Mansour Forouzesh is an Iranian-born, Hungary-based filmmaker, photographer, and interdisciplinary artist working across cinema, photography, installation, and artistic research. His practice explores how narrative structures shape perception and how meaning emerges through the relationship between artwork and viewer. His works have been exhibited internationally in countries including Hungary, Iran, Romania, Spain, and the United Kingdom, while his films have been screened at more than seventy international film festivals worldwide, including Oscar-qualifying festivals such as the Cork International Film Festival. Alongside his artistic practice, he is currently a doctoral researcher at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, where his research focuses on narratology in visual art and the ways storytelling operates beyond linear forms.
📅 20th of April 2026, Monday 10 AM-2 PM (4 hours)
📍 Charbon Art Café (1085 Budapest, Mária u. 1.)
👥 Participation requires completing the form below. Number of participants: max. 10 people
Registration link : https://forms.gle/CFXcdhPmwBtjw7em6
Transforming the Ordinary into Cinematic Vision is a hands-on documentary workshop led by Mansour Forouzesh, one of the artists of the Border Situations exhibition and realized as part of the exhibition program. It introduces participants to the fundamentals of storytelling through real-life observation. The essence of all dramatic forms lies in storytelling. Narrative plays a central role not only in fiction and documentary filmmaking but also in how we communicate personal experiences and ideas in everyday life. This workshop explores how narrative operates within daily reality and how it can be shaped into meaningful cinematic expression. Designed for participants from diverse backgrounds, the workshop encourages individuals to engage with their own lived experiences and transform them into short documentary films. Through guided exercises, screenings, and discussions, participants will experiment with different approaches to storytelling and develop their own narrative voice. A key component of the workshop is the screening and discussion of a documentary by Mansour Forouzesh, focusing on Iranian asylum seekers living in a camp in Serbia. This provides both a conceptual and practical framework for understanding realism, presence, and narrative construction in documentary filmmaking. Using only mobile phones and accessible tools, participants will move from observation to filming, and from raw footage to a structured short documentary. The workshop emphasizes attention, presence, and narrative clarity over technical complexity.
🔵 Learning Objectives of the Workshop
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
• Develop a cinematic way of observing everyday reality
• Understand fundamental principles of storytelling and narrative structure
• Apply basic frameworks of idea development in documentary filmmaking
• Translate personal experiences into visual narratives
• Work with real locations, non-actors, and unscripted situations
• Analyse short documentaries from both formal and narrative perspectives
• Produce and edit a short documentary using minimal equipment
🔵Session Breakdown
Session 1 (105 minutes)
Part I – Screening & Discussion (Approx. 30–45 min)
Screening part of Lost Whispers in the Distance
Q&A and discussion (themes: realism, presence,narrative, ethics)
Part II – Introduction to Narrative (Approx. 30–45 min)
Narrative structure: how cinematic stories are constructed
Examples from documentary practice
Practical Exercise (Approx. 30–
45 min)
Guided observation and filming of everyday moments
Introduction to framing, shot types, and composition
Assignment: Begin filming footage for your short documentary
Break (30 minutes)
Session 2 (105 minutes)
Part III – Making a Documentary (Approx. 45 min)
How to approach real-life subjects
Working with available spaces, people, and situations
Part IV – Editing & Feedback (Approx. 60 min)
Introduction to mobile editing tools
Hands-on rough-cut creation
Individual feedback and guidance
Collective screening and reflection
🔵Additional Required Viewing
Workshop Documentary
• Film: Lost Whispers in the Distance
https://youtu.be/SUsW7Ju7Z2A?si=p-gLML15XdV4Q17M
• About the film:
https://mansourforouzesh.com/…/lost-whispers-in-the…/
Border Situations Exhibitions event: https://fb.me/e/7thJkdA8E
🔵Border Situations is the Budapest exhibition of the LEAP – LEgAcy in Progress: (Re)Constructing European Narratives and (De)colonising Discourses project.
🔵The exhibition is open to the public only during the accompanying events and by appointment.
🔵The exhibition is co-funded by the European Union’s CERV program.