Writing
I Directed a Whole Television Series and I Still Feel Like a Fraud
For Ensemble Magazine March 2024
A piece centring on self doubt, the archaic myth of the creative genius and discovering your own version of leadership.
What’s Happening in Iran Right Now?
For The Spinoff Sept 2022
Recent protests in Iran have spread around the world, including Aotearoa. Here’s what’s going on.
A Morality Tale for the 21st Century
For The Pantograph Punch, Vessel Nov 2021
In reviewing Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero, filmmaker Ghazaleh Golbakhsh contextualises Iran–US relations, censorship and the popularity of Iranian films.
My Battle with Body Hair: A Rant.
For Sauce Magazine 2020
There is a famous Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres painting of a woman reclining in a harem, entitled La Grande Odalisque (1814). Her pose is elegant but seductive. She is both objectified and exoticized, and Ingres’ version of an idealised white beauty culturally appropriating the shit out of a fictional Orient.
On Ageing and Moisterizers
Beauty review for Ensemble Magazine 2020.
…this elation at discovering my own deranged fountain of youth is now sobering up – with a vengeance. While my mind is the gleeful and wistful Freudian id stuck in a permanent extended youthful vigour, frolicking in some never ageing Garden of Eden, my body is clearly the ego, rigid and realistic, here to ruin the garden of delight with age.
‘Tinder in the Time of Corona’ Love in the Time of COVID Chronicle
Blog edited by Witi Ihimaera and Michelle Elvy, Extract 30 Oct 2020.
‘The Shah of Grey Lynn’ Newsroom
Extract for Book of the Week the Reading Room 21 Sept 2020.
‘Hey Iranians, We Need to Talk About Race’ Medium
A rant on anti-blackness and the denial of racism within the Iranian diaspora.
‘They speak English and have good lamb’: a Kiwi immigrant’s story’The Spinoff
Thirty years ago this weekend, writer and filmmaker Ghazaleh Golbakhsh arrived in New Zealand with her family, immigrants from war torn Iran. Inspired by Duncan Garner’s recent outburst, she reflects on life so far as an immigrant New Zealander.
‘Why is The Block so damn white?’ The Spinoff
Last night was the premiere of New Zealand’s sixth season of The Block NZ. It’s a franchise which I have previously managed to avoid, despite being addicted to property porn. As a complete newbie, I thought it was high time I took a chance on it. Here’s my first observation: it’s very white. Like fourth Jonas Brother white. Like loving La La Land white. Like “let’s buy a copy of Gwyneth’s GOOP mag, make kombucha and do crossfit” white.
Abstract from The Girl from Revolution Road Viva Magazine
The Girl from Revolution Road features a series of evocative essays by Ghazaleh Golbakhsh, a first-generation Iranian immigrant in New Zealand. The stories explore homeland, ethnicity and identity and range from her childhood in war-torn Iran to making friends in the suburbs of Auckland. Ghazaleh, who is also a filmmaker and Fullbright scholar, brings her stories to life through humour and a fresh honesty.
Abstract from The Girl From Revolution Road Ensemble Magazine
Writer and filmmaker Ghazaleh Golbakhsh has just released her book The Girl from Revolution Road, a collection of personal essays about growing up in Aotearoa as an Iranian immigrant. In this extract, she reflects on women wearing the hijab.
‘Help! I’m addicted to watching property porn!’ The Spinoff
Ghazaleh Golbakhsh can’t stop watching property porn, from Location, Location, Location to The Block NZ. As a lifelong renter, she wonders why she bothers.