ALTERNATIVE FILM LAB
Alternative Film Lab is an independent production company and collective platform, bringing films, workshops, support and festivals into one field of independent practice.
Redefining cinema through the lens of the living moment.
Founder / Filmmaker / Mentor
M. SHIRVANI
Mohammad Shirvani founded Alternative Film Lab to give independent practice a structure beyond any single film. For more than two decades, he has shaped its direction through workshops, collective productions, direct support and two editions of its own film festival. He has worked not only as a mentor, but as someone who creates the conditions for films to develop, find production and reach an audience.
Alternative Film Lab approaches the workshop as a studio where ideas are tested through filming, performance, sound and collaboration. Instead of teaching a fixed formula, it builds a process specific to each project. The workshop connects education to production, allowing methods to emerge from practice and giving unfinished ideas the time, discipline and collective attention needed to become films.
“I prefer, as a filmmaker, to help that imprisoned freedom itself to be released, to be exposed.”
— Mohammad Shirvani, Arsenal Filminstitut e.V., Forum 2026