Arts Division
PhD Student
Graduate
Kresge College
Kresge College Academic Building West Wing
Communication Building
Film and Digital Media
Mahshid Modares (she/her) is a PhD student, documentary filmmaker, researcher, and educator. She studied visual arts at Azad University, Tehran (B.F.A.); Art History and Visual Culture at San Jose State University (M.A.); and Social Documentation at UCSC (M.F.A.). She has published several articles, book reviews, art exhibition reviews, and a curriculum resource for teaching K-12 students about Iranian arts and architecture. Her publications are available on academia.edu.
Modares’s first film, Sanctions on the Sky, and second film, Sanctions on Us, were released in January 2022. The interactive version of Sanctions on the Sky was nominated for The Webby Awards and placed fourth in the Human Rights category, People’s Choice. The film won Silver in the Human Rights category for The Anthem Awards and received the Award of Recognition, Documentary Short (Student) and the Award of Merit, Contemporary Issues/Awareness Raising (Student) from The IndieFEST Film Awards.
The 33-minute version of Sanctions on the Sky was selected by the LIFT-OFF GLOBAL NETWORK, LOS ANGELES, in 2022 and was screened online. The film was screened in Regal CINEMAS STADIUM 14, Log Angles, for the Awareness Film Festival in October 2022. In January 2023, the San Francisco Arthouse Short Festival chose the film as the Best Human Rights Film. In May 2023, the film won Best Human Rights Film at the Berlin Shorts Film Festival. In 2024, film critic Marcelo Cesar published a review of the film in Brazil International Monthly Independent Film Festival’s online magazine. The Athens International Monthly Art Film Festival published a review in 2023. The Film poster was selected as the best poster in 2024 for the Sun Film Festival in Spain. The filmmaker was interviewed by Ruby Rich and Maureen Dixon Harrison in 2020 and MENAarts in 2022.
Sanctions on the Sky also reached the semi-final level for the Hollywood International Golden Age Festival (March 2023), Arthouse Festival of Beverly Hills (Winter 2023), and International Cosmopolitan Film Festival of Tokyo (Summer 2023).
In 2022, Modares’s second documentary, Sanctions on Us, was recognized by The Anthem Awards. The 35-minute version of the film was selected and screened online by the LIFT-OFF GLOBAL NETWORK, LOS ANGELES. On May 15th, 2023, Best Film Awards in London published an interview with Modares for this film. Sanctions on Us won Best Human Rights Short in the summer of 2023 at the Nashville Independent Filmmakers Festival and was screened online for the same festival in August 2023. The film was awarded the Best Documentary Film of 2023 at the Indobali International Film Festival in Indonesia. It also won Best Short Documentary at the Clown International Film Festival in France in 2024.
Sanctions on Us was also a semi-finalist for the Seattle Movie Awards (Fall 2022), the London Indie Short Festival (March 2023), the Paris Women Festival (March 2023), the San Jose Independent Film Festival (April 2023), the Paris International Short Festival (April 2023), and Santa Cruz Independent Film Festival (Spring 2023).
Parviz Goes To College: A 1930s Missionary Film in Context, in Cinema Iranica, June 2025
https://cinema.iranicaonline.org/article/parviz-goes-to-college-a-1930s-missionary-film-in-context/
Following the Flowers, Teaching K-12 Students about Iranian Arts, Curriculum Resources, Asian Art and Culture Interest Group of the National Art Education Association, 5 (December 2022), 1-30.
The Influence of Photography and Lithography on Painting During the Qajar Era: Recording Reality for People. Cheshmak Photography Magazine, Tehran University, 5 (Spring 2016), 51-65.
Religious Art in Iran During the Qajar Period. Honar Augah Art Magazine, No. 6 and 7, Farvardin and Ordibehesht 1395 (April and May 2016), Tehran. (Translated into Farsi by Nastaran Mahmoud Sanayeh)
Qajar, in ARCHNET Timeline. The Aga Khan Trust for Culture and The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), May 2014.
http://archnet.org/timelines/48/period/Qajar/year/1818
Religious Art in Iran During the 19th-early 20th centuries: Breaking the Boundaries, in Artefact Journal. Universite’ Laval, No. 8, February 2009.
Lithography in Iran During the Nineteenth Century: Art for People, Iran Chamber Society, Spring 2008.
European Artists in Iran During the Qajar Period, in Golestan Honar Quarterly. No. 8, Summer 2007, Tehran.
Cultural Improvements in Iran During the Qajar Period and the West, Late 18th c.-1906-07, Iran Chamber Society, Winter 2007.
The School of Obscure World: Hussein Ali Zabehi’s Paintings, in Architecture and Urbanism Magazine. No. 74/75, Winter 2004.
Persian Painting is “Commonly” in Perspective, Iranian Students Cultural Organization’s Quarterly Magazine. University of California, Berkeley. Fall 2004.
