Join us for our monthly film screening series featuring the best in internationally-renowned independent and arts-related movies- The Art of Film.
The Art of Film presents a forum for appreciating movies as an art form. With audience Q&A and talkback sessions with film directors and faculty from Florida Southern College following each screening, this unique Polk Museum series will entertain, engage, and educate audiences of all ages.
They, Anahita Ghazvinizadeh, 2017
They (2017)
Director: Anahita Ghazvinizadeh
Synopsis: Fourteen-year-old J goes by the pronoun 'They' and lives with their parents in the suburbs of Chicago. J is exploring their gender identity while taking hormone blockers to postpone puberty. After two years of medication and therapy, J has to make a decision whether or not to transition. Over this crucial weekend while their parents are away, J's sister Lauren and her maybe/maybe-not Iranian partner Araz arrive to take care of 'They.'
Director Bio: Anahita Ghazvinizadeh got her BFA in film from Tehran University of Art and her MFA in studio arts from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Anahita was selected as one of the 25 New Faces of Independent filmmaking in 2013 by the Filmmaker Magazine, and was in the list of 20 rising female filmmakers by IndieWire in 2017. She was a writing fellow at the Sundance Screenwriters’ Lab in January 2013, artist-in-residence at Museum of Fine Art Houston's Core Program 2013-2015, and has been mentored by filmmakers such as Jane Campion and Abbas Kiarostami. Doha Film Institute Grant, Tribeca Film Institute's IWC Filmmakers' Award, Sarah Jacobson Annual Film Grant, Sundance Institute/ Doris Duke Foundation Grant for Islamic Arts and George C. Lin Emerging Filmmaker Prize are among her professional accomplishments.
Anahita's feature debut “THEY” premiered in the official selection of Cannes Film Festival 2017 and has showed in several festivals since then, including Torino Film Festival in Italy, Busan International in Korea, Deauville Film Festival in France, Berlin Feminist Film Week, BFI Flare in London, InsideOut in Toronto, Woodstock Film Festival and NewFest in New York. Reviews of her work have appeared in Chicago Tribune, IndieWire, Screen Daily, Village Voice, Le Figaro and other international press.
Doors open at 6:00 pm
Introduction and Screening at 6:30 pm
The Art of Film is free to attend. Cash bar available.
Organized by:
William Allen, Associate Professor of Digital Media, Florida Southern College
Matthew Herbertz, Assistant Professor of Film, Florida Southern College