Another Country , 2017
Three-channel video with sound, 80 minutes.
Farsi and Kurdish with English subtitles.
I have spent a lot of time thinking about my heritage and family legacy. How do I engage with these ideas as someone who has had to abandon the land of their ancestors? In April 2017, I returned to my birthplace to film “Another Country,” named after late-Iranian feminist poet Forough Farrokhzad’s iconic poem “Another Birth.” I interviewed family members in Iran and Canada, compiling their nostalgic and hazy recollections into directions to significant sites in my family’s history, as far back as memories allowed. I then traveled back to Kurdistan province (western Iran, bordering Iraq) to find the places my paternal grandparents and father had recounted. I did the same for my maternal family in Fars province (south western Iran). The result, accompanied by a site-specific performance-for-camera on top of Abidar Mountain (my namesake), comprise Another Country’s three channels of video.
Another Country
Another Country , 2017
Three-channel video with sound, 80 minutes.
Farsi and Kurdish with English subtitles.
I have spent a lot of time thinking about my heritage and family legacy. How do I engage with these ideas as someone who has had to abandon the land of their ancestors? In April 2017, I returned to my birthplace to film “Another Country,” named after late-Iranian feminist poet Forough Farrokhzad’s iconic poem “Another Birth.” I interviewed family members in Iran and Canada, compiling their nostalgic and hazy recollections into directions to significant sites in my family’s history, as far back as memories allowed. I then traveled back to Kurdistan province (western Iran, bordering Iraq) to find the places my paternal grandparents and father had recounted. I did the same for my maternal family in Fars province (south western Iran). The result, accompanied by a site-specific performance-for-camera on top of Abidar Mountain (my namesake), comprise Another Country’s three channels of video.