The Shadow on the wall
A surreal journey of an Iranian American artist who is dealing with sexual trauma in her past. She tries to deal with post-traumatic stress through her art. This is a surreal story about an artist who moved from east to west. She is dealing with her past memories. Her dreams, memories, conscience, and unconscious are intertwined, and it seems impossible to distinguish among these worlds. In her story, she is dealing with the multicultural paradoxes of the social, political, and sexual experiences in the present moment. The film delves into the deeper social and cultural aspects of a generation that grew up amid the paradox of the intellectual community in a repressive society. She is confronted by the traditional belief of self-guilt in a sexually abusive environment.
About Directors
Arash kamali sarvestani
Arash Kamali Sarvestani (Born 1981 in Tehran, Iran; lives in the Netherlands) is an Iranian Dutch filmmaker based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Arash is best known for his award-winning documentary “Chauka please tell us the time” (2017). He has studied Cinema at the Art University of Tehran. In 2009, he moved to Amsterdam to study AudioVisual at Gerrit Rietveld Academie, and he has lived in the Netherlands since then. Arash made more than 20 short films and videos for Video Arts in Iran and the Netherlands. In 2017, he made his first feature documentary, “Chauka, please tell us the time,” together with an Iranian Kurdish journalist and refugee, Behrouz Boochani, who was detained in Manus Detention Center, one of the most horrifying refugee detention centers in the world. Arash also made “Tall Fences, Taller Trees” (2019), and “You are not alone” (2021) about the current situation of LGBT people in Poland together with “Katarzyna Heijna,” a Polish journalist from the Polish TV Channel TVN.
Mehregan Pezeshki
Mehregan Pezeshki is an Iranian American queer artist. Her artwork is often autobiographical, unraveling the traumatic memories of her youth while growing up as a free-spirited young girl in the socially restrictive Islamic Republic of Iran.
Pezeshki uses Performance Art to uncover hidden behaviors, privacy concerns, and deeply rooted traditions that affect our daily lives. She asks us to consider the ramifications of our innermost desires and invites the audience to rethink how they interact with others. She employs an unconventional angle that challenges the viewer to step out of his/her comfort zone and observe human behaviors from a new perspective.
Pezeshki's artwork has been featured in numerous group exhibitions in the US and abroad, including the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, California, and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, and performances, including Clarion Alley Project, Bendix Building, Bob's Baker, Red Cat, and Luis Lambert in California.
Pezeshki holds a Bachelor of Arts in Historical Conservation and Preservation from the Cultural Heritage University of Tehran and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at Austin. She recently graduated with her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts.
