Rouzbeh Rashidi ( fa, روزبه رشیدی; born 23 December 1980, Tehran, Iran) is an Iranian-Irish

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

filmmaker and founder of Experimental Film Society. Since 2000, Rashidi produced experimental feature films and numerous volumes of instalments for the Homo Sapiens Project. His films have been associated with the Remodernist Film Movement.

Early life

Born in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

, from an early age, Rashidi collected

records A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

most of which he has sold to buy his first camera, VHSc to start making films in the year 2000. His observation has shown that there were three main filmmaking categories: mainstream,

guerilla Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tact ...

and

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting ...

. Mainstream implied an accent on storytelling,

underground Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston * The Underground (S ...

held similar ideas to the first category but lacked financial support, and lastly, originating from a visual arts background, video art most often persuaded a political point. Not being fulfilled by the options, the filmmaker came up with an alternative solution by creating his own system of creating and screening films. Rashidi's main influences became moving image pioneers like

Maya Deren Maya Deren (born Eleonora Derenkowska, uk, Елеоно́ра Деренко́вська, links=no;

Andrei Tarkovsky Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky ( rus, Андрей Арсеньевич Тарковский, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ɐrˈsʲenʲjɪvʲɪtɕ tɐrˈkofskʲɪj; 4 April 1932 – 29 December 1986) was a Russian filmmaker. Widely considered one of the greates ...

Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as Fran� ...

, and

Jonas Mekas Jonas Mekas (; December 24, 1922 – January 23, 2019) was a Lithuanian-American filmmaker, poet, and artist who has been called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema". Mekas' work has been exhibited in museums and at festivals worldwi ...

Career

2000s

In 2004, Rashidi moved to

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, where he continued establishing the Experimental Film Society and his filmmaking practice. The filmmaker received 3 Smedias Awards for the ''Homo Sapiens Project (200'') work-in-progress version in 2009, and shortly after released his debut feature film, ''"Only Human."''

2010s

In 2010, an experimental drama feature film was released under the name '' "Bipedality"'', followed by an experimental mystery feature film ''" Closure of Catharsis"'' in 2011. In 2011, the first official Experimental Film Society screening was led in Dublin, expanding the Irish programming of experimental cinema. The feature films ''"Hades of Limbo"'' (screened at

Govett-Brewster Art Gallery The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery is a contemporary art museum at New Plymouth, Taranaki, New Zealand. The gallery receives core funding from the New Plymouth District Council. Govett-Brewster is recognised internationally for contemporary art. H ...

in 2022), ''"Indwell Extinction of Hawks in Remoteness"'' and '' "HE"'' were the products of 2012, landing Rashidi the reputation of a naturally predisposed to experimentation, always looking for a new film language, rejecting its canons.''' (CinePensieri Magazine). The title ''"There Is No Escape From The Terrors Of The Mind"'' released in 2013 was chosen to be performed in tandem with the sound artists at

Sharjah Art Foundation The Sharjah Art Foundation ( ar, مؤسسة الشارقة للفنون) is a contemporary art and cultural foundation based in Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates, founded in 2009 by Hoor Al Qasimi, daughter of Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, a me ...

in 2020. In 2015, the new era of Rashidi's filmography has begun defining itself as a

science-fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel univers ...

trilogy A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games, and are less common in other art forms. Three-part wor ...

. The premiere of ''"Ten Years in The Sun",'' a homage to

Luis Buñuel Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish-Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and m ...

and Joao Cesar Monteiro'','' took place at

Dublin International Film Festival The Dublin International Film Festival (DIFF; ) is an annual film festival held in Dublin, Ireland, since 2003. History Dublin International Film Festival was established in 2003. It was revived by Michael Dwyer, international film critic and ' ...

in 2015. A year later, an avant-garde fantasy ''"Trailers"'' debuted at

Cork International Film Festival The Cork International Film Festival, also known as the Cork Film Festival (), is a film festival held annually in Cork City Cork ( , from , meaning 'marsh') is the second largest city in Ireland and third largest city by population on the i ...

. The concluding piece ''"Luminous Void: Docudrama"'' (2019) was premiered at Istanbul International Experimental Film Festival. In 2017, Rashidi received the Reel Art Award from the

Arts Council of Ireland The Arts Council (sometimes called the Arts Council of Ireland; legally ga, An Chomhairle Ealaíon) is the independent "Irish government agency for developing the arts." About It was established in 1951 by the Government of Ireland, to encour ...

for his experimental documentary landscape feature film ''"Phantom Islands"'' (2018) to be later distributed by the

Irish Film Institute The Irish Film Institute (IFI; ), formerly the Irish Film Centre, is both an arthouse cinema and a national body that supports Irish film heritage. The IFI presents film festivals, retrospectives and curated seasons, along with independent, ...

. The film has received the best feature-length prize at the Istanbul International Experimental Film Festival.

2020s

In February 2020, Rashidi was accepted to be a part of

Berlinale Talents Berlinale Talents, formerly Berlinale Talent Campus, is the talent development programme of the Berlin International Film Festival (also called Berlinale). An annual summit and networking platform for 200 outstanding creatives from the fields of f ...

. The same year, the eight-hour feature film ''"Homo Sapiens Project 200" (2000-2020)'' was released as a constitution of twenty years of film experiments. In 2021, the filmmaker's most extended feature, ''"Homo Sapiens Project 201"'', was released, reaching a total of nineteen hours. In the year 2022, Rashidi taught ''Experimental Filmmaking and Practise'' at

Universität der Künste The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research universiti ...

in Berlin, Germany.

Experimental Film Society

In 2000, Rashidi founded the Experimental Film Society in Tehran, Iran which four years later expanded to Dublin. First, EFS was a member-based not-for-profit film collective specialising in avant-garde, experimental and low-budget filmmaking. While employing new international members, the group emphasised film archiving, restoring and programming by underground filmmakers. By 2011, the collective put the initiative into organising screenings, performances and talks worldwide. In 2017, EFS officially became a production and distribution company facilitating professionally funded projects. The year 2020 marked the two decades of the existence Experimental Film Society and the culmination of the company's multidisciplinary work. The group is often referred to as "the most active, prolific and intrepid group of experimental filmmakers working in Ireland today" (aemi).

Homo Sapiens Project

in 2011, Rashidi initiated the Homo Sapiens Project (HSP), an ongoing series of personal experimental video instalments. In its entirety, the project, as he says, is "not a filmed life, but filmmaking as a parallel to life and a parallel life". In 2020, the eight-hour experimental feature Homo Sapiens Project (200) was completed as part of the 20th anniversary of the Experimental Film Society.

Filmography

Feature films * 2009 ''Only Human'' * 2010 ''Bipedality'' * 2011 '' Closure of Catharsis'' * 2012 ''Hades of Limbo'' * 2012 ''Indwell Extinction of Hawks in Remoteness'' * 2012 ''HE'' * 2013 ''HSP: There Is No Escape From The Terrors Of The Mind'' * 2015 ''Ten Years In The Sun'' * 2016 ''TRAILERS'' * 2018 ''Phantom Islands'' * 2019 ''Luminous Void: Docudrama''

References

External links

Official website
* *
Rouzbeh Rashidi
' on

MUBI Mubi (; stylized as MUBI; The Auteurs before 2010) is a global curated film streaming platform, production company and film distributor. Mubi produces and theatrically distributes films by emerging and established filmmakers, which are exclusivel ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rashidi, Rouzbeh 1980 births Living people People from Tehran Iranian film directors Irish film directors Iranian experimental filmmakers