I am a Sex Addict

Taking over from Woody Allen as cinema’s resident neurotic narcissist, Caveh Zahedi turns self-confession into high art with this self-deprecating and often cringe-worthy troll through his own sexual obsessions. Zahedi plays “Caveh Zahedi,” a not-so-successful independent filmmaker whose major relationships have been derailed by his attraction to prostitutes — and, more to the point, his belief that he should be brutally honest about it with his girlfriends. Framed as a wedding-day confessional by Caveh, and shot during Zahedi’s real-life (third) wedding, the film chronicles our hero’s romantic past. In Paris, he is living with a high-strung French woman when a chance encounter with a prostitute awakens his first illicit desires. In Los Angeles, a long-term relationship with a stable, caring woman goes sour when his desires return in ever stronger — and, this being California, more car-oriented — forms. Time and again, he is unable to break free of his sex addiction, or his desire to inform his lovers of it. “Drolly painting a portrait of a man whose guilt complex needs to be massaged as frequently as his penis, I Am a Sex Addict is uncomfortably frank and frequently hilarious, as it lays bare the secret neuroses of the male ego” (Jason Sanders, San Francisco Festival of Independent Cinema). Colour, DV Cam. 90 mins.

Post-screening discussion with Dr. Alina Wydra, a clinical psychologist whose varied private practice has included the gamut of human sexuality. She has worked with many people troubled with compulsive sexuality and its effect upon themselves and their relationships. Currently, she is developing a program to offer sex addiction therapy online.

Moderated by Caroline Coutts, programmer of Frames of Mind since its inception in September 2002. Caroline is also a filmmaker and a programmer at Knowledge Network, B.C.’s public broadcaster.