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In its 250-year history, the United States has been enormously influenced by Iran's culture and history. Poets like Hafez and Sa'adi guided the words and thoughts of Benjamin Franklin, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, while Americans like Howard Baskerville played a critical role in the Constitutional Revolution that marked the end of the Qajar Dynasty. KHANEVADE: Portraits of Iranian Americans examines the everyday stories of the Iranians who have rebuilt their lives in the U.S., particularly in the wake of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, and contributed significantly to its civic and cultural life, while navigating questions of belonging and identity.
This program spans documentary works shaped by empathetic, quotidian portraits of Iranian American communities. Norouz: Persian Spring Festival is a revealing time capsule of the Bay Area in the 1960s, showcasing the presence of Iranian American families and communities nearly 20 years before the revolution. Maryam Kashani’s Best in the West builds upon this portrait to examine the lives of four lifelong friends who studied in the United States with humor, warmth, and bittersweetness. Armon Mahdavi’s Untitled, Jackson Heights closes the program on the present day to examine public spaces in Queens through a poignant, epistolary voiceover correspondence from a mother to her child. The in-person screening at MOMI will be followed by a discussion with filmmaker Armon Mahdavi.
KHANEVADE is curated by Nick Kouhi and is co-presented by ArteEast and Museum of the Moving Image. This program is part of the legacy program Unpacking the ArteArchive, which preserves and presents over 20 years of film and video programming by ArteEast. Selections from KHANEVADE will be screened in-person at 12:30pm on July 12 followed by a discussion with filmmaker Armon Mahdavi moderated by the curator. For more information about the in-person screening visit https://movingimage.org/event/khanevade-portraits-of-iranian-americans/. The full program will be screened online on artearchive.org from July 13-23, including a recorded discussion with filmmaker Persis Karim and scholar Amy Malek.
About the curator
Nick Kouhi is a programmer and film critic who's written for Filmmaker Magazine, Reverse Shot, Screen Slate, and Documentary Magazine. His previous collaboration with ArteEast was I Am From Here, I Am From There: Writers in Exile, and he has served on the screening committees of True/False and DOC NYC.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Joonam (2023)
Filmmaker Sierra Urich grew up in rural Vermont, a place and an upbringing far removed from Iran, the homeland of her mother, Mitra, and grandmother, Behjat. Only knowing Iran through family stories, food, and holidays, and with the prospect of travel to the country a seemingly impossible dream, she embarks on a personal quest to make sense of her fractured Iranian identity. Navigating barriers of language and culture (not to mention the complications of geopolitical conflict and displacement), Sierra turns to Mitra and Behjat to construct a deeply moving and sometimes disarmingly funny portrait of three generations of women and their complex relationship to an Iran of the past.
Named for a Farsi term of endearment, Joonam is infused with humor and heart like only a film about family could be. Interrogating family history and memory, including her grandmother’s experiences as a preteen bride and her mother’s rebellious teenage years during the Iranian Revolution, Sierra Urich constructs a rich, personal film that poignantly reflects the experiences of the Iranian diasporic community and speaks to anyone affected by the dislocation that accompanies immigration.
About the filmmaker
Sierra Urich is an award-winning filmmaker, interdisciplinary visual artist, and Iranian-American (neem-rooni). She has been nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and is a 40 Under 40 DOC NYC list awardee, which celebrates exemplary emerging talent in the documentary world. Urich’s debut feature film, JOONAM, premiered in competition at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, and took home 3 Jury Awards for Best Documentary at the Cleveland International Film Festival, Bentonville Film Festival, Sharjah Film Platform, and was in Oscar Contention for an Academy Award. Urich has completed residencies and fellowships at Yaddo, Sundance Nonfiction Director’s Lab, The Banff Centre, Points North Institute, Firelight Media, Chicken & Egg Films, and was twice shortlisted for a Creative Capital Award. She works professionally as a director, editor, and story consultant.
- Year2023
- Runtime100 minutes
- LanguageEnglish, Persian, Azeri
- DirectorSierra Urich
- ScreenwriterSierra Urich
- ProducerSierra Urich, Keith Wilson
- Executive ProducerArian Moayed, Ruth Ann Harnisch, Maida Lynn, Bill Harnisch, Rostam Zafari, Sepanta Mohseni, Azadeh Vatanpour
- CastSierra Urich, Mitra Samimi-Urich, Behjat Samimi
- EditorSierra Urich
In its 250-year history, the United States has been enormously influenced by Iran's culture and history. Poets like Hafez and Sa'adi guided the words and thoughts of Benjamin Franklin, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, while Americans like Howard Baskerville played a critical role in the Constitutional Revolution that marked the end of the Qajar Dynasty. KHANEVADE: Portraits of Iranian Americans examines the everyday stories of the Iranians who have rebuilt their lives in the U.S., particularly in the wake of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, and contributed significantly to its civic and cultural life, while navigating questions of belonging and identity.
This program spans documentary works shaped by empathetic, quotidian portraits of Iranian American communities. Norouz: Persian Spring Festival is a revealing time capsule of the Bay Area in the 1960s, showcasing the presence of Iranian American families and communities nearly 20 years before the revolution. Maryam Kashani’s Best in the West builds upon this portrait to examine the lives of four lifelong friends who studied in the United States with humor, warmth, and bittersweetness. Armon Mahdavi’s Untitled, Jackson Heights closes the program on the present day to examine public spaces in Queens through a poignant, epistolary voiceover correspondence from a mother to her child. The in-person screening at MOMI will be followed by a discussion with filmmaker Armon Mahdavi.
KHANEVADE is curated by Nick Kouhi and is co-presented by ArteEast and Museum of the Moving Image. This program is part of the legacy program Unpacking the ArteArchive, which preserves and presents over 20 years of film and video programming by ArteEast. Selections from KHANEVADE will be screened in-person at 12:30pm on July 12 followed by a discussion with filmmaker Armon Mahdavi moderated by the curator. For more information about the in-person screening visit https://movingimage.org/event/khanevade-portraits-of-iranian-americans/. The full program will be screened online on artearchive.org from July 13-23, including a recorded discussion with filmmaker Persis Karim and scholar Amy Malek.
About the curator
Nick Kouhi is a programmer and film critic who's written for Filmmaker Magazine, Reverse Shot, Screen Slate, and Documentary Magazine. His previous collaboration with ArteEast was I Am From Here, I Am From There: Writers in Exile, and he has served on the screening committees of True/False and DOC NYC.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Joonam (2023)
Filmmaker Sierra Urich grew up in rural Vermont, a place and an upbringing far removed from Iran, the homeland of her mother, Mitra, and grandmother, Behjat. Only knowing Iran through family stories, food, and holidays, and with the prospect of travel to the country a seemingly impossible dream, she embarks on a personal quest to make sense of her fractured Iranian identity. Navigating barriers of language and culture (not to mention the complications of geopolitical conflict and displacement), Sierra turns to Mitra and Behjat to construct a deeply moving and sometimes disarmingly funny portrait of three generations of women and their complex relationship to an Iran of the past.
Named for a Farsi term of endearment, Joonam is infused with humor and heart like only a film about family could be. Interrogating family history and memory, including her grandmother’s experiences as a preteen bride and her mother’s rebellious teenage years during the Iranian Revolution, Sierra Urich constructs a rich, personal film that poignantly reflects the experiences of the Iranian diasporic community and speaks to anyone affected by the dislocation that accompanies immigration.
About the filmmaker
Sierra Urich is an award-winning filmmaker, interdisciplinary visual artist, and Iranian-American (neem-rooni). She has been nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and is a 40 Under 40 DOC NYC list awardee, which celebrates exemplary emerging talent in the documentary world. Urich’s debut feature film, JOONAM, premiered in competition at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, and took home 3 Jury Awards for Best Documentary at the Cleveland International Film Festival, Bentonville Film Festival, Sharjah Film Platform, and was in Oscar Contention for an Academy Award. Urich has completed residencies and fellowships at Yaddo, Sundance Nonfiction Director’s Lab, The Banff Centre, Points North Institute, Firelight Media, Chicken & Egg Films, and was twice shortlisted for a Creative Capital Award. She works professionally as a director, editor, and story consultant.
- Year2023
- Runtime100 minutes
- LanguageEnglish, Persian, Azeri
- DirectorSierra Urich
- ScreenwriterSierra Urich
- ProducerSierra Urich, Keith Wilson
- Executive ProducerArian Moayed, Ruth Ann Harnisch, Maida Lynn, Bill Harnisch, Rostam Zafari, Sepanta Mohseni, Azadeh Vatanpour
- CastSierra Urich, Mitra Samimi-Urich, Behjat Samimi
- EditorSierra Urich