Amator

'Amator is intuitively and imperfectly pieced together by love.' – Selina Ershadi, 2019

This film is of a visit that Selina Ershadi’s mother, Azita Chegini, made to Iran in 2019. Unable to join her, Ershadi asked her mother to record the trip on a video camera.

Set in Tehran and the Yazd province, Amator pulls memories of Chegini’s upbringing there into the present. Landscapes, anecdotes, and photographs reveal personal and family histories before, during, and following the 1979 Iranian revolution – reminders of how people maintain presence and endure change in times of upheaval.

Amator reflects on how stories are made, told, and shared – and on the nature of filmmaking itself.