About

Minou Norouzi is a filmmaker, writer, curator.

She obtained her PhD by Practice from Goldsmiths, University of London supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (2018). In 2019 she joined the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies at the University of Helsinki as Postdoctoral Researcher in the Arts followed by a residency at HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme until December 2021. Minou is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Swedish School of Social Science (University of Helsinki) supported by the Kone Foundation and a member of the Journal of Visual Culture Editorial Collective. She combines her film practice with film curating and film criticism.

Recent publications include:
“On Discomfort and Empathy in Rosalind Nashashibi’s Electrical Gaza”, in Focus Issue 11: Representing Women’s Realities, MAI: Feminism and Visual Culture Journal (2023)
“Not Another Moment of Your Salvation: Documentary, Art Practice, and Their Empathic Misadventures” in Constructions of the Real: Intersections of Documentary-Based Film Practice and Theory, Intellect Books (2023)
“Confessions of a Documentary Junkie: 2022 Love & Anarchy Festival Picks“, No Niin Magazine (2022)
“Relearning Forgotten Practices of Communication in a World after Catastrophe: On Empathy and Sky Hopinka“, Non-Fiction Journal (2020)
The Communicative Power of Silence: ‘Why Are You Angry?’, Another Gaze 03 (2019)

Her research is focused on cinematic language and aesthetic productions that communicate the ineffable and challenge normative, totalising accounts of history and knowledge production. Minou is the Principal Investigator of “Revolutionary Patience: Migrant Perspectives on Doing Politics with the Documentary“, a multi-year practice-research project funded by Kone Foundation (2021-2024). The project looks into artists’ moving image and documentary practices by women and non-binary filmmakers with personal experiences of displacement from the SWANA region (Southwest Asia & North Africa). A study of diasporic cinemas, the project puts under critical review empathy as a form of political engagement.

Minou was responsible for the creative direction and production of the Arts Council England-funded film programming initiative Sheffield Fringe (2011 – 2019) and for the symposium and screening series “Object! On the Documentary as Art” at Whitechapel Gallery and Close-Up Film Center (London, 2017). She has curated exhibitions, public programmes and film-related events at the Belvedere 21 Museum (Vienna, 2019); UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art and apexart (New York, 2019/2015/2013); MARSistanbul and SALT Beyoğlu (Istanbul, 2018/2017); S1 Artspace and Bloc Projects (Sheffield 2016/2014/2013/2012).

Her films have been shown at South London Gallery, Calvert 22 (London), Centre for Contemporary Arts (Glasgow), Telic Arts Exchange (Los Angeles), and at film festivals including the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Kasseler Dok Fest, Videoex, and the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.

CONTACT: minou.norouzi[at]gmail.com