Event

SLIFF - Going Up the Stairs

Going Up the Stairs

Rohksareh Ghaem Maghami, Iran, 2011, 52 min., Farsi & French

Saturday, Nov. 17, 1 p.m., Webster U./Moore

Warm, revealing, and often surprisingly funny, "Going Up the Stairs" offers a lively portrait of an unlikely artist. An illiterate 50-year-old Iranian, Akram became a painter unexpectedly when her young grandson asked her to work on a drawing. That simple act tapped into a vast reservoir of creativity, and she soon was producing dozens of colorful primitivist paintings. Initially hiding her art from possibly disapproving eyes, Akram finally tells her Western-educated children about her work, and they enthusiastically arrange for an exhibition in far-off Paris. But there's a hitch in the plan: To attend her own exhibit, Akram must first obtain permission from her conservative husband a man she married when she was 8 and he was in his 30s.
Shown with Female (Femelles) (Marie-Josee Saint-Pierre, Canada, 2012, 32 min., French), an animated documentary on the difficulties of childbirth and motherhood.