Director: Hajar Moradi

Film: The Shadow of My Life

Bio: Hanna, an artist, migrated to Canada a few years ago. She soon found herself struggling with depression and finding her place as an artist in the new context. In her quest to rediscover herself anew, Hanna finds the lives and inspirational works of other artists the best motivation to create art and combat depression. This film tells a story about how art comes to save an artist, to save Hanna.

Hajar Moradi is an Iranian-Canadian multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker based in Toronto, Canada. She is interested in mobilizing art to make conversations about questions of identity, resilience, and politics in practices of being and belonging. Her painting, installation, and video works deal with subjects such as memory, displacement, inclusivity, violence against women, and female identity in contemporary society. Her works are bold, expressive, and politically charged.

Hajar Moradi holds a BFA (double-major in graphic design and illustration) from Shahed Art University in Tehran, Iran. She is the recipient of numerous awards and grants from major national and international cultural organizations, including the Ontario Arts Council (2022), the Canada Council for the Arts (2020), the Ontario Arts Council (2017), and the First Prize – for her short animation at the Farhang International Film Festival (2014). Her work has been exhibited and screened across North America, Europe, and the Middle East, including at the Aga Khan Museum, and the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, the Harlem International Film Festival in New York, the Lucca International Film Festival in Lucca, Italy, the Barnes Film Festival in London, UK.

Hajar Moradi is also the co-founder and Creative Director of Vivido Studio in Toronto, Canada.