Emelie Coleman Mahdavian

A young love affair becomes a menacing game of cat and mouse where nothing is what it seems in this immersive thriller.

Amid the surge in anti-trans legislation that Chase Strangio battles in the courtroom, he must also fight against media bias, exposing how the narratives in the press influence public perception and the fight for transgender rights.

An environmental nuclear crisis threatens Utah. Two scientists and a politician urgently work to prevent an unprecedented catastrophe in their home state.

In remote Idaho, Colie and Hollyn embark on a long summer season working as range riders herding cattle. We follow them closely through the immensity of the landscapes and intimate moments of friendship. Emelie Mahdavian masterfully revisits the genre of the western and invites us to rethink the challenge of nomadism from the perspective of two young women.

On New York’s packed subways, violations of personal space are unavoidable—an inevitability that emboldens more predatory behavior. Underground brings these stories into the light.

After hiding in the mountains for a century, a Miao ethnic village choir is discovered by an outsider and becomes a national sensation. Two young Miaos and all the villagers must reconcile their faith, identity, and love with the real world of China.

In 2015, the Taliban put a price on the head of Hassan, a filmmaker, who was forced to flee Afghanistan with his wife and two young daughters. Using their camera phones, the fugitives show first-hand the many dangers refugees face when seeking asylum in a safe place.

In Emelie Mahdavian's After the Curtain, four female dancers battle shifting cultural norms and face increasing disfavor in the Post-Soviet, predominantly Muslim nation of Tajikistan. The women weigh their love of art against economic hardship, loneliness, and social reproach in this intimate portrait, which also celebrates the rich dance and music culture of a Central Asian country largely unknown in the West.

This experimental film explores censorship of Iranian women’s dance performance and what constitutes a woman’s ”body” in the digital age. Given that women "dancing" in public is illegal in Iran today — and even animated movies are censored — the filmmaker sets out to play with the edge of what constitutes a body, a dance, or an Iranian woman.