About:

مهدی شبانی

Mehdi Shabani was born in Tehran in 1975. In addition to his artistic career as a filmmaker and writer, Mehdi's past jobs have included being a taxi driver, bookseller, carpenter, cook, IT manager and more.

 

Work Experience in Cinema:​

 

• Directed "Meyhane, A Home For My Grandfather" [feature-length documentary, Turkey, 2014]

• Directed "Shesh Besh: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Play Backgammon” [feature-length documentary, Turkey, 2013]. Aired on VOA (Voice Of America), September 2014.

• Directed “Emigration: An Unfinished Life” [feature-length documentary, Iran/Turkey, 2011-2013 -- now in editing stages]

• Directed “The Bathhouse that Wanted to Keep on Being a Bathhouse” [feature-length documentary, Iran, 2009-2010. Aired on BBC Persian, October 2012.

• Directed and produced “Such as It Was, Nevertheless a Fine Life: The Life of Contemporary Iranian Poet Shams Langroodi” [short documentary, Iran, 2008]

• Created and directed numerous advertising clips for a variety of industries  [Iran, 2004-2009]

• Directed and produced “Street-Style Politics” [short fictional film, Iran, 2003]

• Directed and produced “The Revenge” [short fictional film, Iran, 2002]

 

Work Experience in Other Arts/Media:​

 

• Wrote and published “The News Was Already Bleak, Crow Notwithstanding” [collection of poems, Iran, 2004]

• Wrote and published essays on art, history and politics in various Iranian and Farsi language newspapers (various websites and print publications)

• Hosted radio programs on a number of Farsi-language internet radio stations 

• Narrated and voice-dubbed for films and self-guided audio tour recordings in Istanbul