
In another of this year’s ‘Shorts’ screening until October 21, musician Sting has collaborated with filmmaker Maya Sanbar on an animated short film which focuses on refugees and climate change.
Winner of Oscar-qualifying awards at Cinequest Film Festival and Flicker’s Rhode Island International Film Festival, Sanbar’s Footsteps On The Wind, tells the story of two siblings who go on a mysterious journey after tragically losing their parents.
The 17-time Grammy Award-winning Artist Sting gave his refugee-inspired song “Inshallah” to Maya Sanbar so that she could create an animation film as a therapy tool for traumatised refugee children and to raise awareness of the growing refugee crisis around the world. It is the first animated short film ever made to a song by Sting.
Footsteps On the Wind has won a variety of Awards including the Oscar-qualifying Awards at Cinequest Film Festival and Flicker’s Rhode Island International Film Festival.
“To me, “Inshallah”- which means “if God is willing, then it shall come to pass” – sounded like a prayer that people in this situation may recite. I imagined myself in that circumstance, wanting to bring my family to safety in a very dangerous situation,” says Sting.
Director Maya Sanbar is a multimedia artist who can relate to the plight of refugees as her own family has a history of refugee displacement, her father having fled Haifa, Palestine in 1948.
Maya joined forces with co-directors Gustavo Leal and Faga Melo, the founders of the Brazilian award-winning film production company Dirty Work to create an animated film to the haunting tune, Inshallah, produced by her company Chasing the Light Studio. Maya, who wrote the screenplay for the film with Pedro Paulo de Andrade, has worked on a variety of films and documentaries including Wajib, Freak Show, House in the Fields, The Idol, The Muslims Are Coming, The Time That Remains and Trouble The Water.
www.showmeshorts.co.nz
