The Beauty of The Desert

I went out to Joshua Tree several days ago. I've been there many times in the past few years but, surprisingly, while it was never too far away from where I have been mostly living in my adult life, it took me many years to actually make plans and follow through. From that point on, I try to make it out into the desert whenever feasible. Both an escape, and more importantly, a meditation. 

Joshua Tree is a famous place. U2 named an album that went multi-platinum after the tree that gives a name to the location (The Joshua Tree). I just learned that Brian Eno produced the album. Feels like something I "should of" known. "Should of" of course is one of the most insidious utterances in the English language so beware. It feels appropriate here though. 

I went with some old friends who I rarely see. We hiked under the full moon. It's probably not advisable to go hiking into the Southern US desert at night (especially when you don't know what the hell you're doing), but, the once ever so often Blue Moon lit up the landscape in a way that was, to say the least, surreal. 

I'm sure I saw a Desert Bobcat running swiftly across the landscape, but the rest of the party won't corroborate the story. Finding truth is similar. You see it, but you're not 100% because you're alone in finding it. A quality of faith reassembles the partial vision into totality. 

First teaser trailer goes live for our latest feature project MAN

Coming sometime in 2018 is my latest feature film, MAN. This is the first available teaser for the project. We are currently creating our release schedule though I have no estimates other than "sometime, 2018". If you'll make some noise about it, the sooner it will find its way. 

The film has yet to world premiere (working on securing dates/venue) although it has won its first award a little over a month ago at a private festival event (CICFF). 

This is 1/3 of the THREE MARKS, TOO MANY SIGNALS trilogy, which features the already released 2016 project, CANYON, and the forthcoming feature film, THREE WORLDS (also a 2018 release).

alternatively, on vimeo if you prefer:

Find me as well on my newish Instagram.

This is my new public page on instagram. i_am_not_amir_motlagh .
Come say hello :) 

The End of The Year

Just a few more days, and with that, I will have (mostly, if not completely) wrapped up several projects that have been, works in progress for several years. What a beautiful relief.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Years :) 

I'll leave you with a picture of my fathers bunnies, Mr Totoro and Marshmellow. 

what do you know of water’s worth while standing on the banks of the euphrates

(if inclined, please watch the work first...it runs 15min.)

Tomorrow marks the online premiere of my latest work (today for you) which I have conveniently embedded the link in this post. (if you prefer, on vimeo here)

This project functions as both a standalone film and also, a visual single for "Moonlighting MIssion Man", the latest release from my music project MIRS.

Two birds, one stone on the shallow end, a postmodernist twist on a Rene Magritte expression on the pretentious end. Both, equally as valid.

This is the working synopsis or thesis put through a press release blender:  "The film captures an intimate sliver into an Iranian American Sufi Muslim poet (Mahsa Hosseini) as she goes about finding meaning in her life. The visual narrative, shot in a classic cinéma vérité style, provides a strong counterpoint to the hidden, synth-driven, processed vocals in "Moonlighting Mission Man". The video eludes to a dual narrative between the film & the music, though kept hidden from plain sight."

Ultimately, this project started with this question, "Is this a short film or a music video?". And for me, ended with identity. (an ephemeral thing, with real-world consequences). 

But back to Magritte, and equally, Jean Baudrillard. Why is the opening question important to me? Media (and its contents) by in large is an open-ended question nowadays, and while I'm personally working through the details of this new paradigm, doing so with a dichotomous media might be my best way of processing it. What is a film? What is a tweet? How are they different? These are important questions in hyperreality when words have less direct meaning, and content rules all. 

Merch finally available for my music project MIRS

You can finally pick up an awesome t-shirt in many different sizes for my ongoing music project MIRS by clicking the image below (15% off for the time being). All sales feed right back into the project, so, not only a good way to support but more important, a fresh way to get outside and stunt on your neighbors. Love yall :) 

"what do you know of water's worth while standing on the banks of the euphrates" premiere

We are premiering new work online,  Nov 28th, 2017.  Produced in-house at ANIMALS, in conjunction with MIRS. 

Tomorrow is the LA premiere of "A DYING KING"

Tomorrow starts the limited theatrical run of my friend Bobak's documentary, A DYING KING. I spent a good amount of time on this production, which spanned many years. This was a real passion project for him, and never having made a film before, he took a giant leap of faith & unsurprisingly, saw it to the end. Most people will never realize the difficulty in completing an independent film, let alone a feature-length documentary. The amount of work just compounds & whenever you think you are finished, a whole new set of challenges appear. 

You can catch the film this week in LA, starting Wednesday at Laemmle Music Hall, Beverly Hills; Thursday at Laemmle Town Center 5, Encino. A New York run starts the following week and it will tour through several cities including some European ones.

The online release starts in 2018.  

Here is a link to the LA Times review:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-dying-king-review-20171114-story.html

MAN wins "Outstanding Achievement Award" for best "Postmodern Film" at CICFF

To be perfectly honest (which is my aim these days), & I've said this for many years & truly believe it, awards in the arts are incompatible. No exceptions. They are structurally made of other things, and those things do not fit.

The other reality is that I want you to see my film. I really do. And so, I'll play the rules as they are (though bending what I can), so that, in the end, you have access to this work & and that it reaches as wide an audience as is possible for an undeniable arthouse experience. And an award or two, might help that cause.

It is what it is, but, I believe this film has a much wider reach than at first might appear (we have been told that as well from industry people in Los Angeles, an unlikely place for such a reaction to this type of work). 

With that said, MAN wins an "Outstanding Achievement Award" for best "Postmodern Film" at CICFF, in Kolkata (formerly, Calcutta) and with it, our first "laurel".

We still have yet to world premiere the film as this was an industry private showcase, and we are thankful to the organizers of this event to acknowledge our work. Festival programmers, and open-minded distributors, *makes hand into 90's cell phone*, call me. 

New Short Film (visual single) Premiering Soon - Collab with MIRS

Dropping a new project late Nov, or early next month titled, "what do you know of waters worth while standing on the banks of the euphrates".

MIRS

For the last couple years (actually, since the beginning of this), I've compartmentalized my music projects and my film work into separate spaces. And, I'll continue doing that, but with some important changes.

For one, MIRS is turning into as much a visual project as music, but with music as its fundamental core. The last record we did, CANYON, was a visual album and the imagery was co-tangent with the music. It played as a dual narrative.

In fact, I have been trying that since I started MIRS, with the debut release, SPIN CYCLE. But, I came short of the resources required to pull that off. That was essentially a visual album (before that became a mainstream thing), without it ever becoming a visual album, strictly because I couldn't pull it off (resource wise). Truth is, an idea is just an idea, and they are a dime a dozen.

Every time I start writing music, I preface it as a final act. The last record was supposed to be the final songs I write, and then, this last single, MOONLIGHTING MISSION MAN became the last piece of commercial music I write. Eventually, there will be a last, but I think I'm do for at least one more effort, as a new concept came my way, and I want to attempt bringing it to life. This feeling might change, but, my mouth doesn't want to shut yet.

Though, this one has larger ambitions, which means, I will be up against bigger barriers.

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Updates (What Do You Know Of Water’s Worth While Standing On The Banks Of The Euphrates)

Hello friends -

The time is coming in which I will start actually writing mid-length thoughts here again. With twitter existing, I've found it a bit meaningless to verbose upon things that can be delivered with precision.. (my personal preference)

But, post-production is almost wrapped for both the feature films THREE WORLDS and MAN. We will certainly hit the targets, which are both before the year is up. What to do, what to do next. If you program festivals, now is the time to ask. Certainly, before I make a hasty or ill-advised decision to go the self-distro route. I think a mutually beneficial deal is in order. So yourself, friend. 

But, before you can see those, I have another project releasing before the year is up, which, I think will premiere web first (my preference unless someone wants to step up and screen a day earlier), titled: What Do You Know Of Water’s Worth While Standing On The Banks Of The Euphrates. Shot the project in September, locked picture yesterday. I'll give context once it's released. This project is in conjunction with MIRS and produced in-house by ANIMALS. 

Launching a campaign to finish my work.

Ok, the time has come. I'm nearing the finish line. And, at this point, all options are on the table.

The first of which, a crowdfunding campaign to help raise the finishing funds for my two feature films (THREE WORLDS / MAN)  that are near complete.

These two finish my THREE MARKS, TOO SIGNALS series of works that includes the 2016 release, CANYON. Please consider helping. Please join the mailing list. Please pick up one of these great perks. Please spread the word. 

If all goes to plan, launching next week or the one after.

MAN minor update

Almost done with the poster art for MAN. This is beta v2 (partial view), but just waiting on final proofs. Should be complete this week. 

MAN + THREE WORLDS + CANYON = THREE MARKS, TOO MANY SIGNALS

Currently wrapping up the final post production on two long-form projects, both set for release in 2017, of which are titled MAN & THREE WORLDS respectively.

These works file under the umbrella of THREE MARKS, TOO MANY SIGNALS and include the 2016 MIRS visual album CANYON, released in Sept of 2016. 

They are grouped together for multiple reasons, most of which are not important for me to state on paper, though, I believe, will be somewhat self-evident upon inspection. Even maybe an ah-ha moment at a later date. As Ozu was once heard remarking, "The end of a film is its beginning". I stand firm on his statement, at this time.

This body of work is somewhat hard to define in the current media space as it exists today. MAN and THREE WORLDS are closely related to feature films, but, share some space with the concepts of internet defined new media, and also, classic single channel works. The division of labor hierarchy, a stalwart of fiction filmmaking was not really present, and nothing in the process was ever too familiar. Simply put, it was a bottom-up effort (of course, with ample help, without which, all three, non-existent). With that said, all three were created with different methodology, defined by their own individual worlds, under a larger, unified universe.

But, I am at the state where I do need to raise a bit of capital to see this through completely into a shippable, or at least, releasable product. Very little $$ comparatively, but enough so that I am seriously considering a CROWD FUNDING CAMPAIGN. In fact, unless someone comes along this week and puts up used car money, I'll go that route, not so begrudgingly anymore, because I think the urge to share overrides my conditioned response to crowd sourcing fiction. On second thought,  I hardly call these works fiction in the common language sense ( language is never 1 to 1) so most importantly betweeen the two parties involved, you need to see them, but first I must finish.

Also, to really ride #skininthegame to its conclusion, here is some prototype artwork for the projects. I have never shared this early in the art direction process, as art is historically done when presented in its final form. But, art is now software, as art is a product of its time and software has eaten the whole, entire fucking world in its time. Also, software is always beta.

So, here is my beta version artwork posters for the collective of THREE MARKS TOO MANY SIGNALS projects. These are again another collaborative effort with my long time friend, artist Ali Sabet who puts up with my art direction barking, which often gets reversed by better instincts. Note that CANYON is already released, but will be updated with a film poster as well to go along with the album art.   

 NOTE: Everything in this post is temporary. Except, the fact that the projects are releasing.