Full Bibliography

A chronological record of published and forthcoming criticism, essays, interviews, translations and other writing.

FORTHCOMING

Not By Lynch: The Lynchian Before and After David Lynch
Panoptikum · Special issue: “The Intermediality of Lynch’s Film and Television Oeuvre” · Essay

Purifying Reality: Navigating Abstraction and Realism in Guiraudie’s Cinema
ReFocus: The Films of Alain Guiraudie · Edinburgh University Press · Book chapter

The Moving Body of Cinema: Denis Lavant and the Kinetics of Leos Carax’s Mise en Scène
ReFocus: The Films of Leos Carax · Edinburgh University Press · Book chapter

The Dialectical Possibilities of the Audiovisual Essay
Routledge Resources: Screen Studies · Academic essay

Essay on Peter Watkins’s The Journey [title forthcoming]
MUBI Notebook · Essay

2026

Cinema-ye Azad – Further Explorations
Intervals · August 2026 · Co-authored essay
With Hadi Alipanah and Shaghayegh Raoufi.

Greatest Docs of the 21st Century — Individual Ballot
Documentary Magazine / International Documentary Association · June 2026 · Ballot

Serge Daney and the Promise of Cinema — Persian-language dossier
Koker Magazine · June 2026 · Editorial project / compiler

“Introduction to the Persian Translation” — new introduction by Arta Barzanji
Serge Daney, “Cinemeteorology: On Too Early/Too Late” — Persian translation by Arta Barzanji
“A Citizen of the World: Serge Daney and Cinema’s Missing Country” — co-authored with Gerard-Jan Claes, Persian publication

Between Myth and Reality: Documentary in Iran’s Cinema-ye Azad Movement
Documentary Magazine · June 2026 · Co-authored essay
With Shaghayegh Raoufi and Hadi Alipanah.

Frederick Wiseman 1930–2026
Art Monthly, Issue 496 · May 2026 · Obituary · Print

Images in Fracture: On “Reclaiming Archives”
yanco · May 2026 · Essay

From Paper to Paper: Jean-Luc Godard’s Final Notebooks
Senses of Cinema, Issue 117 · May 2026 · Feature essay

Masao Adachi: Escape
Art Monthly, Issue 495 · April 2026 · Film criticism · Print

Against the Eye of Empire: The Struggle over Imperial Vision
Talking Shorts · April 2026 · Essay

Omar Mismar: A Frown Gone Mad
Art Monthly, Issue 494 · March 2026 · Film criticism · Print

The Sensation of Logic: On the Cinema of Isiah Medina
Institute of Contemporary Arts · February 2026 · Programme essay

“Greatest” Short Films of All Time 2025 — Individual Ballot
yanco / Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg / Talking Shorts · February 2026 · Ballot · All-time poll

Travel Companions: Bahram Beyzaie & Amir Naderi
Metrograph Journal · January 2026 · Essay

Cinema Year Zero’s 2025 Poll — Individual Ballot
Cinema Year Zero · January 2026 · Ballot

End of Year: Ballot
Intervals · January 2026 · Ballot

Juliette or foliage?: On The Wild Palms
Narrow Margin, Issue 03 · 2026 · Essay · Print

2025

Listed: Top 3 of 2025 — Individual Ballot
Talking Shorts · December 2025 · Ballot

The Sea Edits: Jean Epstein at Viennale 63
In Review Online · December 2025 · Festival / retrospective essay

Lucrecia Martel: Landmarks
Art Monthly, Issue 492 · December 2025–January 2026 · Film criticism · Print

Listening Images: Fairuz & El Moïz Ghammam’s Oumoun
yanco · October 2025 · Essay

Zurich Orchestra Gives Voice to Composer Who Can’t Leave Iran
SWI swissinfo.ch · September 2025 · Report / interview

I Saw a Dry Leaf in a Field of Flowers: Locarno 78 and the Texture of Cinema
Ultra Dogme · September 2025 · Festival essay

“What They Had to Conceal”: Maryam Tafakory’s Archival Interventions Highlight the Erased
Documentary Magazine · August 2025 · Interview / critical essay

Locarno Festival Sheds Light on an Under-Appreciated Era of British Cinema
SWI swissinfo.ch · August 2025 · Festival report

To Sing at a Funeral: On Kings and Extras: Digging for a Palestinian Image
Creative Nonfiction Film Weekend catalogue / Cinema Year Zero · July 2025; published online October 2025 · Catalogue essay

Serge Daney and the Promise of Cinema
Sabzian · June 2025 · Co-edited dossier
Co-edited with Gerard-Jan Claes.

Includes “A Citizen of the World: Introduction to ‘Serge Daney and the Promise of Cinema’”, co-authored with Gerard-Jan Claes.

Labyrinth of Desires: Alain Guiraudie on Misericordia
Cineaste · 2025 · Interview · Print

Dark Night of the Body: Sylvain George’s Obscure Night Trilogy Uncovers Immigration Experiences
Documentary Magazine · May 2025 · Interview / critical essay

From the Archive / 10 Years Sabzian: “Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans” by Thierry Kuntzel
Sabzian · May 2025 · Contribution

Histories of French Cinema’s Moving Body: An Interview with Denis Lavant
Cineaste · Spring 2025 · Interview · Print

2024

Should Caravans Fly? Ben Rivers on the Magic and Alchemy of Bogancloch
Ultra Dogme · December 2024 · Interview

Philadelphia Story: The Miracle of Love and Cinema in Philly
Koker Magazine · November 2024 · Essay · Persian

Locarno 2024: Technologies of Vision / Visions of Technology
Documentary Magazine · September 2024 · Festival essay

“Labor and War and Their Interconnectedness”: Film Historian Nora M. Alter Discusses Her New Harun Farocki Monograph
Documentary Magazine · August 2024 · Interview

Lady with Torch Leads American Invasion of Locarno Film Festival
SWI swissinfo.ch · August 2024 · Interview / festival report

Il Cinema Ritrovato 2024: Cinemalibero Strand Spotlights Maldoror and Landrián
Documentary Magazine · July 2024 · Festival essay

Folk Memory Project at Open City 2024: “Between Autoethnography and Anti-ethnography”
Documentary Magazine · June 2024 · Festival essay

The Cost of Thinking: Open City Documentary Festival 2024
Ultra Dogme · June 2024 · Festival essay

“When Hope Is Weary”: Jemma Desai Questions What We Choose to Ignore
Documentary Magazine · April 2024 · Interview / critical essay

Children of the Night: On Obscure Night – Goodbye Here, Anywhere
Ultra Dogme · April 2024 · Essay

Immovable Images, Unstoppable Frames: On the Contradiction of Moving Images
Photogénie, Issue 20 · March 2024 · Essay

On the Eve of the Future: Eduardo Williams on The Human Surge 3
Sabzian · February 2024 · Conversation
With Alonso Aguilar Candanedo and Abraham Villa Figueroa.

2023

Notebook’s 16th Writers Poll: Fantasy Double Features of 2023
MUBI Notebook · December 2023 · Contributor

Nourished by Time: Facing the Future of Cinema with Locarno’s Kevin B. Lee
MUBI Notebook · October 2023 · Interview

The Image Is False: The Lodger as Hitchcock’s Manifesto
Outskirts · October 2023 · Essay

Trenque Lauquen to the Power of Two
Photogénie · October 2023 · Essay

Past Locarno Winner Eduardo Williams Reimagines Our Cinematic Present in The Human Surge 3, Shot Using a 360° Camera
Variety · August 2023 · Co-authored interview / feature

Films, Art, Bathrooms: The Cinema of Tsai Ming-liang
SWI swissinfo.ch · August 2023 · Co-authored interview
With Minh Nguyen.

Contradictions of Capitalism: On Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
Locarno Daily · August 2023 · Film criticism · Print

Godard as Presence: A Ghost Obituary
Photogénie · March 2023 · Essay / obituary

2022

Highlights from the 2022 Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival
CinéSPEAK · December 2022 · Festival writing

Trenque Lauquen — Review
Photogénie · October 2022 · Review

Bones and All — Review
Photogénie · October 2022 · Review

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman — Review
Photogénie · October 2022 · Review

A Thoroughly Documentary Cinema: Space and Time in the Films of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet
Cinematograph Magazine · March 2022 · Essay · Persian · Print

Long Shots from History: Palimpsest in the Films of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet
Koker Magazine · February 2022 · Essay · Persian

2021

“Hollywood in Germany or Culture as Currency” by Sohrab Shahid Saless
Ultra Dogme · January 2021 · Translation

2020

“Forever John Ford” by Serge Daney
Koker Magazine · December 2020 · Translation

Wanda — Review
Film Matters · December 2020 · Review

To Live and Die in LA: On Los Angeles and Its Cinemas
Koker Magazine · November 2020 · Essay · Persian

On Bodies: The House Is Black and the Politics of Corporeal Representation(s)
Ultra Dogme · October 2020 · Essay

A Still Cinema: Sohrab Shahid Saless’s Still Life
Film Matters · September 2020 · Essay

Danièle Huillet – A Moral Artist
Ultra Dogme · March 2020 · Essay

Just Because the Academy Thinks a Picture Is Best Doesn’t Mean It Is
Daily Bruin · February 2020 · Commentary

Ways of Seeing: Sátántangó and Records of a Cinephilic Encounter
Photogénie · February 2020 · Essay

2019

The Journey, Not the Destination: On von Sternberg’s Shanghai Express
Filmkhaneh Magazine · October 2019 · Essay · Persian · Print

“Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet” by Jean-André Fieschi
Vitascope · September 2019 · Translation

2014

Jim Jarmusch: A Career in Review
Honar-e Cinema Magazine · July 2014 · Essay · Persian

2013

Cubism on Film: A Review of Fish & Cat
Naghdefarsi · September 2013 · Review · Persian · Print

RECURRING CONTRIBUTIONS

Senses of Cinema World Poll
Senses of Cinema · Annual contributor · 2016–2025 ballots
Individual contributions published annually from January 2017 through January 2026.

2025 · 2024 · 2023 · 2022 · 2021 · 2020 · 2019 · 2018 · 2017 · 2016

Philadelphia Monthly Arts Round-Up
CinéSPEAK · September 2022–June 2023 · Monthly column / arts writing

June 2023 · May 2023 · April 2023 · March 2023 · February 2023 · January 2023 · December 2022 · November 2022 · October 2022 · September 2022

Arta Barzanji