Mania Akbari
Born in September 1974 in Iran, Mania began her art career as a painter in 1991, participating in several group exhibitions in Iran and abroad. Her individual exhibitions came later. She entered Iranian independent films as a director of photography and then as an assistant director in documentaries.
In 2002, Mania played the main role in Abbas Kiarostami’s “Ten”- one of the most prestigious Iranian films which was viewed worldwide - and became famous for her performance as herself. In 2003, she co-directed a one hour documentary called “Crystal”. Her “6 Video Arts” collection started in 2004 when she wrote, acted and directed “Self”, “Repression”, “Sin” and “Escape”. The other two video arts from this collection, “Fear” and “Devastation” were made in 2005, when Mania made her feature directorial debut, “20 Fingers”, which she wrote and acted in herself. The film won a prize for best film and best director in the digital cinema competition at the Venice Film Festival in 2004 and has been screened in more than 40 festivals around the world.
The following year, the “6 Video Arts” collection was shown at the Locarno Film Festival. In 2006, Mania started to make a sequel to Kiarostami’s “Ten” called “10 + 4” which referred to the 4 years between the two films. In the same year Mania made her last Video Art pieces called "Erosion" and "Humiliation".
All titles screening in the festival:
Festival Calendar
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The New York Arab & South Asian Film Festival would like to
thank all of the film makers and other creative talents
involved in making this happen for a third year. Most of all,
we would like to thank the participating
audiences, for bearing witness.
See you all next year!
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