Mina Rad, filmmaker, producer World Cultural Diversity et Coordination of APRESVARAN and International Documentary Film Festival Après Varan
Mina Rad’s film making and all other initiatives are about the preservation and restitution of cultural heritage
Mina Rad born in Iran and educated in France and England, is now French documentary filmmaker, producer, festivals director and member of jury, critic of cinema and organizer of international conferences and seminars.
She has been the president of the jury in the 17th edition of Bombay International film festival MIFF, in 2022 and adviser on programming for different documentary film festivals.
Since 2012, she has been directing the « International documentary Film Festival Apresvaran, on the step of Jean Rouch » in Paris and has created a global documentary networking amongst the filmmakers who follow the method of world-renowned filmmaker-anthropologist Jean Rouch.
She is in charge of public relations of Jean Rouch Foundation and has created a global seminar on Pierre Perrault.
She has directed the cultural festival in the Indian Ocean financed by the European Commission in Mauritius, Seychelles, Reunion, Comores and Madagascar, and has also worked as an international consultant for Iranian national school of cinema in Iran.
Mina Rad left Iran at 18 following the Islamic Revolution, studied history and journalism and began her professional life as an international political and cultural journalist reporting for the BBC, RFI and AFP in various Central Asian countries. While traveling the world, for twelve years, she discovered her passion for world music and became Editor-in-Chief of World Music Supplements for the monthly magazine, »Le Monde de la Musique ». . In 1990s she has got the award as the best female reporter for her work on Central Asia.
She spent 2011-2014 training in the directing and writing of documentaries at Ateliers Varan. As a documentary filmmaker, she has directed more than eleven films.
Her first film “For Me the Sun Never Sets” was awarded the prize for best documentary at the Cinema Verite Film Festival in Tehran in 2012 with a jury mention, « for the warmth and simplicity to narrate a deep story ».
In 2017, French TV5 Monde broadcast her film Jean Rouch Persian look, on the occasion of the centenary of Jean Rouch , which is about the interest of Jean Rouch about the transe tradition in Iran.
Her most recent films include Persian Tales, Jean Rouch in Iran that is published in DVD compilation in France at Montparnasse publisher and The future of the past, Pierre and Yolande Perrault, which are both dedicated to the two directors who greatly influenced her own approach to filmmaking.
MR and Mrs Mafi, which is a story of one century of modernization of education in Iran through the life of Mr and Mrs Mafi, the founders of the Mehran School, which Mina Rad herself attended as a child is a documentary based on rare archives.
The films that she directs and produces through World Cultural Diversity production are related to archives and the transmission of knowledge of French, Iranian, Canadian, Brazilian anthropologist-filmmaker and the Amerinidiens in Amazon in Brazil. They are telecast widely and shown at festivals as well as anthropology conferences across the world. Mina Rad is a cinema critic and writes about various film festivals in different media and in apresvaran.org
Mina Rad’s film making and all other initiatives are about the preservation and restitution of cultural heritage. It is to her a way of looking at the universe, following the path of cultural identity in the world.
Filmography of Mina Rad :
- On the Path of Theophrastus in Eressos, the father of ecology, Trilogy, ( 35′) 2023, WCD( in English and Greek)
- Mrs and Mr Mafi , 100 years of education in Iran 52, 2023, WCD (France, Iran) (in English and persian)
- Conversation with the mother of Iranian anthropology, 45’, 2023, WCD (in English)
- Sprits, forest and rivers: Memories of worlds from the Hupd’äh of the Amazon, 75’, 2023, WCD, (France Brazil) ( in French, English and Portuguese)
- The Enchanted Words of the Hupd’äh of the Amazon, Masters of knowledge, narrated by Renato Athias, « 52, 2020, WCD,(France Brazil) ( in French, English and Portuguese)
- The future of the past, Pierre and Yolande Perrault, 61’, 2019, WCD ,( France Canada) ( in French, English and Portuguese)
- Persian Tales, Jean Rouch in Iran ,57’, 2018 , WCD, ( in French, English and Portuguese, turc and persian)
- Jean Rouch Persian look , 52’, 2017, Dynamo production (in French)
- This family of 60 people , 52’, 2017, WCD, (France, Iran) (in Persian)
- For me the sun never sets, 26’, 2012,WCD, Ateliers Varan ( in French, and English)
Distinction et Broadcast :
2020 : « The Enchanted Words of the Hupd’äh of the Amazon, Masters ofknowledge, narrated by Renato Athias, » at Sacred Song Festival in Den Hague , In Holland and Festival et colloque d’ anthropologie de Para au Brésil
- 2019 : « The future of the past, Pierre and Yolande Perrault »,was selected in the official selection of the Festival for Art at FIFA in Montreal, Canada. It was also at the selection of the Jean Loup Passak awards at the Melgaço International Documentary Film Festival in August 2019.
- 2018 : « Persian Tales, Jean Rouch in Iran »was presented at Melgaço International Documentary Film Festival in Portugal. It is published by Montparnasse publishers in France in Dvd box dedicated to Jean Rouch.
- 2017 : “Jean Rouch Persian look”, 52’, 2017, was broadcast on French TV5 Monde, the occasion of the centenary of Jean Rouch.
- 2012 : « For me the sun never sets, »was awarded the prize for best documentary film at the Verity Festival in Iran in 2012. This film gets the jury mention, « for the warmth and simplicity to tell a deep story ».
