Ladan Yalzadeh
For the last 20 years, Ladan Yalzadeh has worked across disciplines including film, theater, live art and writing.
Through a highly personal and autobiographical approach, Yalzadeh explores themes surrounding immigration, exile, loss, memory, love and longing in her own work.
As organizer and collaborator, Yalzadeh's interest revolves around creating opportunities and engaging with creatives and projects that transgress the norms both in form and content.
" In my work, I am always looking for what connects things to each other. So the questioning of a Self that most of us believe in, seems to be one way to investigate the idea of connection. I think about this a lot these days. Once we really start to look at who/what we are, we start to see that this Self we are so convinced of, is perhaps not as solid as we first thought. That who we are and how we feel from minute to minute, is totally dependent on other causes and conditions. With this discovery, comes a genuine experience of interconnectedness. And with this understanding, we start to see ourselves as part of a whole. So here we are as individuals but also a collective (and not just of humans.)
I have the same approach to how I make art. I try to set up situations where connections can happen. I work in theater and film as a director because so many people with individual talents and expertise come to together to create one thing. In fact, if we didn’t have a playbill or film credits, we wouldn’t know where exactly one person’s work ends and another’s begins. Same thing is true with curating and arranging."
Ladan’s the recipient of several honors including 2009 Noor Film Festival’s Best Short Film Award for The Florist, the AFI Directing Workshop for Women Scholarship in 2004, which she was the first Iranian-American to receive, the Nell Shipment Film Award and the Eastern Washington University Artist Award.
Yalzadeh has sat on various selection committees including REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney at CalArts Theatre), On The Boards and AFI (American Film Institute) and Seattle Center Public Programs.
Ladan’s work has been presented in Iran, Germany, Chile, UK, Spain and the United States.
She is also a teacher and a facilitator of the Contemplative Creative Lab and is the co-founder of Authentic Presence. Authentic Action.
Ladan received her BA in Mediaworks from the Evergreen State College and her MFA in Creative Practice from Transart Institute, Plymouth University.