Newsha Tavakolian: "I think only images didn’t do justice to the concept of PMS, which is very abstract." Tavakolian's 20-minute film, For The Sake of Calmness, is an experimental take on a reality intensified by the emotional flare of premenstrual syndrome (PMS), the name for the physical and emotional symptoms women can experience in the weeks before their period. Tavakolian discovered several years ago that she was in the bracket of PMS suffers who feel the syndrome's effects most intensely, describing it as "a dark cloud settling over my head for a week at a time." The project began as purely photographic, more in line with her previous work, but she soon realized that images could not do justice to a subject as amorphous and abstract as PMS. Instead, she turned to the medium of film, blending visual narrative with a self-narrated monologue informed by some of the 100-plus women she interviewed over four years and a score by sound artist Kamran Arash nia. The result is an overwhelmingly personal film that grants viewers insight into the heightened period of sensitivity experienced by PMS sufferers. #MagnumPhotos #shortfilm #phototok #conceptualart #pms #premenstrualsyndrome #arttok #womenartists #womeninart #documentaryphotography #photographerlife #filmtok