About

“... the most active, prolific and intrepid group of experimental filmmakers working in Ireland today.” AEMI

Experimental Film Society (EFS) is an Irish company dedicated to the production and screening of experimental cinema. It grew out of the former Experimental Film Society collective which was formed and managed by the company’s founder and director, Rouzbeh Rashidi. EFS concentrates on nurturing film projects which reflect the distinctive cinematic vision that it developed over its eighteen year existence as a not-for-profit collective. EFS produces films that are distinguished by an uncompromising devotion to personal, experimental cinema. These films adopt an exploratory, often lyrical approach to filmmaking and foreground mood, atmosphere, visual rhythms, and the sensory interplay of sound and image. EFS is at the centre of a new wave of Irish experimental filmmaking.

EFS also curates screenings of experimental film, mainly by filmmakers and artists associated with it, both nationally and internationally.

EFS was founded in 2000 in Tehran, Iran by Rouzbeh Rashidi and has been based in Dublin, Ireland since 2004. As a film collective, it produced, co-produced, or otherwise assisted in the production of over fifty no-budget or very low-budget feature-length films and 500 short films. In 2011, EFS began to organise screenings, performances and talks, an initiative which has since resulted in over one hundred events all around the globe.

In mid-2017, EFS became a company limited by guarantee to facilitate the increasingly ambitious and professionally funded projects it now focuses on. To request or book the Experimental Film Society programme, please contact:

experimentalfilmsociety@gmail.com

PRODUCTION

Experimental Film Society produced, co-produced, or otherwise assisted in the production of over fifty no-budget or very low-budget feature-length films and 500 short films. In 2011, EFS began to organise screenings, performances and talks, an initiative which has since resulted in over one hundred events all around the globe. In mid-2017, EFS became a company limited by guarantee to facilitate the increasingly ambitious and professionally funded projects it now focuses on.

DISTRIBUTION

Since 2011, Experimental Film Society has developed a successful bespoke system for distributing our films. It began with organising screenings ourselves, mainly in Ireland. Screenings not only of our own films, but also of work by likeminded filmmakers and organisations from across the globe. This led to several fruitful exchanges and collaborations which have allowed our films to travel to the right audiences, and valuable connections to be made. It is through these connections that our films have become widely known, and invitations to present work at cinemas and festivals worldwide multiply. EFS is constantly producing new films and has an archive of several hundred films built up over its existence since the year 2000. We are always happy to receive screening invitations. If you would like to book any of our films, please email us at

experimentalfilmsociety@gmail.com

BOOKS

Luminous Void: Twenty Years of Experimental Film Society

edited by Rouzbeh Rashidi, Maximilian Le Cain & Atoosa Pour Hosseini

Luminous Void: Twenty Years of Experimental Film Society marks the twentieth anniversary of what has been acclaimed as “the most active, prolific and intrepid group of experimental filmmakers working in Ireland today” (aemi).

Experimental Film Society is an Irish-based organisation for the production, archiving and distribution of personal, formally radical cinema. Founded by filmmaker Rouzbeh Rashidi, it is widely recognised as one of the most distinctive and influential voices in international underground film. EFS films conjure an intimate yet alien vision of the world through an exploratory, experiential approach to filmmaking. In blazing a unique and defiant trail through the landscape of contemporary Irish moving image, EFS has become synonymous with a stubbornly independent way of operating in complete freedom at the margins of film culture and the outer limits of cinematic creativity. EFS filmmakers include Rashidi, Atoosa Pour Hosseini, Vicky Langan, Maximilian Le Cain, Michael Higgins, Jann Clavadetscher, Shelly Kamiel and Chris O’Neill.

Luminous Void: Twenty Years of Experimental Film Society celebrates the prolific work and achievements of this unlikely group of creative outsiders who banded together to challenge the norms and limitations of filmmaking in Ireland and beyond. Featuring contributions by noted critics and curators from across the globe, it examines the ideas and impulses that animate EFS as well as the practices of many of the filmmakers associated with it. It includes texts by Adrian Martin, Nadin Mai, Matt Packer, Pluck Projects, Sebastian Wiedemann, Sarah Hayden & Paul Hegarty, Azadeh Jafari, Vahid Mortazavi, Zulfikar Filandra and expert EFS scholar Nikola Gocić. These writings provide a guidebook to the imposingly vast ‘luminous void’ of Experimental Film Society cinema.

*To order Luminous Void: Twenty Years of Experimental Film Society, please use the “Buy Now” button below. It is priced €20 + p&p (Europe €7, outside Europe €10).

*An eBook version is also available, priced €10.

Prices

The book Luminous Void: Experimental Film Society Documents is now available! Edited by Rouzbeh Rashidi and Maximilian Le Cain, it chronicles the history of Experimental Film Society (EFS) by compiling a series of essays, interviews and manifestos that set out and explore the ideas that drive and emerge from EFS filmmaking. It includes new texts by renowned film critic Adrian Martin, and by Alice Butler & Daniel Fitzpatrick, the curatorial team behind aemi (artists and experimental moving image) who describe the book thus: “This is the kind of book which belongs in the homes of artists,  filmmakers, critics, programmers, curators and fans, encountered years from now well thumbed and returned to again and again; as much a source of inspiration or a space for reflection on cinema and its ineffable power as a manual for uncompromised creative practice.” The book, LUMINOUS VOID: EXPERIMENTAL FILM SOCIETY DOCUMENTS, is sold out. It is now only available as an eBook version (PDF). To order an electronic copy, please use the “Buy Now” button below. It is priced €10.

EXPERIMENTAL FILM SOCIETY PROJECTS

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