Peer Review: Jasmin Mozaffari

Who are three contemporaries that you admire?

Three contemporaries I admire are Celine Sciamma, A.V. Rockwell, and Mati Diop. To me, these three women exemplify true auteurs in cinema. I love Sciamma, especially her film Portrait of a Lady on Fire, for how precise and poetic her filmmaking is. Her attention to character and her way of telling a story through imagery and symbolism, prioritising emotional resonance over exposition, appeals to me a lot at this time in my artistic process. 

Honestly, I don’t know a better feeling than making something meaningful with fellow artists you love and respect.

I first saw A.V. Rockwell’s short film Feathers and was blown away. She taps into such rich symbolism and visual language. She never force-feeds you a message, but there’s a layered social commentary running just beneath the surface. Her feature A Thousand and One shows her incredible writing and her ability to direct actors in a way that makes you feel they were truly cared for and protected. It feels like they were given the space to take risks in their performances.

With Mati Diop, I’m drawn to the surrealism she leans into, especially in Atlantics. Her ideas are expressed through surreal imagery, symbolism, and most of all, atmosphere. She has an incredible handle on how the atmosphere of a place can shape the emotional and thematic experience of a film.

Above: A.V. Rockwell’s short film Feathers.

Please share 3-4 pieces of work that exemplify great direction and explain why?

Sound of Metal, directed by Darius Marder. It’s hard for me to praise direction without also recognising amazing writing, and I regard this as one of the most well-written modern films of all time. On the surface, this film is about a man losing his hearing, but it’s really a film about addiction. The writing and direction are naturalistic, yet no word is wasted. Each scene has so many layers of meaning, both through dialogue and framing, blocking, etc. You can watch this film ten times and learn something new about the characters on each watch. And of course, the use of sound and silence is brilliant. 

The most important thing is to keep making my own films and not wait to be “picked”.

Atlantics, directed by Mati Diop. Diop knows how to use atmosphere almost better than anyone else right now. This film is so eerie and haunting, both through the use of landscape and atmosphere, but also through her choice to work with Fatima Al Qadiri as a composer. The score is one of my all-time favourites. Through a ghost story, the film comments on many socio-political themes, especially about migrants and globalisation, but in an impressionistic way that feels very modern and poetic. 

Territory, directed by Guillaume Alric and Jonathan Alric. I love dance/electronic tracks paired with narrative visuals. Dealing with the themes of migration, being an immigrant, home, family, love, and masculinity, this video portrays an Algerian man with honesty and grace. We don’t often get to see Arab people portrayed with truth and humility like this, and in Territory, you see pain just as much as you see pure joy. It’s such a beautiful, cathartic video, shot in Algeria in a way that fits the tempo of the song so well. When the video was released, I think it was a cultural reset for every SWANA filmmaker and music video director I know.

Above:  Still from Atlantics directed by Mati Diop. 

What do you like most about the work that you do?

I see myself as a filmmaker/ an aspiring auteur -  someone who values screenwriting and directing equally. What I love most about what I do is the process of building a complete vision for a film, from every word on the page to the final touches in post-production. I take a lot of joy in creating a world, in crafting mood, atmosphere, and an entire universe from scratch. That’s where I feel most alive creatively.

Having a clear sense of purpose - a strong sense of self - is essential, because without it, it’s too easy to be pulled off your path...

The other thing I love deeply is collaborating with incredible artists like actors, cinematographers, production designers, costume designers, and editors. Working alongside people who are masters of their craft brings me so much joy. And when those people happen to be your friends, it’s even better. Honestly, I don’t know a better feeling than making something meaningful with fellow artists you love and respect.

What has your career journey been like so far?

My career has been full of ups and downs. It hasn’t been an easy journey. I graduated from film school at Toronto Metropolitan University (then Ryerson) in 2013. My thesis short was accepted into TIFF, so it felt like I was launching strong. But the years that followed brought a lot of financial instability and uncertainty. 

My first feature, Firecrackers, was in many ways a success and led to agency representation across commercial, film, and TV work, but it didn’t mean my career was suddenly “set.” COVID and the 2023 writers’ strike also disrupted whatever momentum I had.

All of that has helped me temper my expectations of what the industry can give back. I’m constantly re-evaluating my relationship to it and where I fit. What I’ve learned is that the most important thing is to keep making my own films and not wait to be “picked”. It’s been a steep learning curve, and I’m humbled by it every day.

Above: Official trailer for Sound of Metal, directed by Darius Marder. 

Your work spans episodic television, short films and TVC; how have each of these shaped the director you are today?

I think no matter what medium I’m working in, the core of what I do always comes from learning about filmmaking and films. I apply what I know about filmmaking to TV episodic and commercial work all the time. I think cinematic influence allows the work I’m hired to do in commercials and TV to hopefully feel a little less derivative.

As a Middle Eastern female director in Canada, there was certainly nobody like me making films when I was coming up.

However, with my own films, everything is my vision. Everything comes from me. All the decisions really come from me as the creator and the leader of the project. But with TV, you work with showrunners, and with commercials, you work with agencies and clients -  it is not your own work. So I’ve had to learn how to execute a vision that is not my own, and to really understand what the vision of an agency or a showrunner is, and be adaptable in executing that vision, even if it’s quite far from what I usually do in my films.

So I think this sort of adaptability is a huge skill I’ve learned over the past 12 years being a filmmaker.

What is one thing every director needs?

I think there are actually two things every director needs. First, a creative collaborator they really trust -  someone they can turn to in the early development stages, a reliable sounding board no matter what. I have that in my longtime producer and collaborator, Caitlin Grabham, whom I met in film school. As a team, we’ve learned from each other, we lift each other up, and we share a clear vision of the kind of work we want to do. That kind of partnership makes it easier to stay grounded and less swayed by outside noise.

The second thing is a strong personal mandate. Why are you in this industry? Why are you making the films you make? What are you trying to say to the world? Having a clear sense of purpose - a strong sense of self - is essential, because without it, it’s too easy to be pulled off your path by other people’s agendas or expectations.

Above: Music video Territory for The Blaze, directed by Guillaume Alric and Jonathan Alric. 

Did you have a mentor? Who was it?

No, unfortunately, I’ve never had a mentor,  although I would have loved to have one. As a Middle Eastern female director in Canada, there was certainly nobody like me making films when I was coming up. Even the few women who were making films and were successful here -  I don’t know of any mentorship initiatives they led. So female filmmakers from my generation were very much alone.

Getting hired isn’t necessarily about how many credits you have; it’s about how strong your voice is. 

However, now that I’m in a position to mentor others, I’ve done so for many emerging filmmakers, particularly BIPOC women. Whether it’s through shadowing me on TV sets, executive producing their shorts or features, or allowing them to follow me through prep and production on a commercial, I’ve made it a priority. I feel it’s so important to be the mentor I never had.

Who is the greatest director of all time? 

I’m always hesitant to name just one director as the greatest of all time, because so many bring different strengths and visions to the craft,  it feels almost impossible to choose. That said, I think Abbas Kiarostami comes pretty close. His influence extends far beyond Iran; he’s impacted filmmakers all over the world. You can see traces of his storytelling, shot composition, and character work in the films of many major contemporary directors. 

He was an innovator, a true visionary, and someone who could critique and challenge the systems he was born into with poetry and subtlety. His work is deeply thought-provoking, but never didactic. That balance, to me, is what I aspire to.