Documentary film by Shahrzad Arshadi
Films Chronology:
1) Official Selection for 12th International Exile Film Festival @ Gothenburg-Sweden/6-12 November 2015
2) Official Selection for the 9th London Kurdish Film Festival / London England / 13-20 November 2015
3) Award at the 19th International Galawej Cultural Festival at Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan-Nov 2015.
4) Official Selection for First International Kurdish Film Festival in Barcelona-Spain / June 2016
5) COHDS 2nd Film Festival, Montreal-Canada / December 2017
Abstract:
Dancing For Change is a documentary project that has been in the making since our trip to the mountain camp in Kurdistan and the visit with the women peshmarga of Komala, the Kurdistan Organization of the Communist Party of Iran.
In the first month after the 1979 revolution in Iran that toppled the Shah, women were the first to be targeted by the new Islamic regime and not long after that, on August 19th, 1979 Ayatollah Khomeini declared Holy War against the Kurdish people of Iran.
Dancing For Change is a story about secular and socialist women of the Middle East, their ideals, activism, and visions for a better world. It focuses on six Kurdish women from three different generations. These women live with their male comrades in a mountain camp where they organize and have been fighting the Iran’s theocratic Government in the past 36 years.
In a society where state and family violence against women is common, these women are engaged in political and military training, writing, reading, broadcasting, dancing, and singing with a vision to create a world free of exploitation and oppression. They tell the story of how and why they have taken up arms in their struggle to create a new world.
The struggle of the women of Rojava (Western Kurdistan, in Syria) and Bakur (Northern Kurdistan, in Turkey) has been covered in numerous new reports, documentaries, and films. Although women’s armed struggles in Rojhelat (Eastern Kurdistan, in Iran) predates these two movements, this is the first time they are depicted in a documentary film.
CAMERA, EDIT & DIRECTOR: SHAHRZAD ARSHADI
PRODUCER: SHAHRZAD MOJAB
DISTRIBUTOR: Groupe Intervention Vidéo (GIV)
givideo.org/
50:32 min / Original languages: Kurdish and Farsi With English and Spanish subtitle
© Kayon Production 2015
