Goodbye mon Porto Leone!

Last month was full of changes. It was a fusion of here and there. A true Porto Leone!  

Voila a brief visual update of my life since the beginning of spring: 

March 21st 2015- Farvardin 1st 1394 

Celebrating Iranian new year in white snowy Montreal among our home-made green sprouts. 

Eventually, I had to say Goodbye to flamenco and my dance-mates. "Bye! I'm leaving for a while! See you soon!", I shouted as loud as I could. Once again I was shocked to realize that more than half of them had never heard my voice before.

My last nights in Montreal were full of young, beautiful, marching girls and boys with red roses in hand marching and chanting side by side the police. It might look surreal but that's how this city lives. My last mission was to give an orange lipstick to my friend : a magical night with "Lady danger" on strike. 

My first mission in Tehran was to look for a book I had been dreaming of getting for a long while. A book I tried to read in French a few times before I surrendered. The Persian(Farsi) version of this book is sold but only via black market: Which means you can buy it but at least twice the regular price. So I preferred to pay half the price and buy it in its English version in Tehran. Now,would I be able to unlock this mystery and fully read "The name of the rose"?

Sometimes a serious, philosophical conversation in a café is enough to reboot your mind and get you through jet lag in the blink of an eye: "You can't read a worm's mind as a worm is unable to read your feelings!". 

If you walk in my neighborhood in the early afternoon, the chance that you meet a cat is much much higher than spotting a human being. These guardian cats look tough at first sight. They sit down in very strategic spots all around the neighbourhood. I often try to find a shortcut not to bother them or I just stand far away and look at them, watching their terittory. Soon after,  they give their back a sexy curl and gently start walking away from me. All of a sudden, these harsh, tough-looking dudes  become the most beautiful, seductive creatures in the world. Isn't that why I love movement so much?  Isn't that why I partnered my life with Animation? 

Back in Tehran means back to my old project: "Le foot stories!".

A random sketch - too hard to translate! 

But,  

for the next few months: a new film to start and thousands of white pages to ink and draw!  

To be continued! 

     

The ramparts of Warsaw 1943-1944/ Les remparts de Varsovie 1943-1944

A few months ago, I finished a collaboration with André Bossuroy for three animated segments as part of the documentary: "Les remparts de Varsovie 1943-1944/ The ramparts of Warsaw 1943-1944"

This documentary was shown on ARTE, on the day of the Warsaw insurrection. 

To watch the animated segments click on the images below: 

Animation-Part1

Animation-Part2

Animation-Part3

"1st August 1944. Nearly two months after the Allies land in Normandy, the young people of Poland rise up in Warsaw to free themselves from the Nazi yoke. Betrayed by Stalin who is encamped, weapons at hand, on the far bank of the Vistula the Polish Resistance one of the strongest in Europe with its Home Army the Armia Krajowa faces the world’s most powerful army alone.

Three young Europeans, Alexandra (France), Maria (Poland) and Roman (Germany), meet in Warsaw to enquire into these events; here they meet witnesses who took part in the Warsaw Uprising or lived in the ghetto. Beneath their white hair we can recognise the men and women who formed the living ramparts of freedom in the face of Nazism. They were between 12 and 20 years old at the time."

To watch the full documentary follow the link below: 
at-home-in-europe.tv/blog/remembrance/

Credits

A film by ANDRE BOSSUROY

Reporters: Alexandra JASTRZEBSKA, Maria Kinga ZIELINSKA, Roman KROKE

Animation: Parissa MOHIT

Music: Florian SERAUL

Production: MEDIEL with the support from the Programme Europe for citizens Active European Remembrance from the European Commission

Belgium, 2014

"Like a pig in Tehran" at Café Aunja

poster designed by "Amir Saboury"

Tonight is the opening of an expo of my daily visual sketchbook at café Aunja.

One year ago in the busy, crazy metro of Tehran, I decided to write down what I was hearing around me. It was too interesting to be forgotten. I started to draw and to write a few words as captions for each image. I posted them on my instagram as it seemed to be very fashionable in Tehran.  As I didn't know anyone on this platform I let myself free to write what I wanted. A few weeks after I came back to Montreal and I started a new job.  After nine years of living here, Montreal for me is still a city to discover, a society to de-code. Montreal is full of hidden stories which are not easy to see or to hear. People talk less but if you succeed to read their minds, they have a lot to surprise you. Montreal's silence makes me ponder, think and take my time to observe. This is a gift I will take away with myself to wherever I go.

These drawing were originally accompanied by texts in Farsi. I'm happy to get a chance to translate 46 of them in French and English.  A lot of concepts and ideas I had in the original texts are not translatable. So a lot of texts are way too different in the English and French versions. At the end they are different ways of telling the same stories. I'm now very curious to see how it will work.

These drawings from a Montrealer's journal are named after a Bosnian proverb: "Like a pig in Tehran!"

I want to thank Elham Yousefi and Hamed Masoumi, the couple behind the idea of Café Aunja, a place which is much more than a café to me.

The translations of these texts are done by me but are beautifuly final-touched by someone who interprets me even better than myself : Jean-Christophe Leblond.

Autour d'une table

In October ,"Autour d'une table" was presented at the Oaxaca film festival in Mexico in the international competition. In November it was presented at Animated dream in Estonia in the category of Animated documentries.

Programme jeunesse Iran at FNC 2014

A bit of update on the last two months:

Last summer and fall, I was invited to work on two programs for children and youth for the Festival de nouveau cinéma (FNC) for the "P'tits loups" section. These two programs of Iranian animation films were presented on the 13th of October in Montréal.

"P'tits loups" is the youth section of FNC which focus on cinema for younger audience and their family.

"Story of red pencil" by Alireza Chitaie

"The sparrow and the boll" by M. Ahadi

"Autour d'une table" at DC Shorts film festival

I will be in Washington DC for this weekend to attend the DC Short fest and to present may latest short, Autour d'une table (Around a table) in the official competition.

As usual I will Instagram my experience!

Where Have I seen this before?

A simulation of my project "Where have I seen this before?" on the facade of Museum of contemporary art in Zagreb, from May 23- June 8, 2014 as part of the program Animation Goes MSU, a collaboration between Animafest festival and the MSU.


"Where have I seen this before?"

BEYOND REACH at Supertoon2014

 "Beyond reach", the music video I've made for Negar Bouban's song has been selected in the official competition of Supertoon2014 (Croatia) in the category of music video competition. The festival will start tonight and will go on till the first of August.
 
Here is the link to the trailer of "Beyond reach":
Excerpts from '' Beyond Reach''


Link to the festival program. Our work is under the category of COMPETITION OF ANIMATED MUSIC VIDEOS:

Official competition- Supertoon 2014

An avant-goût : "Les remparts de Varsovie 1943-44"

The most enjoyable part of my work is the first sketches I do for the animations-to-be.

A couple of months ago I started working on a project about the story of a woman  during the uprising in Warsaw during the second world war . I've done a few minutes of animation for this documentary called "Les remparts de Varsovie 1943-44".

 Today I was going through the first sketches, comparing them with the final result. 

;) ! Not bad!

This is only an avant-goût! I'll post the videos and more info about this collaboration very soon! 

"Les remparts de Varsovie 1943-44" is a production of association MEDIEL asbl and André Bossuroy (Belgium) as director and producer. 

"Where have I seen this before? "- Some photos and an interview

An interview mainly but not only about my animation installation "Where have I seen this before?".  16 site-specific animations were selected by Animafest and the museum of contemporary art in Zagreb(MSU) to be projected on the façade of the museum from May 23 to June 8, 2014.

This interview was done by Dolores Marčetić, during my visit to Animafest 2014.


By the way it is published in Croatian!

www.libela.org/razgovor/5179-umjetnici-e-u-iranu-zele-prijeci-granice-i-otvoriti-se-svijetu/

Zagreb's journal

Bok! Here is a journal of my souvenirs from Zagreb and Animafest2014. A lot of them are inspired by my instagram notes and posts while I was there.

Détective Animé@ Cruel Summer!

"Where have I seen this before" in Zagreb!

An adaptation of the window installation “Where have I seen this before” that I’ve created for the windows of M.A.I. has been selected to be projected on the media facade of MSU (Museum of contemporary art-Zagreb) as part of Animation goes MSU in collaboration with Zagreb Animafest.
A special thanks to Éléonore Goldberg (Animator and colorist), Jean-Christophe Leblond (Urban elements design) and Julie Verfaillie who did a great job for the sound and music of the original work. Although this adaptation will be presented without music because of the limitations of the site but this work owes a lot to her beautiful audio creation.

The first version of this animation was created in 2012 during my residency at MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) and Prim Centre, with the financial support of M.A.I. long-term mentorship program. 

My work will be presented on the MSU façade with 15 other animation works from Japan, Australia, China, USA, Croatia, Austria, Serbia and New Zealand. The opening was on the 23rd of May and the projections will go on till the 8th of June. I'll be there from the 31st to the 8th. I've never been to Zagreb and am really looking forward to a week of adventure, observation, thinking and insta-drawing in a company of the big animation community!

"Un regard sur l'animation iranienne contemporaine"

Finally the idea I was working on for a long time cam into life and it happened! A selection of 22 animations produced in Iran during the last 10 years was programmed to be shown as part of the Cinemathèque Québécoise's spring program.

Below is an interview between Détective Animé and Parissa (Two souls living in the same body) on the how and why I decided to work on this idea.


Un regard sur l'animation iranienne contemporaine

Program 1

program 2

Détective Animé @ fishing all through the winter

I took sometimes off from my blog. I went on a trip, I watched a lot of Iranian short animations from the last 10 years. I met a lot of independent animators and filmmakers. I will soon write a post about this project.

 At the end of my trip to wonderland I came back home and it was white everywhere. I started a new job and I reduced the speed of my life a bit. Winter helped me look at what I've already done and where I eventually want to go.

 While I was in Tehran,I started to draw what fascinated me in my daily life and I continued that at my return on a daily, weekly basis. Surprisingly, my ideas are transferred so differently on the paper that I get to realize and to accept that what I seem to see is not what I really see. In other words what I think I see is not really what I see. The image I keep in my mind from my surrounding is a mix of what is transferred through my eyes + what I like to see + what I already have in my mind at that moment.

I put these drawings on my instagram . You find a link to this page on the right column of my blog. It's snowing again!

Détective Animé @ Eucalyptus sauna

Sketching for "STEAM", an idea for a short animation based on stories of a public, eucalyptus sauna. 

Détective Animé@ More pain, more film!

Trying to dance flamenco made me accept  that I need to do something before it's too late. Being 33 and by nodoubt one of the weakest women of our group in terms of muscle force is not something to be proud of!

So I decided to give swimming another try and that's how the first sparkles for an animation film appeared as I was under the shower in the changing room area.

More pain, more film!

Voila the first tests for this idea.

Détective Animé@ Conversations with Ai Weiwei

A great reading on art and blogging. Weiwei became an architect by accidentally buying a book. This book was about an architect who decided to design a house for his mother.  Wiewei became a blogger but he didn't have any idea how these things  work, but he seized the opportunity when they offered him an empty online space called a blog to fill with words.

Being open to the unknown and confronting life and it's unexpected moments are the keys to his successful career.

"After Duchamp, I realized that being an artist is more about a lifestyle and attitude than producing some product."
Ai Weiwei, "Ai Weiwei speaks, with Hans Ulrich Obrist" 

Détective Animé@ The Question

Last two months were full of projects to be done, future projects to work on, trips and ideas to develop. I will send them one by one. For now here are some frames from the first tests I've been working on  for "The Question", a short animation film  I'm animating on for Eye Inside Films in Toronto.