"Cloud of Skin" officially wrapped

Maximilian Le Cain's upcoming feature film "Cloud of Skin" (2015) has just finished shooting:

"Shooting is now fully completed on my upcoming feature Cloud of Skin! A big thank you to everyone who helped in any way to bring this project to where it is now.Special thanks to co-producers Dean Kavanagh and Rouzbeh Rashidi: what a team! Post production is about to commence in earnest with me working on editing the picture and the wonderful Karen Power creating a soundscape to envelop it in. All going well, in six to eight months the film will be ready for screening."

News and info on this project here

Man Is Not A Bird

The Great Dušan Makavejev

photo by Vican Vicanović

Many, many years ago

On this roof there was a show

The director, a gentleman nicely clad and fine

Was a boy of 9

Only a few years after Mickey Mouse

Makavejev was born in this house

But the future was vague and dim

A trick was played on him

The Great War brought a new venture

The horrible theatrical adventure

The hunger came and people dressed in rugs- not in silk

The whitest water was sold as milk

Listen to me tutti-frutti

This house was a real beauty

It was full of doctors who cured dogs and kittens

On their doors was written:

“We prevent the rabies

We vaccinate the pets and their babies

The patients are kindly requested

To come clean and not let the fleas infested,

And it is forbidden to bark and bite

On this veterinary site.”

 These people were friendly and nice

Even to rats and mice

What a circus, joy and pity

In this house amidst city

Makavejev learning tricks

For the art of shooting flicks

So, at the very tender age

A boy of 9 was marked for stage

-Raša Popov

"Late Hours of the Night" (2013) online

All 5 episodes can be watched HERE

Experimental Film Society Statement (Part 2)

Experimental Film Society has issued a statement,

written with input from Dean Kavanagh, Maximilian Le Cain & Rouzbeh Rashidi,

 that stands as a manifesto for their thinking about cinema.

It can be read here

Cinema Cyanide's "Group Enema" (2015)

Listen to the album here

Denn die einen sind im Dunkeln

Und die andern sind im Licht

Und man siehet die im Lichte

Die im Dunkeln sieht man nicht

Short film "Friends with Johnny Kline" (2015) complete

17 minutes, 16:9, B&W, Dslr, 16mm found footage

HSP 191-199 Completed

Rouzbeh Rashidi's "Homo Sapiens Project" instalments 191-199 have been completed.

These short films were a collaboration between Rouzbeh Rashidi, Maximilian Le Cain and Dean Kavanagh.

Full information

Return of Suspicion @ PF4

Full Information Here

"Cloud of Skin" additional scenes wrapped

Several additional scenes featuring Dean Kavanagh

have been shot for Maximilian Le Cain's "Cloud of Skin" over the past three days.

Full information here

"Return of Suspicion" Listed in Senses of Cinema 2014 World Poll

Thai film critic and cinephile Jit Phokaew has listed "Return of Suspicion" 

in his list of favourite films of 2014 for Senses of Cinema's Official World Poll.

Phokaew also reviewed the film for his blog.

Read his list HERE

"Return of Suspicion" was also listed by Fergus Daly in his list for Senses of Cinema HERE,

and included in Maximilian Le Cain's list HERE.

Stream or download "Return of Suspicion" (2014) from EFS VOD

EFS listed in The Senses of Cinema online journal World Poll 2014

 "Max Le Cain, Dean Kavanagh and Rouzbeh Rashidi continued to prove how much they’ve raised the bar for filmmaking in Ireland. "

The great film critic and cinephile FERGUS DALY has listed three films from Experimental Film Society 

in his favourite films of the year for Senses of Cinema 2014 World Poll.

He listed "HSP: There Is No Escape From The Terrors Of The Mind" (2013, Rashidi),

"Night Regulation" (2014, Le Cain) and "Return of Suspicion" (2014, Kavanagh).

Read the FULL LIST HERE

Cloud of Skin ‘Making Of’ Featurette

A documentary/behind-the-scenes featurette that sheds light on the creative processes behind

Maximilian Le Cain's upcoming feature film "Cloud of Skin".

Watch here

Rouzbeh Rashidi's "Ten Years in the Sun" is now complete

Statement by the filmmaker:

"I am happy to announce that my feature film “Ten Years in the Sun” (2015) has been completed. The project was one year in production and has drastically mutated and deviated in various ways from the idea initially conceived. In this film I have tried to radically minimalize genre elements such as science fiction, horror and perhaps erotic drama. My hope was to attain what could be called a ‘ground zero of drama’ through the systematic removal of narrative structures.

On this project I have intentionally worked with a wide range of collaborators and actors, and without their tremendous support this film would have been impossible to make. At this point I do not have any emotional feeling towards the film and I can only see it as a pure technical, audio-visual work that I engineered. I would very much like to share the film with an audience in any cinematic situation possible and hopefully they would approve of the finished piece.

I want to sincerely thank Jann Clavadetscher, John Curran, Dean Kavanagh, Maximilian Le Cain, Alice Kavanagh, Jennifer Sharpe, Ora Kolmanovsky, Atoosa Pour Hosseini, Patricia Klich, Fardideh Aram, Reza Rashidi, Eadaoin O’Donaghue, Mohsen Pour Hosseini, Ehsan Safarpour & Claudia Siefen." 

- Rouzbeh Rashidi

Read Maximilian Le Cain's review Here

Official Trailer

Film Website

Filmmaker's Website

Feedback on "A Harbour Town" (2013)

Feedback on "A Harbour Town" (2013) by Chayanin Tiangpitayagorn (translation by Jit Phokaew):

A HARBOUR TOWN (2013, Dean Kavanagh, Ireland)

A++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

There are some moments in this film (actually nearly half of the film) which make the film resembles a mystery-detective movie, because the character whom I assumed the protagonist of the film seems to change his face and hairstyle all the time, as if he is a detective or a spy, or as if the film was made in a twelve-year period like BOYHOOD, because in one scene his face looks clean, but in another scene he wears a moustache; in one scene he wears glasses, in another scene his hair grows longer and its color has changed. I just realized later that this is not the same character, but they look like each other very much, because they are siblings in real life.

Though I misunderstood about this thing, the film still has other elements which resemble a detective movie, especially the middle-eastern character (I guess this character is played by Rouzbeh Rashidi) who seems to come to search for something in an empty builiding. He also looks out from the rooftop filled with bird droppings and records what is happening out there with his camera. Similarly, the protagonist goes to a harbour town, venturing into a forest, meeting other characters, and receiving something. But when the audience sees the protagonist smoking, the audience will never know what he is thinking about, whom he is thinking about, or what he is looking for.

Maybe we don’t have to focus on the story of this film, because the film has no dialogues. (Though we can see that the characters are speaking in some scenes, we cannot hear them, and we don’t even know who these characters are.) The owner of the most prominent sound in this film is the nature—the sound of water, wind, rain, flocks of birds, or the storm which rages through the harbour town. The nature devours all the atmosphere and living things in this film and makes them become a part of the story of sound and light.

The last part of the film seems like a game of haunted ghosts, which puts people inside a haunted house or an enclosed dark space which has very few light sources, in order to search for some truths or to solve a mystery. But in this film we don’t know what the mystery is or who the owner of the mystery is. We don’t even know if we should solve the mystery or not. There is one scene in this film which is extremely scary, though there is a very bright sunshine in this scene. It is as if the film has become a zombie film for 15 seconds before it returns to the previous state.

In conclusion, while we are watching this film, we may feel as if we are thrown into a mysterious harbour town with a small population. We meet a few inhabitants of the town, who live under the control of the story of sound of light. There may be some mysteries, may be not. Even if there are some mysteries, we are not sure if we should solve them or not. We don’t even know how well these townspeople know one another.

"A Harbour Town" is available from EFS "Video On Demand" Here