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.
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
Upcoming:
14th & 23 May + 21st June 2023, Sinematek Istanbul.
Flying Broom Festival, 2023, Ankara.
Past screenings:
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’, 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, curated by Mania Akbari.
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’
...- 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 Christopher 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 Christopher Kirubi’s poem ‘… - then love is the name’ from which Kohandel’s film takes its name. (Open City Docs)
Past screening:
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.
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:
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 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
SELECTED SHOWS & TALKS
2023
May: Slade Undergraduate Degree Show, UCL.
Apr: Persepolis + introduction, British Film Institute.
Feb: ‘Eviction Notice’, curated by Pocket Trap Contemporary.
Jan: Visiting workshop facilitator with Shahre Farang, Goldsmiths, BA Politics, Performance and Society.
2022
Losing Track, an exhibition in response to HS2
by irreplaceable world
Oct: ‘A Night Of Music Boxes’ at Pollocks’ Toy Museum, museum takeover, screening and live performance with Joe Hatchwell.
Jun: Shahre Farang exhibition + fundraiser, Avalon Cafe Bermondsey, London, UK.
May: ‘Running Late’, Changing Rooms Gallery, London. Slade BA3 Group show,
curated by Ella Schlesinger.
Feb: Shahre Farang x Decolonise Art History Cambridge, John Hughes Art Festival.
2021
Nov: Slade 150 Past, Present, Future, Octagon Gallery, UCL (Until Aug 2022).
‘Stealing Vegetables’ curated by Cherry Song, Hal H. Lewis & Qiu Janye.
Aug: Noorderlicht Photo, Groeningen,
‘The Makeable Mind: Student Open Call’.
Jul: The Chemistry of Feeling, Community exhibition at Gulf Photo Plus, Dubaï, UAE.
May: POSTED, era journal postcard exhibition
Apr: contributor to form IV/Thing 18 ‘From the drained pool’.
2020
Sept: Mommy’s Rug video installation screening at ‘Juice’, a group exhibition curated by Cherry Song, Shenzhen, China.
Feb: I am that flower (2019) screening at Platform 1, Bloomsbury Theatre, London, UK.
2019
Dec: Spaceship. Dungeon. Zoo.
A group exhibition at Alvaro Barrington’s studio, London.
May: CSM Foundation Show, Lethaby Gallery, London.
CSM x LUX Moving Image, London
Waterlow Art Park II, London. East Meets West,
Platform 272 Gallery, London, UK.
PRESS
2022
In conversation (IG live) with Mania Akbari for Cryptofiction, Objects telling stories of Iranian women
passerby magazine, camera roll with Niki Kohandel
2021
In conversation, An evening with Habibi Collective, MOMA Virtual Cinema
UCL News, 7 questions with Niki Kohandel
2020
era journal, UCL Arts & Culture Interview: Niki Kohandel
EDUCATION
2019 - 2023 : BA Slade School of Fine Art, UCL
2022 : Other Cinemas Film school
2021 : Global Photographies Network, La Hydra (online)
2018 - 2019 : Foundation Diploma in Art & Design, Central Saint-Martins, UAL
AWARDS
2021
Sue Jamieson Memorial Award, Slade, UCL
2022
Herbert Seaborn Award, Slade, UCL
2023
May: Slade Undergraduate Degree Show, UCL.
Apr: Persepolis + introduction, British Film Institute.
Feb: ‘Eviction Notice’, curated by Pocket Trap Contemporary.
Jan: Visiting workshop facilitator with Shahre Farang, Goldsmiths, BA Politics, Performance and Society.
2022
Losing Track, an exhibition in response to HS2
by irreplaceable world
Oct: ‘A Night Of Music Boxes’ at Pollocks’ Toy Museum, museum takeover, screening and live performance with Joe Hatchwell.
Jun: Shahre Farang exhibition + fundraiser, Avalon Cafe Bermondsey, London, UK.
May: ‘Running Late’, Changing Rooms Gallery, London. Slade BA3 Group show,
curated by Ella Schlesinger.
Feb: Shahre Farang x Decolonise Art History Cambridge, John Hughes Art Festival.
2021
Nov: Slade 150 Past, Present, Future, Octagon Gallery, UCL (Until Aug 2022).
‘Stealing Vegetables’ curated by Cherry Song, Hal H. Lewis & Qiu Janye.
Aug: Noorderlicht Photo, Groeningen,
‘The Makeable Mind: Student Open Call’.
Jul: The Chemistry of Feeling, Community exhibition at Gulf Photo Plus, Dubaï, UAE.
May: POSTED, era journal postcard exhibition
Apr: contributor to form IV/Thing 18 ‘From the drained pool’.
2020
Sept: Mommy’s Rug video installation screening at ‘Juice’, a group exhibition curated by Cherry Song, Shenzhen, China.
Feb: I am that flower (2019) screening at Platform 1, Bloomsbury Theatre, London, UK.
2019
Dec: Spaceship. Dungeon. Zoo.
A group exhibition at Alvaro Barrington’s studio, London.
May: CSM Foundation Show, Lethaby Gallery, London.
CSM x LUX Moving Image, London
Waterlow Art Park II, London. East Meets West,
Platform 272 Gallery, London, UK.
PRESS
2022
In conversation (IG live) with Mania Akbari for Cryptofiction, Objects telling stories of Iranian women
passerby magazine, camera roll with Niki Kohandel
2021
In conversation, An evening with Habibi Collective, MOMA Virtual Cinema
UCL News, 7 questions with Niki Kohandel
2020
era journal, UCL Arts & Culture Interview: Niki Kohandel
EDUCATION
2019 - 2023 : BA Slade School of Fine Art, UCL
2022 : Other Cinemas Film school
2021 : Global Photographies Network, La Hydra (online)
2018 - 2019 : Foundation Diploma in Art & Design, Central Saint-Martins, UAL
AWARDS
2021
Sue Jamieson Memorial Award, Slade, UCL
2022
Herbert Seaborn Award, Slade, UCL
1. Chemistry of Feeling, Installation shot, Courtesy of Raheed Allaf
2. Open Closed, 2019, (1’28) at LUX Moving Image
3. Blossom, 2019, digital print on tyvek behind aviary grid, Waterlow Park
2. Open Closed, 2019, (1’28) at LUX Moving Image
3. Blossom, 2019, digital print on tyvek behind aviary grid, Waterlow Park