Case Study
by Mina Keshavarz
Friday 25 September 14:00—17:00
Argos (rue du Chantier 13, 1000 Brussels)
Program
This workshop will begin with a short introduction to Mina Keshavarz’s filmmaking practice, exploring how imagination functions within documentary storytelling and why she chose this approach. She will share how this distinct visual and narrative style evolved over the years, both during the development of her projects and in the editing room.
Following the full length screening of her feature film The Art of Living in Danger, she will lead a discussion on the creative process in post-production. We will explore how personal narratives can be woven into broader social movements, and why she chose to approach the women’s struggle for legislation against domestic violence in Iran through an intimate, personal lens rather than through traditional forms of activism.
About The Art of Living in Danger
Directed by Mina Keshavarz
2020, 87 Minutes
Iran-Germany
In an internal monologue Mina gradually reveals more about her grandmother’s tragic story and shows the reality of domestic violence against women in Iran.
About Mina Keshavarz
Mina Keshavarz (b. 1984) is an award-winning Iranian documentary filmmaker and creative producer, based in Tehran, whose artistic practice extends the boundaries of documentary cinema by interweaving imagination with lived experience. Through experimental strategies, she engages with themes such as feminism, collective memory, archives of resistance, hope, and self-reflection, using them as entry points to connect intimate narratives with wider socio-political realities.
Her films — including Unwelcome in Tehran, Profession: Documentaries, Braving the Waves, The Art of Living in Danger, and Phobos — have premiered at leading international festivals such as IDFA, Thessaloniki, Busan, Sheffield DocFest, Tribeca, and the BFI London Film Festival, and have been presented at venues including Anthology Film Archives, Eye Museum, the Satyajit Ray Foundation, Barbican Centre, and Silent Green. These works have been supported by institutions such as the IDFA Bertha Fund, Sørfond, Fritt Ord, ARTE/ZDF, the NRW Cinema Fund, and the Hot Docs CrossCurrents Theatrical Fund.
Mina is an alumna of Berlinale Talents, Hot Docs Emerging Docs Accelerator Lab, EsoDoc, Circle and the Tribeca Film Institute. She has been invited to artistic residencies including the Nipkow Film Programme (Berlin), Berlin AiR, Akademie der Künste (Berlin), Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris), and the Camargo Foundation Fellowship (Cassis, France). As an educator, she has taught at Griffith Film School (Australia) and EsoDoc (European Social Documentary) and Tehran Art University.
Her contribution to the field is also reflected in her membership in the European Film Academy (EFA), the Documentary Association of Europe (DAE), the European Women’s Audiovisual Network (EWA), and the Iranian Documentary Filmmakers Association (IRDFA). She has served on juries for CPH: DOX, the One World Media Awards, and the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards.
Practical Information
Date: Friday 25 September 2026
Time: 14:00–17:00
Venue: Argos (rue du Chantier 13, 1000 Brussels)
Tickets are free, on registration only (limited space)
If you want to attend, please email us at soundimageculture@gmail.com
The case study will be followed by the opening of the group exhibition “What the Land Remembers – Counter-Archives from Iran,” featuring Mina Keshavarz’s work.
Opening at 18:00, at Argos (Brussels) on Friday 25 September 2026
This collective exhibition showcases more than three decades of Iranian audiovisual art: rarely seen installations, experimental films, and early digital works. More information about the exhibition