Amir Motlagh

Plain Us has a “preview screening” on Friday, June 27th at Capital City Microcinema in Maryland. Its not its official preimere yet, but i don’t have a date on when that will happen yet.

knock. knock. will also screen that night, along with a few other short films as part of “Hot Summer Night Shorts”.

Here is the run down, from the CCM blog, “Seven new short films by directors from various parts of the U.S. of A being shown on a large/10 foot long screen, away from the summer heat in one of the coolest bookstores in Maryland, with some of the filmmakers in attendance. Lemonade will be served. Event programmed & presented by filmmaker & blogger Sujewa Ekanayake. Interesting times will be had; come join us.

In case you are reading for the first time, Plain Us is my newest film. What’s it about, well, “Cy, a touring musician in an up and coming rock and roll band drops into the city he grew up. Thing is, life’s not so easy, even when you’re in a rock and roll band.”

The film stars Kindy Barr, Nadia Anwar, Art Toussi, Tom O’Connell, Kristen Penza and Josh Virnick, and i make a small cameo in it. It was shot on 35mm by Zamir Kokonozi.

Some small trickling of reviews are coming in, although i don’t think much about it, its necessary.

Hollywood is Talking wrote a small review about the film, i’ll paraphrase (more like copy and paste) the parts i like, “Mr. Motlagh is one to take events and experiences of his life and plane them into fiction that shoot for a reality that the rest of us can relate to. By and large, he hits more than he misses (Mumble Idiots-ah ehm) in that he stretches out little moments that might otherwise be tossed in the trash.”

About Plain Us. “Plain Us..Rock..and..Roll. Mr. Motlagh ratchets it up a notch, mixing it up, batting it this way and that, getting to the heart of the matter. He plays a singer/leader of a rock band who has to come home again. Of course it hurts when there is a wife and daughter you rarely see….. filmmaking-wise, the short looks good. Color-Correction, framing, the elements are there. Kindy Barr dials in a good performance as the put-upon young Mom opposite Motlagh who is wildly photogenic in musician mode. He steals the frame in this capacity and is quiet believable on screen.”

Also a review from DIY Filmmaker Sujewa blog, “shot on 35 MM (w/ the first scene or two on digital video), slice of life drama depicting a touring musician’s visit to his home town. The musician - an indie rocker of course - (played by Motlagh) has a young daughter. Motlagh’s character is not on good terms with his daughter’s mother. The short is well acted (always impressive whenever I see low-budget indie directors work well with child actors), and well shot & overall well made; well directed, acted, photographed, edited and scored. Plain Us is definitely not a plot-driven piece, more a low-key observation of a few special moments, & also some dramatic moments, in the lives of three people.”

Here is a link to the subsequent interview…..

And the subsequent trailer:

Also, since i mentioned knock. knock., all sales inquiry’s and business related matters, here is its new home, at Ouat! Media.

Well, after one year of work in and out of the studio, the Shanks and the Dreamers first full length album, my darling Dia is officially finished, not released, but finished. We got the disk back from MasterDisk on Friday. Please bear with me because I have a few notes I’d like to make at this time.

First, Its very difficult in this day and age to do things that people can’t seem to label quickly. For me, being a film director/writer, first and foremost, i have trouble when people discover that i make music. People seem to believe, right or wrong, that we are capable of being productive doing one thing only, because common wisdom is that you can’t be good at everything. Well, you can you assholes. And that “good” part, its mostly relative when it comes to art. Forget that average middle of the road common wisdom that everyone tries to feed down your throat. Do what you have to do to survive, as far as I’m concerned, i make movies, i make music, and other shit just on my spare time.

Second, thanks to everyone who made this possible. The list is huge. But I’ll just say a few. Art Toussi of course, my bandmate who went through this damn mountain climb with our crazy conflicting schedules. Detail(D.O.) for the vocal on Whitehouse, Steve Sherlock, Chris Henderson our former drummer, Mike Flowers, and Charlie M.

Third, this is not like the other album at all, not even a little. We are making music that we have always wanted to make. The first album was a solo instrumental album. This is not. I want this shit bumped in your ride.

my darling Dia

1. Extra Ordinary Machines
2. Hush
3. Camel Crusader
4. 405
5. IBM
6. Disintegration
7. 777
8. Charlie, get a job
9. Popsicles
10. Whitehouse
11. Last

Total Run Time: 30:03