Adella Ladjevardi

Her producing credits include the documentary short Just a Dog (Hot Docs 2016, released by The Nation and The Atlantic Selects), the fiction feature Icaros: A Vision (Tribeca 2016, NYT Critics’ Pick, Factory25 release), and branded content for WhatsApp.

Inspired by Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel and adapted animated feature Persepolis, she aims to champion diverse Iranian-American voices. Adella is a member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia (BGDM) and Documentary Producers Alliance (DPA), and is a Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) alumna.

As a first-generation Iranian-American producer and industry professional, Adella Ladjevardi founded CinéDel Labs in 2025 to spotlight underserved Iranian-American filmmakers, closing the diaspora support gap with authentic stories rooted in heart and truth.

Adella has 20+ years of experience leading film labs, fellowships, and grant programs for underrepresented communities at Sundance Institute, Producers Guild of America (PGA), Film Independent, and Cinereach.

Board of Directors

Tanaz Eshaghian is an acclaimed Iranian-American documentary director and producer. Her films include An Eye for an Eye (Tribeca 2025, Special Jury Mention), As Far as They Can Run (2022), Love Crimes of Kabul (2011, HBO), Be Like Others (Sundance 2008, Teddy Special Jury Prize Berlin, Emmy nominee), and I Call Myself Persian: Iranians in America (2002).

Her documentary feature Love Crimes of Kabul exposed "moral crimes" inside a women's prison in Kabul, Afghanistan, and aired on HBO.

Tanaz Eshaghian

Tanaz's debut feature Be Like Others - exploring transgender women in Iran - marked her return to Iran after 25 years. A BBC 2, France 5, ITVS production, the film premiered at Sundance 2008, won multiple festival awards, and aired on HBO.

Her first documentary, I Call Myself Persian (Woodstock 2002, Honorable Mention), aired on PBS and captures Iranian-Americans speaking of how their identities are affected by feeling like outsiders in the country they now call home.

Tanaz holds a BA in Semiotics from Brown University and an MA in Media Studies from The New School.

Abou Farman is Associate Professor of Anthropology at The New School for Social Research. Professor Farman is interested in secularization processes, especially in relation to post-humanism, technology and aesthetics. His previous ethnographic research focused on transhumanist projects in the US attempting to achieve immortality through cryonics, mind uploading and biogerentology.

He is now working alongside the Shipibo Conibo Xetebo organizations on projects of indigenous autonomy in the Peruvian Amazon. 

Abou Farman Farmaian

His latest book, On Not Dying: Secular Immortality in the Age of Technoscience (University of Minnesota Press) was published in April 2020. His first book was Clerks of the Passage, an extended essay on movement and migration. He is founder of Art Space Sanctuary and founder/president of the Shipibo Conibo Center, NY.

He has taught Anthropology at Bard College, SUNY Purchase, Hunter College and Princeton. As part of the artist duo caraballo-farman he has exhibited internationally, including at corrupt institutions such as the Tate Modern (UK), and MoMA/PS1 (USA), and received several grants and awards, including Guggenheim and New York Foundation for the Arts fellowships.

Parisa Elahi is Senior Counsel, Business & Human Rights at Cisco. Prior to joining Cisco, she worked on corporate, commercial, and Business & Human rights issues at various in-house roles. She has also worked at an international human rights NGO. Parisa started her career at international law firms, working in London and New York. She graduated from NYU Law and has a Masters in International Relations from the London School of Economics. Parisa is also an adjunct professor at NYU Stern, teaching a course on leadership and professional responsibility.

Parisa Elahi