समाचार

Caveh Zahedi is a New York based filmmaker known for pushing people's buttons. In "I Don't Hate Las Vegas Anymore," he tries to get his Persian father to take Ecstacy with him, and in "I Am A Sex Addict" he confronts lust and fear of commitment. In his latest docu-comedy, entitled "The Sheik and I," the director takes on political repression in the Middle East. The film was commissioned for the 2011 Sharjah Biennial in the United Arab Emirates. Since the only explicit rule to the "transgressive" biennial was that Zahedi could in no way make fun of the Sheik, he decided to do just that. Thom Powers, the Toronto Film Festival's documentary programmer, allegedly said the film was "deeply troubling for its breach of documentary ethics and reckless behavior.” We recently spoke to Zahedi over the phone about his contentious film, which he claims was blacklisted from Tiff this year.