Sanaz Sohrabi

Sanaz Sohrabi (b.1988, Tehran) is a researcher of visual culture, artist-filmmaker, and an Assistant Professor in the department of Communication and Media Studies at Concordia University, Montréal. Sohrabi works with essay film and installation as her means of research to explore the shifting and migratory paths between still and moving images, situating a singular image in a continuum of historical relations and archival temporalities. Since 2017, Sohrabi has done extensive archival research at the British Petroleum archives to engage with the history of photography and film practices of the colonial British controlled oil operations in Iran, conducting a visual ethnography of resource extraction in relation to the media infrastructures of BP.  

Sohrabi’s ongoing project explores the contested historical role that visual representations of oil have played in shaping postcolonial sovereignty and resource nationalism in Iran and the Global South more broadly. Her current project is conceived as a trilogy of essay films, the first episode of which “One Image, Two Acts,” has been internationally screened and exhibited since November 2020 and has been widely acclaimed. The second episode of this trilogy of films is titled “Scenes of Extraction” and was commissioned by VOX Centre de l'image contemporaine in Montréal and premiered at Berlinale Forum Expanded in February 2023. “Scenes of Extraction” is currently touring festivals and museums. She is currently working on her first feature documentary and the final episode of this trilogy, which is centered around the postcolonial image politics of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its establishment in Baghdad in 1960 as the first oil alliance ever formed from the Global South to challenge the economic dominance of the seven major Western oil companies known as the “Seven Sisters.” 

Sohrabi’s works have been shown widely in exhibitions and festivals. Including: Berlinale Forum Expanded, International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), IndieLisboa (Silvestre Section Best Short Film), Valdivia International Film Festival Chile (Special Jury Mention), Iran Cinéma Vérité Festival (Winner of International Mid-length), Mimesis Documentary Film Festival (Best Documentary Short), Ann Arbor Film Festival (Jury Award), DocLisboa, Open City Documentary Film Festival, Montréal International Documentary Film Festival (RIDM), Sheffield Doc/Fest, Kasseler Dokfest, Videonale, VideoEX Zurich, FIDBA Argentina, European Media Arts Festival, Images Festival, and Beirut Art Center, among others. Sohrabi’s recent exhibitions include Ljubljana Biennial 2023, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, VOX Centre de l'image contemporaine, Montréal, Centre Clark, Montréal, and Carpintarias de São Lázaro, Lisbon. Sohrabi has been supported by fellowships and artist residency awards such as Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and RAW Académie. 

Sohrabi received her BFA from Uni­ver­sity of Tehran College of Fine Arts and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a merit scholarship. She holds a PhD from the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture at Concordia University, supported by the Fonds de Recherche du Québec Société et Culture at Concordia University, Montréal. Sohrabi is also a member of the research group “Oil Cultures from the Middle East and Latin America (OCMELA),” with whom she has published a conversation with Murtaza Vali, titled “Petromobilities in the Global South,” released by Museumsforlaget in Norway in March 2022.

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Email address: s.sohrabi.studio (at) gmail (dot) com. I do not have any social media profiles/accounts. Do write me an email; I’d be happy to receive your words and thoughts from near and far.