Special Event: Hollywoodgate + In Conversation With Tamana Ayazi

Hollywoodgate is the audacious, Oscar-tipped, documentary filmed in Kabul following the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, when director Ibrahim Nash’at was permitted exclusive but dangerous access to the Taliban leadership as they entered the abandoned Hollywoodgate complex a day after the US and Allied forces withdrawal. What they find in the former US military base, partially destroyed, is what the most technologically advanced military in history left behind. Over the next year, from the inside, the film follows the Taliban’s transformation from a fundamentalist militia into a military regime.

The screening begins with a specially recorded introduction from Ibrahim Nash’at at the Phoenix Cinema for London Breeze Film Festival. 

Following the screening, multi-award-winning documentary filmmaker and Artistic Director of The Whickers, a charitable fund for emerging documentary talent, Jane Ray, will be In Conversation with Tamana Ayazi, an Emmy-winning director and producer, National Geographic Explorer, and human rights advocate born and raised in Balkh, Afghanistan. 

In 2021 Tamana began assisting Amnesty International in documenting its year-long report titled ‘Death in Slow Motion: Women and Girls Under Taliban Rule’. Tamana’s debut feature-length documentary, In Her Hands, premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival and won the Audience Award at the 2022 Camden International Film Festival. Tamana is the recipient of the Cinema for Peace Dove Award for Women’s Empowerment, along with three News and Emmy nominations in 2023, along with one win. Her work is now available on Netflix.  

Film runtime: 91m

In Conversation Event 30m

BBFC: 12a