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Iranian-American filmmaker and Award-winning documentarian Aryana
Farshad began her higher education in Paris, majoring in French Literature at La
Sorbonne, prior to receiving her degree from renown “L’ I. D.
H. E. C” film institute in Paris, France, majoring in Film Production and
Editing. She began her film career as a documentary editorin France, continuing later on in Iran and eventually the US. Continuing her film studies at USC, she joined the Editors Guild of America and worked as post-production supervisor at several majorHollywood studios, including MGM and Columbia Pictures overseeing more than 30 TV series and feature films to her credit. Since 2000, Aryana pursued her lifelong passion, returning to documentary film making as a producer and director. Her debut effort, “Mystic Iran: The Unseen World”, a full-length documentary filmed entirely in Iran, was praised at major film festivals including: Montreal World Film Festival, Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, Cinema Paradiso, Tiburon International Film Festival, Beirut International Documentary Film Festival, Fes Sacred Music Festival, FilmFest, Zoroastrian Film Festival, Rumi Society University of Standford, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and The British Museum, where Mystic Iran won the “Audience Favorite Award” in 2008. Mystic Iran was broadcast at more than 40 international channels and aired on PBS. In 2008, Aryana won a “Telly Award” and a “Davey Award”, in Directing and editing categories respectively for a short documentary film, “A Time to Reconcile.” Aryana lectures regularly at major universities, museum and organizations, including; UC Berkeley, Stanford University, University of Arkansas, University of Memphis, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The British Museum, Asia Society - New York, Fes Sacred Music Festival- Morocco, and Parliament of the World Religions -Barcelona. Within the last 10 years, she has written, produced and directed 5 documentary films, with 3 more projects in pre-production and development states. Aryana is currently in Post-production on a feature-length documentary on the subject of spirituality and faith healing, and is currently in production of “Longing for the Soul: A Quest for Rumi”; this project has received an initial endowment from The Bijan & Soraya Fund, a non-profit foundation headed by Lionsgate Studios co-chairman, Mark Amin. Aryana’s work is punctuated with the underlying idea of gaining a more accessible grasp of long elusive social and spiritual enigmas that continue to impact and confound people the world over. Her approach has the ability to tap into the very essence of the subject, infusing the narrative with her seasoned cinematic touch. Celebrated internationally for her vision and daring,
she has the admiration and support of many world-renowned personalities,
including Prince Charles of England. In the tradition of the vast cultures she
has documented in her films, Aryana takes it all in stride, reminded by the
divine earthly humility of the mystics.MYSTIC IRAN: THE UNSEEN WORLD is Aryana Farshad’s first full-length documentary.
Mystic Iran premiered in 2003 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, has
been praised at many Film Festival and aired on PBS channels. |