Mohammad Gorjestani is an Iranian-born Director, Photographer, Creative Director, and Artist. His work exists between fiction and non-fiction forms, with a distinct aesthetic and language emerging from the intersection of the cultures and communities he was raised in. In 2014, he was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film. His films have received recognition, including the Grand Jury Prize at SXSW, The Tribeca Film Festival “X” Prize, and “Video of the Year” at the Vimeo Awards. Notably, his film EXIT 12 won six Academy Award qualifying festivals, capped off by an acquisition by Fox Searchlight Pictures. His branded and commercial projects for brands like Beats by Dre, CashApp, and Square have earned awards at Cannes Lion, D&AD, The Clios, The One Show, among others. His work has been featured in The New York Times, DAZED, Teen Vogue, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic. Mohammad is the artist behind 1-800 Happy Birthday, a voicemail project & public installation honouring the Black and Brown lives lost to police violence. He is also a founding member of the Adachi Project, a first-of-its-kind creative partnership between Even/Odd and the San Francisco Public Defender.