Experimental Film Society (EFS)

Experimental Film Society (EFS) is an independent, not-for-profit entity specializing in avant-garde, independent and no/low budget filmmaking. It was founded in 2000 in Tehran by Rouzbeh Rashidi and has been based in Dublin, Ireland since 2004.
Thanks to A collaboration with Parkingallery, EFS is pleased to announce its first public screenings in Iran since 2004. Rouzbeh Rashidi, head of EFS, will be represented by his 2012 feature Structures, Machines, Apparatus and Manufacturing Processes. There will also be a programme of short works by EFS members from all over the world, encapsulating the range and radical vision of this unique group of filmmakers. Their films are distinguished by an uncompromising devotion to personal, experimental cinema and have in common an exploratory approach to filmmaking where films emerge from the interplay of sound, image and atmosphere rather than traditional storytelling techniques.


Incubus (2013) By Atoosa Pour Hosseini / Ireland & Switzerland / 1:30mins

“Incubus is a highly saturated nightmarish unsettling video work that explores unconsciousness nature of memory and its relationship with moving image.”


Les Yeux Disparus (2012) By Bahar Samadi / France / 10mins

“Found film and archival sound clips recount part of a life, pieces of the past of a grandmother suffering from Alzheimer’s. As with the illness, the film’s language, borne of its archival source, lacks continuity. The filmmaker reveals the fear of death when we are no longer able to recognize those around us.”


Pitpony (2014) By Jason Marsh / UK / 4mins

“Sombre, wandering and intrusive thoughts.”


The Illuminating Gas (2012) By Esperanza Collado / Spain / 7:30mins

“Specially conceived for its presentation in performance contexts, The Illuminating Gas is an ephemeral, collage film in which cinema is derailed and subject of stitching. The piece exploits the unique instability of film, which makes it performative in nature, as if the film itself and its indispenSÁBle support, the projector, were performers playing a limited role within the wider presentation.”


Homo Sapiens Project (186) (2013) By Rouzbeh Rashidi / Ireland / 1min

“The 186th film in Rashidi’s ongoing Homo Sapiens Project, HSP (186) evokes, like much of his prolific output, the atmospheric unease and suspense of horror cinema removed from its contextual and narrative confines.”


Murder (2014) By Michael Higgins / Ireland / 5mins

“An Unlawful Killing of a Human by Another Human with Malice Aforethought or Murder.”


Late Hours of the Night (Part 5) (2013) By Dean Kavanagh / Ireland / 24mins

“Late hours of the Night (2013) is a 5 part mini-series that follows a character as he recreates and re-enacts old memories while crawling through a small town at night. The fifth and final instalment is a confrontational exploration of personal history, and a hypnotic drift through nocturnal semi-hallucination.”


Night Regulation (2014) By Maximilian Le Cain / Ireland & USA / 25mins

“The last ghost in New York, all on permanent vacation. Saw it myself. Starring Vicky Langan.”


Turtle (2011) By Hamid Shams Javi / Iran / 9mins

“A mysterious and disturbing image of contemporary alienation in which the everyday is rendered bizarre and intolerable.”


Structures, Machines, Apparatus and Manufacturing Processes (2012) By Rouzbeh Rashidi / Iran & Ireland / 93mins

“As in a number of his recent films, Rashidi uses images accumulated over years to explore memory and cinematic form. In this case, he creates an elaborate and haunting montage that mainly interrogates still images.”