Mizna

Tonight, Mizna Film Series: Iranian Classics presents a screening of Brick and Mirror by Ebrahim Golestan screening with The House Is Black by Forugh Farrokhzād

Join us on April 23 at 7pm, Trylon Cinema
Tickets at mizna.org

ABOUT BRICK AND MIRROR
When a mysterious woman abandons a baby in the backseat of his cab one night, Tehran taxi driver Hashem begins a journey through the city’s unfeeling bureaucracy as he attempts to find a home for the infant—a situation that soon puts him in conflict with his nurturing girlfriend Taji. Melding the influences of Persian poetry, 1960s European art cinema, and Wellesian expressionism, Brick and Mirror offers a portrait of a crumbling relationship that reflects on many contemporary social and political dynamics. Brick and Mirrorscreens with The House Is Black, theonly film directed by trailblazing feminist Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzād.

This Wednesday, Mizna Film Series: Iranian Classics continues with a screening of Brick and Mirror by Ebrahim Golestan screening with The House Is Black by Forugh Farrokhzād

Join us on April 23 at 7pm, Trylon Cinema
Tickets: https://mizna.org/event/mfs2025-april/

ABOUT BRICK AND MIRROR
When a mysterious woman abandons a baby in the backseat of his cab one night, Tehran taxi driver Hashem begins a journey through the city’s unfeeling bureaucracy as he attempts to find a home for the infant—a situation that soon puts him in conflict with his nurturing girlfriend Taji. Melding the influences of Persian poetry, 1960s European art cinema, and Wellesian expressionism, Brick and Mirror offers a portrait of a crumbling relationship that reflects on many contemporary social and political dynamics. Brick and Mirrorscreens with The House Is Black, theonly film directed by trailblazing feminist Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzād.

Wednesday, Mizna Film Series: Iranian Classics continues with a screening of Brick and Mirror by Ebrahim Golestan screening with The House Is Black by Forugh Farrokhzād

Join us on April 23 at 7pm, Trylon Cinema
Tickets: https://mizna.org/event/mfs2025-april/

Mizna Film Series: Iranian Classics continues with an April screening of Brick and Mirror by Ebrahim Golestan screening with The House Is Black by Forugh Farrokhzād

Join us on April 23 at 7pm, Trylon Cinema
Tickets at mizna.org

ABOUT BRICK AND MIRROR
When a mysterious woman abandons a baby in the backseat of his cab one night, Tehran taxi driver Hashem begins a journey through the city’s unfeeling bureaucracy as he attempts to find a home for the infant—a situation that soon puts him in conflict with his nurturing girlfriend Taji. Melding the influences of Persian poetry, 1960s European art cinema, and Wellesian expressionism, Brick and Mirror offers a portrait of a crumbling relationship that reflects on many contemporary social and political dynamics. Brick and Mirrorscreens with The House Is Black, theonly film directed by trailblazing feminist Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzād.

Now on Mizna Online: Three poems by academic and poet Mohja Kahf where Syria is written not only as the site of violent abduction and imprisonment, but also as a diverse country suffering from Arab and Sunni supremacy.

These poems are published as part of a spotlight series on Syria edited by Assistant Editor Layla F***j.

Read more at mizna.org

Still from The War Show by Obaidah Zytoon, screening at our special event Syria on Screen

Co-presented by Mizna, the Committee in Solidarity with the People of Syria (CISPOS), and From the Periphery Media Collective, join us for a screening of The War Show (2016) by Obaidah Zytoon and post-screening discussion with Ramah Kudaimi and Mazen Halabi.

This event aims to provide space for our local community to learn about and process the recent events in Syria.

Donations at the event go to SARD’s project to rebuild university dorms in Aleppo, Syria.

When: May 16, 2025, 6:00–9:00 PM (reception with light refreshments at 6:00 PM; film starts at 6:30 PM; discussion at 8:15 PM)

Where: New City Center (Sanctuary), 3104 16th Ave S. Minneapolis, MN 55407

Tickets at mizna.org

ABOUT THE FILM
The War Show tracks the experiences of radio host Obaidah Zytoon and her friends after they join the street protests against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in March 2011. This group of artists and activists filmed their perspective on this pivotal moment, even as the regime’s violent response spiraled into a bloody civil war and their hopes for a better future were tested by imprisonment and death. While making the film, Zytoon journeyed throughout the country, from her hometown Zabadani to the center of the rebellion in Homs and to northern Syria. A deeply personal road movie, The War Show captures the fate of Syria through the intimate story of a small circle of friends as their lives intersect with war.

Cambridge! Mizna launches the Futurities issue with a reading and symposium in May.

This event features Barrak Alzaid, George Abraham, Yi Wei, Pınar Banu Yaşar, Aram Kavoossi, Raafat Majzoub and more!

Join us on May 2, 2025 3–6pm at MIT List Visual Arts Center, 20 Ames St, Cambridge, MA.

Still from The House Is Black by Forough Farrokhzād, screening this month at Mizna Film Series

Join us on April 23 at 7pm, Trylon Cinema
Tickets at mizna.org

ABOUT THE FILM
The only film directed by trailblazing feminist Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzād finds unexpected grace where few would think to look: a l***r colony where inhabitants live, worship, learn, play, and celebrate in a self-contained community cut off from the rest of the world. Through ruminative voiceover narration drawn from the Old Testament, the Qur’an, and the filmmaker’s own poetry as well as unflinching images that refuse to look away from physical difference, Farrokhzād creates a profoundly empathetic portrait of those cast off by society—an indelible face-to-face encounter with the humanity behind the disease. A key forerunner of the Iranian New Wave, The House Is Black is a triumph of transcendent lyricism from a visionary artist whose influence is only beginning to be fully appreciated.

MIZNA: FUTURITIES
PRE-ORDER NOW

Mizna 25.2, Futurities invites you to face the status quo governing our present, exercise your imagination, and invoke alternative worlds.

Mizna: Futurities features contributions from Fathelbari Ahmad Al Hassan, Haidar Alghazali, Dana Alsamsam, Sara Bedri, Pınar Banu Yaşar, Walid Daqqa, Abi Diaz, Sara Elkamel, Malak Hijazi, Nour Eldin Hussein, Randa Jarrar, Najwa Juma, Mona Kareem, Douglas Kearney, Nancy Kricorian, Aya Krisht, Faisal Mohyuddin, Umniya Najaer, Chinaecherem Obor, Ladan Osman, Abu Bakr Sadiq, Maya Salameh, Gina Alexandra Srmabekian, Elise Thi Tran, and Yi Wei.

Guest editors Barrak Alzaid and Aram Kavoossi.

Visual art by Siah Armajani
ghazali .kearney

Still from The War Show by Obaidah Zytoon, screening at our special event Syria on Screen

Co-presented by Mizna, the Committee in Solidarity with the People of Syria (CISPOS), and From the Periphery Media Collective, join us for a screening of The War Show (2016) by Obaidah Zytoon and post-screening discussion with Ramah Kudaimi and Mazen Halabi.

This event aims to provide space for our local community to learn about and process the recent events in Syria.

Donations at the event go to SARD’s project to rebuild university dorms in Aleppo, Syria.

When: May 16, 2025, 6:00–9:00 PM (reception with light refreshments at 6:00 PM; film starts at 6:30 PM; discussion at 8:15 PM)

Where: New City Center (Sanctuary), 3104 16th Ave S. Minneapolis, MN 55407

Tickets at mizna.org

ABOUT THE FILM
The War Show tracks the experiences of radio host Obaidah Zytoon and her friends after they join the street protests against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in March 2011. This group of artists and activists filmed their perspective on this pivotal moment, even as the regime’s violent response spiraled into a bloody civil war and their hopes for a better future were tested by imprisonment and death. While making the film, Zytoon journeyed throughout the country, from her hometown Zabadani to the center of the rebellion in Homs and to northern Syria. A deeply personal road movie, The War Show captures the fate of Syria through the intimate story of a small circle of friends as their lives intersect with war.

Excerpt from Sacred, one of the two new poems by Banah El Ghadbanah published on Mizna Online.

These poems are published as part of a spotlight series on Syria edited by Assistant Editor Layla F***j.

Read more at mizna.org

Mizna Film Series: Iranian Classics continues with an April screening of Brick and Mirror by Ebrahim Golestan screening with The House Is Black by Forugh Farrokhzād

Join us on April 23 at 7pm, Trylon Cinema

ABOUT BRICK AND MIRROR
When a mysterious woman abandons a baby in the backseat of his cab one night, Tehran taxi driver Hashem begins a journey through the city’s unfeeling bureaucracy as he attempts to find a home for the infant—a situation that soon puts him in conflict with his nurturing girlfriend Taji. Melding the influences of Persian poetry, 1960s European art cinema, and Wellesian expressionism, Brick and Mirror offers a portrait of a crumbling relationship that reflects on many contemporary social and political dynamics. Brick and Mirrorscreens with The House Is Black, theonly film directed by trailblazing feminist Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzād.

Co-presented by Mizna, the Committee in Solidarity with the People of Syria (CISPOS), and From the Periphery Media Collective, join us for a screening of The War Show (2016) by Obaidah Zytoon and post-screening discussion with Ramah Kudaimi and Mazen Halabi.

This event aims to provide space for our local community to learn about and process the recent events in Syria.

Donations at the event go to SARD’s project to rebuild university dorms in Aleppo, Syria.

When: May 16, 2025 6:00–9:00 PM (reception with light refreshments at 6:00 PM; film starts at 6:30 PM; discussion at 8:15 PM)

Where: New City Center (Sanctuary), 3104 16th Ave S. Minneapolis, MN 55407

Tickets at mizna.org

ABOUT THE FILM
The War Show tracks the experiences of radio host Obaidah Zytoon and her friends after they join the street protests against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in March 2011. This group of artists and activists filmed their perspective on this pivotal moment, even as the regime’s violent response spiraled into a bloody civil war and their hopes for a better future were tested by imprisonment and death. While making the film, Zytoon journeyed throughout the country, from her hometown Zabadani to the center of the rebellion in Homs and to northern Syria. A deeply personal road movie, The War Show captures the fate of Syria through the intimate story of a small circle of friends as their lives intersect with war.

Now on Mizna Online: "On Which Side of the Screen Lies the Ghost?" Lamia Abukhadra, artist and Mizna's Art and Communications Director, reviews the Cyprus Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale, a group exhibition titled "On a wildflower-lined gravel track off a quiet thoroughfare..." The exhibition invokes notions of ghosts, ghosting, and haunting through several formal and conceptual approaches, always contextualized in relation to technology and power in Cyprus, specifically Cyprus' historic and current geopolitical role in the Levant region.

Read the full review at mizna.org

Image: Screenshot of a virtual tour of the Cyprus Pavilion, featuring the work "LED Screen" by Forever Informed.

ALT TEXT: A digital screen embedded in a dark wall or enclosure, displaying a distorted and pixelated image of what appears to be a vehicle with illuminated taillights. The screen has horizontal lines running across it. The lower part of the screen contains colorful bars, including blue, purple, and pink sections. The surrounding area is dimly lit, with some light reflecting off the edges of the enclosure.

.informed

TONIGHT: Join us for a screening of Life Is Beautiful, a touching film about Gaza by Mohamed Jabaly.

Join us at 7pm at Bryant Lake Bowl Theater for this screening.

Tickets at mizna.org

ABOUT THE FILM
In 2014, while a young Palestinian director Mohamed Jabaly was visiting a film festival in Tromsø, Norway, Israel launched a war on Gaza and the borders to his home were closed. It will be seven years before he can return home and see his family again. While waiting for the situation to change, Jabaly and friends begin documenting the process of applying for asylum. Facing many challenges, Mohamed stays connected with family in Gaza. They provide solace, but when Gaza is attacked again, Mohamed is faced with an impossible choice: if he goes back to Gaza, he may never be able to leave again and continue his work as a filmmaker. Told by a director who uses his creativity to connect with the world and forge a way forward,

Life is Beautiful is a story of overcoming a life put on hold by international politics and rigid bureaucracy.

Tomorrow: join us for a screening of Life Is Beautiful, a touching film about Gaza by Mohamed Jabaly.

Join us on April 2, 2025 at 7pm at Bryant Lake Bowl Theater for this screening.

Tickets at mizna.org

ABOUT THE FILM
In 2014, while a young Palestinian director Mohamed Jabaly was visiting a film festival in Tromsø, Norway, Israel launched a war on Gaza and the borders to his home were closed. It will be seven years before he can return home and see his family again. While waiting for the situation to change, Jabaly and friends begin documenting the process of applying for asylum. Facing many challenges, Mohamed stays connected with family in Gaza. They provide solace, but when Gaza is attacked again, Mohamed is faced with an impossible choice: if he goes back to Gaza, he may never be able to leave again and continue his work as a filmmaker. Told by a director who uses his creativity to connect with the world and forge a way forward,

Life is Beautiful is a story of overcoming a life put on hold by international politics and rigid bureaucracy.

We're excited to have poet and Mizna Writing Collective member Nikki Lewis join the launch of our reading series this week!

Baba's and Mizna launch a new reading series during National Poetry and Arab American Heritage months. The first reading in this series features visiting poet Mejdulene Shomali with Mizna Writing Collective members Sagirah Shahid and Nikki Lewis.

This event will feature a special Mizna Writing Collective activity beforehand—stay tuned!

Join us on April 4, 2025 at 7pm, Baba's Hummus House & Mana'eesh Bakery
2220 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55405

Now on Mizna Online: "Ink is the Strongest Gunpowder" by Athena Farrokhzad, translated by Kira Josefsson, a poem reminding us of the crucial difference between a bullet in its chamber and ink in its well.

Read more at mizna.org

STAND WITH US

Monthly donors are the backbone of Mizna's resistance. Will you donate to Mizna monthly starting today?

Under the new administration, arts organizations like Mizna are facing an increasingly threatening environment. In 2024, a fascist bill passed in the US House, which, if it becomes law, will make it illegal to advocate for Palestinian liberation. Recent Executive Orders have called our ability to receive federal funding into question.

We need you— our community— to create a reliable foundation of support through monthly giving. Even just $5, $15, or $25 per month, your recurring commitment provides the sustainable funding we need to continue our crucial work in the uncertain times ahead.

Every monthly donor will help us unlock a special matching grant from the Whiting Foundation who has again generously offered to match donations 1:1 in 2025.

Give today and help us continue our work: givemn.org/mizna