Elahe is an award-winning filmmaker. Her movies embrace The Doll (Critics Alternative Nominee, IDA Nominee, Pupil Academy Awards, Finest Worldwide Quick Sizzling Docs 2021), Can I Hug You? (Sheffield Doc/Fest 2023, SIMA Awards Finest Quick 2024), and A Transfer (Visions du Réel 2024 Finest Youth Jury Quick) which spanned over 50 festivals and competitions, displays her prowess in storytelling and ladies’s rights advocacy. Elahe’s tasks are supported by IDA, One World Media; awarded on boards equivalent to Dok Leipzig Quick-n-sweet; and broadcasted/streamed through platforms equivalent to NPO, VPRO, DW, VG, and many others.
IDA: Please inform us a little bit about your self, your occupation, or your ardour.
I’m a author and director. I began in engineering. I’ve come a great distance from engineering to artwork. It was a street with a number of obstacles however I made it!
I am an alumna of just about all the large doc festivals, but my mother nonetheless tells me: “You gotta stop filmmaking and simply return to your respectable, respectful job of engineering!!” However right here I’m, captivated with filmmaking from head to toe, embracing the challenges, and excited to inform extra tales.
IDA: When and the way did you first begin making non-fiction movies?
I studied movie on the Tehran College of Artwork in Iran. I made my first brief documentary, The Doll (2021), at Tehran College as my thesis movie. It was effectively obtained within the pageant circuit and awarded because the Finest Worldwide Quick at HotDocs and was nominated for the 2021 David L. Wolper Pupil Documentary Award on the Worldwide Documentary Awards and the Critics Alternative.
I carried on making brief documentaries in addition to brief fiction movies since, all of which premiered at massive festivals and gained awards, equivalent to Visions du Reel, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Dok Leipzig, FullFrame, DC/Dox, SIMA, and many others. I’m within the improvement of my debut function now.
IDA: Your movie Can I Hug You? (2023) was a part of our Awards Marketing campaign Entry Initiative (ACAI) program. Congratulations! Are you able to inform us a little bit concerning the movie? How and when did you begin eager about the mission?
Can I Hug You? remains to be on its journey within the festivals and awards, and we nonetheless obtain so many nice responses and hugs from everywhere in the world. I believe the energy of the movie is in its potential to take the audiences on an especially emotional journey and so many individuals from completely different backgrounds resonate with the characters.
I’m happy with the movie and grateful to my accomplice who informed me his story within the first place and allowed this movie to occur. He needed to share his story and go on this journey together with his household and I did my greatest to assist him as a accomplice, and as a filmmaker. The movie turned part of his therapeutic course of, which was so rewarding for me.
IDA: Inform us a little bit about being a part of the ACAI program.
It was an excellent alternative to be part of the IDA ACAI program, it was an excellent platform for the movie to succeed in extra individuals and get seen. The assist we obtained from the IDA staff was irreplaceable as we couldn’t get correct publicity for the movie with out it.
We made this movie for affect and to share it so that folks in comparable conditions wouldn’t really feel lonely, and for the movie to have a large attain was our aim from the get-go, nonetheless, we’re unbiased filmmakers, like once I say unbiased I imply it!! And it was unimaginable for us to run a marketing campaign for award season with none monetary assist. I’m nonetheless in debt for the manufacturing of that movie haha!
So the IDA backing the movie was like a pal’s hand holding us by way of a darkish path warmly, and despite the fact that it was brief, it was very efficient.
IDA: Congratulations on A Transfer (2024), and your win on the Visions du Réel Worldwide Movie Competition. Inform us a little bit concerning the movie.
A Transfer is one other private story. This time I’m the character, it occurs in my hometown which is without doubt one of the most non secular cities in Iran, and I observe my journey of difficult my household to simply accept me not carrying hijab in our household gatherings. It premiered at VdR and we’re grateful to have gained the Youth Jury award for greatest worldwide brief there.
IDA: What’s subsequent for you? Are you engaged on something you may share with us?
Sure, I’m engaged on my debut function which I’m actually enthusiastic about, it’s in improvement and is one other ladies’s rights story, coming from my coronary heart.