Leeway Appoints Sara Zia Ebrahimi as Program Director
PHILADELPHIA – Sara Zia Ebrahimi (LTA ‘14, ACG ‘13, ‘09), a filmmaker and curator, stepped into the role of Program Director on Monday, April 18, 2016.
“My ability to articulate the cultural strategy of my filmmaking practice emerged because Leeway pushed me to name it. Leeway made me apply the strategic thinking I had encountered in the activist world to my art. The grant application process is not just a transactional exchange reserved for those awarded with a grant, it is a means of movement building for all involved. The process requires artists to strategize. It makes us place ourselves both in the context of history and in our vision of the future. It helps solidify that pathway navigating in between the art world and activist world.
I am excited to join the staff and board members of Leeway in asking questions about how the organization’s programs can continue to be more than a transactional exchange for artists. I want to help Leeway grow in a way that weaves together the cultural strategies of hundreds of artists like me into something strong and durable.”
Sara Zia Ebrahimi has produced film screenings and exhibits in the Philadelphia area for over a decade. An MFA graduate of Temple University, her own short films have screened internationally and been awarded grants from Chicken & Egg Pictures, Rooftop Films and the Leeway Foundation. Her recent work includes Bailout, a web series she wrote and directed, and The FBI Blew Up My Ice Skates, an animated short film co-directed with Lindsey Martin.
Sara Zia returns to Leeway after a two-year outreach and events consultancy with the organization in 2010. Since then, she’s provided social media and community engagement consulting to individual artists and arts and cultural organizations; produced film screenings including the Flickering Light and Kinowatt series; and taught media production at Temple University. Most recently, Sara Zia was the Social Media Specialist at American Friends Service Committee.
