Burial Without Body (2025) is a 12-minute, 10-second experimental artist film set in the scorched heart of 1950s Iran, where years without rain have left the earth unable to soften. Farmers carry an empty coffin in a funeral without a corpse: a ritual for an absence too vast to name. Told through the faltering memory of a child who may or may not have existed, the film moves between oral myth, theological glitch and cinematic séance. It does not reconstruct the event; it lets its grief echo into the present.
The film was made entirely from AI-generated imagery and montaged in Adobe Premiere, without location shooting or physical travel. Its self-imposed 854 × 480 resolution makes compression, pixelation and unstable light part of the image’s language. The low-resolution frame becomes a digital rite for stories and futures that have eroded.
Material ethics
The film’s production method refuses to consume the desert as an image resource. FilmFreeway’s artist-authored material ethics statement estimates total energy use of 108–216 kWh and emissions of 43.2–86.4 kg CO₂e across production, including unused footage, drafts and renders. The statement compares this with an estimated 1.4–2.3 tonnes CO₂e for a hypothetical three-person shoot in Iran involving international flights, local travel and accommodation. These are production estimates, offered as part of the film’s reflection on image-making and extraction.
Screenings
12Gates & PAAFF Contemporary Video Art Exhibition, Philadelphia — world premiere and official selection, 9 November 2025.
Leeds Arts University, Blenheim Walk Auditorium — public screening in the Aerotheology programme, 2026.
Ibrida Festival, Forlì — official selection, AI Video Art competition, 2026.
Film details
Director: Parham Ghalamdar
Runtime: 12:10
Completed: 18 July 2025 (FilmFreeway listing)
Format: Experimental short / artist film
Aspect ratio: 16:9
Image: colour, digital, 854 × 480
Language: English
FILM NOTES
12:10 · 2025
A drought-struck funeral in 1950s Iran, recalled by a child who may never have existed.
AI-generated imagery · 854 × 480
