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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I Was Possessed by Caveh Zahedi,
By langdonboom "langdonboom" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: I Was Possessed By God [VHS] (VHS Tape)
More than a film, better than a trip to church, Caveh Zahedi's short film I WAS POSSESSED BY GOD is a new kind of cinematic experience, one that doesn't lead you by plot or by physical events but asks you to pay close attention to the almost subliminal changes of mood, consciousness, and expressions that play across Caveh's extremely malleable and expressive little body as he explicitly and desperately yearns for something higher than himself ... via psychedelics. But this is far from simply being a "let the camera roll on a trip" movie -- as I watched this film, it slowly dawned on me that the careful editing of the piece was beginning to create a structure that is as subtle as it is enlightening. Once you have tuned into his mind-state, watching Caveh go through his own doubts, fears, feelings, and desires becomes as much your own trip as his.What makes Caveh's personal psychedelic experience so valuable to me as a (non-tripping) viewer is how he has constructed this trip of his into an otherwise soberly edited film. As the mushrooms rewire Caveh's brain, and allow something "other" to emerge (either God or Caveh's unchecked subconscious -- possibly they are one and the same) the film manages to capture tiny blips of expressions that were just pronounced enough and arranged in such a way to allow me to follow along, as I was forced to take my cues from the only thing I had before me - Caveh's physical expressions. In a series of subtle and not-so-subtle changes of facial arrangement, flapping of body parts, yelling, screaming, and otherworldly rolling of eyes, Caveh's link to reality ebbs and flows as he is simultaneously aware he's on drugs and on camera, both conscious of his body and of the microphone, vigilantly trying to leave himself open to anything that might need to bubble out. And, needless to say, some intensely, almost embarrassingly personal shit bubbles out! As Caveh ingests the mushrooms and his trip builds, peaks, and dies down, a strange set of patterns emerges. For instance, my favorite is the recurrence of his flapping hands, which slowly reveals itself to be some kind of "antenna" for channeling God - at first coming spontaneously as whatever-it-is builds in him, leading him to higher and higher planes of ecstasy, but then as his trip lamentably fades, Caveh touchingly attempts to flap God back into him. It is these very fluctuations between faith and fear, between control and submission, with insane, scary, comical spitting, kicking, screaming, pleading, celebrating, and regret mixed in that give I WAS POSSESSED BY GOD such a beautiful soul. As Caveh gives into the forces at work on him he also gives signs that he can't help but be well aware of what is happening, and of what you might think of this whole thing. He gives the occasional "out of character" direction to his camera man (including expressions of love and appreciation - clearly expressive powers his possession is giving him) and makes the occasional self-conscious comment ("I'm starting to feel a little tired" is my favorite) -- all of which is, for me, the most touching and enlightening aspects of this film - this one man's intense desire to become free from his ego, his fear, or his self-image (not an easy task, apparently) and reach for something purer - this is clearly much more than a self-obsessed drug movie. Caveh tries to go beyond everyday expressions of a social and personal kind, and though he's either unable or unwilling to completely remove a self-conscious air about him, he's taking such great personal RISKS -- the risk of looking foolish, the risk of failure, the risk of negative judgment (his own as well as others) -- that I cannot help but be deeply sympathetic and inspired simply by his faith in his attempts. It is his stab at fearlessness in reaching for this higher plane that makes me love the Caveh Zahedi of I WAS POSSESSED BY GOD - not simply Caveh's ability to channel God (if indeed he has) but in his ability to TRY SO EARNESTLY while knowing full well that there is a man with a camera on him, and that he just might look ridiculous. This is the drama of the piece -- a man who desperately WANTS to be possessed by God, and wants to put his ego away in hopes that something better might visit him, but cannot fully forget where and what he is. If you are ready to check your own ego, put aside for the moment your own ideas of what is ridiculous, and risk looking foolish yourself, then maybe you will be possessed as I was by this inspired and inspiringly original film who's main events are little more than a scream, a flap of the hand, and a slobbery smile.
5.0 out of 5 stars
I Was Possessed by Caveh Zahedi,
By langdonboom "langdonboom" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: I Was Possessed By God [VHS] (VHS Tape)
More than a film, better than a trip to church, Caveh Zahedi's short film I WAS POSSESSED BY GOD is a new kind of cinematic experience, one that doesn't lead you by plot or by physical events but asks you to pay close attention to the almost subliminal changes of mood, consciousness, and expressions that play across Caveh's extremely malleable and expressive little body as he explicitly and desperately yearns for something higher than himself ... via psychedelics. But this is far from simply being a "let the camera roll on a trip" movie -- as I watched this film, it slowly dawned on me that the careful editing of the piece was beginning to create a structure that is as subtle as it is enlightening. Once you have tuned into his mind-state, watching Caveh go through his own doubts, fears, feelings, and desires becomes as much your own trip as his.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Transcendental Slave,
By JamTart (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: I Was Possessed By God [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Caveh Zahedi has long concerned himself with the massive task of capturing the existence of God on film. In his cult-classic, <I>I Don't Hate Las Vegas Anymore<I>, he attempted to film without a script, guided only by the hand of God. The rusultant meditation is one of the most wildly speculative, absurd, and provocative testaments to the inscrutability of God yet put on film. <I>I was Possessed by God<I> delves even more deeply into the basic conundrum of faith. IN this short work, Caveh ingests a heady dose of magic mushrooms and then proceeds, by his own admission, to "Channel" the voice of God. And while there is room for doubt-Who know God bore such a fondness for Jean-Luc Godard?-ultimately, the truth of Zahedi's link to God becomes secondary to his filmmaking, which, in this instance, is dazzlingly, disarmingly subtle. <I>I Was Possessed by God<I> is itself possessed of a grace of construction entirely too rare in today's cinema. Zahedi is content to let the images speak for themselves; he <I>trusts<I> the power of the visual form itself, and wisely refuses to embellish it. There is great beauty in a simple shot of a...porcelain teapot; while the drama of an intense psychotropic drug reaction is left pure and undigested. INdeed, this is a raw film, which demands viewers to draw their own conclusions- a demand that, contrary to what Hollywood might have you think-is perhaps the most respectful attitude towards his audience that a director can have. Haunting in the best way, gorgeous to look at, and more faith-provoking than thought provoking (a good thing), <I>I was Posessed by God<I> is a boldly original work of cinema.
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