An Industry Case Study
Narrative | Dramatic Features
Film Name: Winter of ‘79
Genre: Historical Drama, Drama
Length of film: 20 minutes 30 seconds
Date: 04/19/21
Director: Julia Elihu
Producer: Leslie Susman, and Julia Elihu
Executive Producer: NA
Writer: Julia Elihu
Cinematographer: Gabriel Knoos-Newton
Editor: Alex Joyce
Sound Designer/Mixer: CABBA Jiaxuan Cai
Composer: PHAR (Raphaël Dargent)
Production Company: OLIV Productions (Julia Elihu)
Budget: $25,000
Financing: Women of Chapman Film Grant, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, GoFundMe backers
Shooting Format: Digital
Screening Format: 2:1
World Premiere: Rhode Island International Film Festival / West Coast Premiere: HollyShorts
Awards: NA
Website: https://www.juliaelihu.com/
The Official Trailer for Winter of ‘79
Watch The Trailer for Winter of ‘79 directed by Julia Elihu
A Short Biography of Julia Elihu
Julia Elihu is an Iranian-American writer and director who strives to tell untold stories through her own rosey perspective. In 2018, she brought these themes to her short film YASAMIN, which is based on her mother’s story of immigration and was a Grand Jury Prize Nominee at the 2018 AFI Film Festival.
She produced a short documentary titled TEAM MERYLAND which was acquired by The New Yorker and PBS’ POV Shorts Program. Julia’s latest short film, Winter of ’79, had it’s World Premiere at the Oscar-Qualifying Festivals of Rhode Island International Film Festival, and HollyShorts Film Festival.
Julia has worked with clients from El Camino Health, to Our/LA Vodka, to Tinder, to Nike X Togethxr. In the future, Julia hopes to tell more stories that remind us to savor those little beauties of life. The small victories.
The Julia Elihu Interview
indieactivity: What is your film about?
Julia Elihu (JE): Winter of ‘79 is based on my family’s experiences escaping Iran during the 1979 Iranian Revolution. The film is particularly close to my heart as my great uncle, Habib Elghanian, was unfortunately the first Jew executed during the Iranian Revolution. He was a leader of the Jewish people in Iran and a well known businessman. He was most famous for creating the plastic factory PlascoKar alongside my grandfather Ataollah Elghanayan, which was the first high rise building Iran had ever seen, and the tallest building in the Middle-East at that time.
Habib’s murder was a message from the new regime telling all Jews to leave the country. Images of his body were plastered on billboards and buses across the country. As you may imagine, this left a deep scar on my family, but has also informed so much of our identity today. When forming the idea for this film, I knew it was my duty to shed light on these stories, stories of my family, stories of so many Iranian-Jews, and stories that I hope are never forgotten.
Tell us about the festival run, marketing and sales?
Julia Elihu (JE): So far we are at the beginning of our festival run! We had our World Premiere at the Oscar-Qualifying Rhode Island International Film Festival and our West Coast Premiere at the Oscar-Qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival. Next, we are screening at the Bushwick Film Festival. Our official Instagram account for the film is @winterof79film. We hope to screen at many more festivals and do much more press!
Give the full Official Synopsis for your film?
Julia Elihu (JE): This I began developing the story & script my junior year of college at Chapman University, back in 2019. I knew I wanted to recount my family’s stories escaping Iran during the revolution, so I began by conducting interviews with all family and friends who felt comfortable sharing their stories. What I heard was both shocking and truly unbelievable. I had a general idea of what had happened to my family in Iran, but hearing their first person accounts was jaw-dropping.
Their stories involved trekking through the snowy mountains of Turkey in the middle of the night, nearly freezing to death, horrid public executions, being thrown into Iranian prisons with nothing to eat but chicken broth, and so on. I couldn’t believe that these things happened to people like my parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents, and dear friends (and not too long ago.) My biggest challenge was taking all of these stories and finding a way to narrow them down into a 20 minute short film. There was so much I wanted to say in such a limited time, so it was really all about focussing the story and trying to relay the impact of these atrocities in a concise and engaging way.
We financed the film through a couple of different forms. Our biggest financier was an organization called The Women of Chapman. This was a creative grant offered by my school, Chapman University. We submitted a proposal, and were one of 5 other filmmakers who were selected to pitch in front of the committee. After hearing our story and passion for the project, The Women of Chapman graciously awarded us with a $15,000 grant to create this film.
Without them, the film would look and feel totally different. When it comes to other sources of financing, we secured $7,000 from Dodge College of Film, which is about the standard amount that each thesis film gets to create a project. Last but not least, we raised about $3,000 by crowdfunding through family and friends. We are EXTREMELY grateful to all of our backers on this project. Without them, we wouldn’t have a film!
Production?
Julia Elihu (JE): This Our production process was pretty crazy on this film! We started shooting the film in March of 2020 which as you can imagine was a bit of a disaster!! 3 days into our 6 day shoot, the entire world shutdown due to COVID, and we had to postpone our final 3 days of shooting for 6 months! Within those 6 months we hustled to tackle the new world of COVID filmmaking on a student budget, following SAG guidelines (which were constantly changing at that time), and while also following University’s guidelines — After a lot of hard work, and a little bit of begging, in October of 2020, we picked up the shoot, and were the ONLY student film crew filming on location at that time.
When it came to post-production, this process was about 4 months of work. One of our greatest challenges was securing Iranian musicians for certain parts of the score. Thankfully after much searching, my composer (Raphaël Dargent) and I were able to find experienced tar and kamanche players. It was extremely important to me to have that authentic soundscape, because I wanted this film to really be the Iranian point-of-view.
I got a lot of notes from different sources telling me to make the score more traditional so that western audiences would be able to relate to the story; however, in this instance I felt the specificity of the Iranian culture and the Iranian sounds was really what would make any audience resonate with the story. We wanted it to sound like the Persian music we listen to, the music our family members play at gatherings, and we wanted to share that with audiences who are unfamiliar.
Festival Preparation & Strategy?
Julia Elihu (JE): When it comes to festival strategies, our strategy was to submit to as many notable festivals as possible, with an emphasis on Oscar-qualified festivals. We created a festival spreadsheet with key dates and deadlines, and have been keeping track of our submissions month to month. So far, both Rhode Island and HollyShorts have given us a great edge being that they’re both Oscar-qualifying festivals! When it comes to PR, we have been posting about the film on our social media, but would love to do more professional PR for the film.
The Release?
JE: The movie hasn’t been released yet! It is still in the festival circuit. But, you can watch the trailer here.
Advice from the Filmmaker?
JE: My biggest advice is: if there’s a will there’s a way. If you’re passionate about a story, do everything it takes to make it happen. Don’t let expectations or fear bog you down. Create something simply for the love and passion of creating.
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