"The installation takes the form of a phone booth that displays intimate family photos and birthday balloons. By lifting the phone receiver, audiences are able to hear audio recordings submitted by loved ones and community members, sharing their sentiments about the man whose life was stolen 17 years ago. "If you want to see something that's amazing," Johnson tells me during a recent conversation, "go look at the booth.""
"Johnson's son is one of many "celebrants" honored by 1-800-Happy Birthday, a project created by San Jose-raised filmmaker and co-founder of Even/Odd Studio, Mohammad Gorjestani. At the time of Grant's death, Gorjestani, now based in San Francisco, recalls being too young to fully process it but infuriated nonetheless. "Seeing Oscar's mom on television," Gorjestani says, recalling the interviews of Johnson in the wake of Grant's killing, "the pain that she was feeling, I couldn't really approach it too much because it was just so overwhelming.""
"Sensitive to Johnson's emotions, Gorjestani was inspired to do more than protest - he wanted to serve the community. " 1-800 Happy Birthday is really meant to be an honoring, an intervention, and a confrontation of the epidemic of police killings in America and state-sanctioned violence," he tells me. The project's first iteration came in 2014, when Gorjestani debuted his short film, Happy Birthday Oscar Grant. That was followed by two more films dedicated to people killed by armed police officers: Happy Birthday Mario Woods and Happy Birthday Philando Castile. Filmmaking proved to be taxing, and the COVID-19 pandemic added even more hurdles to that process. So, in July of 2020, Gorjestani pivoted, creating a hotline people could call to leave voicemails celebrating the life of Mario Woods. After receiving over 100 calls, he put the recordings on a website, where they could be heard publicly."
The installation takes the form of a phone booth displaying intimate family photos and birthday balloons. Lifting the receiver allows audiences to hear audio recordings submitted by loved ones and community members, offering tributes to people whose lives were taken by police. The project, created by San Jose-raised filmmaker and Even/Odd Studio co-founder Mohammad Gorjestani, began with short films including Happy Birthday Oscar Grant, Mario Woods, and Philando Castile. In July 2020 Gorjestani launched a hotline for voicemails honoring Mario Woods, collected over 100 calls, posted those recordings online, and then replicated the hotline process for many other cases. The project aims to honor victims, intervene, and confront state-sanctioned violence.
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