Screening: Sanaz Sohrabi's new film One Image, Two Acts @ RIDM

One Image, Two Acts, by Sanaz Sohrabi, will be available to screen online from Nov. 12 to Nov. 18, as part of RIDM’s (Montreal International Documentary Festival) “Disrupting History” program. You can link to the film here. The RIDM is one of North America’s leading documentary film festivals, and we invite you to support Sanaz and all of the other artists who are working within this new online format. Sanaz will also be participating in a discussion with filmmaker Onyeke Igwe on November 14th at 3PM, in which the two artists will discuss their work.

About the film: In this fascinating archival deep-dive, Iranian artist Sanaz Sohrabi analyzes the role of images produced in the 20th century by oil companies operating in Iran as an arm of British colonialism. Sohrabi creates and comments on collages and installations made from films and photographs produced by British Petroleum (BP), particularly in the city of Abadan, in southwestern Iran. Do these archival materials present a reliable narrative? In the process of erasing a history of abuse, oppression and segregation, they paint a homogeneous, monopolistic picture of prosperity and “petromodernity.” This tightly controlled perspective, just as calculated and pervasive as the exploitation of land and people, raises essential questions about the right to images and one’s own history. (Charlotte Selb)

Learn more about Sohrabi and their new film at the GEM Lab.