The Sparrow is Free
2021, 14’ - Hi8 film
In an empty house, a young woman hears a voice. The tales it evokes lead her to recreate scenes from her grandmother’s past life.
Through a window into the life of the filmmaker's grandmother, Kohandel's short interview-film explores gender roles in early 20th-century Iran. As a young girl, marriage to her older cousin leads to years of control and frustration. Rebelling against her husband, she eventually relocates to France with her sons, building a new life. As she voices her own story, the film weaves her experiences together into a broader narrative of self-determination. She carves out her independence in Paris and finds comfort in the everyday. A simple kind of happiness follows, the sparrow is free.
Voice: Paridokht Iranpour
Camera: Niki Kohandel & Mitra Rezaei
Editing: Niki Kohandel
گنجشک آزاد است
۱۴۰۱
۱۴' - Hi8
۱۴۰۱
۱۴' - Hi8
از مصاحبه فیلمساز نیکی کهندل با مادربزرگ خود، شرایط زنان ایرانی در اوائل قرن بیستم را میتوان لمس کرد. در هفده سالگی ، این دختر نوجوان مجبور به ازدواج با پسر عمه خود می‌شود. همسری که سالیان سال او را زیر سلطه خود قرار میدهد و سرانجام ، این پیوند را به ناکامی و طلاق می کشاند. در نهایت ، برای فرار از این موقعیت و به امید ساختن زندگی جدید ، به همراه دو فرزندش ، تصمیم مهاجرت به فرانسه را می‌گیرد. با شنیدن داستانهای گوناگونش ، پی می بریم که چگونه میتوان با تصمیم و انتخابی تازه ، فصلی جدید در زندگی خود را آغاز کنیم. در پاریس ، آن .خوشبختی ساده ای که همواره در جستجویش بود را پیدا می کنند. گنجشک آزاد است
Past screenings:
17th December 2024, NIDA : A series of invitations / alarms / calls for action, curated by Collectif Faire-Part, Kunsthal Ghent, Ghent.
5th December 2024, ‘Experimenta India’, Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan, Bangalore.
17th August 2024, Art Station Samarkand, ‘Janub Shamoli Festival’ by maqaal collective, Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
2nd July 2024, Popup Emaus, Lisbon.
3rd July 2024, ‘On Listening’, three short films by Niki Kohandel at Other Cinemas, Metroland Studios.
18th April 2024, Migrant Voices in Contemporary European Cinema, University of Kent.
11th-25th January 2024, ’Interiors’ by EastEast Films, online.
7th December 2023, ‘Cinema Farhangian’,
Kulturbunker Köln-Mülheim.
12th November 2023, ‘Artists for Woman, Life, Freedom’ curated by Farah Dailami, Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield.
14th & 23 May + 21st June 2023, Sinematek Istanbul.
5th June 2023, ‘Films From Iran, For Iran’, Vienna Shorts 2023, METRO Kino, Vienna.
25th May 2023, ‘Tracing Entanglements’ + Q&A with Isral Al-Kassi - Festival of the Moving Image,
curated by Tape Collective, Bloomsbury Theatre, UCL, London.
Flying Broom Festival, 2023, Ankara.
18th-23rd April, Porto Femme International Film Festival, Porto.
18th, 19th & 21st April, ‘From Anywhere’, curated by Maryam Tafakory, 35th International Short Film Festival Dresden.
21st March 2023, Just Another Year: Persian New Year, The Nordic House Reykjavik.
9th March 2023, How Dare You Have Such a Rubish Wish + The Sparrow is Free, Barbican Cinema, London
3rd-5th March 2023, From Rosa to Simone Film Festival, Women’s Initiatives Supporting Group, Tbilissi.
3+5th February 2023, Films from Iran for Iran: Intergenerational Transmissions, Anthology Film Archives, New York.
28th January 2023, Maryam Tafakory: Rememberings, London Short Film Festival, ICA London.
14th December 2022, ‘Films from Iran for Iran’ + Q&A with Katayoun Jalilipour & Elhum Shakerifar, programmed by Another Gaze, ICA London.
4th December- January 2023, ‘Films from Iran for Iran’, Another Screen/Another Gaze.
Programme reviewed in:
- Libération - «Films From Iran for Iran», flammes vies et libertés’ by Sandra Onana
-5Harfliler - “İran İçin İran’dan Filmler” Seçkisinden Feminist/Kuir Birkaç Kuple by Lara Özlen
15th November 2022, ‘Only the Voice Remains’, curated by Parwana Haydar, screening with Neelofar Abrahimi’s I Remember, SOAS University.
17th November 2022, Film Diary NYC ‘Almost There’, Millenium Film Workshop.
26th November 2022, ‘Migration and Femininity’, London Migration Film Festival, The Ritzy Cinema.
July 2022, on-demand, Cryptofiction.
29th - 30th June 2022, DOCUMENTARIST İstanbul Belgesel Günleri- Istanbul Doc Days, Institut Français.
18th - 30 th June 2022, GODSPEED: 18 short films by a new generation of diary filmmakersA gallery group show in collaboration with Millennium Film Workshop, curated by Nick Ramsay and Saint Piñero.
22nd Jan 2022, Root/25 Micro-film screening for Restless Beings.
21st Jan 2022, London Short Film Festival, ICA London.
‘New Shorts Documentary: The Promise of Hapiness?’ curated by Miranda Mungai.
18th Nov 2021, Girls in Film at House of Vans, London ‘It’s the family you choose’, curated by Raheela Suleman.
5th Oct 2021, Conch art collective presents ‘3 films by Niki Kohandel’ at SOAS University, London
Jul 2021, streaming on shashamovies, ‘CLOSE CUTS: 23 films around local cultural traditions’
Minevissam (I am writing)
2023, 18’ - 16mm & super 8 to digital.
Minevissam maps the journeys of various characters, whose pasts continue to echo through other times and places. As they search for better words and worlds, a poet, a painter and an owl attempt to translate their tales for and with each other.
and the daughter began to tell a story
about seeing when colours remain silent to you
about listening, when words refuse blooming anew
With Sanam Monteiro, Leila Monteiro & the voices/writings of Mitra Rezaei, Jamshid Kohandel assisted by Marie-Hélène Le Ny, Mina T. Azar, Mona
Camera: Niki Kohandel, Nia Fekri, Amadou Barry
Music score: Hal H. Lewis
Editing: Niki Kohandel
Film scan: On8Mil & Andrew Northrop Made after Anju by Annabel Nicholson
2023, 18’ - 16mm & super 8 to digital.
Minevissam maps the journeys of various characters, whose pasts continue to echo through other times and places. As they search for better words and worlds, a poet, a painter and an owl attempt to translate their tales for and with each other.
and the daughter began to tell a story
about seeing when colours remain silent to you
about listening, when words refuse blooming anew
With Sanam Monteiro, Leila Monteiro & the voices/writings of Mitra Rezaei, Jamshid Kohandel assisted by Marie-Hélène Le Ny, Mina T. Azar, Mona
Camera: Niki Kohandel, Nia Fekri, Amadou Barry
Music score: Hal H. Lewis
Editing: Niki Kohandel
Film scan: On8Mil & Andrew Northrop Made after Anju by Annabel Nicholson
Past screening:
7th December 2024, ‘Harkat 16mm Film Festival’, Mumbai.
17th August 2024, Art Station Samarkand, ‘Janub Shamoli Festival’ by maqaal collective, Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
24th + 25th July 2024, Lago Film Fest ‘Princìpî Award’, Revine Lago, Italy.
3rd July 2024, ‘On Listening’, three short films by Niki Kohandel at Other Cinemas, Metroland Studios, London.
28th April 2024, Open City Documentary Festival,‘Combined programme: I am writing’ at Genesis Cinema London. Accompanied by ‘Intimate Inscriptions, four films on writing’, text by Hannah Bonner.
14th October 2023, BFI London Film Festival, ‘Everything worthwile is done with other people’ at ICA London (world premiere).
...- then love is the name
2022, 7’ - 16mm & Hi8 film, silent.
A reflection on education and an ode to the bonds that are formed by students at, (and in spite of,) the institution they are studying within. By weaving together footage from the 2021 anti-racist occupation of the Slade School of Fine Art with scenes from the install of the art school’s class of 2020 degree show, the academy emerges as a site of frustration as much as of achievement. Running over both events - , from the final touches of varnish being put on a painting to protest banners being unfurled across the building, - is text from former Slade student and tutor Christine Kirubi’s poem ‘… - then love is the name’ from which Kohandel’s film takes its name. (Open City Docs)
2022, 7’ - 16mm & Hi8 film, silent.
A reflection on education and an ode to the bonds that are formed by students at, (and in spite of,) the institution they are studying within. By weaving together footage from the 2021 anti-racist occupation of the Slade School of Fine Art with scenes from the install of the art school’s class of 2020 degree show, the academy emerges as a site of frustration as much as of achievement. Running over both events - , from the final touches of varnish being put on a painting to protest banners being unfurled across the building, - is text from former Slade student and tutor Christine Kirubi’s poem ‘… - then love is the name’ from which Kohandel’s film takes its name. (Open City Docs)
Past screenings:
17th August 2024, Art Station Samarkand, ‘Janub Shamoli Festival’ by maqaal collective, Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
8th Feb 2024, ‘Artists in Residence: Work, Play and Protest’ at Barbican Centre.
12th Sept 2022, Open City Documentary Festival
‘Sab Changa Si + ...- then love is the name + QA with Teresa A Braggs & Shai Heredia ’ at Genesis Cinema, London. Accompanied by ‘Beyond Romances of the Negative’, text by Siavash Minoukadeh.
Just Another Year
2020, 6’10 - Hi8 film
This home video documents how a mother and a daughter celebrated Norooz at home. As they aren’t surrounded by an Iranian community, some of the rituals such as jumping over fire have been adapted to living in a flat. The film looks at the small but important domestic gestures that constitute the setting of the Haft-Sin table, embracing this poetical approach to life which is performed again every spring.
2020, 6’10 - Hi8 film
This home video documents how a mother and a daughter celebrated Norooz at home. As they aren’t surrounded by an Iranian community, some of the rituals such as jumping over fire have been adapted to living in a flat. The film looks at the small but important domestic gestures that constitute the setting of the Haft-Sin table, embracing this poetical approach to life which is performed again every spring.
Past screenings:
17th August 2024, Art Station Samarkand, ‘Janub Shamoli Festival’ by maqaal collective, Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
23rd-29th February, ARQIVO & PESQISA: Relatos Sagrados, Cine Humberto Mauro Mais (online), curated by AFM Archive & Research.
21st March 2023, Just Another Year: Persian New Year, The Nordic House Reykjavik.
15-22nd March 2022
passerby magazine & Habibi Collective Norooz celebration
5th Nov 2021, T A P E Collective
‘Roots, Seeds, Flowers, Fruit’
at Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York, UK.
8th - 22nd March 2021,
Habibi Collective and MoMA Virtual Cinema present
‘A new wave of women moving image-artists from South-West Asia and North-Africa’
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Albalo
2021, 2’20 - hand-painted & etched 16mm film
What happened when a doll swallowed a cherry pit...
Past screenings:
17th August 2024, Art Station Samarkand, ‘Janub Shamoli Festival’ by maqaal collective, Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
3rd July 2024, ‘On Listening’, three short films by Niki Kohandel at Other Cinemas, Metroland Studios.
December 2023, Analogue Short Film screening at Black Soil Film Festival, Amsterdam.
14th October 2023, Analogue Short Film screening, not/nowhere, curated by Samara Addai and Taylor LeMelle
17th Oct 2021, Culturala journal launch at the Steamship, London
5th Oct 2021, Kemi’s House presents ‘3 films by Niki Kohandel’ at SOAS University, London