Granaz Moussavi

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Granaz Moussavi
گراناز موسوی

Granaz Moussavi (Persian : گراناز موسوی ) is an Iranian-Australian contemporary poet, film director and screenwriter. She is known for her avant-garde poetry in the 1990s. Her debut feature film My Tehran for Sale (2009) is an internationally-acclaimed Australian-Iranian co-production. Her second feature film When Pomegranates Howl was nominated for the 14th Asia Pacific Screen Award as the Best Youth Feature Film and was selected as Australian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards.

Early life and education

Granaz was born in

sound engineer in Iranian National TV (Jaam-e Jam) and in the film industry, and her mother, Parvin Chegini Farahani, was a video grader.[citation needed
]

She went to Razi primary school and Hadaf high school in Tehran.[citation needed]

Her love for cinema and theatre changed her mind about tertiary schooling. She withdrew from a B.S. at

Alzahra University and took various drama courses in Tehran, focusing on acting. These included Hamid Samandarian
's drama workshops at the Theatre Organization of Tehran, and Mahin Oskoui's underground acting classes held in her apartment.

In 1997, Granaz emigrated to Australia with her family, where she changed her focus from acting to screen studies and filmmaking. In 2002, she made her honors film A Short Film About Colour, shot by the renowned Iranian cinematographer Firooz Malekzadeh. The short film earned Granaz the best director award from Flinders University in Adelaide, and an honorary membership to the Australian Screen Directors Authorship Collecting Society (ASDAS).[1]

Writing

At the age of 17, Granaz started writing professionally as a book reviewer and

literary critic
at "Donyaye Sokhan literary magazine (مجلهٔ ادبی دنیای سخن") in Tehran.

Her first poems were published in 1989, and since then, she has continued writing and publishing poetry in various magazines and collections in Iran and other countries.

Granaz published her first book, Khatkhati Rooye Shab خط خطی روی شب (Sketching On Night), underground in Tehran in 1996, to an extensive reception.

Her second book, Paberahneh Ta Sobh پابرهنه تا صبح (Barefoot Till Morning), was the winner of جایزه شعر کارنامه یاجایزه شعر امروز ایران Karnameh’s best poetry book of the year award in 2001 and went to at least a fourth edition. She published her third collection, Avazhaye Zan e Biejazeh آوازهای زن بی اجازه (The Songs of the Forbidden Woman), in 2003. A second edition was published.

Her poems have been anthologized worldwide and her solo bi-lingual collection was published in France by MEET publishers.[citation needed]

Granaz published Les Rescapes De La Patience (translated by Farideh Rava and with a preface by Jean Baptiste Para) after a sponsored literary residency in

Saint Nazaire, France.[citation needed
]

In 2004 a DEA thesis at Sorbonne University (Paris III) on her poetry was lodged by Etienne Forget.[further explanation needed][citation needed]

After receiving an Honours degree from Flinders University, Granaz got accepted into AFTRS, the

University of Western Sydney researching "The Aesthetics of Poetic Cinema". She has made several short films and documentaries and has participated in various roles in a few feature films.[3]

In the field of poetry, she has conducted many poetry readings worldwide, including her participation in the Paris Autumn Festival in 2000 (introduced and translated by Media Kashigar, managed by Alain Lance),

Much has been written about Granaz's poetry, including by some renowned Iranian writers and critics such as

MoMA) New York (January 2010), International Film Festival Rotterdam (January 2010), International Film Festival Prague - Febiofest
, 2010 Cinema Novo Film Festival Brugges, 2010 CPH:PIX Copenhagen International Film Festival, 2010 Guadalajara International Film Festival Mexico, Sydney Travelling Film Festival, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival, HRAFF 2010, Fukuoka International Film Festival 2010, Global Lens USA 2010 and Dialogue of Cultures Film Festival New York 2011.

My Tehran for Sale is the winner of Independent spirit Inside Film Awards 2009.[6] It won the jury award for best feature Film at the TriMedia Film Festival in 2010.[7]

When Pomegranates Howl was nominated for the 14th Annual Asia Pacific Screen Awards as the Best Youth Feature Film.[8]

Awards and recognition

Filmography

  • 2020 When Pomegranates Howl [10]
  • 2008 My Tehran for Sale, a feature film (as writer/director/produced by Cyan Films) an official selection of Toronto International Film Festival (Sep,2009), winner of Independent spirit Inside Film Awards 2009
  • 2008 Into Pieces, a video art.
  • 2007 Rats Sleep at Night, a short drama.
  • 2006 1001 Nights, a documentary on Persian poetry in exile.
  • 2005 Narrative Theatre Workshop, a 5-hour video, Producer: Relationships S.A
  • 2004 Just Tenants of the Earth, a 30 minutes documentary on young refugees and migrants in Australia
  • 2004 A Slice Of Tehran Girls, a 30-minute documentary on young girls in Tehran.
  • 2002 A Short Film About Colour, a 10-minute short fiction, Honours production, Flinders University.
  • 2002 An uncompleted documentary on Woomera detention center.
  • 2000 A Letter to a Friend, an 8-minute documentary, University of S.A.
  • 1999 The Restroom, an 8-minute doco-drama, Flinders University.
  • 1999 Smoke, a 27-second advertisement.

as Editor:

  • 2006 Love On Track, a 4 minutes drama, Director: Alison Heather.
  • 2005 Karma, 3 minutes experimental short film, Director: Josh Tylor, AFTRS.
  • 2005 Look Sharp, an 8 minutes drama, Director: Amy Gebhardt, AFTRS. Winner of Best student film at The International Melbourne Film Festival.
  • 2005 Rock! I gave you the best years of my life, a 6 minutes documentary, Director: Mathew Walker, AFTRS.
  • 2003-2004 Turtles Can Fly, A feature film by Bahman Ghobadi, Tehran-Iran & Kurdistan-Iraq. (on-set digital editing)[11]

Bibliography/Other Publications

  • 1997 Sketching On Night (Graffiti On Night) “ خط خطی روی شب ”, Tehran
  • 2000 Barefoot Till Morning "پابرهنه تا صبح " was the winner of Karnameh’s best poetry book of the year award in 2001, Tehran
  • Granaz, Moussavi (2009). Songs of a Forbidden Woman. Sali. .
  • 2006 Les Rescapes De La Patience, France
  • 2011 Red Memory "حافظه قرمز", Australia
  • 2012 Canto di Una Donna Senza Permesso, Italy
  • Moussavi, Granaz (2015). "Simin Behbahani (1927–2014)". Middle Eastern literatures. Great Britain: Taylor & Francis. Retrieved November 2, 2022.

Further reading

References

  • Begley, Alex (2011). "Smithsonian Rings in 15th Year Of Iranian Film Festival". Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. 30 (5): 57–58.
    ISSN 8755-4917
    .

External links