Needle

Director: Anahita Ghazvinizadeh, 2013, USA, 17 minutes, Cast: Moe Beitiks, Noah Lepawski, Florence Winners

Young Lilly is going to get her ears pierced. A quarrel between her parents overwhelms the situation and directs it differently…

Winner of 2013 Cinefondation Award at Cannes Film Festival

Anahita Ghazvinizadeh

Anahita Ghazvinizadeh (b1989, Tehran, Iran) is a filmmaker and writer. She got her BFA in cinema from Tehran University of Art and her MFA in studio arts from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Anahita has studied with Abbas Kiarostami and is influenced by his cinematic style. Being inspired by the rich culture of children’s cinema in Iran, she started to work on a trilogy of short films with children as the main characters. When the Kid was a Kid (2011, Iran) and Needle (2013, US) are the first two finished pieces of series. Needle was in the Cannes Film Festival, Cinefondation selection in 2013 and won the first prize there, which guarantees the screening of her first feature film in the Cannes Film Festival’s selection in the future. Anahita is also the co-writer of the acclaimed feature film, Mourning (2011). Childhood and parenthood, family theater, and exploring notions of growth and gender identity are the main themes of her work.