Meet Mas Bouzidi, the twenty-four-year-old writer/director of Concessions—a new independent feature enjoying its US premier this week at the Woodstock Film Festival in upstate New York, not too far from where it was filmed and where Mas grew up. Concessions is an ambitious, edgy, beautifully made ode to the disappearing ritual of movie going, and is both close to home and far-flung.
Concessions wears its many cinematic inspirations charmingly on its sleeve, and as the photo above suggests—one of those inspirations is my brother Eagle’s film, Last Night at the Alamo. Mas’s instinct was to strengthen that connection by reaching out to me, and happily, I ended up contributing some of my guitar music to an already vibrant soundtrack(lots of intriguing needle drops and some evocative cues from New York musician and sound man John Keville). Cinema Paradiso, Dazed and Confused, and Clerks are some other notable points of Cinema connectivity—but Mas’s film is also a thoroughly original piece of subjective work and I’m very proud to have successfully interwoven some of my music into the tapestry.
In August, Concessions had it’s world premier at the prestigous Edinburg Film Festival in Scotland, where it was in competition with nine other films for best in festival(The Sean Connery Award). The prize went to Mortician, an Iranian film made entirely with an iPhone—which says something I suppose and certainly played with a certain frustratingly poignant edge against the 35 milemeter standard bearer that is Concessions.
Well, truth to tell, I’ll be releasing an iPhone album in 2026…it’s the world we live in… but three cheers for Mas Bouzidi who has lovingly made a wonderful first film to remind us what the word film, really and truly means.
Concessions is making its way in the world nicely and I know for a fact that some industry heavyweights are taking notice—so look for it—it will be coming your way sometime soon.
And hey, the music is great !