Irani Bag | 8' Iran/Singapore/UK 2020
Synopsis:
Using excerpts of films produced between 1990 and 2018, Irani Bag is a split-screen video essay questioning the innocence of bags in post-revolution Iranian cinema.
Irani Bag is part of Monographs, a series of essays on Asian cinema commissioned by the Asian Film Archive (AFA).
Awards:
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Awarded Barbara Hammer Feminist Film Award
- 60th Ann Arbor Film Festival
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Best Video Essays of 2021
- Sight&Sound magazine - BFI
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Best Video Essays of 2020
- Sight&Sound magazine - BFI
Reviews:
"Collating scenes of mediated intimacy in Iranian cinema, Maryam Tafakory's 'Irani Bag' is a quietly moving instruction on 'how to touch without touching'" [Essay Film Festival London]
“A video essay that deconstructs a cinematographic motif in order to propose a powerful textual and political analysis of censorship and intimacy in post-revolution Iran. Irani Bag not only exposes a codified vocabulary, it also invites the spectator to reconsider the relationship to (and between) sight and touch.” [London Short Film Festival - Awarded the runner-up Best UK Short Film]
Screenings:
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1. 31st SGIFF
Singapore premiere
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2. 60th Ann Arbor Film Festival
Awarded Barbara Hammer Feminist Film Award -
3. 19th London Short Film Festival
Awarded the 2nd Prize for Best UK Short Film -
4. IFF Message to Man
Special Mention -
5. VIS Vienna Short Film Festival, Vienna
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6. 60th Ann Arbor Film Festival, Michigan
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7. Dharamshala International Film Festival
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8. Essay Film Festival, Birkbeck London
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9. Festival Internacional de Curtas de Belo Horizonte
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10. 28th Chicago Underground Film Festival
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11. Project Arts Centre, Dublin