Sanaz Sohrabi

An archival constellation from the still and moving images of the British Petroleum Archives, documenting the expansive colonial network behind the British geophysical expeditions that spanned across Iran in the early 20th century.

One Image, Two Acts examines the photographic archives of British Petroleum during its operations in Iran, unraveling BP’s widespread construction of cinemas in the oil towns of Iran. The film is a coalescence of infrastructures, images, and archives of oil wherein cinematic time and geological time mobilize different sites, temporalities, and numerous material modalities in the colonial episteme.

A forgotten musical record connects Caracas to Tehran, revealing untold stories of oil, not as a commodity, but as a political leverage for the liberation struggles in Palestine and building Pan-Arab solidarity between 1960-1970.

Sanaz Sohrabi’s video-essay Auxiliary Mirrors addresses idea of the collective camera by examining the case of Zinedine Zidane’s head-butt in the final match of the 2006 World Cup soccer. This iconic moment was constructed by the mass circulation through media, creating a plethora of images by a multitude of creators, for world-wide spectatorship. Despite being a highly documented and viewed incident, the multiplication of these factors make the “truth” about what happened between the two actors difficult to attain. Following this examination, Sohrabi turns to an archival photograph during the analog era; in which the role of the medium and its author is central.

An Essay Film by Sanaz Sohrabi

An archival constellation from the still and moving images of the British Petroleum Archives, documenting the expansive colonial network behind the British geophysical expeditions that spanned across Iran in the early 20th century.

One Image, Two Acts examines the photographic archives of British Petroleum during its operations in Iran, unraveling BP’s widespread construction of cinemas in the oil towns of Iran. The film is a coalescence of infrastructures, images, and archives of oil wherein cinematic time and geological time mobilize different sites, temporalities, and numerous material modalities in the colonial episteme.

One Image, Two Acts examines the photographic archives of British Petroleum during its operations in Iran, unraveling BP’s widespread construction of cinemas in the oil towns of Iran. The film is a coalescence of infrastructures, images, and archives of oil wherein cinematic time and geological time mobilize different sites, temporalities, and numerous material modalities in the colonial episteme.

One Image, Two Acts examines the photographic archives of British Petroleum during its operations in Iran, unraveling BP’s widespread construction of cinemas in the oil towns of Iran. The film is a coalescence of infrastructures, images, and archives of oil wherein cinematic time and geological time mobilize different sites, temporalities, and numerous material modalities in the colonial episteme.

A forgotten musical record connects Caracas to Tehran, revealing untold stories of oil, not as a commodity, but as a political leverage for the liberation struggles in Palestine and building Pan-Arab solidarity between 1960-1970.

A forgotten musical record connects Caracas to Tehran, revealing untold stories of oil, not as a commodity, but as a political leverage for the liberation struggles in Palestine and building Pan-Arab solidarity between 1960-1970.

A forgotten musical record connects Caracas to Tehran, revealing untold stories of oil, not as a commodity, but as a political leverage for the liberation struggles in Palestine and building Pan-Arab solidarity between 1960-1970.

Sanaz Sohrabi’s video-essay Auxiliary Mirrors addresses idea of the collective camera by examining the case of Zinedine Zidane’s head-butt in the final match of the 2006 World Cup soccer. This iconic moment was constructed by the mass circulation through media, creating a plethora of images by a multitude of creators, for world-wide spectatorship. Despite being a highly documented and viewed incident, the multiplication of these factors make the “truth” about what happened between the two actors difficult to attain. Following this examination, Sohrabi turns to an archival photograph during the analog era; in which the role of the medium and its author is central.

An Essay Film by Sanaz Sohrabi