Director & Producer: Ala Mohseni

(Work in progress)

Jakub Mosur, a GPS artist living in San Francisco, has made a name for himself by using GPS technology to create stunning works of art with a powerful message. Through his unique and innovative approach, Mosur spreads messages of human rights and peace to audiences around the world. This documentary delves into Mosur's life and artistic process, highlighting his mission to use his art as a platform for social change. In addition we also explore his personal history as a member of an immigrant family from communist Poland in the 1980s. This personal narrative adds a poignant layer to the film and highlights the ways in which Mosur's immigrant identity has influenced his art and activism.

(Work in progress)

While in residency at Agapolis + Building180, Ala produced “Red minus 2”, an experimental multimedia performance staging based on the life of Reza Abdoh, an avant-garde Iranian playwright and director, who died of AIDS in 1995 at the age of 32. The film project is inspired by Iranian traditional theater genres that include Takht-e Hozi, Zoorkhaneh rituals, and Ta’zieh, with a drop of Ala’s personal touch, and is the first stage in the larger vision for an experimental feature-length film about Abdoh.

Documentary, Color, 26 min, 16:9, Iran & UK

Director, Writer, Voice-over: Ala Mohseni


Camera: Reza Davood Abiat

Editing: Ala Mohseni, Shahram Mokri 
Music: Arash Azizi, Ali Rohani

Watch the movie: https://vimeo.com/73200712

Synopsis:
They still prefer sheep's head, a group of elderly men say. But the struggle seems lost: it would seem as if pizza is here to stay. These days, young people are meeting up in pizzerias rather than kebab joints or traditional Iranian restaurants. For lack of clubs, the pizzeria is also the preeminent place to get a whiff of the much-desired Western freedom and looseness. 
This light-hearted, amusing, fast-paced documentary about eating habits in modern Tehran offers a kaleidoscopic view of Iranian society. We see young people, old people, progressive and conservative Iranians who all reveal their identity by telling us what they think of Italian fast food in the capital. A young man claims that eating pizza is bad, a sign of a decadent lifestyle. For relaxation, he goes to the cemetery to pray for the martyrs, and every other year, he gets an injection to suppress his urges and desires. His favorite dish: sheep's head. The film introduces another young man, a fan of the American actor Marlon Brando, who opened a pizzeria and called it Godfather. Meanwhile, the authorities have changed the name to Aladdin.

AWARDS
● Best Short film /Oxdox Int’l Documentary Film Festival/Oxford/UK/2009
● Best Documentary /3rd Intl Urban Film Festival/Iran/2009
● Best Short film /4th Int’l Farhang Film Festival/USA/2012
● Best Short film /Noor Int’l Film Festival/USA/2013

OFFICIAL SELECTION
● Silver Cub Competition Idfa/Netherlands/2008
● Tehran International Short Film festival/Iran/2008
● A night in Tehran (Screening)/ Bristol, Manchester, London/UK/2009
● BigPond Adelaide Film Festival/Australia/2009
● The Chelsea Art Museum/USA/2009
● Starz Denver Film Festival/USA/2009
● Iran's Film Festival/Zaandam/Netherlands/2009
● The Boston Festival of Films from Iran/Boston/USA/ 2010
● The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston/USA/2010
● 22nd Int'l short Film Festival Dresden/ Germany/2010
● Syracuse Int'l Film Festival/USA/2010
● Das Iranische Wien /Austria/ 2011
● Stanford University(Screening)/Stanford/USA/2013
● 16th UNAFF (United Nations Association Film Festival)/Palo Alto/USA/2013

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/213168876

A 52-min documentary about Bahram Beyzaie who is one of Iran's most acclaimed filmmakers, playwrights, and scholars of the history of Iranian theater. He is currently Lecturer in Iranian Studies at Stanford University. Ala Mohseni as the director, cinematographer, narrator, and editor, made the film for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)

Director, Editor, Voice-Over: Ala Mohseni
Videographer: Mostafa Heravi

- Cartoonist Mana Neyestani was well aware of the risks artists face in Iran. But he could have never predicted or imagined that his personal nightmare would emerge from a simple story for children, that it all would begin with a cockroach that utters a single, seemingly innocuous word. What followed was a series of baffling and dangerous misunderstandings, protests, accusations, and later, arrest, and interrogations. In Metamorphosis, Iranian Style, Ala Mohseni looks at the collision of individual identity and politics and tells the very personal story of one artist’s experience of exile, censorship, and grief, and his fight to protect not only his creative freedom but also his sense of self.

"It all began with a cockroach..."

"Stereo Tull" is a strange name but is familiar for Iranian music lovers after the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. For almost a decade, "Stereo Tull" was one of the most famous underground names to distribute music under a government that led a cultural purge similar to Mao Tse Tung in China.

Islamic radicals eliminated any cultural product that was affiliated with their enemy, "the West." Their most hated art form was music – especially rock music.

Iranian music lovers – both of rock music from the West and of their own bands that were banned – took matters into their own hands, creating an active underground music scene. This included bootlegging new music on cassette tapes, reproducing and distributing it in secret. One of the best known underground music distributors was "Kamran Tull," named after his love for the legendary band Jethro Tull. His underground operation had the best and biggest music, known as "Stereo Tull."

Ultimately, Stereo Tull was discovered by authorities. The government burned the entire archive of cassettes and put Kamran in jail.

Today, Kamran Mellat (Kami Tull) lives in Germany.

Director, videographer, and editor: Ala Mohseni
A short film on Saeed Shanbehzadeh music, and the fascinating and little-known Afro-Iranian musical tradition for Not A Crime campaign and Shanbehzadeh's concert at the Palace of Fine Arts, on Sept 17, 2016, and New York at the legendary Apollo Theater, on Sept 23, 2016.

2012, Documentary, 54m

Director and Editor: Ala Mohseni,

Cinematographer: Mostafa Heravi

Kiosk - the band and the movie - makes music from the howl of oppression. Founded in 2003 by lead singer and guitarist Arash Sobhani, Kiosk is Iran's most prominent underground rock band. At first, the musicians met in back alleys and basements around Tehran - in any little 'kiosk' beyond the regime's grasp. Their lyrics pry the skin off the Islamic Republic and hold up a mirror to the ghosts beneath. Kiosk has become the voice of the revolution. Not the holy war waged by clerics and politicians. But the revolt of the free mind against the boot-heel of tyranny.