A event held at KIT FORM on Thursday 2nd October. The event starts at 19:00.
A talk with Amirali Ghasemi, with a screening of selected films from the Parkingallery.
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The archive is not a static, neutral repository but a complex space that demands active, critical engagement. It suggests a journey, a process of discovery, and at times a constant struggle with categorization, access, and interpretation.
The euphoric mode of accessing the past is not concerned with narrative or interpretation (what Ernst calls "the historic mode") but with the raw, material signal of the past itself.
In the context of moving images, this mode engages with the filmstrip, the magnetic patterns on videotape, the digital code, the glitches, the decay, and the format itself—the medium as a time-based object. It emphasizes the presence of the past in its technological form. In the Iranian context, this approach involves analyzing the materiality of 8mm home movies, the grain of pre-revolutionary film stock, the aesthetic of VHS tapes from the Iran-Iraq War era, and the compression artifacts of early digital videos. Taken together, these fragments construct an essential - yet ephemeral - subject of research.
Meanwhile, the diasporic mode of navigation allows the archive to be approached from a position of physical and often cultural distance from the images’ point of origin.
This position is not always a deliberate choice; it frequently arises in the absence of infrastructure, public interest, and institutional support, shaped by the peculiarities of the medium and its sociopolitical environment. In his presentation, Amirali will shed light on diverse attempts at archiving and counter-archiving strategies over four decades in Iran.
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Green Home -Anahita Hekmat - 08:00 min - 2019
Green Home was filmed in Hekmat’s childhood house in Tehran, where a greenhouse has been positioned as the architectural and organic nucleus of the home. The plants are seen and treated as guardians to life unfolding there. The narration in the video is constructed as an origin myth — one that positions the perennial plants in the home as containing memories of the place and possessing the ability to transmit these memories and stories to different generations over time.
The Iron Heel- Shadi Noyani-4:10 min-2011
The video is eponymous with the title of a novel by Jack London, which was published in 1908 in the US. In this novel, some of the writer’s socialist leanings are evident. The book was banned many times either before and after the Revolution. The film comprises three episodes concerning the book - the first, before the 1979 Iranian Revolution; second, during the Revolution; and third, after the Revolution; and records the changes in society from 1977 until 1980.
Notes on Seeing Double-Sanaz Sohrabi -11:10min -2018
What is the anatomy of a revolution? Masses of bodies with a collective desire? “Notes on Seeing Double” takes the figure of speech of “Temsaal | تمثال” in Farsi as its point of departure to unpack this question. Through a rare juxtaposition of a documentary photograph taken in February 1979 in Tehran and a painting drawn by Rembrandt depicting the famous anatomy theatre of Amsterdam in 1632, “Notes on Seeing Double” analyzes the conditions of visually within different systems of knowledge production. Written and directed as a video-essay, it looks at the threshold of seeing and remembering, a gateway into unpacking the relationship between pre-existing images, language, memory, and the ways images are entangled with different processes of visualization.
My Calm Town - Amirali Mohebbinejad - 5:30 min- 2008
Here’s a brief, indirect and ironic video about an unpleasant issue of not only my country but many parts of the world. Magnifying the contrast between real events and the deceiving, beautified and distorted output of reality, given by the media, by creating a contradiction between sound and image of this work, I tried to make the audience think more, hear more and see more, to know more.
This is about reproducing reality and representing it as an original.
This is about not having trust in the media.
This is about the truth.
Cinema Venus - Jaleh Nesari-6:29min- 2018
“Venus Cinema,” later renamed “Sara Cinema,” was a theater located at the entrance of
Lalehzar Street. In the late 2000s, it shared the same fate as “Flor Cinema.” The video Venus Cinema is assembled from fragments of old films and, in its editing style, is influenced by Fernand Léger’s Ballet Mécanique.
Toutes ces Choses N°2 / Today - Bahar Samadi - 3:05 - 2011
This is an experiment, incorporating the Aesthetics of damaged image, for documenting a moment, No 2 : Today.
Slowly we drift a part- Sogol and Joubin- 11 minutes-2024
They documented their house, city and themselves they are about to leave. The home they've lived in for years, constantly haunted by thoughts of immigration and being forced to leave their country. They review the moments of their life together and …
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Amirali Ghasemi (b. 1980, Iran) is an independent curator, media artist, and researcher based in Berlin. He earned his B.A. in Graphic Design from Central Tehran Azad University (2004), with a specialization in digital art history.
In 1998, he founded Parkingallery, an independent project space in Tehran, which he later expanded into an online platform for emerging Iranian artists (2002). This was followed by the establishment of Parking Video Library (2004). Ghasemi has exhibited internationally and curated numerous exhibitions, including The Urban Jealousy: 1st Roaming Biennial of Tehran (2008–09), Iran & Co., Archive and Exhibition Elephant in the Dark, and eight editions of Limited Access Festival (2007–19). He co-founded New Media Society (2014) and Room for Doubt, a nomadic project space (2022).
His curatorial practice explores text, photography, and interactive media across diverse contexts worldwide. He is currently working on his debut book, Our Digital Past, which examines the shift from analogue to digital imaginaries and its impact on the production of independent and experimental moving images.
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KIT FORM
37 Jamaica Street
Stokes Croft
Bristol
BS2 8JP
KIT FORM is over one level, with an accessible toilet.
Entry requirements: no age restrictions
---
The archive is not a static, neutral repository but a complex space that demands active, critical engagement. It suggests a journey, a process of discovery, and at times a constant struggle with categorization, access, and interpretation.
The euphoric mode of accessing the past is not concerned with narrative or interpretation (what Ernst calls "the historic mode") but with the raw, material signal of the past itself.
In the context of moving images, this mode engages with the filmstrip, the magnetic patterns on videotape, the digital code, the glitches, the decay, and the format itself—the medium as a time-based object. It emphasizes the presence of the past in its technological form. In the Iranian context, this approach involves analyzing the materiality of 8mm home movies, the grain of pre-revolutionary film stock, the aesthetic of VHS tapes from the Iran-Iraq War era, and the compression artifacts of early digital videos. Taken together, these fragments construct an essential - yet ephemeral - subject of research.
Meanwhile, the diasporic mode of navigation allows the archive to be approached from a position of physical and often cultural distance from the images’ point of origin.
This position is not always a deliberate choice; it frequently arises in the absence of infrastructure, public interest, and institutional support, shaped by the peculiarities of the medium and its sociopolitical environment. In his presentation, Amirali will shed light on diverse attempts at archiving and counter-archiving strategies over four decades in Iran.
---
Green Home -Anahita Hekmat - 08:00 min - 2019
Green Home was filmed in Hekmat’s childhood house in Tehran, where a greenhouse has been positioned as the architectural and organic nucleus of the home. The plants are seen and treated as guardians to life unfolding there. The narration in the video is constructed as an origin myth — one that positions the perennial plants in the home as containing memories of the place and possessing the ability to transmit these memories and stories to different generations over time.
The Iron Heel- Shadi Noyani-4:10 min-2011
The video is eponymous with the title of a novel by Jack London, which was published in 1908 in the US. In this novel, some of the writer’s socialist leanings are evident. The book was banned many times either before and after the Revolution. The film comprises three episodes concerning the book - the first, before the 1979 Iranian Revolution; second, during the Revolution; and third, after the Revolution; and records the changes in society from 1977 until 1980.
Notes on Seeing Double-Sanaz Sohrabi -11:10min -2018
What is the anatomy of a revolution? Masses of bodies with a collective desire? “Notes on Seeing Double” takes the figure of speech of “Temsaal | تمثال” in Farsi as its point of departure to unpack this question. Through a rare juxtaposition of a documentary photograph taken in February 1979 in Tehran and a painting drawn by Rembrandt depicting the famous anatomy theatre of Amsterdam in 1632, “Notes on Seeing Double” analyzes the conditions of visually within different systems of knowledge production. Written and directed as a video-essay, it looks at the threshold of seeing and remembering, a gateway into unpacking the relationship between pre-existing images, language, memory, and the ways images are entangled with different processes of visualization.
My Calm Town - Amirali Mohebbinejad - 5:30 min- 2008
Here’s a brief, indirect and ironic video about an unpleasant issue of not only my country but many parts of the world. Magnifying the contrast between real events and the deceiving, beautified and distorted output of reality, given by the media, by creating a contradiction between sound and image of this work, I tried to make the audience think more, hear more and see more, to know more.
This is about reproducing reality and representing it as an original.
This is about not having trust in the media.
This is about the truth.
Cinema Venus - Jaleh Nesari-6:29min- 2018
“Venus Cinema,” later renamed “Sara Cinema,” was a theater located at the entrance of
Lalehzar Street. In the late 2000s, it shared the same fate as “Flor Cinema.” The video Venus Cinema is assembled from fragments of old films and, in its editing style, is influenced by Fernand Léger’s Ballet Mécanique.
Toutes ces Choses N°2 / Today - Bahar Samadi - 3:05 - 2011
This is an experiment, incorporating the Aesthetics of damaged image, for documenting a moment, No 2 : Today.
Slowly we drift a part- Sogol and Joubin- 11 minutes-2024
They documented their house, city and themselves they are about to leave. The home they've lived in for years, constantly haunted by thoughts of immigration and being forced to leave their country. They review the moments of their life together and …
---
Amirali Ghasemi (b. 1980, Iran) is an independent curator, media artist, and researcher based in Berlin. He earned his B.A. in Graphic Design from Central Tehran Azad University (2004), with a specialization in digital art history.
In 1998, he founded Parkingallery, an independent project space in Tehran, which he later expanded into an online platform for emerging Iranian artists (2002). This was followed by the establishment of Parking Video Library (2004). Ghasemi has exhibited internationally and curated numerous exhibitions, including The Urban Jealousy: 1st Roaming Biennial of Tehran (2008–09), Iran & Co., Archive and Exhibition Elephant in the Dark, and eight editions of Limited Access Festival (2007–19). He co-founded New Media Society (2014) and Room for Doubt, a nomadic project space (2022).
His curatorial practice explores text, photography, and interactive media across diverse contexts worldwide. He is currently working on his debut book, Our Digital Past, which examines the shift from analogue to digital imaginaries and its impact on the production of independent and experimental moving images.
---
KIT FORM
37 Jamaica Street
Stokes Croft
Bristol
BS2 8JP
KIT FORM is over one level, with an accessible toilet.
Entry requirements: no age restrictions
Tickets for similar Bristol events.
— Bristol Megascreen
festival
film
