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Caveh Zahedi (born Robert Caveh Zahedi on April 29 1960) is an American film director and actor.
Zahedi is the son of Iranian immigrants and was born in Washington, D.C. He studied philosophy at Yale University. Upon graduation, Zahedi moved to Paris, France to find funding for his films, but failed to interest any French producers in his projects about Arthur Rimbaud, Stephane Mallarme, and Eadward Muybridge. He also succeeded in estranging himself from his idol, Jean-Luc Godard, after he phoned Godard at 3 a.m. He also produced an experimental music video of a Talking Heads song, which was rejected by David Byrne.
He subsequently returned to Los Angeles to attend UCLA film school. In the UCLA graduate program, where he completed his first feature film, A Little Stiff (1991), with fellow student Greg Watkins. The film was an experimental narrative in which he re-enacted his unrequited love for a UCLA art student, using real-life participants. A Little Stiff premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim, but did not bring commercial success.
His next feature film, I Don't Hate Las Vegas Anymore (1994), documented his attempt to bond with his estranged father and half-brother on a road trip to Las Vegas. The film generated criticism after Zahedi insisted that his father and brother take Ecstasy with him on film. Though virulently panned by most American critics and a box office disaster, the film won the Critics' Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival and developed a cult following.
In 1998, Zahedi moved to San Francisco, where he made his next feature, In the Bathtub of the World (2001). The film was a one-year video diary, with the premise of recording one minute of each day for an entire year, and editing the footage down to ninety minutes. The film premiered on the Independent Film Channel.
His latest film, I Am A Sex Addict (2005), took fifteen years to make, due to financial and production difficulties. Through re-enactments, the film recounted Zahedi's struggle with his addiction to prostitutes and the havoc it wreaked on his marriages and romantic relationships. When the completed project was rejected by Sundance, Zahedi tried to distribute the film himself. It was only after he won the Gotham Award, for "Best Film Not Playing in a Theater Near You," that Independent Film Channel picked up the film.
Zahedi has also appeared in several films in acting roles, including Richard Linklater's Waking Life (2001), Citizen Ruth (1996), and The Black Dahlia (2006).
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