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Viper Club follows a veteran emergency room nurse secretly struggling to free her grown son, a journalist, from capture by a terrorist group. After running into roadblocks with government agencies, she discovers a clandestine community of journalists and advocates who might be able to help her.
MARYAM KESHAVARZ received her MFA from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts in film direction and has been making award-winning films for 11 years. Maryam’s first feature documentary, THE COLOR OF LOVE, an intimate portrait of the changing landscape of love and politics in Iran, won numerous awards at top-tier festivals and was broadcast internationally. Maryam’s short film THE DAY I DIED garnered top accolades at Mar del Plata, Clermont-Ferrand, New York Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival; and was the only short film at Berlinale to win two awards: the Gold Teddy and the Jury Prize. Maryam’s first narrative feature fiction film, CIRCUMSTANCE premiered to overwhelming critical acclaim at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, garnering the coveted Sundance Audience Award, leading to Maryam’s inclusion in Deadline.com’s 2011 Director’s to Watch. CIRCUMSTANCE has won over a dozen international awards including Best First Film at the Rome Film Festival and the Audience & Best Actress Awards at Outfest. The Independent Spirit Award nominated film was described by the New York Times as “Swirling and sensuous”, by the Wall Street Journal as “Supremely cinematic”, and by the Hollywood Reporter as “Amazingly accomplished.” The film released theatrically in over a dozen countries in 2012. Maryam‘s sophomore feature VIPER CLUB starring Susan Sarandon had its world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2018 as a Special Presentation. Viper Club was released theatrically in the United States by Roadside Attractions on Oct 26, 2018. The film also features powerful performances by Edie Falco, Matt Bomer, Lola Kirke, Sheila Vand, Adepero Oduye, and newcomer Amir Malaklou. Viper Club will have its Swiss Premiere at the Iranian Film Festival Zurich. Maryam is in pre-production on her next narrative feature the PERSIAN VERSION, an epic story of migration, family, and the secrets we keep, that traverses decades and toggles between the United States and Iran. Maryam is also in development on several projects. Along with frequent collaborator Paolo Marinou-Blanco, Maryam is penning the narrative adaptation of the award winning HBO documentary HOT COFFEE. Maryam is attached to direct the narrative adaptation, entitled The Dissent. Maryam and Paolo are also developing, THE LAST HAREM, a gender bending genre defying historical epic musical film set in the early years of Nasir al Din Shah’s reign. For this insanely ambitious project, Maryam has garnered several high profile awards for the project including the Hearst Screenwriters Grant, the San Francisco Film Society/ KRF Screenwriting Award, the prestigious Creative Capital Fund, and invitation to the Yaddo Writers Residency. Maryam has sold series to FX and BBC America and is in development on a new international female spy thriller. Maryam is an alumna of the Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Lab, as well as the Tribeca Film Institute’s All Access Program. She is the recipient of dozens of grants and fellowships including the French Government’s Fonds Sud, Rotterdam Film Festivals’ Hubert Bals Award, Women in Film Grant, Adrienne Shelley Award, and numerous Sundance Institute Fellowships. She has been a visiting artist at the University of Pennsylvania and guest lecturer at dozens of prestigious international universities. Like most Iranian-Americans Maryam is over-educated- she holds an MFA from NYU where she was a Steve Tisch Fellow, an MA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a BA with honors from Northwestern University. Maryam lives between Los Angeles and Lisbon.
