Pirooz Kalayeh is a filmmaker and artist whose works explore themes around race, human rights, trauma, and multicultural identity. His latest documentary feature, SOMETIMES I DREAM IN FARSI, examines a traumatic racist incident in his childhood and how Gestalt Therapy and discussions with friends and family can offer a path forward for children and adults who have had similar experiences. The film world premiered at the 33rd Galway Film Fleadh, was awarded Best U.S. Documentary Feature by the New York Independent Cinema Awards, and is streaming on Amazon Prime and other providers.
His pandemic-era film, 100 FILMS, sources and directs talent virtually, resulting in what curator Roger M. Buergel describes “as an exercise in pattern-reading” and an understanding in “how the pandemic affects…each one of us…as humanity, as a planet, as life.”
His upcoming documentary feature MY ROOM IN TEHRAN IS CALLED AMERICA details a female Iranian artist's journey to a life without censorship in modern day Iran.
STORIES BETWEEN IRAN & AMERICA are 32 non-fiction short films about Pirooz's childhood and adulthood life told during the pandemic, moving back and forth between present and past with animation, archival footage, and guarded family secrets.
His current collection of short films are entitled CLEANING PIECE based on Yoko Ono's poem of the same name, where he sees what happens after he stops saying negative things about others for 15, 45, and 90 days.
Some of his past films include THE HUMAN WAR, SHOPLIFTING FROM AMERICAN APPAREL, BRAD WARNER'S HARDCORE ZEN, ZOMBIE BOUNTY HUNTER M.D., and CTRL ALT DEL.
He is currently an Assistant Professor of Scriptwriting and Film Production at Southern Illinois University - Carbondale.