Carla MacKinnon, film festival producer (Branchage, London Short Film Festival, East End Film Festival) and organiser of film and thought events Rich Pickings, talks to Virginie Sélavy about her latest venture, The Sleep Paralysis Project, a cross-platform investigation of a common parasomniac phenomenon and its cultural and scientific background through film, live events and online. The project was launched at the London Short Film Festival in January with an evening of film and talk. A short documentary is currently in production.
I’M READY FOR MY CLOSE-UP, Friday 15 February, 5-5:30pm, Resonance 104.4 FM
Writer and comic artist Mark Stafford talks to Virginie Sélavy about Michael Mann’s dark, atmospheric 1983 movie, in which German soldiers stationed in an old Romanian castle during WWII are faced with an ancient evil, and the use of Nazis in exploitation and horror films.
Writer and director Jennifer Eiss, and freelance journalist and co-founder of The Duke Mitchell Film Club Evrim Ersoy, talk to Virginie Sélavy about Jen and Sylvia Soska’s provocative, gruesome and stylish American Mary, discussing among other things the Soska twins’ description of their film as ‘feminist horror’, the hype surrounding them, and Katharine Isabelle’s performance as the disenchanted psychotic surgeon at the centre of the film.
First broadcast on Resonance 104.4 FM on Friday 18 January 2013.
Behind the Pink Curtain author Jasper Sharp talks about the late Kôji Wakamatsu, one of the most radical and provocative filmmakers of post-war Japan, and explains the context of the soft porn industry and the period of social and political unrest in which his work developed.
First broadcast on Resonance FM 104.4 on Friday 21 December 2012.
Alex Fitch talks to two directors about their projects, which capture visions of childhood and how that progresses into adulthood. In a Q&A recorded at SCI-FI-LONDON: EAST, Alex chats to Cory McAbee, creator of SF musicals The American Astronaut and Stingray Sam, about his latest film Crazy and Thief – a semi-improvised drama that documents the director’s children as they journey across New York looking for stars, again scored by his band, The Billy Nayer Show. McAbee discusses his change in direction for this project and the difficulties of directing children, and performs a song from the soundtrack. Also, Alex discusses 56Up with Michael Apted, the latest instalment of his 7Up series, which has charted the lives of 14 children from diverse socio-economic backgrounds since the age of 7. Apted also discusses his involvement with another serial that has reached its 50th anniversary as the director recalls his experience of directing the Bond movie The World Is Not Enough.
Spencer Hickman, founder of Death Waltz Records, specialising in cult film soundtracks on limited coloured vinyl with exclusive new artwork, talks to Virginie Sélavy about his label and plays tracks from his releases, which include Halloween II and III, Zombie Flesh Eaters, Donnie Darko and Let the Right One In, and music that has influenced him.
First broadcast on Resonance FM 104.4 on Monday 3 December 2012.
I’M READY FOR MY CLOSE-UP, Friday 16 November, 5-5:30pm, Resonance 104.4 FM
Virginie Sélavy talks to Josh Saco, the man behind Cigarette Burns, which organises screenings of cult films in various London venues. Past screenings have included Dario Argento’s Suspiria, Abel Ferrara’s revenge thriller Ms 45, Harry Kümel’s Euro lesbian vampire movie Daughters of Darkness, disturbing 70s Spanish chiller Who Can Kill a Child? as well as a Female Convict Scorpion all-nighter. Cigarette Burns also produced the play The Hallowe’en Sessions, which was the subject of last month’s show. Their next event is a late night screening of Mary Lambert’s Pet Sematary (1989), adapted from Stephen King, on Friday 16 November at the Rio Cinema in Dalston.
Acclaimed writer Kim Newman and director Sean Hogan (The Devil’s Business) talk to Virginie Sélavy about their exciting new project, the horror play The Hallowe’en Sessions. A group of mental patients gather for a therapy session to each recount the terrifying events that caused them to lose their minds. But is their mysterious therapist all she appears to be, and will her course of treatment prove to be kill or cure?
The Hallowe’en Sessions is presented by Cigarette Burns and an award-winning team of horror/fantasy creators. Writers Kim Newman (Anno Dracula, Moriarty: The Hound of the D’Urbervilles), Stephen Volk (The Awakening, Ghostwatch), Anne Billson (Suckers, Stiff Lips) Paul Mcauley (Fairyland, The Quiet War Trilogy) snd Maura Mchugh (Jennifer Wilde, Roisin Dubh) take you on a head trip through the darkest recesses of the human psyche, where no one – least of all the audience – escapes with their nerves or sanity intact.
The Hallowe’en Sessions play at the Leicester Square Theatre from 29 October to 3 November. Tickets available from the Leicester Square Theatre website. Join the Facebook event.
First broadcast on Resonance FM 104.4 on Friday 19 October 2012. For more info and formats to stream/download, visit www.archive.org.
I’M READY FOR MY CLOSE-UP, Friday 21 September, 5-5:30pm, Resonance 104.4 FM
Justin Harries of the FilmBar70 film club talks to Virginie Sélavy about king of Spanish exploitation Jess Franco. FilmBar70 will screen Franco’s hypnotic, stylish Vampyros Lesbos (1971), starring smouldering screen siren Soledad Miranda, as part of their Scala Beyond Eurotrash all-nighter on Saturday 22 September at the Roxy Bar and Screen.
Electric Sheep and Strange Attractor Press also celebrate Jess Franco as part of Scala Beyond with a screening of The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein (1972) accompanied by a talk with writer Stephen Thrower on Wednesday 19 September at the Horse Hospital.
Scala Beyond is a 6-week nationwide film season dedicated to all forms of cinema exhibition that runs from 8 August to 29 September 2012.
Alex Fitch talks to film critic and historian Kim Newman about The Edgar Wallace Mysteries, a series of British B-movies made in the 1960s and subsequently rebranded as a TV series, based on novels by the co-creator of King Kong. Plus: in a Q&A recorded at the Raindance Film Festival, Alex talks to director M.A. Littler about his documentary The Kingdom of Survival, a road movie that explores the current state of scepticism and philosophy in modern America and features interviews with Noam Chomsky, Ramsey Kanaan and Joe Bageant.
Carla MacKinnon, film festival producer (Branchage, London Short Film Festival, East End Film Festival) and organiser of film and thought events Rich Pickings, talks to Virginie Sélavy about her latest venture, The Sleep Paralysis Project, a cross-platform investigation of a common parasomniac phenomenon and its cultural and scientific background through film, live events and online. The project was launched at the London Short Film Festival in January with an evening of film and talk. A short documentary is currently in production. 
