Getting Personal with Caveh Zahedi

An interview with the bad boy of personal doc filmmaking: “Sure, a lot of people think I’m a total asshole. But that’s part of the point.”

At first viewing, I hated the all-too-personal films of Caveh Zahedi. And I think he’d be really pleased to know that.

His presence on camera was off-putting, to say the least. And his lack of boundaries made me profoundly uncomfortable. It was just a knee jerk reaction, though (one I share with many who come upon his work without a warning label). To my great alarm, I often found myself laughing. And once I stopped squirming, I had to acknowledge that Caveh’s an exceptionally talented filmmaker. And a true American original.

I’ve met a lot of personal doc filmmakers over the years, but none are as provocative, brutally candid or uncompromising as Caveh. Not even close. So, back in 2015, when I started interviewing many of the most accomplished practitioners of the form for my film Getting Personal, I was eager to sit Caveh down, get at what makes him tick and challenge his dubious sense of ethics.

He certainly didn’t pull his punches.

“I don’t share most people’s notions of privacy. I think they’re based on a fallacy… If you get near me, at some point I’m going to show something about you that you’re not going to want me to show.”

Caveh has built a career out of doing what the most daring of us occasionally consider and then immediately reject — filming his own worst impulses, romantic disasters, obsessions, and the emotional shrapnel they produce.

A personal favorite of mine is I Am a Sex Addict, an autobiographical film about how Caveh’s attraction to prostitutes and his compulsive honesty combine to destroy each of his past relationships, as well as threaten his upcoming third marriage. Yes, it’s hilarious.

In The Sheik & I, Caveh is invited to make a film for the Sharjah Biennial in the United Arab Emirates, and warned that, whatever he does, he can’t make fun of the sheik. So, of course, he includes a terrorist fantasy sequence and dancers in hijabs making fun of the sheik. You get the idea.

“The Sheik & I” trailer (2:13)

“I love to provoke… My films are both an attempt to attack the entire structure of everything—kind of an anarchic, bomb-throwing gesture—and at the same time, an attempt to accept reality… Art is always about what’s repressed in the culture. It’s always about how do we look at or accept the thing that’s not acceptable.”

My interview with Caveh took place in his Brooklyn apartment, which doubled as the set for his ultra meta comedy series The Show About the Show. The series begins with Caveh pitching the concept to various tv executives, and each episode is about the making of the previous episode.

In the course of Season Two, his wife Mandy, who had a central role, discovers Caveh is having an affair, quits the show and files for divorce and custody of their two children. His first thought: This will be great for the show. His second thought: I’ll get an actor to play Mandy moving forward. His final thought: Uh oh.

Given his prolific output, I wasn’t totally surprised to learn Caveh puts his work before everything. Still, his radical honesty was a bit shocking to hear.

Teaser (:30)

“I’m not hindered by morals or scruples to slow me down… There’s a certain amount of self-love that lets me withstand the withering contempt of viewers—and also some self-hatred that makes me need to show who I am.”

Ladies and gents, filmmakers and innocent bystanders, it’s my pleasure to present Caveh Zahedi in his own words. Raw and unfiltered.

Interview highlights (23:35)

I always love hearing from my readers, and I’m curious to know what you think about Caveh’s take on personal docs and documentary ethics. So feel free to…

And share away, if you’re so moved.