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The Art of Living in Danger by Keshavarz, candidate to the best Documentary Academy Awards

Alexia Muiños Ruiz
Alexia Muiños Ruiz

Mina Keshavarz's The Art of Living in Danger is officially a candidate to the Academy Awards

Mina Keshavarz 's film is a co-production between Iran and Germany, with a very female crew, including writer-director-producer Keshavarz and also editor, animator, sound designer, cinematographer and poster design. The Art of Living in Danger had its world premiere past October in SHEFFIELD DOC/FEST and was screened in IDFA in the Best of Fest section.

In her film, Keshavarz unveils a family secret about her grandmother's death. through a monologue with her grandmother, Mina shows the reality of domestic violence against women in Iran.

ABOUT THE FILM

Women in Iran have been struggling for equal rights for more than 40 years. The family law which offered hope in 1974 was annulled after the Iranian Revolution (1978-1979). Today, they live in fear, especially of male domestic violence. Filmmaker Mina Keshavarz follows a group of women fighting for change.

The Art of Living in Danger is partly a personal story. Keshavarz’ narration is addressed to her grandmother Nurijan whom she never knew. Nurijan died before the revolution; Mina was born after it ended. But now her grandmother has become a symbol of something much larger. Only later does it become clear why for decades the family has never spoken about her sad story.

At the same time, the documentary shows the years of work by women’s rights activists, who are working to enshrine the right to equal treatment in their country in a well-drafted bill. They collect countless compelling stories of oppressed women to support their efforts. The film thus becomes a document of how Iranian women are continuing to fight for legal protection.

MInaK

The Director and Producer

Documentary filmmaker and producer Mina Keshavarz ( selected in the 3rd EWA Mentoring programme for Women producers) was born in Shiraz in 1984. Since 2002 she has been working as a documentary filmmaker, journalist, and researcher for documentary film projects. She is Co-founder of visual documentary magazine” From Tehran” and she is also Co-founder of a website on documentary film issues “ Vamostanad “ from 2009-2014 in Iran.

She has made several awarded documentary films on social issues which have premiered in IDFA, Thessaloniki, Sheffield, Tribeca, London Film Festival including “Profession: Documentaries”, “Braving the Waves” and “Unwelcome in Tehran”

She established her documentary film production “MinDoc Film Production “in Iran in 2013 with the aim to produce creative documentaries with a focus on social, political issues. Since then Mina produced 2 interactive documentaries, including "Scheherzade Now" and 3 feature length documentary film including "Braving the Waves" , "Fish Eye" and "The Art of Living in Danger".

Mina is alumni of Berlinale Talents, HotDocs Emerging Docs Accelerator Lab, Nipkow Film Residency and she has pitched her project in Tribeca, Thessaloniki, IDFA Pitching Forum and HotDocs deal maker. She has experience as a jury member in National and International film festivals and participated in several development workshops like GreenHouse, ESODoc, Docedge Kolkata.

CREDITS
87 min color / black and white DCP Spoken languages: Farsi  Subtitles: English

Production: Mina Keshavarz / Mindoc Film Production
Co-production : TAG/TRAUM
Cinematography : Mina Keshavarz, Amin Behroozzadeh
Animation : Saba Nassiri
Editing: Hamila Moayed
Sound: Hassan Shabankareh
Sound Design: Ensieh Maleki
Music: Amin Behroozzadeh
Screenplay: Mina Keshavarz, Nafiseh Moussavi, Mehrnoush Alia
Narrator: Mina Keshavarz
Involved TV Channel, ZDF/ARTE
World Sales: New Docs
Screening copy: TAG/TRAUM