Amir Motlagh
SATURDAY is the prelude single for the upcoming MIRS record, RAINBOW SEASON. The single will release on all major platforms on Friday, May 4th, 2018.
This track is extra special as it includes some instrumentation from my old SHANKS AND THE DREAMERS bandmate, Art Toussi.
This week, I interviewed with the might FILMWAX RADIO podcast hosted by Adam Schartoff and Chicago critic, David Fowlie's film discussion site, KEEPING IT REEL.
Both discussions centered around my latest feature films (MAN + Three Worlds) that are preview screening in Chicago today (4/21) at Chicago Filmmakers. Both were gracious in having me on.
The FILMWAX podcast runs roughly an hour and includes Vera Farmiga and Tommy Avallone as guests before my segment. You can just my segment of the FILMWAX interview here. Though I think you should just subscribe to the FILMWAX podcast because it's excellent.
As part of the promotional run for the 4/21 double feature screening, I got invited to do the popular film podcast, FILMWAX Radio. The episode should air later this month.
My producing partner Charles goes in to film an interview segment with CHICAGO FILM NEWS later this week.
All in all, things are moving along on getting these films out into the public space. We have gotten several distribution offers (for the only film we are showing to companies right now), and are weighing our options.
My real drive at the moment is showing these films together since they are all part of the same series along with CANYON. But, of course, I'm flexible on this since this is not all under my control.
In any case, if you're reading this, and program film slots, let's talk. It's a win, win.
The THREE MARKS, TOO MANY SIGNALS series of works gets a double feature screening of MAN & THREE WORLDS, presented by Chicago Filmmakers. The presentation starts at 6pm, Saturday, April 21st.
The box office is open, so we would love to see you there. I am planning on attending (schedule permitting) but my producing partner & co-writer on MAN, Charles Borg will be present. If you are press, or know anyone who would be interested in writing about the event, or needs screeners, please reach out.
This has been a long time coming, but we wish to come to other cities. If you are interested in booking the films, please reach out. Whether it be film festivals, one-off events, microcinemas, arthouse theaters or gallery spaces (etc), we are open and excited to hear from you. We want to bring this to you in a way that feels organic and connected.
I'll be updating as the date nears. Thank you all for the years of support. 💚
MAN screens at Chicago Filmmakers on April 21st. It's a special screening with a surprise. Will announce when its listed up on the site with a link to the box office.
i enjoy desert hikes in the night. the landscape & fauna take on a completely different character. the quiet, the darkness, and the enormity of the space swallow you up. we humans often feel like aliens, as if we were put on this earth, a separate from, forced to survive the inhospitable. the desert represents that essence well. it is a faulty, modern feeling of course. we are as much part of the earth, as the earth is part of us. 30k years ago, a human walked on this very part of the earth, not feeling as distant to the soil (aridisols) as we do know. of course, this is a presumption, but, it's a bet i'd be willing to make.
below is the night study (anza-borrego 03.05.18 - 10:30pm)
Looks like both the new features will be screening together late April. While MAN is locked, still working on finishing THREE WORLDS. My big aim all along was to be able to screen these two works along with CANYON in a single show. Basically, the THREE MARKS, TOO MANY SIGNALS series as one piece.
A long road indeed. Stay tuned. If all works well, I should be able to announce the location and date. One really big thing to note, it's not an LA show. We don't do arthouse well in LA :)
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.
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:
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.
(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.
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 :)
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
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.
