Two New Articles by Sara Zia Ebrahimi on Art, Motherhood and Web Series

Sara Zia Ebrahimi (LTA ’14, ACG ’11, ’09) recently published How Pinterest Lets This Mom Still Make Films for Pyraraph, an online magazine for creative people and Five Awesome Web Series Starring Women of Color for Bitch Media. For Pyraraph, Sara writes about how is incorporates Pinterest in the creative process of  her film The FBI Blew Up My Ice Skates, “using tools that enable a balance between your creative process and other life responsibilities is useful to all artists, but for mothers in particular I think finding ways to not give up on your creative work is essential to countering the narrative that says you have to choose between your artist life and your mom life.”

In, Five Awesome Web Series Starring Women of Color, Sara Zia writes about the importance of web series’ as a an art form that women and people of color have begun creating in the face of the systematic discrimination they face in the TV industry. This, she says, was the reason that she produced her own web series entitled Bailout

“Our crew included women as the director of cinematography, an editor, and centers on main characters who are women. In making the show, it felt like we weren’t just telling a story that was important to us, but we were collectively pushing back against the larger industry that ignored our stories.

Watching these series is not only about finding new sources of entertainment when you want to unwind, it’s also a way for you to do your part to help in shifting culture.  Every time we watch an episode of a web series and increase the number of views on YouTube sends a message to TV producers that there is in fact a large audience for stories about, and by, women. Even if the mainstream television landscape doesn’t reflect us, we can successfully make our own.”