Film Writer, Critic, Researcher
Arezou Zalipour is a film writer, critic, researcher, educator, and practitioner who came to the film industry through teaching and researching screen practice. She's driven by the creative and social power of film for telling our own stories, and her work focuses on the ways in which migration, diaspora and socio-cultural diversity are shaping New Zealand society. Arezou's book Migrant and Diasporic Film and Filmmaking in New Zealand (published in 2019) expanded her research on Asian New Zealanders' films and filmmaking by engaging the screen production and practices of the Pacific communities in New Zealand. Arezou has conducted insightful critical interviews with New Zealand directors, writers, producers. Arezou was the director, curator and concept developer of the (In)Visible New Zealand Film Festival, the first of its kind to showcase New Zealand's multi-cultural films on the big screen. She launched Onscreen New Zealand Diversity, the first website to bring all these films together to promote and spread the knowledge about them.Sitting between practice and academia, Arezou's screen practice research and teaching contribute to the making of the next generation of filmmakers. "To create social cohesion, we need to create a space where our stories are told, where our voices are heard, where we create new memories and histories together," she says. Arezou is currently making a documentary about Shama Ethnic Women's Centre where she has served on the Board of Trustees since 2013.
Read more about Arezou and her work at the links below.
The Conversation interview
RNZ interview
The Big Idea interview
