Electric Sheep Summer 08

‘This bitter earth/Can it be so cold’, laments Dinah Washington on the soundtrack of Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep, a film defined as much by its stark monochrome images as by the heart-rending jazz tunes that breathe soul into them. A lost gem for thirty years, Killer of Sheep is re-released in the UK this month and to celebrate the belated recognition of one of American independent cinema’s greats, we look at the influence of jazz on film in the US with articles on Shirley Clarke, John Cassavetes, Jim Jarmusch and Beat cinema among others.

The magazine is no longer available and we are no longer published by Wallflower Press.

Also in this issue: Edinburgh Film Festival, Flipside: Psychedelia, How Manga Took Over the World, interviews with Charles Burnett and Tom Kalin.

REALITY CHECK: THE MARTIAL MUSEUM OF TERRESTRIAL ART

Alex Fitch talks to curator Lydia Yee about The Martian Museum of Terrestrial art, an anthropological look at modern art currently on display at The Barbican in London. Mixing famous and not so famous examples of modern art from the last 50 years with a tongue-i- cheek audio guide and layout that recalls The Hitch-hiker’s guide to the Galaxy, the exhibition uses sci-fi text and graphics to provide an unusual look at a difficult subject.

Online at www.sci-fi-london.com/audio this weekend

REALITY CHECK PODCASTS ON SCI-FI LONDON

alex-fitch-corner
Alex Fitch

Check out Electric Sheep’s collaborator Alex Fitch’s podcasts on Sci-Fi London:

Episode 1: The Smoking Cabinet
Alex Fitch talks to curators Claire Cook, Simone Pyne and Kate Grove about the Curzon’s Burlesque season of silent cinema, live acts and talks which featured an eclectic mix of Edwardian titillation, melodrama (The Blue Angel) and circus performers.

Episode 2: Nostalgia and Cult TV
Two interviews recorded at last summer’s Cult TV Weekender: Alex talks to actor Philip Glenister (DCI Gene Hunt) and writer Matthew Graham about “Life on Mars” / “Ashes to ashes” and to Alan Shubrook, writer of the coffee table book “21 Century FX” about his time working on “Thunderbirds” in the 1960s.

Episode 3: Other Cinema DVDs
Alex talks to Noel Lawrence, founder of the “Other Cinema” DVD label about their range of esoteric / underground movies and collections of short films such as ” The Net – The Unabomber, LSD and the internet”, “Experiments in Terror”, “Decasia” and “Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y”…

Episode 4: M.R.James’ Ghost stories at Christmas
Alex talks to Dexter O’Neil, head of Fantom Films, a new company that have been producing cult CD and DVD releases over the last year or so, including a new range of M.R. James audio books featuring the best of his “Tales of the Supernatural” read by the likes of Geoffrey Bayldon. Includes an extract from “There was a man dwelt by a churchyard” read by Gareth David Lloyd (Torchwood).

Download them from sci-fi-london.com/audio

More info here: panelborders

Interview with Alejandro Jodorowsky

El Topo
Alejandro Jodorowsky in El Topo

I’M READY FOR MY CLOSE-UP

Continuing directors’ month on IR4MCU, guest presenter Virginie Sélavy interviews legendary Mexican director Alejandro Jodorowsky who talks about using eerie sound effects, Sam Peckinpah and Antonin Artaud’s ‘The Conquest of Mexico’. The show is introduced by Alex Fitch and was edited by Richard Thomas.


It was originally broadcast on 21 June 2007 5pm Resonance 104.4 FM (London)


audio Listen to the podcast of the Alejandro Jodorowsky interview. For more info about the variety of formats you can download this podcast in / stream, please visit archive.org

Read a transcript of Virginie Sélavy’s interview with Alejandro Jodorowsky in Electric Sheep Magazine