Director Saam Farahmand, who signed last year with Anonymous Content in the U.K., has expanded the geographic reach of that relationship. He is now additionally handled by the production and management company for commercials and music videos in the U.S.
The Iranian-British director and video artist has crafted striking content with a visceral edge from commercials to music videos to live interactive exhibitions for brands such as Apple, Audi, Guinness, Coca-Cola, Absolut, Levis, and Nike, and artists including Mark Ronson, Rihanna, Mick Jagger, Janet Jackson, Ellie Goulding, and the xx. His work has also appeared in exhibitions and festivals around the world and in publications including President Barack Obama’s guest curated edition of Wired Magazine.
“I am from a generation of storytellers who had to balance expression with survival. It’s taken years to get to a place where I can share my stories and those of others without fear,” said Farahmand. “Anonymous Content is a collective of people who want to nurture those stories in development, execution and how they go on to live in the world. The teams at Anonymous Content produce at the highest level because of their respect for the process, the outcome and the soul of a project.”
His latest project, God Party, Farahmand’s first U.S. solo exhibition, recently had its first viewing at A Hug From The Art World in New York City. God Party is a series of looped films merging into a “mega-loop,” each new segment seamlessly joining with the last. Having waited over a decade for technology to catch up to the scale of his undertaking, Farahmand is now able to share his vision as a high resolution LED wall installation, which asks the question: When all primary human experience, and raw human nuance has been appropriated and given audio visual form, where then do we find the raw, or the primary?
Farahmand’s other selected Exhibition History includes: Drama at Asia House, London (2018); VideoPortraits, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2009); Ghost, Palazzo Pitti, Florence (2009); Part of the Weekend Never Dies, Royal Festival Hall, London (2008); The Paradiso Effect, Hayward Gallery, London (2008); and The Paradiso Effect, ICA London (2005).
Farahmand’s first feature documentary, Part of the Weekend Never Dies, was lauded for bringing together raw truthful portraits of a dance subculture with highly crafted, innovative filmmaking techniques.
His belief is that unprivileged creators must be given the opportunity to tell stories with the same filmic power as anyone, especially in the commercial realm. This democratization of “advanced, technical filmmaking” is something he brings to the next generation of British filmmakers from immigrant families in the form of paid apprenticeships and free classes. Prior to connecting with Anonymous Content for U.S. representation, Farahmand had been handled by DIVISION7 for commercials and music videos.
From Restoring To Hopefully Preserving Multi-Camera Categories At The Emmys
When Gary Baum, ASC won his fourth career Emmy Award earlier this month, it was especially gratifying in that the honor came in a category--Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Half-Hour Series--that had been restored thanks in part to a grass-roots initiative among cinematographers to drum up entries. Last year the category fell by the wayside when not enough multi-camera entries materialized.
In his acceptance speech, Baum appealed to the Television Academy to keep multi-camera categories alive. He later noted to SHOOT that editors also got their multi-camera recognition back in the Emmy competition this year. Baum hopes that after resurrecting multi-camera categories in 2024, such recognition will be preserved for 2025 and beyond.
A major factor in the decline of multi-camera submissions in 2023 was the move of certain children’s and family programming from the primetime Emmy competition to the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ (NATAS) Emmy ceremony. For DPs this meant that multi-camera programs last year were reduced to vying for just one primetime nomination slot in the more general Outstanding Cinematography for a Series (Half-Hour) category. It turned out that this single slot was filled in ‘23 by a Baum-lensed episode of How I Met Your Father (Hulu).
Fast forward to this year’s competition and Baum won for another installment of How I Met Your Father--”Okay Fine, It’s A Hurricane,” which turned out to be the series finale. Two of Baum’s Emmy wins over the years have been for How I Met Your Father, and there’s a certain symmetry to them. His initial win for How I Met Your Father was for the pilot in 2022. So he won Emmys for the very first and last... Read More