Join Matthew Herbertz, Assistant Professor of Film at Florida Southern College, along with renowned filmmaker, Anahita Ghazvinizadeh, for a virtual screening of Ghazvinizadeh’s 2013 short film: Needle (runtime 21 min).
Needle, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Premier Prix, tells the story of young Lily, who is on her way to get her ears pierced in the midst of an argument with her parents.
Over the years, Ghazvinizadeh has created a series of films in which growth, gender identity, and family dynamics are strong themes. Through her work with children and youth, she had the chance to learn about the experience of transgender, gender expansive, and non-binary identifying young people and the crucial periods during which those individuals are questioning who they are.
BIO
Anahita Ghazvinizadeh was selected as one of the 25 "New Faces of Independent Filmmaking" in 2013 by Filmmaker Magazine and appeared on the IndieWire list of 20 rising female filmmakers in 2017. She was a writing fellow at the Sundance Screenwriters’ Lab in January 2013, artist-in-residence at the Museum of Fine Art Houston's Core Program 2013-2015, and has been mentored by filmmakers such as Jane Campion and Abbas Kiarostami. Among her professional accomplishments are the Doha Film Institute Grant, Tribeca Film Institute's IWC Filmmakers' Award, Sarah Jacobson Annual Film Grant, Sundance Institute/ Doris Duke Foundation Grant for Islamic Arts, and George C. Lin Emerging Filmmaker Prize are
Ghazvinizadeh's feature debut They premiered as the official selection of the 2017 Cannes Film Festival and has been shown in several festivals since then, including Torino Film Festival in Italy, the Busan International in Korea, the Deauville Film Festival in France, Berlin Feminist Film Week, BFI Flare in London, InsideOut in Toronto, the Woodstock Film Festival, and NewFest in New York. Her films have been reviewed by critics worldwide in publications including The Chicago Tribune, IndieWire, Screen Daily, The Village Voice, Le Figaro, and other international press.
This exclusive live event begins at 6 pm on Facebook Live.