Maani Petgar

Born in Tehran, Iran ,November, 1959.

After running a Photography Studio, (1980-82), he started working in the film industry with Amir NADERI, in The Runner (1982-83) and Water, Wind, Dust (1985) as stills photographer, assistant director and assistant editor.

After working in The Key (Ebrahim FOROUZESH-1986), he migrated to Australia and between 1988 to 1990 worked in the Australian Film Industry in various positions, until he made his first experimental short, Reverse Angle in 1991.

In 1994, he returned to Iran to make a documentary on Iranian cinema for SBS TV in Australia and Farabi Cinema Foundation in Iran, but for some reasons, that project was never executed and instead Cinema Cinema was made and Film Lovers, were initiated.

He has returned to live and work in Iran since 1997 and planned two feature films in Iran. The first project: Looking Through, is completed.

He has established his own production houses; Reverse Angle Productions, between 1996-2002 in Australia and Unexposed Films in Iran- since 2004-  

Also;

Part time film critic and collaborator on Film Monthly magazine (in Farsi), 
and Film International (Quarterly in English, published in Iran), 
since 1986. (Interviews, including Jane Campion, Taviani Brothers, Akira Kurosawa)

Co- Programmer;
A retrospective of “Australian Films” at Fajr Film Festival 1998
A Week of Recent Documentary Films at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art Cinematheque, May 2000

Jury Member;
1994- Australian Short Competition –EAC Award, Sydney Film Festival
1999- “The House of Cinema” Prize –Best Documentary, Tehran 
2002- Forough Film Week -Tehran
2007- "The House of Cinema Prize": Best Short & Feature Documentary Tehran
2008- "Documentary Fund"- as part of '2nd CINEMA VERITE International Documentary Film Festival'-Tehran                                                                      

2013) Master Class at Karnameh Institute, “ A Summer with 10 Documentary Filmmakers”- Along with; Abbas Kiarostami, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, Mohammad Reza Aslani, Ebrahim Mokhtari, Bahman Kiarostami, Mehrdad Oskuie, Mohammad Shirvani, Pirooz Kalantari

2000- Current) English Translation & Sub-Titling (35 Shorts and Docs & 82 Feature Films, including works from Pouran Derakhshandeh, Ali Reza Raissian, Reza Ataran, Maziar Miri, Abolfazl Jalili, Hussein Shahabi, Rouhollah Hejazi, Mohammad Ali Talebi, Dariush Mehrjuie)

Films:

Australia:

1991- Reverse Angle  (28 min)

1992- Point of View  (10 min)

1994- Station to Station  (10 min)

1995- Brothers  (25 min)

1995- Happy Ends  (04 min)

1994- 96- Cinema Cinema  (70 min)

Iran:

1999- The Needle & the Thread- Nakh va souzan  (30 min)

2000- An Eclipse which Dropped from the Sky- Kosoufi ke az Aseman beh Zamin Oftad  (21 min)

Iran- Australia:

2002- Film Lovers- Oshaagh e Cinema  (127 min- 3 Episodes)

2007- Looking Through- Negaah  (81 min)

Works in Progress:

3 feature length documentaries on the question of ‘Marriage’ (and Divorce):

2013- ONE minus ONE (103 min) [Completed but it will be released with the other 2 Episodes]

ONE plus ONE [shooting & rough Cut]

ONE & ONE [shooting & rough cut]

Feature documentary on the book (Intimate Sociology), written by Hassan NARAGHI [post production]

Feature documentary on the life of a retired street cat (Inside) [post production]

Developing a fictional feature length (Alice)