Sonia Nassery Cole

For the British archaeologist, see Sonia Mary Cole.

Sonia Nassery Cole
Born
Sonia Nassery

1965 (age 58–59)
Kabul, Afghanistan
Occupation(s)Filmmaker
author
human rights activist
Years active1994–present
SpouseChristoper H. Cole (divorced)
Children1
Websitewww.afghanistanworldfoundation.org

Sonia Nassery Cole (Dari: سونیا ناصری کول; born 1965)[1] is an Afghan-born American human rights activist, filmmaker, and author.

Early life

Sonia Nassery Cole was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, the daughter of an Afghan diplomat.[citation needed]. At fourteen, she fled Afghanistan amid the Soviet invasion of 1979 to seek refuge in the United States of America without her family.[2]

At seventeen, she wrote a nine-page letter to President Ronald Reagan about the situation in her country and pleaded for help and sought to meet him.[1]

Humanitarian work in Afghanistan

Cole founded the Afghanistan World Foundation in 2002 and began making films. She was instrumental in raising funds used for various necessities such as the construction of a hospital for women and children in Kabul, medical care for land-mine victims, and other causes.[3] Cole primarily deals with improving the conditions for women and children in Afghanistan.

Sonia also befriended singer Natalie Cole while she was working with the Afghan World Foundation. She became a board member for the organization along Henry Kissinger, Prince Albert of Monaco, Anne Heche and Susan Sarandon.

Film career

Cole has worked in film since 1994. In 2007, she directed the short film The Bread Winner. In 2010, her film The Black Tulip was selected as Afghanistan's official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards.[4] The film won "best picture" awards in Boston Film Festival, Beverly Hills Film Festival, and the Salento Film Festival.[5]

The film, which premiered at the Ariana Cinema Theater on September 23, 2010 and screened at the NATO base as well as an American Embassy, was distributed by SnagFilms,[6] and is about a family in Kabul opening a restaurant business after the fall of the Taliban regime.[7] The film received press in The New York Times,[1] The New York Observer,[2] NBC, and ABC.[8]

Her film I Am You (2019) is an independent feature film based on the true story of three Afghan refugees.[9]

Author

In 2013, she received the Freedom to Write Award from PEN Center USA. She has a book, Will I Live Tomorrow?, released in October 2013.[10]

Personal life

She currently resides in New York City and Beverly Hills, California and is now divorced from Christopher H. Cole, but retains his surname.[3][11] She has one son.

She is the recipient of a "Congressional Recognition" award on December 4, 2006, "Afghan American Sisterhood Award", and the "UN Women Together Award" on June 7, 2012. Cole is a member of the Jodi Solomon Speakers Bureau.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b c Barnes, Brooks (September 21, 2010). "A Director's Many Battles to Make Her Movie". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
  2. ^ a b Reed, Rex (October 23, 2012). "Full Bloom: A Light Shines Through as The Black Tulip Blossoms Amidst Harsh Censorship and Brutal Rule by the Taliban". Observer. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Afghan Rebel. For more than 20 years, Sonia Nassery Cole has worked the society-gala circuit and the halls of Washington in aid of her native land". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved December 10, 2010.
  4. ^ "2010–2011 Foreign Language Film Award Screening Schedule". The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved December 20, 2010.
  5. ^ "Breadwinner Productions – Black Tulip – Press". Retrieved November 5, 2013.
  6. ^ "Black Tulip – SnagFilms". June 26, 2013. Retrieved June 26, 2013.
  7. ^ "Afghan Oscar contender aims to show more than war". Reuters. September 23, 2010. Retrieved December 10, 2010.
  8. ^ "Breadwinner Productions – Press". Retrieved November 5, 2013.
  9. ^ Cole, Sonia Nassery (August 30, 2019), I Am You (Drama), Damla Sönmez, Mert Ramazan Demir, Ushan Çakir, AZ Celtic Films, Breadwinner Productions, retrieved June 2, 2023
  10. ^ "Will I Live Tomorrow? – BenBella". Retrieved November 5, 2013.
  11. ^ "Preview Party at Westime Rodeo Drive". People. Retrieved December 10, 2010.
  12. ^ "Sonia Nassery Cole – Jodi Solomon Speakers Bureau". Retrieved November 5, 2013.