Episode 22: Pushing Boundaries in Art & Life with Farbod Ardebili
Synopsis
My guest today is an ex-pat Iranian artist, film director, writer, and composer named Farbod Ardebilli. He’s one of my favorite humans for a lot of reasons. Farbod was born and raised in Tehran, where he "illegally" started an Underground Metal Band and released the first Persian language Metal album on the worldwide platforms, and then shot his first film ELLIPSIS which won acclaim as an official selection for the Montreal Festival du Nouveau Cinema, among others. Farbod lives life in a very different way than I do, on the surface creating metal music, and rebelling against the system in very literal and substantial ways. But he has a softer heart than I do, and I really love how wears it on his sleeve. I'm honored to introduce him to you.
Ways to connect with him:
Reverb Nation: https://www.reverbnation.com/offtheband
Film Freeway: https://filmfreeway.com/farbod.ardebili
Vimeo montage: https://vimeo.com/farboda
Twitter: https://twitter.com/OFFtheband
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anarchy.stains/
Show Notes
My guest today is an ex-pat Iranian artist, film director, writer, and composer named Farbod Ardebilli. He’s one of my favorite humans for a lot of reasons.
Farbod was born and raised in Tehran, where he "illegally" started an Underground Metal Band and released the first Persian language Metal album on the worldwide platforms of the 2010s, and as a result, was blacklisted by numerous governmental agencies.
In the year 2013, after many years of struggling with the Iranian government, he finally decided to "illegally" shoot his first short Film, Ellipsis, in a vast desert, hundreds of kilometers away from the nearest police station. ELLIPSIS won acclaim as an official selection for the Montreal Festival du Nouveau Cinema, Kerry Film Festival, and San Francisco Global Movie Fest.
And in 2015, thanks to the film's international success, he became able to move to the United States.
Farbod lives life in a very different way than I do, on the surface creating metal music, and rebelling against the system in very literal and substantial ways. But he has a softer heart than I do, and I really love how wears it on his sleeve.
Since moving to the US, he has participated in and honored by numerous film festivals and organizations, including SUNDANCE, Fantastic Fest, Festival du nouveau cinema, KLIK Amsterdam Festival, Kerry Film Festival, American Movie Awards, OAXACA Film Festival, etc.
His latest short film, Forbidden to See Us Scream in Tehran, is a reimagination of his and his friends' once "illegal" lives in Iran.
Topics we discussed off the air include: gender roles in art and culture, ambition and goal creation, his own mental health journey, and what exactly he’s doing today. My only regret during our conversation is sharing my thoughts instead of asking him more questions. I hope you enjoy hearing it as much as I enjoyed having it, and that you will connect with him via the links in the show notes: bit.ly/cicada022