Rouzbeh Rashidi
Encyclopedia
Rouzbeh Rashidi is an Iranian avant-garde
filmmaker associated with the Remodernist film
movement.
Rashidi has been making films since 2000 when he founded the Experimental Film Society in Tehran. Since then, he has worked completely apart from any mainstream conceptions of filmmaking. He strives to escape the stereotypes of conventional storytelling and instead roots his cinematic style in a poetic interaction of image and sound. He intentionally rejects scriptwriting, or any other form of written pre-planning.
His films are inspired by and constructed around images, locations, characters and their immediate situations. The stylistic elements that make up his distinctively personal film language include the use of natural light, non-professional actors, slow paced rhythms, abstract plots, static shots and minimal dialogue. He employs a wide range of different formats and devices to make his films, including video, Super-8mm, web-cam and mobile phone cameras. His consistently low-budget work is entirely self-funded and made with complete creative freedom. Rouzbeh Rashidi has directed & produced 40 short films, since 2008 he has focused on feature length film projects, making several full length feature films.
Rouzbeh Rashidi produced, supported, gathered and rescued dozens of short films by many different filmmakers from around the globe and created an online film archive called EFS Film Archive dedicated to experimental cinema.
Members of EFS include: Rouzbeh Rashidi (founder), Mohammad Nick Dell, Bahar Samadi, Jann Clavadetscher, Pouya Ahmadi, Kamyar Kordestani, Michael Higgins, Hamid Shams Javi. Maximilian Le Cain
is an honorary member.
Past Collaborators include Mahdi Safarali, Navid Salajegheh, Dean Kavanagh, Behzad Haki and Ali Vakilian.
is the work of three resolutely independent filmmakers based in Ireland who have built up prolific filmographies over the past decade in complete creative freedom, taking full advantage of the liberty for experimentation that low-and-no budget production offers. Although the visions audiences discover in the films of Donal Foreman, Rouzbeh Rashidi and Maximilian Le Cain
are very different, they are linked by the use of exploratory, non-script-based approaches to filmmaking and by a keen awareness of the cinema histories that have explored the medium's possibilities far beyond the accepted rules of the multiplex.
Foreman, Rashidi and Le Cain formed ‘(An) Other Irish Cinema’ as a platform for joint screenings, to showcase their work and, in so doing, to propose the possibility of an/other filmmaking culture in Ireland.
movement. Remodernist film developed in the United States and the United Kingdom in the early 21st century with ideas related to those of the international art movement Stuckism
and its manifesto, Remodernism. Key figures are Harris Smith and Jesse Richards. On August 27, 2008, Jesse Richards published a 15 point Remodernist Film Manifesto, calling for a "new spirituality in cinema", use of intuition in filmmaking, as well as describing the remodernist film as being a "stripped down, minimal, lyrical, punk kind of filmmaking". In late August, 2009, an International Alliance of Remodernist Filmmakers was started by Jesse Richards in order to promote discussion and collaboration amongst those following the manifesto.
The Australian film magazine Filmink announced Rashidi's participation in a compilation feature film by the Remodernist film movement in February 2010.
Rouzbeh Rashidi left Remodernist film
movement in late 2011.
Rouzbeh Rashidi’s resume with Remodernist film:
Rouzbeh Rashidi won award for the Best Film (The Blight - 2007) at Cork Youth International Film Festival 2008.
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
filmmaker associated with the Remodernist film
Remodernist Film
Remodernist film developed in the United States and the United Kingdom in the early 21st century with ideas related to those of the international art movement Stuckism and its manifesto, Remodernism...
movement.
Rashidi has been making films since 2000 when he founded the Experimental Film Society in Tehran. Since then, he has worked completely apart from any mainstream conceptions of filmmaking. He strives to escape the stereotypes of conventional storytelling and instead roots his cinematic style in a poetic interaction of image and sound. He intentionally rejects scriptwriting, or any other form of written pre-planning.
His films are inspired by and constructed around images, locations, characters and their immediate situations. The stylistic elements that make up his distinctively personal film language include the use of natural light, non-professional actors, slow paced rhythms, abstract plots, static shots and minimal dialogue. He employs a wide range of different formats and devices to make his films, including video, Super-8mm, web-cam and mobile phone cameras. His consistently low-budget work is entirely self-funded and made with complete creative freedom. Rouzbeh Rashidi has directed & produced 40 short films, since 2008 he has focused on feature length film projects, making several full length feature films.
Experimental Film Society
Experimental Film Society is an independent, not-for-profit film production company specialising in avant-garde, independent and no/low budget filmmaking. It was founded in 2000 in Tehran, Iran. Its aim is to produce and promote films by its members. Experimental Film Society unites works by a dozen filmmakers scattered across the globe, whose films are distinguished by an uncompromising, no-budget devotion to personal, experimental cinema. Experimental Film Society is responsible for rescuing and preserving many of its members' films, which otherwise might have been lost forever.Rouzbeh Rashidi produced, supported, gathered and rescued dozens of short films by many different filmmakers from around the globe and created an online film archive called EFS Film Archive dedicated to experimental cinema.
Members of EFS include: Rouzbeh Rashidi (founder), Mohammad Nick Dell, Bahar Samadi, Jann Clavadetscher, Pouya Ahmadi, Kamyar Kordestani, Michael Higgins, Hamid Shams Javi. Maximilian Le Cain
Maximilian Le Cain
Maximilian Le Cain is an Irish filmmaker, cinephile and film critic living in Cork City Ireland. His always-personal, formally experimental work has included narrative, documentary, and video art installation, although it mostly wanders restlessly somewhere between those categories. Le Cain has...
is an honorary member.
Past Collaborators include Mahdi Safarali, Navid Salajegheh, Dean Kavanagh, Behzad Haki and Ali Vakilian.
(An)Other Irish Cinema
(An)Other Irish Cinema(An)Other Irish Cinema
Other Irish Cinema is the work of three resolutely independent filmmakers based in Ireland who have built up prolific filmographies over the past decade in complete creative freedom, taking full advantage of the liberty for experimentation that low-and-no budget production offers...
is the work of three resolutely independent filmmakers based in Ireland who have built up prolific filmographies over the past decade in complete creative freedom, taking full advantage of the liberty for experimentation that low-and-no budget production offers. Although the visions audiences discover in the films of Donal Foreman, Rouzbeh Rashidi and Maximilian Le Cain
Maximilian Le Cain
Maximilian Le Cain is an Irish filmmaker, cinephile and film critic living in Cork City Ireland. His always-personal, formally experimental work has included narrative, documentary, and video art installation, although it mostly wanders restlessly somewhere between those categories. Le Cain has...
are very different, they are linked by the use of exploratory, non-script-based approaches to filmmaking and by a keen awareness of the cinema histories that have explored the medium's possibilities far beyond the accepted rules of the multiplex.
Foreman, Rashidi and Le Cain formed ‘(An) Other Irish Cinema’ as a platform for joint screenings, to showcase their work and, in so doing, to propose the possibility of an/other filmmaking culture in Ireland.
Remodernist Film Movement
In January 2010 Rashidi joined the Remodernist filmRemodernist Film
Remodernist film developed in the United States and the United Kingdom in the early 21st century with ideas related to those of the international art movement Stuckism and its manifesto, Remodernism...
movement. Remodernist film developed in the United States and the United Kingdom in the early 21st century with ideas related to those of the international art movement Stuckism
Stuckism
Stuckism is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting in opposition to conceptual art...
and its manifesto, Remodernism. Key figures are Harris Smith and Jesse Richards. On August 27, 2008, Jesse Richards published a 15 point Remodernist Film Manifesto, calling for a "new spirituality in cinema", use of intuition in filmmaking, as well as describing the remodernist film as being a "stripped down, minimal, lyrical, punk kind of filmmaking". In late August, 2009, an International Alliance of Remodernist Filmmakers was started by Jesse Richards in order to promote discussion and collaboration amongst those following the manifesto.
The Australian film magazine Filmink announced Rashidi's participation in a compilation feature film by the Remodernist film movement in February 2010.
Rouzbeh Rashidi left Remodernist film
Remodernist Film
Remodernist film developed in the United States and the United Kingdom in the early 21st century with ideas related to those of the international art movement Stuckism and its manifesto, Remodernism...
movement in late 2011.
Rouzbeh Rashidi’s resume with Remodernist film:
- Two of Rouzbeh Rashidi's short films Grey (2008) and Now & Forever (2008) was picked by Jesse RichardsJesse RichardsJesse Richards is a painter, filmmaker and photographer from New Haven, Connecticut and was affiliated with the international movement Stuckism.-Early life:...
for the short films of Remodernist filmRemodernist FilmRemodernist film developed in the United States and the United Kingdom in the early 21st century with ideas related to those of the international art movement Stuckism and its manifesto, Remodernism...
.
- An article about Remodernist filmRemodernist FilmRemodernist film developed in the United States and the United Kingdom in the early 21st century with ideas related to those of the international art movement Stuckism and its manifesto, Remodernism...
& Jesse RichardsJesse RichardsJesse Richards is a painter, filmmaker and photographer from New Haven, Connecticut and was affiliated with the international movement Stuckism.-Early life:...
was published on 17 August 2010 in SharghSharghShargh is the most popular reformist newspaper in Iran. It is managed by Mehdi Rahmanian, and its chief editor was Mohammad Ghouchani in its first period of publication...
Newspaper (Iran) by Kamyar Kordestani & with the help of Rouzbeh Rashidi.
- Remodernist filmRemodernist FilmRemodernist film developed in the United States and the United Kingdom in the early 21st century with ideas related to those of the international art movement Stuckism and its manifesto, Remodernism...
manifesto was translated into Persian language by Kamyar Kordestani, Reza Radbeh & with the help of Rouzbeh Rashidi. It was subsequently published on 31 August 2010 in the SharghSharghShargh is the most popular reformist newspaper in Iran. It is managed by Mehdi Rahmanian, and its chief editor was Mohammad Ghouchani in its first period of publication...
Newspaper (Iran).
- Completion of the feature film Closure of CatharsisClosure of CatharsisClosure of Catharsis is a British-Irish Experimental film directed by Rouzbeh Rashidi that tells the visual story of a man who sits on a park bench talking to the camera, trying to weave together a thought that won't cohere while commenting on passers-by, his 'guests'.....
(2011) which was based and inspired by Remodernist filmRemodernist FilmRemodernist film developed in the United States and the United Kingdom in the early 21st century with ideas related to those of the international art movement Stuckism and its manifesto, Remodernism...
manifesto.
- Contribution to the Remodernist omnibus feature film “In Passing (2011)“.
Awards
Rouzbeh Rashidi won the 2009 National Student Media "Short Film of the Year" award for his film ‘Now and Forever - 2008'. The National Student Media Awards are "Ireland's premier student awards."Rouzbeh Rashidi won award for the Best Film (The Blight - 2007) at Cork Youth International Film Festival 2008.
Features
- 2011 Jean Speck (1860-1933) (Made with Jann Clavadetscher)
- 2011 Immanence Deconstruction of Us
- 2011 Filmore
- 2011 Tenebrous City & Ill-Lighted Mortals
- 2011 Cremation of an Ideology
- 2011 Closure of Catharsis
- 2011 Zoetrope
- 2011 Reminiscences of YearningReminiscences of Yearning (2011 film)Reminiscences of Yearning is an Iranian Experimental film directed by Rouzbeh Rashidi. -Production:Rouzbeh Rashidi made this film with no budget in diary-film style over a period of six years between 1998 to 2004. The film was shot with VHS and digital camera. Rouzbeh Rashidi re-shot most of the...
- 2010 Bipedality
- 2009 Only HumanOnly Human (2009 film)Only Human is a 2010 Irish experimental film directed by Rouzbeh Rashidi that tells the visual story of five different couples and their environment. A tale of people unfolds under the night sky. These doomed couples and lost individuals begin journeys and attempt to find resolution in their lives...
- 2008 Light & QuietLight & Quiet (2008 film)Light & Quiet is a 2008 Iranian Experimental film directed by Rouzbeh Rashidi that tells the visual story of one man. A man who has no news or mail. A man who lives alone. A man who resides only to himself and his hotel room...
Short Films
- 2011-Ongoing Homo Sapiens Project
- 2010 Entity of Haze
- 2010 Woodpecker
- 2010 Nonessential Recall
- 2008 Anatomy of Man
- 2008 Nightfall
- 2008 Now and Forever
- 2008 Emptiness
- 2008 StrandStrand (2008 film)Strand is a 2008 Iranian Experimental film directed by Rouzbeh Rashidi that tells the visual bond between nostalgia and physical reality, the liquid phase produced by the condensation of Stream of consciousness will evolve through the film and manifests itself using images and sounds...
- 2008 Grey
- 2008 Shingle Beach
- 2008 Friends
- 2008 Damp and Misty
- 2008 Day's End
- 2008 Stillness
- 2008 Harmony With You
- 2008 Drowned Fish
- 2008 First Alley
- 2008 History of CinemaHistory of Cinema (2008 film)History of Cinema is a 2008 Iranian Irish Experimental film directed by Rouzbeh Rashidi. The film is an experimental derivation from the concept of cinema with expressing this perception through images & sound...
- 2008 Theory NTSC
- 2008 Theory PAL
- 2007 Bra
- 2007 The Blight
- 2007 Rosita
- 2007 Last Vision
- 2007 Flooded Meadow
- 2006 Dusk, Ravens
- 2006 This Year
- 2005 Clay
- 2003 Etude for Oily Water
- 2002 Smile in the End of Summer
- 2002 The Wind
- 2002 Chair and Cigarette
- 2002 Aftershock of Old Memories
- 2002 The Man's Beautiful Wife
- 2002 Dark Ripples
- 2002 Feel So Close
- 2002 I Like You More Than I Like Painting
- 2001 Shabby Nights
- 2000 Spring Day
- 2000 Nucleus
Further reading
Interviews
- Interview with Rouzheh Rashidi an Iranian filmmaker based in Ireland Published in Shargh Newspaper Iran 2010 (Link in Persian Language)
- Interview with Rouzbeh Rashidi by Gerard Butler. Published in SEVENTH ART magazine May 2007 Ireland
- Interview with Rouzbeh Rashidi By M.H Jafari Published in Mehr Newspaper – October 2003 Iran (Link in Persian Language)
See also
- Maximilian Le CainMaximilian Le CainMaximilian Le Cain is an Irish filmmaker, cinephile and film critic living in Cork City Ireland. His always-personal, formally experimental work has included narrative, documentary, and video art installation, although it mostly wanders restlessly somewhere between those categories. Le Cain has...
- Jesse RichardsJesse RichardsJesse Richards is a painter, filmmaker and photographer from New Haven, Connecticut and was affiliated with the international movement Stuckism.-Early life:...
- Peter RinaldiPeter RinaldiPeter Rinaldi is an award-winning filmmaker and writer from New York, NY and is affiliated with the Remodernist film movement.In February 2010, the Australian film magazine Filmink announced Rinaldi's participation in a compilation feature film by the Remodernist film movement...
- Remodernist filmRemodernist FilmRemodernist film developed in the United States and the United Kingdom in the early 21st century with ideas related to those of the international art movement Stuckism and its manifesto, Remodernism...
- Experimental filmExperimental filmExperimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...
External links
- Official website
- Rouzbeh Rashidi on Mubi (website)