Greg Watkins Movies
- 1991
Lensed in 16mm black and white on a princely budget of $10,000, Little Stiff is rather obviously an outgrowth of a student film project. Codirector/cowriter Caveh Zahedi plays a dweebish UCLA film major, while his collaborator Greg Watkins costars as his best pal. Zahedi carries a torch for a pretty art student-who, in a burst of Pirandello, is played by Zahedi's real-life ex-flame Erin McKim. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Caveh Zahedi
- 2000
Indie filmmaker Greg Watkins directs this indie film about an indie filmmaker who wants to direct indie films. The protagonist (Caveh Zehedi) remains undaunted by overdue loans, eviction notices, and his girlfriend's pregnancy, and he perseveres, trying to direct an all-dwarf version of "Little Women." ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Caveh Zahedi
A man pursues his sexual obsessions to their darkest and most dangerous extremes in this gay-themed drama based on a novel by Dennis Cooper. Dennis (Michael Gunther) is a gay man, who as a teenager developed a perverse attraction to violent pornography and simulated snuff photographs, which he describes in great detail in a series of letters to his former lover Julian (Jaie Laplante). As Dennis grows older, his fascination with the darker side of the sexual underground grows more intense, and in time he meets Henry (Craig Chester), a masochist who posed for some of the pictures that sparked his interest in S&M. When Dennis learns that Henry was murdered, he weaves the incident into an elaborate fantasy, in which Dennis suffers a painful death in a dungeon of erotic torture. In time, Dennis graduates from violent fantasies to sadistic interludes with a male prostitute (Michael Stock) and eventually plans a series of sexually-oriented murders, concluding with an episode in which Dennis and two collaborators (Parker Posey and James Lyons) drug a young punk (Alexis Arquette) into unconsciousness. After having group sex, Dennis and his cohorts murder the punk. As one might expect, Frisk proved to be highly controversial and received a sharply divided reaction in its screening as the closing night attraction at the 1996 San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival; some hailed it as a disturbing and iconoclastic masterpiece, while roughly half the audience angrily stormed out of the theater before the film's conclusion. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Gunther, Parker Posey, (more)
On the eve of his third wedding, documentary filmmaker Caveh Zahedi bravely turns the camera on himself to explore his decade-long addiction to sex in an autobiographical tale of personal peccadillo featuring animation from Waking Life artist Bob Sabiston and featuring a rare film appearance by French porn legend Rebecca Lord. His previous marriages destroyed by his obsession with prostitutes and his many intimate relationships sabotaged by his unwavering commitment to the concept of open relationships, Zahedi boldly bares his soul before the camera to offer a comic look at the life of one man who truly can't get enough. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Caveh Zahedi, Rebecca Lord, (more)
- 1994
This exercise in documentary self-revelation was prompted in part by the filmmaker's conviction that "if God exists, He'll make it (the film entertaining..." Aspiring filmmaker Caveh Zahedi travels with his family and film crew to Las Vegas from their homes, quarrelling and bickering all the way. The action culminates in an attempt by the director to get his younger brother and a heartsick female sound recordist to "loosen up" by taking the drug Ecstasy. In order to show them it is safe he takes a dose himself, and things get a bit chaotic after that. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Greg Watkins
- 2001
Actor, artist, and filmmaker Caveh Zahedi decided to keep a video diary for the year 1999, recording one minute of his life each day from January 1st through December 31st; eventually, he edited his record of the year down to a tidy 79 minutes, and In the Bathtub of the World is the result. Zahedi shares his inner thoughts (and a number of private moments), as well as glimpses of his work and his encounters with a number of other creative people, including musicians Jonathan Richman and David Byrne, writers John Ashbery and Czeslaw Milosz, and filmmaker Jay Rosenblatt. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Caveh Zahedi
- 1992
In this leisurely, meditative drama, Jo-Jo hears strange voices but it's nothing to worry about, since she's so passive and inactive that there's little danger of her acting on their instructions in a way which will endanger herself or others. Indeed, the real danger is that she will allow herself to drift into an unwelcome situation with a slimy phone-sex entrepreneur before she makes even the feeblest effort to avoid him. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lorie Marino, Chris Shearer, (more)
- 1992
Anton is a Polish sailor on shore leave in New York City. He is not only clueless about the city but is irritatingly obtuse about many things. He has struck up an acquaintance with two of the city's foreign residents and has moved into their tiny apartment with them, missing his ship in the process. He doesn't have a visa to stay in the U.S. but seemingly doesn't care. However, when Barbara, a French native, runs into immigration difficulties, Anton goes out of his way to find her a husband. Typically, he does this by dragging Barbara around New York and asking practically every man he meets whether they're willing to marry her. Not only does this unlikely ploy succeed, but he snares a pleasant and wealthy man as his friend's new husband. One can only imagine what that does for her relationship with her hyperactive and domineering male roommate Wadeck, another Pole. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arnold Barkus
