They

Australian Premiere | 2017

Sunday 10 September 3:15pm

Director's Biography
Director's Biography
Anahita Ghazvinizadeh (born 1989 in Tehran, Iran) received her BFA in film from Tehran University of Art and her MFA in studio arts from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. When the Kid was a Kid (2011, Iran), Needle (2013, USA) and The Baron in the Trees (2015, USA) form the trilogy of short films directed by her with children as main characters. Childhood and parenthood, family theater, and exploring notions of growth and gender identity are the main themes of these works. She is the winner of the First Cinéfondation Award at Cannes and the Silver Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival among other awards. Anahita was selected as one of the 25 New Faces of Independent filmmaking in 2013 by the Filmmaker Magazine. She was a writing fellow at the Sundance Screenwriters’ Lab in January 2013, and is also the co-writer of the acclaimed feature film, Mourning (2011, Iran). Anahita’s feature debut THEY will premiere in the Official Selection of the 2017 Festival de Cannes.

Synopsis

Fourteen-year-old J goes by the pronoun ”They” and lives with their parents in the suburbs of Chicago. J is exploring their gender identity while taking hormone blockers to postpone puberty. After two years of medication and therapy, J has to make a decision whether or not to transition. Over this crucial weekend while their parents are away, J’s sister Lauren and her Iranian friend/partner Araz arrive to take care of ”They”.

Festivals

  • Cannes Film Festival 2017

Production Team

Director
Anahita Ghazvinizadeh
Country
USA, Qatar
Runtime 
80 min
Language
English & Persian with English Subtitles
Premiere Status 
Classification 
18+
Year
2017
Screenwriter 
Anahita Ghazvinizadeh
Producer
Zoe Sua Cho, Simone Ling
Cinematographer 
Carolina Costa
Editor
Anahita Ghazvinizadeh, Dean Gonzalez
Cast
Rhys Fehrenbacher, Koohyar Hosseini, Nicole Coffineau

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