Today we’d like to introduce you to Tina Gharavi.
Tina, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was born in Iran however left at a young age during the 1979 Islamic Revolution, ending up on an odyssey through the UK, New Zealand and finally the US… I was sent to live with my father and soon-to-be step-mother… but didn’t realize it would take 23 years to return to my mother’s house.
For the past 22 years, I’ve also been living in the United Kingdom (Newcastle which is about as odd as it can get on that funny, soggy little island). Initially trained as a painter, an experience at 18 of working as a production assistant on a Hollywood feature film made me realize that I wanted to tell stories that were moving and had sound… and importantly, had an audience; and could affect social change through storytelling. It was, to me, the best possible job in the world. Cinema had long captivated me… from the first films I watched with my face pressed up against the TV as my parents banned all but 1 hour of TV a day (hello, Some Like it Hot). This backfired terrifically… I became an addict!
Whatever it is that brings a painter to pick up the brush or drives a writer to face the fear of the blank page, this is also my motivation. I am compelled by the need to tell unseen stories and support unheard voices. I am driven by a desire to see stories enlarged on a screen; the stories of people like me.
Though I initially went to art school, my first film Closer, shot on 35mm, was without a script but proposed an innovative working process. I wanted to collaborate with a young woman I’d seen literally in the street and to work with her to capture her coming-of-age story. It won the grand-prize award at Outfest and went to the Sundance Film Festival. My artistic practice has been about experimenting with narrative forms and perspectives of reality. I resist categorization and consider myself neither a filmmaker nor an artist but the intersection of the two.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Next, I went to Iran to make Channel 4 commissioned film, Mother/Country, about returning to Iran 20 years after the Islamic Revolution and since leaving my mother’s home. Tensions mount between my mom and myself and as the ‘truth’ seems illusive, I hire actors directed by my mother and myself in an effort to uncover the story. It gets messy… but also honest. Without doubt this is my most personal film and I cringe every time I think about it!
My work experiments with narrative and veracity of the image, yet I’ve found it challenging to move from documentary. In the early 2000s, I worked with people from migrant communities to increase awareness of asylum. As a refugee myself I established the Kooch Cinema Group to train refugees and asylum seekers to tell their own story. Kooch means ‘nomad’ or ‘migratory’ in Farsi. With them, I made my debut feature, I Am Nasrine, about the experiences of asylum in Europe. It got a BAFTA nomination much to my surprise. It changed everything for me…
That meant I really could get the meetings and build the projects. To make a long story short… It got me into the rooms.
Latterly, I created my own TV show, The Fox, a scandi-noir set in Iceland and has recently been optioned by the good folk at Nomadic Pictures who made Fargo… I realized my best place is in the writing room, leading the team and setting tone. I love teamwork and I especially enjoy helming a story, sitting somewhere between producer and the creative manifestation…
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am also making films, an adaptation of a Virginia Woolf novel is gearing toward production with a stellar cast. This follows my second feature about Beirut and family trauma currently stuck in some post-production hell with the producers who made Rambo and Hellboy… Not sure when (if ever) we will see that film… and I am very lucky to have the support of the British Film Institute for a feature film about an Iranian female poet, Forough Farrokhzad, who was a radical and epitome of the strength of women from Iran. The images of brave Iranian women standing up for resistance and their own self-determination keeps me pushing to tell better stories… and to help change the narrative of what the experience of womanhood, of Iranian womanhood, of our frail/remarkable humanity can be.
I have been so lucky to be part of so many great projects and my slate is full of projects I adore. I am fortunate to have wonderful agents who believe in me (shout out to Sean Barclay and Laura Rourke) and it means I can choose projects very carefully. I don’t need to make a mountain of work… just small iridescent pearls that say “I was here”. Most importantly, I am working with people who are kind and who inspire me. Every day I go to work (which is often my kitchen table or a library somewhere) and I think how lucky that I get to do this. In another part of my world, I inspire storytellers and work as a professor for Newcastle University and some special writer labs (hello Nostos and Stowe!)… At the same time, I am writing my first book a memoir and storytelling manual which will help people tell their truth. I am quite excited about it.
What are your plans for the future?
I am currently residing in Venice Beach and love being by the beach as much as possible when I am stateside… I wrote about arriving in Venice in another article… so if you are interested, seek that out.
When I teach, I encourage my students to believe in themselves and to speak their truth… There is a shortage of good honest stories… and finding a way of telling them… well, that is the trick. Stories are life-rafts… They save us and occasionally, well told, they can save someone else.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.bridgeandtunnelproductions.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/logicofthebirds/
- Other: www.tinagharavi.com
Image Credits
2nd image: Mary MacCartney for Vogue
