Tara Najd Ahmadi

In A Week with Azar, Tara Najd Ahmadi speaks to the psychological impact of estrangement. Opening with still frames punctuated by chilling chords, Najd Ahmadi outlines the premise of the film: in the face of sanctions and travel bans, how does the individual make sense of what is so unjust as to be ultimately absurd? She resorts to irony and humor--both distancing tools in themselves--to assist her in seeing, and holding open a space that might give rise to new perspectives while suggesting a way to move through what feels impossible. In her films, Najd Ahmadi explores how one continues to persist in the midst of political and social turmoil, both present and past, and her quiet meditation on creating work in spite of it all is exhibited in the work itself. Najd Ahmadi mines both concept and image for answers, uncovering not resolution but richness, and in using the format of the essay film, she is at once editorial and exploratory. Here, as in her other films, Najd Ahmadi’s use of stop motion feels as natural as a signature. Whether an anthropomorphized tripod-wig as in 3 Minutes of Headless Life or tiny dolls experiencing growth spurts as in Productive Frustration, Najd Ahmadi’s playful stop motion interludes urge the viewer to question who pulls the strings, and to examine the systems in place, whether they govern the art market or individual psyches.

-Zainab Saleh, Making Strange Co-Curator