followed by a Q&A with the director.

How can filmmaking open space for collective environmental action? Environmental anthropologist, Mariam Abazeri, draws upon nearly a decade of research with rural communities in Iran to examine how participatory filmmaking prompts collective action that addresses social and environmental interdependencies. As a producer to the documentary Women of the Sun: A Chronology of Seeing (2020), she highlights how a group of rural women in southern Iran use the filmmaking process to address their grievances and strengthen polycentric water governance in their community. Through participatory methods, the filmmakers reveal how storytelling can propose and open new pathways towards more sustainable feminist futures.

Bio: Mariam Abazeri is an environmental and visual anthropologist working at the intersection of environment, culture, and media. Her research focuses on the sociocultural effects of the climate and environmental crises on natural resource dependent communities. She is currently a Presidential Postdoctoral fellow at Arizona State University and is the Associate Director of the Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival. She is also a documentary filmmaker and producer and holds a PhD from the University of Miami in Environmental Science and Policy.  

Location: Critical Media Lab, Peterson Hall, Room 108