FEATURE FILM (Development)
Told in reverse through a quiet cascade of flashbacks, this unorthodox biopic retraces the life of Forough Farrokhzad-an Iranian poet insisting on her own voice in a world unready for the unsettling clarity of female desire and ambition.
Directed by: Tina Gharavi
Executive produced by: Wes Anderson
Funded by: BFI
FEATURE DOCUMENTARY & COLLABORATIVE STORYTELLING PLATFORM (Currently in Development)
Trump, Brexit, borders and travel bans… Terrorism, discrimination and war. Why do we create insider/outsider groups? And why do these divisions appear to be growing ever deeper?
RETURNING SERIES (Development)
Adapted from the best-selling novel by Sólveig Pálsdóttir
A disgraced Icelandic detective and a retired British Superintendent both in pursuit of redemption are compelled to find a missing immigrant amidst treacherous landscape, an opiate epidemic and the “hidden people” of Nordic folklore.
FEATURE FILM (Distribution)
A film about love, finding oneself and the eternal search for home.
When you change where you are, do you change who you are? After a run-in with the police, Nasrine and Ali must leave Tehran and move to the UK. They struggle to adapt to their settings in the North East. When tragedy strikes, Nasrine must find the courage to continue her new life.
Directed by: Tina Gharavi
Funded by: Bridge + Tunnel Voices
Northstar Ventures
Awards: BAFTA 2013 (Nominee), Brooklyn Film Festival
FEATURE FILM (Distribution)
Based on Virginia Woolf’s funniest novel, Night & Day is an un-romantic comedy about a passionate astronomer Katharine Hilbery who does everything she can to avoid romantic love and marriage. Fun and contemporary in tone, this refreshing film showcases an ensemble of humourous performances against the ravishing backdrop of London in 1910, advances in science and technology and crumbling Edwardian patriarchy. Virginia’s story is as relevant to today as it ever was: women balancing romantic love with careers!
Directed by: Tina Gharavi
Cast: Haley Bennett, Elyas M'Barek, Jennifer Saunders, Lily Allen, Jack Whitehall and Timothy Spall
EXPERIMENTAL DOCUMENTARY (Distribution)
‘The King of South Shields’ is the story of how one person can have a lasting effect on the lives of many people. Something you could call ‘a butterfly effect’: the power of one person to effect positive change in lives of those he touches.
Funded by: Arts Council England Decibel Spotlight Award
Trent House World Headquarters
South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council
Britdoc Channel Four
EXPERIMENTAL DOCUMENTARY (Distribution)
Closer innovatively explores the process of documentary filmmaking and boldly challenges traditional forms of storytelling. Fiction and documentary collide in this gripping film as “scenes” from the main subject’s life are re-enacted for the camera.
Funded by: Northern Production Fund
Distributed by: Women Make Movies (NY) Showtime Sundance Channel
Official Selection: Sundance Film Festival, IDFA, Cork, Mannheim-Heidelberg + many more
Awards: PlanetOut/iFilm Short Movie Award (Grand Prize), Czech Radio Prize at the One World 2003 Film Festival
DOCUMENTARY (Production)
In ‘The Last Samurai’, we follow the life of Zen Takai, a modern-day Samurai on a quest to find an heir to his Samurai tradition, and to guide others in overcoming the struggles of daily life with an ancient technique rooted in a warrior culture. A beautiful paradox where a tradition born for combat becomes a path to inner peace, saving Zen’s life from even his own hands. But the 3000-year-old ancient warrior culture of the Samurai is dying out. Can Zen find the solution in time?
BROADCAST DOCUMENTARY for Channel Four TV & Sundance Channel
Over 20 years ago, at the age of six, director Tina Gharavi left Iran and her mother, to live with her father in the West. This intensely personal film, co-produced with October Film, follows her as she returns for the first time, to confront her past and attempt to gain answers from her mother about why she was sent away.
Funded by: Channel Four TV (UK) Northern Production Fund
Distributed by: British Council Frameline Distribution (USA)
Awards: Tongues on Fire: Asian Women’s Film Festival Grand Prize.
DOCUMENTARY (Production)
How do you cope with being convicted of a crime you know you did not commit? What happens when you are condemned to death row and spend over 18 or 30 (sometimes many more) years of your life locked away; often not knowing how long you will be alive? How do people survive when placed in such extraordinary situations?
FEATURE FILM (Currently in Development)
"Beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the heart of man." —Dostoevsky.
THE GOOD IRANIAN is a story from classical mythology: a naïve ingénue goes to look for her “idealised” mother, whom she has not seen for many years, only to discover that she is not who she thought she was.
Funded by: Film Four BFI
Producers: Ado Yoshizaki
Tina Gharavi
FEATURE DOCUMENTARY & TOURING EXHIBITION (Distribution)
Last of the Dictionary Men: Stories from the South Shields Yemeni Sailors is an exceptional hybrid exhibition consisting of exciting major and large-scale visual arts installations by internationally renowned artists, Tina Gharavi and Youssef Nabil.
FEATURE FILM (Development)
A middle-aged woman begins a journey of sexual awakening after meeting a masseur. Their ensuing awakenings lead to consequences that change their lives forever.
ART INSTALLATION & COMMUNUITY ENGAGEMENT WORKSHOP (Development)
A multi-disciplinary art project, exploring the artistic processes and legacy of regional and international award-winning, Tina Gharavi, based in Newcastle from 1996-present.
BROADCAST DOCUMENTARY (Development)
Two men: one the three times World Heavyweight Champion, self-styled ‘Greatest of All Time’ from Louisville, Kentucky, the other one a white working class amateur boxer from Newcastle. The King and I provides a fascinating insight into an incredible friendship spanning five decades and two continents.
DIGITAL STORYTELLING/HERITAGE COLLECTION (Archive)
Crime & Punishment focuses on the heritage of incarceration, exploring public memories and understandings of penal regulation/social justice.
Crime & Punishment website.
Funded by : Heritage Lottery Fund
In partnership with: BT Voices, Tyne & Wear Archives
DOCUMENTARY PHOTOJOURNALISM (production)
How do we tell stories? How can we as filmmakers, photographers and citizen journalists communicate the horrors of conflict?
In this project, filmmaker Tina Gharavi and Alessio Romenzi, will collaborate to consider their subject and the ethics of storytelling.
DOCUMENTARY (Distribution)
This observational documentary focuses on the differing attitudes of two distinct groups of men – American-Muslims from the Yemeni community and those from white European backgrounds – who once worked in the former steel mining industry in Lackawanna, NY. This facinating insight into a fragmented community records the groups of men discussing the changes that have occurred in their town and the dramatic shift in attitudes following 9/11 and the arrest of the Lackawanna Six.
Funded by: Hallwalls Media Institute
The National Endowment of the Arts (US)
DOCUMENTARY & INSTALLATION (Distribution)
A documentary film about a day in the life of two bakeries – one in the West Bank in the Occupied Territories of Palestine and one in an Ultra-Orthodox district of West Jerusalem. In each bakery, we follow the story of one Palestinian and one Israeli as they go about their daily tasks.
Funded by: Bridge + Tunnel Productions
Arts Council England
Northern Film + Media
SHORT DRAMA (Distribution)
Featherhead is a moving tale of a lifelong love that is tested to the limit. John is forced to watch helplessly as his wife’s Alzheimer’s progresses and he is barely able to cope. Portraying the heart-breaking consequences of this confusing and frustrating disease, John’s emotions become visibly aggressive as he loses control.
Funded by: UK Film Council Northern Film & Media
Alzheimer’s Society
Co-Production: Superkrush Productions
GALLERY INSTALLATION (In Distribution)
Asylum Carwash is an 8 - hour installation exploring the working lives of refugees and economic migrants who have recently moved to the UK. The film documents a full day in the life of men who work at a carwash.
This piece forms part of a travelling exhibition, funded through the Engaging Refugees & Asylum Seekers project; a partnership project between National Museums Liverpool, Salford Museums and Art Gallery, Tyne & Wear Museums and Leicester City Museums Service.
DOCUMENTARY (In Distribution)
An experimental documentary exploring the ways in which poetry inspires creativity and imagination. ‘Two Lighthouses’ takes the form of a visual poem illustrating Julia Darling’s work of the same name. The film is a commemoration of Julia’s life, exploring how her poetry has touched the lives of people in the Region and beyond.
Directed by: Tina Gharavi
Funded by: Catherine Cookson Found