Iranian Women Filmmakers: A Cinema of Resistance

Zahra Khosroshahi is a SSHRC postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto working on Iranian cinema. She is currently working on her forthcoming monograph Iranian Women Filmmakers: A Cinema of Resistance (Edinburgh University Press). Zahra’s research explores how the visual medium challenges systems of power, and how filmmaking specifically functions as a form of resistance in Iran. Her doctoral thesis focused on Iranian filmmaker Rakhshan Banietemad’s work as a gateway into important discussions around gender, femininity, and the taboo.

In this presentation, Zahra Khosroshahi discusses her current book project on the works of Iranian women filmmakers both inside and outside the country. She explores the ways in which women’s filmmaking confronts gender and representation, challenges the male gaze, and speaks from a position of agency.