Interview with Rouzbeh Rashidi (7th Art Magazine)
A profile of Rouzbeh Rashidi from his student years in Dublin
By Gerard Butler · 7th Art Magazine · 2007
“I’ve been making rules and breaking them since I started making films, but I think I’ll always stick to digital cameras and small crews.”
To me Rouzbeh Rashidi is a very interesting character. He is a very particular person who is meticulous in both his life and his work, but I learned quickly that in the 35+ short films and documentaries he has written, directed and edited, Rouzbeh relishes the spontaneous, wild elements of filmmaking. “I usually write a one page treatment and give that to my cast and crew to look over once, maybe twice and that’s it, no script, no storyboard, they have to go on a feeling more than anything else” — a statement he then countered with “everything in the shot has to be proportioned in a symmetrical way”.
I’ve only worked for Rouzbeh once. It was an afterthought of a job on a class project which I suspect was a project which Rouzbeh was as emotionally involved with as some of his numerous other projects. The experience was a strange one as I knew exactly what he wanted but also felt completely free to do whatever I wanted with my little Sony PD10. “The most important thing is someone who knows me” Rouzbeh says as he attempts to explain his criteria for recruiting members of his very small crews. “They don’t have to be very technical but they have to know what I’m trying to get.” “I hate stage actors”, Rouzbeh almost spat out, “for me non-professionals are the best”, he told me when describing his casting process. Rouzbeh does not believe in scripts. He thinks improvisation is the key to the raw films he has tried to make. I am misleading you though; Rouzbeh is not a narrative filmmaker. As with everything he’s done, his ventures into fiction have been completely experimental. “I don’t dramatise, I want to capture a moment, a minute.”
This amateur filmmaker has a lot to say about the contemporary scene and his options in making and distributing his work. He believes with the digital revolution in filmmaking in recent years it’s become much easier for filmmakers to remain independent and stay true to their own agendas without worrying about financing. This new format also makes distribution through festivals and the internet easy. “I’ve been making rules and breaking them since I started making films, but I think I’ll always stick to digital cameras and small crews”. Rouzbeh has what can almost be described as contempt for the large, wasteful shooting method which has been used in film since the advent of sound. His fevered loyalty to the idea of small scale filmmaking is a complete rejection of this bloated system. It’s the sign of a true craftsman who isn’t seeking adulation and whose only concern is the film.
“I really believe in the auteur theory” he tells me as he explains passionately why he feels he has to write, direct and edit his own work: “I’m obsessed by this”. Once again the contradiction comes into his work as his desire for the raw and spontaneous is melded with his need for total control and very specific shots and almost mathematically placed props. These contradicting elements somehow come together to form a style which this writer has never seen before and, if I’m being honest, don’t always understand. Rouzbeh’s greatest strength is his knowledge of film. His knowledge of cinema from his native Iran to its complete opposite in Hollywood is mind boggling. He has seen the best and the worst and, instead of trying to emulate the cinema he loves as 99.9% of contemporary filmmakers are guilty of, he has taken this knowledge to create a new, completely personal style, even if it is on the fringes. And I don’t think Rouzbeh would have it any other way.
Originally published in 7th Art Magazine, the film journal of Saint Kevin’s College, Dublin, in 2007, during Rouzbeh Rashidi’s student years. Transcribed from the printed pages, restored and republished as a web article for EFS Publications in 2026; the original scan is preserved in the EFS archive.
