Ali Imran Zaidi    

Writer / Director

Background

Born and first bred under British tutelage in a post-colonial middle-eastern nation, Ali Imran Zaidi developed a passion for writing at a very early age. It was in the blue & white checkered uniforms of Al-Khubairat school in Abu Dhabi in the early 80s where he recalls competing with fellow students over who could write the longest coherent stories. On one occasion, a friend’s story was so entertaining it actually spurred the teachers into organizing a school play around it. Hmmm… you can actually write things that others can perform and all can appreciate? That was clue number one.

As it turned out years later, between his writing and an intense appreciation for photography (another form of raw storytelling), he had already developed a passion for filmmaking but just never knew it… until one day, while watching a small, wonderful independent film, it hit him like a ton of bricks – good writing plus moving photography can equal great film! Then it all came swirling together – you just don’t get into knock-down drag-out fights with people over which decade produced the best films, or whether watching pan & scan films over the original letterbox version is an abomination, unless you really take your films seriously.

After many moons spent watching and helping more experienced filmmakers, producers, sound engineers and actors work their magic, thus was born The Seventh Level, a small-budget but large-minded independent production company in Central Florida.

Current Work

His most recent film, A Man in the Attic, has received numerous awards and screenings at various festivals including the DC Shorts Film Festival, the Florida Film Festival, and the Global Peace Film Festival. Also recently he worked with fellow filmmaker Fred Zara on the Sketchbook Productions short films A Tale of Two Megans, Life & Times and Entering Wendy, as Cinematographer and Co-Producer. Shown at various venues around town and at some great film festivals including the Palm Beach International Film Festival, the Tambay Film & Video Festival and the Melbourne Independent Filmmakers Festival, the accolades for these productions are still rolling in. In addition, he occasionally partakes in screenwriting competitions and recently placed 5th out of over 440 world-wide entries in the NYC Midnight two-phased screenwriting competition.

Oh, and which small but wonderful independent film lit that final spark? Smoke, by Wayne Wang. And some others that really drove it home include Beautiful Girls by Ted Demme, and Next Stop Wonderland by Brad Anderson.

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