Directors: Elizabeth Mirzaei, Gulistan Mirzaei Producer: Ina Fichman
Description:
In a country offering almost no treatment services despite a crisis
of addiction, Laila Haidari took the highly unusual decision to found
her own pioneering addiction treatment center and a restaurant where
all of the waiters are recovering heroin addicts. A deeply personal
perspective on the global addiction epidemic, the film follows the
labor of love of one woman fighting to keep her center alive in the
face of physical threats, governmental opposition, and the departure
of the international community from Afghanistan.
Biography:
Elizabeth Mirzaei moved
to Kabul in 2007 as a volunteer photography instructor at the AINA
Photojournalism Institute. She co-directed films for Al Jazeera
English, their latest being For
Sardar: The Afghan Journalist. Elizabeth
was a director and cinematographer on the BBC’s The
Killing of Farkhunda, which was nominated for a Royal TV Society Award, and a
cinematographer on the Emmy-nominated documentary, What
Tomorrow Brings. Her
short films have also been shown before world leaders and key policy
makers at the Oslo Conference on Women’s Rights, the International
Conference on Afghanistan in London, and before an audience of 60,000
at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park, New York.
Gulistan Mirzaei was
mentored by award-winning Afghan director Siddiq Barmak (Osama)
and was a line producer for Voice of America. He has co-directed
documentaries for Al Jazeera’s Witness program and worked with the
Tiziano Project to teach filmmaking to students in a Kabul high
school. Gulistan was awarded the IDFA Bertha Fund and the
Gucci-Tribeca Documentary Fund for the film Laila
at the Bridge.
Ina Fichman isveteran
producer/executive producer at the helms of Intuitive Pictures. They
recently produced the acclaimed features Mabul (The Flood), Monsoon, The Wanted 18 and Vita Activa: The
Spirit of Hannah Arendt.
Intuitive recently completed the documentary Game
Fever, The
Patriot, Shekinah
2, Gift, Laila at the Bridge, and The Oslo Diaries.
