Shahin Parhami: A Life in Pictures
Most of the photos you will see below come directly from Shahin Parhami’s Facebook page. I had a handful of my own photos with Shahin but I was surprised how few photos I did have of or with Shahin after knowing him for nearly thirty years! But I am thankful to Lara Braitstein, Shahin Parhami’s once life partner and great friend to the end, for suggesting that I resource his Facebook Page for the wonderful photos that Shahin shared with his FB friends over the years. I had a wonderful time looking through all these great photos and —as will be in evidence to all— photography was just one more artistic thing Shahin was really good at. I tried to be selective and not go overboard, since there are A LOT of photos there, and pick the ones that formed something of a narrative of Shahin’s life. So I’ve separated the photos into four categories that run somewhat chronologically: The Early Years (Iran, Turkey, Ottawa); The Traveller; Behind the Scenes; With Friends; and Life in Montreal. Enjoy.
The Early Years (Iran, Turkey, Ottawa)
With Dad at age 1, Shiraz
Beefcake pose & James Dean phase
Shiraz, circa 1980s
Ottawa, late 1980s, early 1990s
With guitar
His James Dean, The Wild One phase
Turkey, Ottawa, 1994
The Traveller
Sadeq Hedayat’s grave in Paris (Père Lachaise cemetery)
Visiting the Kafka grave, Prague, Czech Republic
Asian Cinema Fund, with Sandeep Ray
Busan International Film Festival
In Beyoglu, Taksim, Turkey
In Sirjan, Iran
Moscow
Prague
Tianjin, China
Thermal Baths, New Zealand
Moscow
Behind the Scenes
Setting up a dolly shot with assisant Farbod Honarpisheh
With actress from Sharzhaad’s Tale
On the set of Nasoot
Cast of Sharzhaad’s Tale, and shooting in the ‘Garden of Stone’
With Friends
With Lara Braitstein and Marcel Braitstein
With Lara Braitstein
With furry friend
With Peter Rist, David Hanley and Lara Braitstein
With Peter Rist and Donato Totaro, Peterborough, Ontario
With Atom Egoyan in Yamagata, Japan
Maybe his best friend, the camera?
With Farbod Honarpisheh, Peter Rist and Mustafa Uzunen, the day after Kiarostami’s death
With Peter Rist, Donato Totaro, Farbod Honarpisheh at Peterborough, Ontario
With Karina Mariano at the Montreal Underground Film Festival
With Marcel Braitstein at the local diner
Celebrating a birthday
Getting a cut in the Plateau
At Al-Baghdadi Pastry
At his favorite local Indian resto, Halal786
Montreal crowds
At the Mural Festival
And being Shahin!
Hamming it up
Salaam
Life in Montreal
Donato Totaro has been the editor of the online film journal Offscreen since its inception in 1997. Totaro received his PhD in Film & Television from the University of Warwick (UK), is a part-time professor in Film Studies at Concordia University (Montreal, Canada) and a longstanding member of AQCC (Association québécoise des critiques de cinéma).
