Ghazaleh Golbakhsh

Early life and education

Golbakhsh was born in Tehran, Iran and moved to Auckland, New Zealand with her family in 1987.^[1][2][3] She has said that her family's move was motivated by the 1979 revolution and the newly founded oppressive regime present in Iran.^[3][4][5] Golbakhsh and her family first lived in the Auckland suburb of Mount Wellington then later moved to Kohimarama and then Northcote.^[4] Golbakhsh noted that racist experiences as a new immigrant in school in New Zealand pushed her to practice her English reading and writing skills.^[2]

Golbakhsh completed a Masters of Screen Production, supervised by Annie Goldson, at the University of Auckland in 2012. For her thesis she made a 30-minute documentary titled Iran in Transit, which received the award for Outstanding International Student Film at the 12th Annual International Student Film and Video Festival in Beijing.^[1][6] In 2013 she received a Fulbright scholarship which enabled her to study screen writing in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California.^[7][8] In 2022 Golbakhsh graduated from the University of Auckland with a PhD by creative practice in Media and Communications which focused on Iranian diasporic cinema.^[2]

Books

Golbakhsh's first book, The Girl from Revolution Road (2020) is a collection of ten personal essays that depict her life, identity and immigrant experience. It was supported by a research grant she received from the New Zealand Society of Authors and Copyright Licensing NZ in 2019.^[9]

A review by New Zealand news website Stuff described The Girl from Revolution Road as a "powerful book", and a "collection of perceptive and engaging essays which focus on the immigrant experience and the curious doubling effect which occurs when two cultures overlap".^[4][10] Angelique Kasmara for the Aotearoa New Zealand Review of Books said the work "offers a fresh and vital perspective" and is an "excellent gift for every racist relative who won’t shut up".^[11] Steve Braunias for Newsroom listed it as one of the top 10 New Zealand non-fiction works in 2020, describing it as "pretty much the only really good book of non-fiction published in 2020" to examine issues of racism.^[12] Previously, in September 2020, Newsroom had run a week-long series focusing on the book, including reviews and interviews.^[13][14][15]

Golbakhsh contributed a chapter "Hyphenated Identity" to the anthology Ko Aotearoa Tātou: We Are New Zealand, edited by Michelle Elvy, Paula Morris and James Norcliffe.^[16] Her chapter dealt with themes of the immigrant experience in New Zealand and the concept of "home".^[17]

Screen

Golbakhsh wrote and directed the 2020 documentary web-series This is Us, about the lives of New Zealand Muslims.^[18][19] Golbakhsh herself is not a practising Muslim but views it as a part of her cultural identity.^[20] The purpose of the documentary series was to provide a positive and uplifting message following the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings.^[21]

In 2022 she was one of eight women writers and directors who contributed to the anthology film Kāinga, each providing a 10-minute long short film set in the same house.^[22] Golbakhsh's section of the film was titled Parisa, about an Iranian woman wanting to return home to Iran.^[23] The film was screened at the 2022 New Zealand International Film Festival and Melbourne International Film Festival.^[24][25]

She is the director of Miles to Nowhere, a six-part comedy television series released in 2024 on Sky Open and Neon.^[5] The show is about the experiences of New Zealand's Muslim community.^[26] She has said she signed on to direct the show because she could see people she grew up with in the script, and appreciated that it was a comedy: "Normally stories that centre our community sit in the world of drama or tragedy".^[27]

Golbakhsh was the first Iranian actor to appear on New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street, playing detective Roshan Namal.^[28][29] She has also worked as a director on the show.^[5]