S5 EP1 with Saman Kesh
from Artists in Depth Hosted by Alan Powell, Nicole Powell
Our guest today is Saman Kesh https://www.samankesh.com/ Saman is an award-winning Iranian-American filmmaker celebrated for blending raw human emotion with controlled chaos, and for earning 17 Vimeo Staff Picks. He directs for some of the world’s top brands and artists. His music videos for Ed Sheeran, Kygo, Hot Chip, and Calvin Harris have earned a YDA Silver at Cannes and two Best Video awards at SXSW. His latest Ed Sheeran video, Azizam, was nominated for Best Music Video at SXSW in 2026. His Taco Bell Super Bowl spot, along with campaigns for Nintendo, Google, and Toyota, have won multiple Clio awards. Kesh’s narrative work also channels his signature chaos. His acclaimed short films CONTROLLER and HIT TV (both Vimeo Staff Picks) are currently in development for long-form adaptations. Our conversation with Saman was informed by his professional relationship with my co-host and daughter, Nicole. She is Saman’s producer of choice. They’ve worked together many times over the past several years. So it was easy to drop into the topics of darkness in the creative process and the brain as fact-checker and not being the leader of our emotional and somatic experiences - but we started off light, so we thought, with a simple question…
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