Sanaz Sohrabi

Sanaz Sohrabi (b.1988, Tehran) is a researcher of visual culture and filmmaker. 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 British controlled oil operations in Iran, conducting a visual ethnography of resource extraction in relation to the media infrastructures of BP.  Sohrabi’s works have been shown widely in exhibitions and festivals. Including: Berlinale Forum Expanded 2023, 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),  Open City Documentary Film Festival, Montréal International Documentary Film Festival (RIDM), Sheffield Doc/Fest, Kasseler Dokfest, Videonale, VideoEX Zurich, FIDBA Argentina, among others. Sohrabi’s recent exhibitions include Ljubljana Biennial 2023, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, VOX Centre de l'image contemporaine and Centre Clark, Montréal, and Carpintarias de São Lázaro, Lisbon. Sohrabi has been supported by fellowships and artist residency awards such as Forum Transregionale Studien Berlin, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and RAW Académie. 

She received her BFA from University of Tehran College of Fine Arts and her 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 Fonds de Recherche du Québec Société et Culture (FRQSC). Sohrabi is 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.