Join directors Sara Nodjoumi and Till Schauder, along with PEN America and its Artists at Risk Connection (ARC), for a special screening of ‘A Revolution on Canvas,’ followed by a moderated Q&A after the film. The event is free, but registration is required – be sure to secure your spot by Tuesday, December 5.
In their hybrid political thriller and verité portrait documentary A Revolution on Canvas, Sara Nodjoumi makes her directorial debut alongside her husband and co-director Till Schauder, with this personal film diving into the mystery surrounding the disappearance of more than 100 “treasonous” paintings by her father, the seminal Iranian modern artist Nickzad “Nicky” Nodjoumi – one of Iran’s most revolutionary artists.
Born in Iran but living in New York City, Nicky Nodjoumi traveled back to Iran to join the Islamic Revolution, making paintings and posters criticizing the Shah’s regime. In 1980, the painter fled his home country following the vandalization of his solo exhibition, “Report on the Revolution,” and its subsequent shutdown by Islamic radicals at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. Decades later, as Iran is once again embroiled in protests following the suppression and killing of Iranian women and activists at the hands of Iran’s “morality police”, the renowned artist and his daughter attempt to track down the missing paintings in hopes of reclaiming them. During the search, Sara, drawing on disarmingly frank conversations with both her father and mother, celebrated artist Nahid Hagigat, and grappling with complex feelings and mysteries tied to her own upbringing, traces a timeline of events to understand the circumstances that led to her homeland’s perpetual state of political turmoil and to her parents’ personal estrangement, echoing the treacherous path of many immigrant families caught in the crossfire of politics and life.
Equal parts introspective and investigative, filmmakers Sara Nodjoumi and Till Schauder expertly weave together the personal and political to tell a gripping political thriller that culminates in the soul searching of one family and a moving narrative about the power of art, sacrifice, and family bonds.