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A fresh new voice in nonfiction filmmaking, Ahsen Nadeem never intended to make the doc that became “Crows Are White” as deeply, disarmingly personal as it turned out, but in re-centering the focus on himself, he arrived at a much more honest movie. Approaching the subject in the vulnerable, open-book tradition of cine-essayists Ross McElwee (“Sherman’s March”) or Caveh Zahedi (“I Am a Sex Addict”), Nadeem, who was raised Muslim in Saudi Arabia, works through why he found himself so conflicted about his religious upbringing, as well as how to break the news to his parents that he intended to marry a non-Muslim woman. The result is an introspective — and at times uncomfortably irreverent — journey for both him and the audience.

Nadeem’s original intention was to investigate the “marathon monks” of Mount Hiei, Japan, who seek spiritual enlightenment by walking a repetitive course known as the kaihōgyō, equivalent to the circumference of the Earth,...

In I Don’t Hate Las Vegas Anymore, he tried and failed to convince his father and half-brother to do ecstasy with him in a hotel room. In I Am A Sex Addict, he recounted his addiction to prostitutes and the destruction that wrought on his romantic life. In The Sheik and I, he made an enemy of the Sheik of Sharjah and the film was subsequently banned in the United Arab Emirates. But Caveh Zahedi, the prolific cult filmmaker known for deeply personal documentaries that have been championed by everyone from Lena Dunham to Richard Linklater, reached unknown levels of depravity and self-destruction with The Show About the Show.

Its first season, which aired in 2015, started as a mind-boggling self-reflexive exercise wherein each episode chronicled the making of the previous episode using documentary footage and reenactments but eventually—particularly in its second season—devolved into a perversely entertaining documentation of his marriage’s dissolution.

Pacho Velez’s breakthrough documentary “Manakamana,” which he co-directed, consists entirely of people (and goats) riding a cable car up and down a Nepalese mountain. So while he might not seem like the most natural candidate to make a light-hearted documentary about internet dating, “Searchers” dismantles that dumb assumption from its very first shot. Velez is fascinated by how people perform the idea of themselves, whether they’re crammed into a gondola suspended hundreds of feet above a wild valley or swiping through Tinder on their bed in Brooklyn.

By focusing his camera on the faces of 30 (or so) app users as they peruse the digital meat market and reflect on their perfect match, Velez allows their phones to become as much of a looking glass as they are a portal. The result of his little experiment is that flirts with modern ironies and asks timeless questions (“u up?”) in...

For more than two decades, Caveh Zahedi has been exploring his neuroses and desires in awkward, provocative detail. From his first feature "A Little Stiff" through 2005's "I Am a Sex Addict," the film diarist has proved to be an amusingly off-beat guide to his own life. That tendency may very well reach its apotheosis with "The Show About the Show," the irreverent meta web series that Zahedi launched this fall on the Brooklyn-based cable TV and digital network Bric TV. Read More: Why Comedian Chris Gethard, Public Access Alumni, Thinks Talk Shows Are All About the Games Now As the title implies, "The Show About the Show" remains within the confines of its meta premise, tracking its wayward protagonist as he pitches the program to a baffled Bric executive named Aziz (portrayed with a hilarious deadpan by filmmaker Dustin Defa). Zahedi's ensuing adventure finds him shooting a sex scene...

I remember being in La some years ago when my friend David, a TV writer by profession, handed me a homemade DVD he ripped with the words I Am a Sex Addict on the label. Coming from this particular friend, I wasn't at all phased by the title. So when I returned to NYC some days later and found the DVD among my things, I used some discretion, waited until I was completely alone, then put it on. I have to admit I expected a more prurient movie but what I encountered was nothing of the kind; it was a low-budge indie film that starred a skinny wide-eyed main character confessing. Part narrative and part documentary, the film centers on its main character, "Caveh" (played by director Caveh Zahedi), >> - Adam Schartoff...

I remember being in La some years ago when my friend David, a TV writer by profession, handed me a homemade DVD he ripped with the words I Am a Sex Addict on the label. Coming from this particular friend, I wasn't at all phased by the title. So when I returned to NYC some days later and found the DVD among my things, I used some discretion, waited until I was completely alone, then put it on. I have to admit I expected a more prurient movie but what I encountered was nothing of the kind; it was a low-budge indie film that starred a skinny wide-eyed main character confessing. Part narrative and part documentary, the film centers on its main character, "Caveh" (played by director Caveh Zahedi), >> - Adam Schartoff...

You may recall that a decade ago, the ever-independent-minded Caveh Zahedi (A Little Stiff, I Am a Sex Addict) tried to launch a series, “Tripping with Caveh,” in which he and a guest would take hallucinogens and enjoy themselves. That didn’t pan out, for reasons Zahedi explains in this essay, so now he’s launched a lower-stakes version. You can get stoned with Caveh or not, and in this first installment Girls regular/Red Flag director Alex Karpovsky chooses to indulge. Not without a little prodding: “Ok, so I’m gonna start getting stoned,” Zahedi says up top. “Maybe I’ll just wait a […]...

You may recall that a decade ago, the ever-independent-minded Caveh Zahedi (A Little Stiff, I Am a Sex Addict) tried to launch a series, “Tripping with Caveh,” in which he and a guest would take hallucinogens and enjoy themselves. That didn’t pan out, for reasons Zahedi explains in this essay, so now he’s launched a lower-stakes version. You can get stoned with Caveh or not, and in this first installment Girls regular/Red Flag director Alex Karpovsky chooses to indulge. Not without a little prodding: “Ok, so I’m gonna start getting stoned,” Zahedi says up top. “Maybe I’ll just wait a […]...

Caveh Zahedi is a New York based filmmaker known for pushing people's buttons. In "I Don't Hate Las Vegas Anymore," he tries to get his Persian father to take Ecstacy with him, and in "I Am A Sex Addict" he confronts lust and fear of commitment. In his latest docu-comedy, entitled "The Sheik and I," the director takes on political repression in the Middle East. The film was commissioned for the 2011 Sharjah Biennial in the United Arab Emirates. Since the only explicit rule to the "transgressive" biennial was that Zahedi could in no way make fun of the Sheik, he decided to do just that. Thom Powers, the Toronto Film Festival's documentary programmer, allegedly said the film was "deeply troubling for its breach of documentary ethics and reckless behavior.” We recently spoke to Zahedi over the phone about his contentious film, which he claims was blacklisted from Tiff this year.

Caveh Zahedi’s The Sheik and I, the filmmaker’s uber-controversial follow-up to his Gotham Award-winning I Am a Sex Addict, was today picked up by Factory 25. Matt Grady’s Brooklyn-based boutique distribution company will give the film a simultaneous digital and theatrical release in December, which will qualify the doc for awards consideration. The film, in which Zahedi gleefully pokes fun at the Middle Eastern benefactor who is bankrolling his movie, had its world premiere at SXSW earlier this year — and has been banned in the United Arab Emirates for blasphemy.

The Sheik and I trailer from factory twenty five on Vimeo.

From today’s press release:

Brooklyn, NY (November 6, 2012) - Factory 25 announced today that it has acquired world rights to Caveh Zahedi’s The Sheik and I which premiered at SXSW. Commissioned by a Middle Eastern Biennial to make a film on the theme of “art as a subversive act,...

Factory 25 has acquired world rights for Caveh Zahedi's incendiary documentary "The Sheik and I," the Brooklyn-based indie label announced Tuesday. The film, which premiered earlier this year at SXSW, is set for theatrical release in New York on December 7, and Factory 25 will partner with Fandor to release the film via VOD, iTunes and Amazon the same day. Zahedi, whose previous work includes "I Am a Sex Addict" and "In the Bathtub of the World," was threatened with a fatwa as a result of "Sheikh," which takes as its subject a Middle East Biennial, and gleefully antagonizes a host of cultural sensitivities in the course of its 104 minutes. Commissioned to produce a film on the theme of "art as a subversive act"--with the caveat that he must not lampoon...

As I mentioned when rounding up the Narrative Feature Competition, wrapping SXSW 2012 could take a while. That batch opened with comments from one of the jurors, J Hoberman, and this one will as well. First, though, let's mention that we already have roundups going on the award-winners, Beware of Mr Baker and Bay of All Saints.

So the Guardian's Catherine Shoard, jury member, found Jeffrey Kimball's The Central Park Effect to be "a sweet study of the birders who flock to Manhattan's thick strip of parkland each spring. It was pretty gentle, generic, even, but felt from a different planet from the rest in that it wasn't wholly human-focused. Sure, the warblers and the robins are red herrings, and it's really all about the cast of eccentrics who eyeball them – including celeb twitcher Jonathan Franzen, who pitches in with some unusually self-deprecating soundbites."

Mark Olsen in the Los Angeles...

There was a moment when I actually thought the theater could blow up. I guess this makes The Sheik and I the scariest film of SXSW, though it will probably go down primarily as the most controversial. Following the premiere screening Sunday night, the Q&A discussion got so heated that I again feared for the safety of people in the room. When someone yells, "you need to put your lawyer on a leash," it seems possible that punches will soon be thrown. Fortunately, for now, nobody has been physically hurt as a result of this movie. That I know of. What kind of provocation is this? Sheik is the latest from filmmaker Caveh Zahedi (I Am a Sex Addict) and it’s a satirical semi-documentary filmed in and slightly mocking of Sharjah, one of the United Arab Emirates...

Read More...

Caveh Zahedi built a reputation as a naughty provocateur with surreal docu-comedies like "A Little Stiff" and "I Am a Sex Addict," but his latest effort rises above self-interest and takes a stab at instigating change. "The Sheik and I," a diary film about Zahedi's messy experience working on commission in the United Arab Emirates, still contains a mischievous edge. However, Zahedi has also made an alarming testament to the challenges of sincere expression in societies opposed to its function. It's a daring work made with reckless abandon -- in other words, both irresponsible and necessary. Hired by the Sharjah Art Foundation to create a short film for the UAE emirate's biennial celebration, Zahedi faces a paradoxical task. The genial and apparently open-minded curators of the foundation, avowed fans of his work, task him with creating a film illustrating "art as a subversive act." But they also establish a few puzzling.

Sound On Sight will once again be covering the SXSW Film Festival this year, making it our second time attending. 130 feature films will screen at the Austin, Texas fest taking place March 9-17, including 65 World Premieres, 17 North American Premieres and 10 U.S. Premieres. As previously announced, Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon’s The Cabin in the Woods will have the honours of opening the festival, and now they have released the full list of films – and it’s looking pretty amazing. Enjoy!

Narrative Feature Competition

This year’s 8 films were selected from 1,112 submissions. Each film is a World Premiere. Films screening in Narrative Feature Competition are:

Booster

Director/Screenwriter: Matt Ruskin

When Simon’s brother is arrested for armed robbery, he is asked to commit a string of similar crimes in an attempt to get his brother acquitted.

Cast: Nico Stone, Adam DuPaul, Seymour Cassel, Kristin Dougherty, Brian McGrail (World Premiere)

Eden

Director: Megan Griffiths,...

Iggy Pop and Debbie Harry, shot by Bob Gruen in 1977

Rock 'N' Roll Exposed: The Photography of Bob Gruen

screens as part of 24 Beats per Second

SXSW Film has just announced its features lineup for the 2012 edition, running March 9 through 17. We already knew that the Opening Night Film would be Drew Goddard's The Cabin in the Woods. For its Closing Night Film, the festival will host the world premiere of of Emmett Malloy’s documentary Big Easy Express (more below). The lineup, with descriptions from the festival:

Narrative Feature Competition

Booster

Director/Screenwriter: Matt Ruskin. When Simon’s brother is arrested for armed robbery, he is asked to commit a string of similar crimes in an attempt to get his brother acquitted. Cast: Nico Stone, Adam DuPaul, Seymour Cassel, Kristin Dougherty, Brian McGrail. (World Premiere)

Eden

Director: Megan Griffiths, Screenwriters: Richard B. Phillips, Megan Griffiths, Story by: Richard B. Phillips & Chong Kim.

With Sundance 2012 Film Festival over, the next big one on the horizon is South by Southwest, which we’ll be heavily covering. The biggest chunk of the line-up has been announced today, which has some great premieres including 21 Jump Street, Tiff and Sundance hit The Raid, Will Ferrell‘s Casa de mi Padre, the documentary Girl Model (which we liked at Tiff), as well as the next from Broken Lizard, The Babymakers. There are many other promising titles included and you can see them all below. Check back for our coverage for the fest, kicking off March 9th.

Narrative Feature Competition

This year’s 8 films were selected from 1,112 submissions. Each film is a World Premiere. Films screening in Narrative Feature Competition are:

Booster

Director/Screenwriter: Matt Ruskin

When Simon’s brother is arrested for armed robbery, he is asked to commit a string of similar crimes in an attempt to get his brother acquitted.

Attendees of South by Southwest 2012 are in for a treat. 130 feature films will screen at the Austin, Texas festival taking place March 9-17. Among them are 65 World Premieres, 17 North American Premieres and 10 U.S. Premieres. The organization already announced [1] Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon's The Cabin in the Woods would open the festival (the movie is phenomenal [2]) and today the majority of the remaining line up has been revealed. One of the highlights is the unbelievably smart and hilarious 21 Jump Street, directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller. Both of those are World Premieres. Other highlights include The Hunter, Killer Joe, The Babymakers, frankie goes boom, God Bless America, The Imposter, The Raid, Bernie and Casa de mi Padre just to name a few. After the jump, read descriptions of all the films that have been announced so far. Before I copy and paste the rest of the list, a few minor notes.

The Ifp announced today the slate for this year’s Project Forum, which will take place during the 33rd edition of Independent Film Week on Sept. 18-22 at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Elinor Bunin Monroe Film Center.

The centerpiece of Independent Film Week, Project Forum is designed specifically as a place for industry to meet with new talent, as well as discover fresh projects from emerging and veteran filmmakers.

Read the complete press release and full list of titles in this year’s Project Forum.

All 150 projects showcased in the Project Forum this year are narrative and documentary features ranging from films in development, or the early stages of production, to those nearing completion.

Some of the notable directors in this year’s Project Forum include: Bruce La Bruce (Otto: Or, Up With Dead People), Alrick Brown (Kinyrwanda), Adam Bowers (New Low), David Lowery (St. Nick), David Robert Mitchell...

I thought we'd take a closer look at the five films selected in the Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You category a.k.a the "fringe" titles that receive a helping hand and some extra love just by being nominated and have very little to do with batch of other films mentioned in yesterday's Gotham award nominations announcement. Previous winners in the section include 2009's You Wont Miss Me, 2008's Sita Sings the Blues, 2007's Frownland, 2006's Choking Man and 2005's I Am a Sex Addict, but this year a documentary could win with a ratio that sees three docs and a pair of narratives. I was only familiar with two of the five in Robert Greene's Kati with an i and Mike Ott's Littlerock, so logically I thought about whipping up breakdown of the section and presenting the mentioned pair and Francine Cavanaugh and...

Leading up to the release this weekend of Thomas Balme’s Babies, FilmInFocus (which, full disclosure, I am a co-editor of) asked four independent filmmakers to make one-minute films about their own babies. The shorts are unexpected and diverse and scope, and I decided to post two here. The first, Dada, is from Caveh Zahedi (I am a Sex Addict), who wrote about his filmmaking experience, “My wife was against it but I prevailed. This said, it was the longest minute of my life.” And second, Untitled, is from experimental filmmaker Jennifer Reeves, who wrote: While capturing the exuberance and wonder of our family’s ever-evolving present, I wanted to also show the recent past which feels like a beautiful dream. The film...

The 48th annual Ann Arbor Film Festival is another exciting celebration of underground film past and present, featuring two retrospectives of two master filmmakers and dozens of short films and features from some of the most gifted talents working today.

For the retrospectives, first, Kenneth Anger will be in attendance at the festival for two programs of his classic work, including Fireworks and Scorpio Rising. Plus, for the first Anger screening, the filmmaker will be joined on-stage by film critic Dennis Lim for a discussion of his work and career. The second retrospective is of the work of the late Chick Strand, who sadly passed away in 2009. Strand’s Angel Blue Sweet Wings (1966) will actually open the entire festival, then there will be two retrospective screenings of her work, the first of which will be presented by film scholar Irina Leimbacher.

The rest of the Aaff lineup reads like a...

The picture to the left has nothing to do with anything released in the last ten years, but it is from a movie.

Here in the Alamo programming office, movies are a big deal. We each watch approximately 215 movies per day, seven days a week, no holidays.

It’s a tough job…especially when it comes time to narrow down our favorites at the end of each year. It’s even more difficult to figure out what the best 20 films were in the past decade. But we do it all for you.

The lists below represent the most powerful and/or entertaining films of 2009, plus the finest we’ve seen since Y2K destroyed civilization. Take a look, disagree, get furious and attack us on the street.

Warning: We’ve got switchblades.

* * * * * *

Tim League

1) Mother -

I saw Mother at Cannes this year and it blew me out of the water.

• Discovering and developing talent is what they do, and judging by the high quality level of docs they are able to support and then showcase at the snowy Park City fest it makes all the sense in the world that the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program would find it advantageous to want split the atom as many times possible and fork over what I imagine is some Ben Franklins that will be well spent. Its folks like me who get to sink their teeth into these films every trip back to Sundance.This year, 25 feature-length docs and their filmmakers will receive financial grants from the fund – many of these filmmakers are familiar names to those who know more than a thing or two about contemporary doc films. Here is the list of recipients provided below. Development GRANTSRob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, $10,000Howl (Us)Using animation to explore Howl , the poetic masterpiece by Allen Ginsberg,

...

PARK CITY -- IFC Entertainment has announced a new video-on-demand service that will premiere select films at the same time they're released in theaters. The announcement came Monday morning at an IFC Films panel on collapsing release date windows, vertical integration and the new day-and-date distribution model. IFC's First Take, the new distribution outlet, will launch in March with Kevin Willmott's CSA: The Confederate States of America, a mockumentary about what might have happened if the South had won the Civil War, which played at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. IFC plans to offer at least 24 indie films annually. Among the six upcoming projects on First Take's slate are the Gotham Award-winning I Am a Sex Addict, directed by Caveh Zahedi; Aric Avelino's American Gun, which also played at Sundance 2004; and the recent Toronto International Film Festival entry Sorry, Haters, a psychological thriller starring Robin Wright Penn and directed by Jeff Stanzler.