Jan 5, 2022
ENCORE EPISODE (Replay of Episode 3, April 9, 2019):
We are replaying this interview as a tribute to Rayka, whose
film
Long Line of Ladies is premiering at Sundance 2022. We
want to contratulate Rayka and her co-director Shaandiin Tome on
this achievement and wish them all the best in Park City.
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Rayka Zehtabchi is an Iranian-American film director based in
Los Angeles. Her directorial debut, Madaran, is an Iranian
language short film that has screened worldwide at established film
festivals, winning jury awards at Hollyshorts, Urbanworld, and
Cleveland International. Madaran qualified for the 89th
Academy Awards in 2016.
Rayka’s documentary short,
Period. End of Sentence., is about a group of village
women in Northern India who start a sanitary pad business in an
effort to improve feminine hygiene and de-stigmatize menstruation.
Along with the film’s release, the Period team co-founded the
non-profit “The Pad Project” to fight the stigma of menstruation
and improve feminine hygiene worldwide. Period double-qualified for
the academy awards in 2018, winning Jury and audience awards at
Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival and Cleveland
International. The film also took home Jury and audience awards
from AFI Fest among many others and won the Oscar in the
Documentary Short category of the 91st Academy Awards®.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Where Rayka went to film school, and how she was approached to
direct her short documentary “Period. End of Sentence.” right out
of film school
- How Rayka’s first film festival in high school shaped her
interests in filmmaking, and how she found purpose and community in
filmmaking
- Rayka shares the experience of losing her father while she was
attending USC film school, and how she felt pulled in different
directions
- Rayka discusses her Iranian-language short film Madaran and why
filming it helped her feel connected to her father and her Iranian
heritage
- How Rayka was approached to direct “Period. End of Sentence.”
while she was in her senior year at film school, and why the
subject matter was a reality check for her
- Why “Period. End of Sentence.” was a powerful and necessary
story to shine a light on an unspoken issue, and how Rayka directed
it to be organic and authentic
- What impact filming “Period. End of Sentence.” had on Rayka
personally and emotionally, and how she was inspired by the women
she filmed
- How Rayka and the filmmakers got involved with and launched the
Pad Project, and how the film has exploded and created global
awareness of this issue
- How Rayka and her team turned forty hours of raw film footage
into a 25-minute short documentary
- What challenges Rayka faced in getting visibility for her film,
and her thoughts on when she realized the film qualified to be
submitted to the Academy Awards
- What it was like accepting her Oscar, and what Rayka has
planned for the future going forward