Kamshad Kooshan

Kooshan was born on December 19, 1962, in Tehran,{{Cite web |title=Kamshad Kooshan, 1962 — Актер |url=https://www.kinopoisk.ru/name/250548/ |access-date=2022-07-13 |website=Кинопоиск |language=ru}} to a middle-class family. His father Abbas Kooshan was an official in the Ministry of Treasury, and his uncle was film producer Esmail Kooshan, director of Pars Film Studios. While he was around two years old, his father died, leaving his mother Noori Khanoom to raise her five sons by herself. Thereafter, he began a hobby of photography when he was around 12 years old. In 1979, during the Iranian Revolution, he moved to the United States.{{Cite web |last=Johnson |first=G. Allen |date=September 27, 2000 |title=Director Reclaims New Home in 'Paradise' |url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/462760340/ |url-access=subscription |access-date=2022-07-13 |website=Newspapers.com |publisher=The San Francisco Examiner |language=en}}

In the United States, Kooshan attended Skyline High School in Oakland, California. He went on to study mechanical engineering at Holy Names University and Chico State University, but after three years he took a three-year break from university to work. In 1986 he returned to San Francisco State University to study a bachelor's degree in computer science.

In 1990 he began working at Sybase Inc., and also resumed his interest in photography. In the next few years, he began writing short stories and novels, and also translated short stories from other languages into Persian, including works by Italo Calvino and Jorge Luis Borges.

He quit his job at Sybase Inc. and remained at the academy for three years.

In 1991 he returned to Iran to visit his family.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}} On his return to the United States, he began to combine his interest in short stories and photography into filmmaking. He started attending the Film Arts Foundation, an independent film organization in San Francisco. As part of his studies he made several short films.

In 1995, Kooshan founded the International Tournée of Iranian Short Films in Diaspora.{{Cite book |last=Semati |first=Mehdi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oz-UAgAAQBAJ |title=Media, Culture and Society in Iran: Living with Globalization and the Islamic State |date=2007-09-24 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-98156-3 |pages=191 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Naficy |first=Hamid |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SoKeH59mLfQC |title=An Accented Cinema: Exilic and Diasporic Filmmaking |date=2001 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-04391-3 |pages=301 |language=en}} His film The Last Illusion (1994) was part of the touring International Tournée film festival.{{Cite web |title=High hopes for Iranian short films festival |url=http://www.iranian.com/Mar96/Arts/FilmFestWash.html |website=www.iranian.com}}{{Cite web |date=September 8, 2011 |title=BFI | Film & TV Database | The LAST ILLUSION (1994) |url=http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/555309 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110908100452/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/555309 |archive-date=2011-09-08}}

Kooshan was a founding member of Golden Thread Productions, theatre company in 1996 in San Francisco.{{Cite book |last=Najjar |first=Michael Malek |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JisWEAAAQBAJ |title=Middle Eastern American Theatre: Communities, Cultures and Artists |date=2021-01-28 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-350-11704-4 |pages=48 |language=en}}

Following this tour in 1996, he received an offer from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco to teach screenplay writing and "Aesthetic & Style" at the Graduate Film Department.

While at the academy, Kooshan began writing the screenplay for Surviving Paradise, which was subsequently selected as one of 50 screenplays from more than 2,000 submitted to the Sundance Screenwriters Lab. This film was released in 2000 as his feature film debut, starring the Oscar-nominated Iranian actor, Shohreh Aghdashloo.{{Cite web |last=Thomas |first=Kevin |date=June 30, 2000 |title='Surviving Paradise' Iranian Kids on the Loose |url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/159046152/ |url-access=subscription |access-date=2022-07-13 |website=Newspapers.com |publisher=Los Angeles Times |page=52 |language=en}} Production of the film took three years; it was filmed in Los Angeles and edited in San Francisco, with a co-production deal with Italian sound designer and producer, Fillipo Bussi. After screening at various international film festivals, including the Cairo International Film Festival and Delhi Film Festival, Surviving Paradise premiered in Los Angeles and was in theaters for three months. It was the first English-language Iranian film to be distributed in the United States.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

• Behind Glass Windows (Poshte Panjereye Shisheyi), co-producer, Adeline Street Theater, 1998 (Berkeley, CA){{Cite web |last=Knight |first=Heather |date=2003-04-25 |title=Keeping the Middle East center stage / Golden Thread battles odds so shows can go on |url=https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Keeping-the-Middle-East-center-stage-Golden-2620223.php |access-date=2022-07-13 |website=SFGATE |language=en-US}}
• Operation No Penetration! (Dokhool Mamnoo), co-producer, Golden Thread Productions, Next Stage Theater, 1997 (San Francisco, CA){{Cite web |last= |first= |date=November 10, 2017 |title=This Month in Theatre History |url=https://www.americantheatre.org/2017/11/10/this-month-in-theatre-history-32/ |access-date=2022-07-13 |website=AMERICAN THEATRE |publisher=The Oscar G. Brockett Center for Theatre History |language=en-US}}{{Cite book |last=Najjar |first=Michael Malek |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KisWEAAAQBAJ |title=Middle Eastern American Theatre: Communities, Cultures and Artists |date=2021-01-28 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-350-11705-1 |pages=102–104 |language=en}}
• Waves (Moj), co-director. The full-length play showcased in 1994 at the Exit Theater (San Francisco)
• The Lonely Woman (Zane Tanha), co-director. Full-length play by Dario Fo (San Francisco)

• Nestle , 2004
• To Foot (a.k.a. Be Paa), Photography Exhibition, Arya Gallery, 2002, Tehran, Iran.

• San Francisco Stories (a.k.a. Ghesehayeh San Francisco), a collection of short stories in Persian, Ghatreh Publishing, 2016
• Moonlit Garden (a.k.a. Baghe Mahtabi), a collection of short stories in Persian, Raha Publishing, 1999
• Talk of The Town (a.k.a. Goftegoo Dar Shahr), Editor, monthly Persian Arts magazine, Bay Area, 1988–1991

{{reflist}}

{{Commons category|Kamshad Kooshan}}

• [http://www.iranian.com/Arts/Dec97/Paradise/ Iranian.com]
• {{IMDb name|id= 0465636 }}
• [http://survivingparadise.net/English_Kooshan_Bio.html The Official Biography of Kooshan at the Web Site of the Movie: Surviving Paradise]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110713010838/http://www.ifvc.com/surviving-paradise-dir-statement-bio.htm The Biography of Kooshan at International Film & Video Center]

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Category:California State University, Chico alumni

Category:Holy Names University alumni

Category:Independent Spirit Award winners

Category:Iranian emigrants to the United States

Category:Film people from Tehran

Category:San Francisco State University alumni

Category:1962 births

Category:Living people

Category:Film directors from California

Category:American television directors

Category:Iranian film directors

Category:Iranian male short story writers

Category:Academy of Art University faculty