‘I Am Trying to Remember’ to vie at Chania filmfest

Iranian documentary ‘I Am Trying to Remember’ has been set to compete at the Chania Film Festival (CFF) in Greece.

Produced by Kaveh Farnam and directed by Pegah Ahangarani, the 16-minute documentary will be screened at the 10th edition of the Greek event.

In ‘I Am Trying to Remember’, Pegah talks about Gholam, a man who’s not like her father, mother, uncles, or aunts, even though he’s always present at family gatherings.

Gholam films these everyday scenes with his own camera. At the time, Pegah can’t imagine what the purpose of these films might be, but she's content to pose for the camera of this family friend whom she clearly adores.

It is as if Pegah, the film’s director and chief protagonist, is reading from a children’s book; as if we are looking over her shoulder at Gholam’s films of the family and the old photos. The large family radiates great warmth as we see them shoveling snow or just sitting around at home.

‘I Am Trying to Remember’ was internationally premiered at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It has also gone on screen at the ZagrebDox International Documentary Film Festival in Croatia, the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Canada, and the Busan International Short Film Festival in South Korea, where it won the Jury Award.

The Chania Film Festival is designed and organized by the AMKE "Cultural Society of Crete”, which was founded in 2002 “with the aim of cultivating and promoting cultural, educational, informational, artistic and related publishing activities”, the website of the event reads.

The 10th edition of the festival is slated for October 19-30, 2022.

MG/AG