"ya:twtd" has moved one foot into the domain of post-prod (1 of 2 major works in prod for the year 2021)
"ya:twtd" // image 0
©2021(2) ANIMALS
Film
"ya:twtd" has moved one foot into the domain of post-prod (1 of 2 major works in prod for the year 2021)
"ya:twtd" // image 0
©2021(2) ANIMALS
At midnight PST (06/22/20) is the official release (soft release) of my latest work, three eleven or (a meditation on stillness inside chaos). Below is information on the featurette including a rare director’s statement. As always, if you cannot afford to watch but desire to, let me know and we’ll hook you up. Stay well.
synopsis:
On Wednesday, March 11, 2020, the United States went into shutdown to keep citizens sheltered from the threat of a mysterious global pandemic sweeping the world. In this meditative days-in-the-life-of work, a small family experiences the fog of time from a mandatory stay at home order, as a strange, comforting togetherness forms in a very uncertain time.
--
directors statement:
"three eleven" is a meditation. It is a reflection of boredom, of togetherness, of uncertainty, and most of all, stillness. It intends to direct the viewer into the granularity of life in its most basic, mundane practicalities, and thus, direct focus into the beauty of routine, and of the nowness, all while under the umbrella of impending & uncertain chaos, a lingering scent of anxiety as the real outside world experiences shocks unlike any other in modern times.
It is intended as an experience, hypnosis, and a reflection. The stillness is the message. While stripping the “narrative” of the filmic medium into its most minimal building block, the frame clicks out of “narrative” time, and into clock time. It’s a universal acknowledgment of this very “moment in time”, and we intend for this to be a visual/audio documentation at its most basic level while conveying the beauty of togetherness and separation at its most minimal.
This work is indebted to Ozu & Kiarostami, who oddly enough (the latter), and without my prior knowledge shares his birthday with our release date.
credits:
Shot & Directed by Amir Motlagh
Produced by ANIMALS & Charles Borg
Story by Charles Borg & Amir Motlagh
Music by Amir Motlagh - “three eleven zazen” © 2020 ANIMALS Publishing Worldwide - BMI
© ANIMALS 2020
release date: 06/22/20
trt: 33 min
original aspect: 1:85:1
A funny thing happened a few nights ago that succinctly describes the plight of independent filmmaking and the practice of sending screeners. Let me preface that with this; one of the most rewarding aspects of filmmaking in the true independent sense is the process of self-actualization, a partially controllable condition. Now, the uncontrollable condition (everything after the creation) is that the farther a vision strews from established norms, the harder it becomes to attract a certain level of attention. This is woven into the classic gatekeeper paradigm.
Ok, back to the first sentence. Nearly two years ago, Chicago Film Critics Association member Ian Simmons was handed a screener to the film MAN (screening at Chicago at the time) by a colleague, he watched the first ten minutes of it and shut the screener off prematurely, writing it off as not his thing. Fast forward to a couple of nights ago, as he confessed this earlier sin on his “Kicking the Seat Podcast”, and now proclaimed that the film had, “blown his mind” while dedicating an entire episode talking about the film. A massive change of opinion nearly two years in the making, done in a transparent, respectable & honest way.
This is the reality of artmaking and it is unavoidable when the access & context is not in place. One cannot demand that people pay attention to your work. But it is always the artist's responsibility to tell what needs to be told, in the only way that one can.
Time takes care of the rest, not in the sense that people will come around, but in the sense that ultimately, it never really mattered in the first place.
Here is the link to the Kicking The Seat Podcast in which MAN is given a positive, newly minted spotlight in the eyes of one critic.
And below, a link to watch on our preferred platform.
Our producer Charles Borg hosts IFP CHICAGO’s “Filmmakers Friday” on Friday, November 9th at 4:30pm where we present both THREE WORLDS and MAN, followed by a Q/A and mixer.
On November 14th, at 5:15, MAN screens at Tribeca Flashpoint Chicago at the “Screening Room” followed by a discussion.
Both events are free to the public.
In what is now a first for me, I got name dropped in a trailer for a DIY film from NY based filmmaker/blogger Sujewa Ekanayake about a Werewolf philosopher solving the case of a string of dead art filmmakers turning up in NY.
Yes, in fact, that is the synopsis.
I received an early version of the film (was informed that some changes will be made) and sat down with it last night.
Again, I’m biased (see the trailer below), but knowing Sujewa’s work over the years, he reminds me of a living, breathing indie music fanzine from the 80’s-90’s. If you know anything about that time, you know that it was a labor of love, & it was the underpinning that drove that scene.
“Werewolf” never takes itself serious (its absurd comedy after-all), and Sujewa spends time through the Werewolf expressing his love for the things he’s interested in, centered around his influences, while imbuing the film with a workable philosophy that translates to the real world. It also has several legit laugh out loud moments sprinkled throughout.
This type of filmmaking is certainly not for everyone (long transitional cutaways/ long single take dialogue sequences/ a certain DIY wandering edit / no budget), but I can’t help but respect his drive and his passion for the scene he nurtures in it.
I think, in a different timeline, we would have had more variety of this type of work, but the indie film world never shaped up like the indie music scene; still, we have Sujewa keeping the fanzine alive with his particular vision.
“Werewolf Ninja Philosopher” is playing Oct 25-31st at 7pm at the Maysles Theater in Harlem. You can order it on VOD here as a pre-order.
When you make art & you put it out into the world, it becomes a vulnerable time if you haven’t done the necessary work to detach. Essentially, equanimity is the only barrier between this raw period and the world. I seldom read or look at reviews, but this one was a bit different because I felt the reviewer got it (the essence), for lack of a better term, and that connection is wonderful.
So, when you got a moment, check out this THREE WORLDS review from the stellar arthouse cinema site, PINNLAND EMPIRE.
“Amir Motlagh dispels some of the superficial stigmas put on Los Angeles while at the same time embraces the very real superficialities associated with L.A. (outside of Los Angeles being the epicenter of the entertainment industry, it’s a very cool city unlike any other if you know the right people).
And putting all Mekas/Malick comparisons aside, this is very much Motlagh’s own film. The movie is filled with obvious autobiographical content that comes off as genuine & organic as opposed to pretentious. That’s not an easy task with a film like this (ambient, sprawling, artistic and sometimes chaotic). A young filmmaker could easily get self-absorbed & pretentious with a movie like Three Worlds but that’s not the case here.
This will definitely require a second (or third) viewing. And that’s a good thing. This isn’t something to fully digest in one sitting.”
Was not going to do one of these this week, but then I figured that, knowing Chris, he would have been like, "fuck you dude, do one of these on me!"
I just pulled up our last text message, in which he states that I owe him a Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles dinner. I can't seem to recall why?
Still working out some audio drop-outs, but I think I figured that out. If you're interested in getting your weekly (bi-weekly) dose of these, please subscribe.
Christopher Ad Castillo: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1779820/?ref_=nv_sr_2
Celso Ad. Castillo: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0145036/?ref_=nv_sr_1
MIRS video we co-directed on the set of his film LosAngeles7: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_lyA...
RIP Christopher Ad. Castillo
This is a recent article conducted on Film Pipeline (Script Pipeline) about my latest film release, MAN. Both Charles and myself answer great questions posed by Script Pipeline about the process of MAN. You can read the whole interview by clicking here:
Here a small snippet:
"Options and possibilities have opened quite a bit. Filmmakers tend to idolize the big names because they like the toys and scale that comes with moviemaking. Most of the time, that’s just a hindrance because it gets in the way of truth."
MAN is available on Amazon Prime (US/UK) and Vimeo On Demand (worldwide) with a host of other platforms coming soon.
"Three Worlds" wins a Gold Award for "Best Feature" in the Animation/Experimental category at the Queen Palm International Film Festival. Big congrats to the team. We also have a technical category win, a Silver Award for editing, so cheers to Bryan Tuck.
While MAN just launched, ANIMALS secretly re-released WHALE in HD. While I'm generally against revisionism in art, some very slight modifications have been made to the 2010 release. We are in the software eat world age after all, where things get continuously updated. Nothing is ever finished until it ceases to exist.
The project is available for $2 to rent, $7 to buy and is available in all territories on Vimeo. The original SD version has been and still is available on Amazon (along with a few rare DVD's), though the new HD version will be available soon and free to Prime subscribers. If I could dictate your direction, I would say, use the Vimeo route for now.
before.
after.
Typography redesigned by Ali Sabet
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. 💚
(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.
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.
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 project CANYON goes live one week from today. (hopefully)
What is CANYON:
a deep gorge, typically one with a river flowing through it.
Two steps required:
a) Order the pre-sale
b) Subscribe to MIRS Youtube Channel to experience the correct mode of transmission.