Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami

Ghaemmaghami is from Tehran and received her Bachelor of Arts in filmmaking and Master of Arts in animation from Tehran Art University.[7][8] She researched documentary animation and published “Animated Documentary, a New Way to Express” as her Master’s research.[9]

She directed a short, animated documentary during her research in 2007 called Cyanosis, which showed the work of a Tehran street artist.[10]

Ghaemmaghami’s documentary Going Up the Stairs tells the story of an illiterate Iranian woman who discovers her painting talent late in life. Akram was married at the age of nine, and she finds an outlet much later in her life through painting. Her work is discovered and an exhibition of her art is going to be shown in Paris. However, she needs her husband’s permission to go to the showing. Ghaemmaghami uses the documentary to show traditional Iranian marriages and the struggle women face in these marriages.[11]

Many of Ghaemmaghami’s films tell the stories of artists overcoming barriers to their success.[12]

Ghaemmaghami’s first full-length documentary, Sonita, shows how, as both director and character in the film, Ghaemmaghami struggled between a desire to help Sonita or continue filming as the story unfolded.[1]

“I wanted to just let the story happen but at some point the situation became such that I had to help," Ghaemmaghami told The National.[1]

Regarding Ghaemmaghami’s role in the film, The Guardian says, “The approach works: to witness Sonita’s rise from timid rapper to empowered activist over a three-year span is thrilling.”[13]

One of the most-discussed elements of the documentary, and what Ghaemmaghami herself calls the biggest challenge of making the documentary, is when she inserts herself into the documentary and gives Sonita’s family $2,000 — a sum that will help her buy time before she is sold into marriage.[1]

“Making "Sonita" was a journey into the depths of society to understand poverty, immigration, war, identity, sexism, tradition and human values versus filmmaking conventions,” Ghaemmaghami told Women and Hollywood.[1]

Ghaemmaghami’s involvement in the film has also been attributed to Sonita’s growth as a woman. The Hollywood Reporter says: “Ghaem Maghami's camera is never any kind of fly on the wall, and the voluble Sonita's chattily informal relationship with the older director … is clearly a crucial element in her personal development into the super-confident, irrepressible young woman she becomes.”[14]

Ghaemmaghami describes the main theme of her documentaries as “outsider art.”[8] When the audience leaves the theater, Ghaemmaghami told Women and Hollywood, “I want them to think about small changes they can make happen.”[3]

• Sonita (2015)
• Going Up the Stairs (2011)
• A Loud Solitude (2010)
• Born 20 Minutes Late (2010)
• Cyanosis (2007)
• Pigeon Fanciers (2000)

• Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami at IMDb