THE FUTURE THAT AWAITS presents films about Afghan children and youth made in the years following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan and until the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in Summer 2021. Sharing experiences throughout Afghanistan as well as in Iran, the films explore how characters navigate inherited political realities, legacies of social traditions, access to education, isolated communities, and child labor. The in-person screening features five short films that reflect the main themes of the program.
Featuring works by Lida Abdul, Yalda Afsah, Aidin Halalzadeh, Sahra Mani, Shahrbanoo Sadat, Sepideh Salarvand, and Ginan Seidl.
This program is co-presented by ArteEast and The Clemente and is curated by Lila Nazemian (ArteEast Special Projects Curator)
Bacha Posh, Yalda Afsah and Ginan Seidl, Germany, 2016
Dari with English subtitles
The two-channel installation Bacha Posh is a multifaceted documentary focusing on the Afghan tradition of dressing girls as boys in order for them to be able to fulfill the function of a male family member. Framed by atmospheric shots of urban landscapes in Mazar-e-Sharif, Bacha Posh follows the life of 13-year-old Farahnaz, adding unexpected perspectives to the discourse around the social construction of gender. Presented on two screens, the work contrasts the private and the public, interior and exterior spheres.
About the filmmakers
German-Iranian artist and filmmaker Yalda Afsah (b. 1983, Berlin) explores how space can be cinematically constructed as her films profoundly explore the interface between reality and staging. This formal characteristic of Afsah’s work is conceptually mirrored in her recent portraits of human-animal relationships that reveal an ambivalence between care and control, physical strength and broken will, instinct and manipulation. Despite their documentary focus, her films and video installations seem to capture symbiotic choreographies on screen – equally portraying and fictionalising their human and non-human protagonists. Afsah has presented her work at various exhibitions and festivals including Manifesta 13, Locarno Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Berlinische Galerie, Institute of Contemporary Arts London, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein and recent solo exhibitions at Kunstverein München and Halle für Kunst Steiermark. Since 2019 she is a mentor for the Berlin program for artists (BPA).
Ginan Seidl: The artist and filmmaker of German-Iraqi descent explores the boundaries between documentary and fictional filmmaking and video installations, where the fabulative becomes a poetic and essential extension of the documentary material. She explores different perspectives and cosmogonies in order to relate, learn and find new forms of exchange and production of knowledge and experience through cinematic means. The focus is on the complex relationships with the self, the "other" and non-human actors in different local contexts. Many of her past as well as present projects have been (further) developed in residencies in Istanbul, Mexico and Beirut, among others. Her work has been shown at international festivals such as Berlinale/Forum Expanded, FID Marseille, CPH:DOX, Dokfilmfest Leipzig, EMAF and in various exhibitions and art festivals. She is part of the artist collective FILZ. She lives and works in Halle/Saale, Berlin and Mexico City.
- Year2016
- Runtime30 minutes
- CountryGermany
- DirectorYalda Afsah, Ginan Seidl
- ProducerRay Peter Maletzki, Stephan Helmut Beier
THE FUTURE THAT AWAITS presents films about Afghan children and youth made in the years following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan and until the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in Summer 2021. Sharing experiences throughout Afghanistan as well as in Iran, the films explore how characters navigate inherited political realities, legacies of social traditions, access to education, isolated communities, and child labor. The in-person screening features five short films that reflect the main themes of the program.
Featuring works by Lida Abdul, Yalda Afsah, Aidin Halalzadeh, Sahra Mani, Shahrbanoo Sadat, Sepideh Salarvand, and Ginan Seidl.
This program is co-presented by ArteEast and The Clemente and is curated by Lila Nazemian (ArteEast Special Projects Curator)
Bacha Posh, Yalda Afsah and Ginan Seidl, Germany, 2016
Dari with English subtitles
The two-channel installation Bacha Posh is a multifaceted documentary focusing on the Afghan tradition of dressing girls as boys in order for them to be able to fulfill the function of a male family member. Framed by atmospheric shots of urban landscapes in Mazar-e-Sharif, Bacha Posh follows the life of 13-year-old Farahnaz, adding unexpected perspectives to the discourse around the social construction of gender. Presented on two screens, the work contrasts the private and the public, interior and exterior spheres.
About the filmmakers
German-Iranian artist and filmmaker Yalda Afsah (b. 1983, Berlin) explores how space can be cinematically constructed as her films profoundly explore the interface between reality and staging. This formal characteristic of Afsah’s work is conceptually mirrored in her recent portraits of human-animal relationships that reveal an ambivalence between care and control, physical strength and broken will, instinct and manipulation. Despite their documentary focus, her films and video installations seem to capture symbiotic choreographies on screen – equally portraying and fictionalising their human and non-human protagonists. Afsah has presented her work at various exhibitions and festivals including Manifesta 13, Locarno Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Berlinische Galerie, Institute of Contemporary Arts London, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein and recent solo exhibitions at Kunstverein München and Halle für Kunst Steiermark. Since 2019 she is a mentor for the Berlin program for artists (BPA).
Ginan Seidl: The artist and filmmaker of German-Iraqi descent explores the boundaries between documentary and fictional filmmaking and video installations, where the fabulative becomes a poetic and essential extension of the documentary material. She explores different perspectives and cosmogonies in order to relate, learn and find new forms of exchange and production of knowledge and experience through cinematic means. The focus is on the complex relationships with the self, the "other" and non-human actors in different local contexts. Many of her past as well as present projects have been (further) developed in residencies in Istanbul, Mexico and Beirut, among others. Her work has been shown at international festivals such as Berlinale/Forum Expanded, FID Marseille, CPH:DOX, Dokfilmfest Leipzig, EMAF and in various exhibitions and art festivals. She is part of the artist collective FILZ. She lives and works in Halle/Saale, Berlin and Mexico City.
- Year2016
- Runtime30 minutes
- CountryGermany
- DirectorYalda Afsah, Ginan Seidl
- ProducerRay Peter Maletzki, Stephan Helmut Beier