The Father Tapes

Video Series, 2008-2010
Screened at South by Southwest Film Festival 2011, Exhibited at Bowery Poetry Club curated by Karen Finley and Trestle Gallery in NYC, and Experimental Station in Washington DC.

The Father Tapes series is an exploration of memory, heritage, and Khoshbin embodying her father, a Baha’i Iranian immigrant who lived in Texas, in order to discover the overlap and divergence of their experiences. Below are testimonial-style videos from the series in which Khoshbin asked her father a question and the record of his response became the script she performed. The questions are: How do you feel about the holidays? Were you good at math? Could there be an Iranian-American president?

"how do you feel about the holidays?" is an exploration of memory, heritage, and embodying my father, a Baha'i Iranian immigrant, in order to discover more about myself. Baha'is do not traditionally celebrate Christmas, but it seemed to me that most Texans (Christian or otherwise) did.

Amy Khoshbin interviewed her Iranian father living in Texas. “Were you good at math?” she asked. This video is the answer to that question.

Just after President Obama was elected as the first Brown President of the United States in 2008 (232 years after the founding of this country), Khoshbin interviewed her Iranian father. "Could there be an Iranian-American president in the US?" she asked. His answer revealed his internal political struggles.