Faces (1) • Directed by Shahin Parhami • 2008 • Canada
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Experimental filmmaker Shahin Parhami explores the lives and works of artists living in diaspora. This multi-layered and illuminating documentary reflects on Iranian art and culture from many different viewpoints. By interviewing a handful of Iranian-Canadian artists, Parhami investigates the politics of representation, history, and the power of popular media. The topic of identity plays an important role in this film, as all the interviewees live in exile. Parhami’s visual style makes use of footage from pre-Revolution Iranian films and interweaves fast-cut edits of the artists’ paintings, photos, books, and other art forms.
The film’s title, Faces, is emblematic of how Iran’s artists, including those in diaspora, have become the faces of this country and essentially created its art and culture. The film is structured in a way that seeks to make the viewer think about the relationship between art and history.