Director

Saam Farahmand

The return of Ashnikko with her "angriest song" also heralds a breathtaking comeback to music videos by Saam Farahmand, creating a clinical pop-horror as deliriously subversive and transgressive as anything he has done before. It’s sick.You Make Me Sick! clocks in at just over two minutes, and in that time Farahmand establishes a scenario worthy of Cronenberg in a slick pop video aesthetic, inviting the viewer into repeated surges of disbelief. What is being piped in tubes between the orifices of Ashnikko and her followers? What is that murky liquid rising up around Ash and her dancers?The artist and director are in perfect harmony in their drive to create art that crosses over the line of good taste, and will generate a good deal of actual disgust, even from those who admire it greatly. It’s a brilliant smashing through into something new and dangerous, an undiluted, confrontational, controversial visualisation of raw pain.“I’ve decided to come back with my angriest, most cathartic song to date,” the singer has said of the new song in an accompanying statement. “My own personal rage room for me to smash my plates.”Saam Farahmand has added: "The video is about discovering toxicity, the purging of toxicity and the defiant audacity of revelry and spectacle within it. I continue to explore the collision between raw, uncomfortable human experience, and the seductive spectacle of pop culture."

United Kingdom

Anna Gloria Fores

Campbell Beaton

Anonymous Content

Diego Indraccolo

Natalie Uglow

Joshus Pilmore

Claire Moore

Anders Mills

Trap

Ashnikko 'You Make Me Sick!' by Saam Farahmand

Ashnikko--'You-Make-Me-Sick'-by-Saam-Farahmand

Fredo and Dave's collaboration on Money Talks gets a tremendous visual directed by Edem Wornoo, as we follow the story of how a £50 note ended up on the rappers' extraordinary mountain of money - that they then set alight.From the spectacular beginning, things only get more impressive. Essentially, Money Talks is about our relationship with money as humans and the ways in which it reveals things about us. And this is a hugely powerful video for Friedo and Dave's incendiary track.Through the course of the video&nbsp;we move steadily backwards, and in each superbly mounted sequence, Fredo and Dave defy logic by performing in sync while the footage is clearly moving in reverse. But that is only partly about a clever visual technique. It is also a drama, where the unsavoury human behaviour that revolves around the journey of this substantial banknote is unveiled.A story of the corrupting power of money that is brilliantly told by Edem, a very impressive new directing talent.

Edem Wornoo

Ersan Beskardes

Lowkey Films

Connor O’Hara

Rachel Bashford

Chris Malin

Ahmet Husseyin

Benjamin Worthington

Gabrielle Niedojadlo

Kieran Brown

Elena Muntoni

Suzie Walsh

Jessica Mcquaid

Beau Pritchard James

Charles Gamble

Alex Gregory

The Mill

Charlie Morris

Tk-fx

OB Management

Jamie Gamache

Michael Vega

Danny Rumbelow

Grime

Fredo ft Dave 'Money Talks' by Edem Wornoo

Fredo-Ft-Dave--'Fredo---Money-Talks-Ft.-Dave'-by-Edem-Wornoo

Wait— how did they do that? Saam Farahmand’s grand, torch song of a video is a lesson in delayed gratification. Look away for a moment and you’ll miss what makes it so compelling.Don't Leave Me Lonely doesn’t need a lot of exposition. Ronson and YEBBA perform back-to-back in a vast, dark courtyard. A couple of electronic lights flicker into life in the far distance. Nothing of note happens for a while. Then, somewhere - and this word is key, as it’s a challenge to say exactly when it happens - dawn arrives. And as the song comes to a climax, and the two are surrounded by an expressionless army of witnesses. The impact of this trick is difficult to explain. You’re left with the impression of a slick studio performance video with the spirit of an emotive, spontaneous performance.Farahmand’s experimental impulses defined a very specific era of indie music videos. His work was prototypical for premier British scenesters: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PElhV8z7I60">The XX</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-SJjFcnsGs">Klaxons</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzHwRcOsDNw">These New Puritans</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49ZVEt2X3GA">Tom Vek</a>. In fact, his ubiquity in the late noughties lead to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/nov/21/saam-farahmand-klaxons-dancing-absolut">an article in The Guardian</a> referring to him as “one of the most talented music video directors of his generation.” More recently, he has had a productive working relationship with Mick Jagger, making a series of politically charged videos featuring Luke Evans and Jemima Kirke.One of his crowning videos was for the low-charting Mark Ronson single <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2010/10/18/mark-ronsons-somebody-love-me-feat-boy-george-saam-farahmand/6554">Somebody to Love Me</a>. Despite being only 5 minutes long, the visual, a fictional home movie starring Diane Kruger as Boy George, managed to not only fool a vast audience into believing its archive footage conceit, but also completely eclipse a Boy George biopic released in the same year. It’s a shot of nostalgia that remains equally as stirring today as it was in 2010.Don’t Leave Me Lonely is Farahmand’s first collaboration with Ronson in nine years. May there be many more.

SMUGGLER

Division 7

Elizabeth Doonan

David Richards

Judy Craig

Adam Richards

Giovanna Giangregrorio

Alexis Johnson

Samantha Burkhard

Adam Burrell

Miles Jeffrey

Marc LaBelle

Chris Roebuck

Platige Image

Mark Gethin

Daniel Millar

Sony Music

Pop, Soul

Mark Ronson ft. YEBBA 'Don't Leave Me Lonely' by Saam Farahmand

Mark Ronson - Don't Leave Me Lonely (Official Video) ft. YEBBA

In his second video for Mick Jagger, Saam Farahmand encapsulates a chaotic world, including the stifling heat, within the nightclub from hell.&nbsp;Like England Lost, it&#39;s a metaphor, beautifully delivered.&nbsp;It&#39;s also&nbsp;unmistakeably&nbsp;contemporary. The&nbsp;paranoia, brutality and madness&nbsp;of the modern world are all&nbsp;present in the sweaty confines of the club, where Jemima Kirk plays the girl who questions the system, the clique divisions and the devotion to the godlike DJ.All this works well with Jagger&#39;s Gotta Get A Grip - a not bad at all Stones-like workout.

Amalia Rosen-Rawlings

Black Sheep Studios

Dan Keefe

Nailah Blissett

Rory Shaw

Steve Annis

Eira Wyn Jones

Jomar O'Meally

Alex Gibbon

Chloe Brady

Jeanie Annan-Lewin

Cathy Ennis

Michelle Boggs

Julia Knight

Work Editorial

MPC LA

Thom Godsill

Franck Lambertz

Alex Gabucci

Kharmel Cochrane

Caroline Clayton

Semera Khan

Polydor

Rock

Mick Jagger 'Gotta Get A Grip' by Saam Farahmand

Mick-Jagger-'Gotta-Get-A-Grip'-by-Saam-Farahmand

Mick Jagger&#39;s scathing response to Brexit has inspired a compelling, quietly furious video by Saam Farahmand.While Jagger uses a sporting metaphor in England Lost to make his point about the country&#39;s slide into global irrelevance, Farahmand takes the metaphor in another more&nbsp;cinematic direction.Luke Evans plays the man&nbsp;from the Ministry, with &#39;50s suit and impeccable old-world manners, who senses the need to rebel. And so he runs - not only from the city, but apparently out of his own time.&nbsp;Colliding into signs of a far more modern world feeds his paranoia and the desire to escape.&nbsp;But ultimately, and in classic fashion, he is marooned.&nbsp;Farahmand&#39;s surreal nightmare vision, laced with humour, reflects Jagger&#39;s own beginnings in the mid-20th century - the age of George Orwell, post-war paranoia, old school espionage. And also the brilliant 60s TV show The Prisoner,&nbsp;where the hero was imprisoned in the Village, and the border of his world was the beach. Here the Village is just a little bit bigger.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Amber Millington

Mavreen Brown

Ed Bellamy

Jenny Chuan

Emily-rose Yiaxis

Lisa Mustafa

David Stevens

The Assembly Rooms

Seamus O'Kane

Stefan Susemihl

Anthony Austin

Luke Evans

Mick Jagger 'England Lost' by Saam Farahmand

Mick-Jagger-'England,-Lost'-by-Saam-Farahmand

&quot;What is this?&quot; is the first line of dialogue uttered in this silly, ultimately quite confusing video. Which seems apt, as many of the bands&#39; fans are asking the same question in the comments section on YouTube.Saam Farahmand&#39;s video sees super-duo Alex Turner and Miles Kane galavant around a lavish location&nbsp;of the Café Royal,&nbsp;like a pair of foppish European playboys. Pink shirts, white blazers, coiffured hair and fake tan, et al. Their will-they-or-won&#39;t-they homoerotic horseplay plays out like a tongue-in-cheek taunting of the fans who seem to spend hours and hours online debating whether or not the duo are in fact a couple. No, really.&nbsp;On the face of it, it has little in common with Farahmand&#39;s previous and closely-linked&nbsp;TLSP videos, for&nbsp;Everything You&#39;ve Come To Expect and Aviation - although it could be the prequel of sorts to both.&nbsp;And as the film crew and equipment&nbsp;start to become visible, the video itself seems to be bored with Alex and Miles&#39;s shenanigans. Very self-aware, but the song is actually good enough to handle it.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Sophie Dewey

Alex Barber

Merrit Gold

Alexandra Voikou

James Sharpe

Phil Murray

Ron Nichols

Harry Elvin

Rob Gavigan

Pat Miller

Aaron Sillis

Arthur De Borman

Nicholas Hancock

Emma Rees

Jessica Snyder

Dorita Nissen

Topaz Knight

Holly Dale

Ediz Moustafa

Miles Lacey

Houmam Abdallah

Olivia Jessop

Electric Theatre Collective

The Last Shadow Puppets 'Miracle Aligner' by Saam Farahmand

The Last Shadow Puppets - Miracle Aligner (Official Video)

Saam Farahmand&#39;s second video for ex-Klaxon James Righton&#39;s new project Shock Machine transforms Righton into a fire- and storm-bringing silhouette, capable of stirring and harnessing the elements.It&#39;s a development from Saam&#39;s video for the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9elZY5-k9Q0" target="_blank">eponymous Shock Machine debut</a>, which was inspired by artist Angus Fairhurst&#39;s&nbsp;absent human cutouts. And it also touches on that cosmic quality of some of Saam&#39;s videos for the Klaxons, itself influenced by that awesome 70s mini-film&nbsp;for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nP4WE_-uqE" target="_blank">The Jacksons&#39; Can You Feel It</a>.And a lovely job by Tom Lindsay, for his &#39;audio-visual assembly and composition&#39;.

Tom Lindsay

Laura Holmes

Jack Exton

Shock Machine 'Open Up The Sky' by Saam Farahmand

Shock Machine - Open Up The Sky [Official Video]

Two videos for Alex Turner and Miles Kane&#39;s side project&nbsp;created by Black Sheep Studios - with&nbsp;Saam Farahmand at the helm - and its an intriguing Tarantino-eque&nbsp;two-parter, entirely set on a deserted Californian beach.Everything You&#39;ve Come To Expect&nbsp;starts with the tragic-comic situation of&nbsp;Turner&nbsp;and Kane&nbsp;buried neck deep in the sand, while an emotional woman in a torn&nbsp;bridal gown&nbsp;looms over them. Sunset approaches, and the tide is coming in...&nbsp;Aviation is the prequel, offering the prior&nbsp;chapter to this tale&nbsp;of we can only guess, involves&nbsp;duplicitous love, betrayal and revenge. Turner and Kane are digging their own graves on the beach, ordered by the gangster groom, surrounded by armed goons, the&nbsp;guilt-ridden bride, and a blind-folded&nbsp;string quartet. Its dramatic, and operatic...

Eric Brown

Michelle Dawley

Shane Liem

Chung-Hoon Chung

Cedric Martin

Christian Stone

Franck Chevalier

Laura Machieraldo

Travis Knight

Trim Editing

Indie Rock

Indie

The Last Shadow Puppets 'Everything You've Come To Expect' & 'Aviation' by Saam Farahmand

The Last Shadow Puppets - Everything You've Come To Expect (Official Video)

The Last Shadow Puppets - Aviation (Official Video)

Channel 4&#39;s work in challenging perceptions of&nbsp;disability, most notably with their coverage of the 2012&nbsp;Paralympics, reaches a new landmark with Born Risky - a new brand campaign dedicated on changing attitudes towards the disabled &ndash; and this trailblazing and spectacular video directed by Saam Farahmand.&nbsp;Step forward Viktoria Modesta, who has been billed as the world&#39;s first bionic pop artist in the brouhaha surrounding&nbsp;Saam&#39;s video for Prototype - previewed in a 40 second commercial in the final ad break of&nbsp;The&nbsp;X Factor Final&nbsp;last Sunday. And although it&#39;s likely&nbsp;the video cost much less to make than the cost of buying that super-premium ad slot&nbsp;(an estimated &pound;200K) Saam has propelled this unknown artist into a high end pop video worthy of Madonna or Lady Gaga.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;In&nbsp;a Thirties-style dictatorship, Viktoria becomes the fulcrum of dissent, because of her talent and non-conformism - of which her disability symbolises. Her lower left leg is missing, so she wears a series of intriguing prosthetic limbs (designed by&nbsp;Sophie de Oliveria Barata) and radiates those elements of rebellion and sexuality&nbsp;that marks her out as a potential icon. And that&#39;s before a mesmerizing puppet-dance routine with her cone-shaped limb wielded like a super-stiletto.Arguably there is a paradox here &ndash; the artist&#39;s physical difference is celebrated at least as much as her talent - but there&#39;s&nbsp;no question Saam has now achieved what he has long threatened: made a really outstanding pure pop video.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Rogue Films

Kate Hitchings

Florian Hoffmeister

Tim Gibson

Joanna Hir

Jay Revell

Channel 4

Chris Bovill

Viktoria Modesta ‘Prototype’ by Saam Farahmand

Saam Farahmand ventures into short film territory with this elliptical narrative that has been &ldquo;inspired by the music and magic of Daughn Gibson&rdquo;.
Daughn is a singer-songwriter from Pennsylvania (he was previously the drummer of stoner metal outfit Pearls And Brass) who released his acclaimed debut album All Hell last year. His brooding, silent A-male presence dominates this film &ndash; he&rsquo;s a bit of an old-fashioned hunk for sure &ndash; as the outsider in a midwestern farm, and the hero who must hold the forces of doom at bay.
Several tracks from All Hell are featured in Another Hell &ndash; an occasion where Saam has gone for straight Mallick-style cinematic beauty.

Furlined

Nathan Atkinson

Tommy Cannon

Larkin Seiple

Martin Karlsson

Cynthia Leda

Angie Thomas

Phoebe Dawson

Aubrey Woodiwiss

White Denim

‘Another Hell’ by Saam Farahmand

ANOTHER HELL

Simple, strong, rude idea, ingeniously executed - Saam's promo video for <a href="http://www.2manydjs.com/radio/" target="_blank">Radio Soulwax</a> (Soulwax's 24hour music website-app) is fantastic. 
And, for one reason or another, couldn't help thinking about those <a href="http://kissmyblackads.blogspot.com/2008/11/ohio-players-album-art.html" target="_blank">Ohio Players album covers</a>...

James W

Andrew Daffy

Mikkel Hansen

Georgia Shelton

Leon Hoser

Abigail Alvarez

Shoreditch Studios

Radio Soulwax 'Machine' by Saam Farahmand

Radio-Soulwax-'Machine'-by-Saam-Farahmand

Saam's new one for Tom Vek's Aroused is smokin'...

Will Bex

Jennifer White & Leah Mckesy

Nova Dando

Tom Vek 'Aroused' by Saam Farahmand

Re-creating the heyday of one George O&#39;Dowd circa 1982, Saam Farahmand gets to grips with the key track from Mark Ronson&#39;s Record Collection album.
Shot &#39;aged VHS home movie&#39; docu-style by Florian Hoffmeister, with bang-on styling and make-up by a styling team including MVA winner Hannah Edwards, Nova Dando and Christine, the end result is another ingenious, effortlessly cool video by Saam. And George never sounding better...

Leanne Stott

Sasha Nixon

Partizan

Ben Ansell

Glassworks

Mike O'Keefe

Mark Ronson's Somebody To Love Me feat. Boy George by Saam Farahmand

The old gang get back together, and this time they're back on Earth - in one of its more spectacular locations.

Ben Sullivan

Klaxons’ Echoes by Saam Farahmand 

Saam Farahmand

Director

Videos featuring Saam Farahmand

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