SDFF Co-Director Jean McGlothlin sits down with Farzaneh Omidvarnia, the polymath filmmaker behind Song Sparrow, a flooring documentary that uses puppetry to tell a refugee story. Omidvarnia speaks at length about why she selected a mode and style of storytelling that, on its face, seems counter-intuitive to the deadly serious, and deeply traumatic subject of her doc. The duo discuss practical and theoretical aspects of Omidvarnia’s filmmaking practice, constructing and shooting with puppets, and how the filmmaker’s background as an engineer has informed her work.

This interview is one of a handful of video exclusives made available as part of SDFF 2021 and will be up online year-round.  Song Sparrow streamed as part of SDFF 2021 from June 10-13.