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Sayna scoopes top award in Intel/Movidiam competition

Our amazing Sayna Fardaraghi has done it again and scooped an award for her film work, this time for her directing. We catch up with her to find out more about her influences, her aspirations and how she's been coping with lockdown.

DD / Tell us about the competition you won recently

Sayna Fardaraghi / I recently won the best director award for the Intel (HP) x Movidiam “power your breakthrough” competition, focused on creatives producing exciting content despite being put into national lockdown. I got contacted to consider applying to it and thought theres no hurt in trying, so I sent in my newest short and found that I won an award 2 weeks later!

DD / Your winning entry was called Waiting. How did the idea for the film come about?

SF / I wanted to create something very editorial based and much more experimental for one of my university projects, and decided to explore the concept of time alongside the experience of it. I find a charm in the little things in life and felt that time is a perfect forgotten aspect that we don’t really pay attention to. After making Waiting, I found how much of a perfect subject it was, especially with its timing as we went into lockdown as soon as it was completed. I’d like to think the importance of the subject was something I predicted and made to reassure people in advance like: “Hey, im stuck in time too, but its okay because it will pass”. But I suppose it was good luck with everything falling into place at the right time.

DD / You directed and edited the film and won the award for Directing. For those of us that don’t know exactly, what do you do as the director?

SF / As the director I ensure that every aspect of the film is going accordingly to my vision and has a good continuous flow, in the case of Waiting it would be examples such as curating the way the bedroom (opening scene) looked alongside my wonderful set designers Amber Bardell & Hassan Ali, and even composing shots / actor movements to allow room for seamless cuts.

DD / All of your films are beautifully creative – what are your influences, and how would you describe your style?

SF / A major visual influence in my work is editorial / fashion films, I love the way in which they are otherworldly in their style and don’t necessarily stick to the confines of a strict narrative. I would say that my work follows a similar route to that, I focus heavily on exciting visuals and a way to convey a feeling and a mood to the audience. I can only hope that the level of my work can one day be as brilliant as the ones I reference.

DD / Tell me about your use of French in your films.

SF / I'm heavily influenced by French cinema - Eric Rohmer particularly. There's a real charm to his work and the beauty in simplicity, so I find influences from French new wave finding its way into my work consistently, as for the language …it's just beautiful! Who wouldn’t want a French VoiceOver narrating their life?

DD / What does film represent for you in your life? What does it give you, and what do you want to give others?

SF / I love all areas of the arts as I have been doing it for most of my life, but film itself as a creative medium is what comes most naturally to me, it's something that I adore but also consider as my thing. I feel that film is something that excites me and challenges me continuously, whilst allowing room to directly communicate ideas and feelings with an audience. I hope that my films give others a clear feeling, especially for what was left behind like a childhood memory or even a daily activity that often went unnoticed - but also inspire others to start making things too and have fun with it.

DD / We first worked together when you’d just finished studying at Worthing College. What did you study there, and what did those courses give you?

SF / I studied Fine Art, Graphic Communication, Creative Media Production and an Extended project in multimedia sculpture. I absolutely loved all of my subjects and found them to naturally weave in together and become this whole artistic haven for me. In fact, it got to a point where I struggled to try and pick one specific route I loved most to pursue in the future - but after some time I realised, why box yourself? Why be an artist who works in a specific area when you can be multidisciplinary and do it all together? After all, art itself always escapes the confines it’s put in.

DD / What’s the course you’re on at the moment, and how is that going?

SF / I'm doing Contemporary Media Practice at Westminster University. I was originally studying Illustration at Brighton but it simply didn’t fit right for me. This new course allows me to play with film in all sorts of multidisciplinary ways, stretching my legs and trying new techniques - I've grown so much in my practice because of it. It’s also offered me so many opportunities in just one year of studying it, I’ve worked for my dream magazines Dazed & NOWNESS - I cant wait to see where else it takes me.

DD / Do you share any of the frustrations from the film in your own life in lockdown? What has been hard? What have been the upsides?

SF / Lockdown was pretty difficult for me as I was stuck at home with no resources to make anything. I realised how much being creative is my escape from stress and feeling down - on the upside however it taught me the valuable lesson of being resourceful. I found that during lockdown I spent a lot of time networking with filmmakers I loved whilst also finding ways to create videos out of what’s available on hand to me. One of the videos in particular going viral and reaching 3 million views in 2 days.

DD / What are your ambitions for the future? (And will you please still do cool stuff with us at Disquiet Dog?!)

SF / I hope to be an editorial filmmaker working for various fashion magazines, I absolutely adore that world of film as it's so experimental and out of the box, constantly churning new ideas. And of course! Disquiet dog forever. <3

Sayna Fardaraghi

Now kick back and enjoy the film here. There's more where this came from on her website.

Video: Waiting by Sayna FardaraghiDuration: 2 minutes, 45 seconds

You can also check out all the award winners on the Movidian Power Your Breakthrough site.