Exploring the Fusion: Crash Games as Art in a Contemporary Gallery

The Toronto International Film Festival's TIFF Bell Lightbox Theatre has mounted an historic multimedia exhibition devoted to the career of David Cronenberg, featuring original props and costumes, virtual reality digital exhibits, live interviews and masterclasses, and of course film screenings from Cronenberg's entire oeuvre alongside an amazing selection of contemporary body-horror titles curated by TIFF's Colin Geddes.

See the full lineup of events here: http://tiff.net/cronenberg

‘A Fiend in the Furrows’ is a three-day conference in association with the School of English at Queen’s University Belfast, exploring British “folk horror” in literature, film, television, and music. The event will include academic papers, film screenings, musical performances, and readings.

Supernatural and horrific aspects of folklore inform the Gothic and weird writings of M.R. James, Arthur Machen and Algernon Blackwood, where philosophical and religious certainties are haunted and challenged by the memory of older cultural traditions. Folklore has a profound and unsettling impact on the imaginative perception of landscape, identity, time and the past. Folk memory is often manifested as an intrusive and violent breach from an older repressed, ‘primitive’ or ‘barbarous’ state that transgresses the development of cultural order. Gothic and weird fictions are burgeoning as the focus of serious academic enquiry in philosophy and literary criticism, and the genres continue to have an impact on popular culture.

Through the writing of Nigel Kneale and Alan Garner, among others, the tradition has influenced British horror cinema and television, being revived and reimagined in films such as Quatermass and the Pit (1967), The Devil Rides Out (1968), Witchfinder General (1968), Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971), The Wicker Man (1973), and more recently in Ben Wheatley’s Kill List (2011) and A Field in England (2013). The conference will examine “folk horror” texts, films and music in their period context and the implications for British culture’s understanding of its own unsettled past.

Proposals are welcomed for presentations that engage with various aspects of ‘folk horror’ from researchers in the disciplines of Literature, Film Studies, Music, Drama, History, Anthropology, Archaeology, Folklore, Geography, Art History, Philosophy and Theology. Presentation topics may include (but are not limited to):

Please submit a 300 word abstract together with a brief biography to:
folkhorror@qub.ac.uk – by 1st June 2014.

Official website: http://blogs.qub.ac.uk/folkhorror/

***

Read Owen Williams' great article on the history of British Folk Horror on Spec Op here: http://www.spectacularoptical.ca/2013/10/a-history-of-british-folk-horror/

Tuesdays, February 4th & February 11th, 18th, 25th and March 4th (5 weeks) $35 ADMISSION
Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies, Montreal
Details at www.miskatonicinstitute.com

Horror fiction writer, theorist, philosopher, and prolific epistolarian, H.P. Lovecraft is one of the most important American authors of the 20th century. Lovecraft was a mentor to major horror writers such as Robert Bloch and Ray Bradbury. His work has inspired everything from film festivals, to board games, to the ancient alien theories popularized by TV shows like In Search of …. Over this five-week course, various instructors will lecture on key aspects of Lovecraft’s work and influence, including his influence on heavy metal music, his connections to theology, his inspiration from and influence on pseudo-science, his importance to 20th century horror literature, television, cinema, music and gaming, and his influence on major authors of the “Weird,” like Peter Straub, Stephen King, China Miéville, Thomas Ligotti, Joyce Carol Oates, Kathe Koja and Caitlín Kiernan.

Individual Classes and Instructors Readings for all classes can be found at the H.P. Lovecraft Library page at H.P.Lovecraft.com: http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/

4 February: Shedding the Gothic, Theorizing the Weird: H.P. Lovecraft’s Mid- to Late-Period Works (Instructor: Kristopher Woofter) Reading for the Class: “The Colour Out of Space” (1927)

11 February: Religious Awe and Otherness in the Early Works of H.P. Lovecraft (Instructor: Mario DeGiglio-Bellemare) Reading for the Class: “Dagon” (1917) & “The Shunned House” (1924)

18 February: H.P. Lovecraft’s Influence on Heavy Metal Music (Guest Instructor: Carl Sederholm, Brigham Young University) Reading for the Class: Edgar Allan Poe’s “Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” (1845) & H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Statement of Randolph Carter” (1920) and “The Dunwich Horror” (1929)

25 February: Pseudo-archaeology and the Lovecraftian Narrative (Guest Instructor: Michael Wood, with K. Woofter) Reading for the Class: “The Nameless City” (1921)

4 March: Screening and Discussion, film TBA

SWEET 16!
Celebrating the 16th SF Independent Film Festival
February 6-20, 2014
Brava Theatre, Roxie Theatre, New Parkway Theatre
www.sfindie.com

Now in its 16^th year! The San Francisco Independent Film Festival (SF IndieFest) has come of age to become the Bay Area’s premier showcase for some of the finest independent films and digital programs. From February 6-20 at the Roxie and Brava Theaters in San Francisco and at Oakland’s New Parkway Theater, IndieFest celebrates its Sweet 16 with cutting edge independent films, Q and As with visiting filmmakers of comedies, horror flicks, love stories, documentaries and short films, all while having a good time at one of the many IndieFest parties.

Spectacular Optical's Kier-La Janisse programmed many films for the festival, including:

Opening film: THE CONGRESS
A FIELD IN ENGLAND
ALMOST HUMAN
ASPHALT WATCHES
Centerpiece Film: TEENAGE
BABY BLUES
PROXY
THE WAIT
Closing Film: BLUE RUIN

For the full lineup, see www.sfindie.com

Tuesdays, March 18th, 25th and April 1st (3 weeks)
Microcinema [ETRE]
6029A ave du Parc, Montreal,Canada
Registration $21, tix available at: www.miskatonicinstitute.com

This course will investigate the locus of horror within avant-garde cinema(s). Beginning with canonical films which are examples of Dadaism and Surrealism, the course will progress through European and American avant-garde horror, including the work of Jean Cocteau, J.S. Watson and Melville Webber, Stan Brakhage, Maya Deren, Sidney Peterson, Arthur Lipsett, Shirley Clarke and recent examples of Canadian independent media artworks. We will look briefly at manifestos written in the early period of film history. These manifestos were written by Dadaists, Futurists and Surrealists and called for cinema to be both ‘pure’ (Louis Aragon, Guillaume Apollinaire) and a ‘provocation’ (The Futurists).

FLATPACK FESTIVAL
20-30 March
Birmingham UK
http://www.flatpackfestival.org.uk/

My favourite festival in the world! Flatpack programming is always out-of-the-box and one of a kind. Films, music, performance and all kinds of combinations thereof abound in this, their biggest festival lineup yet. Animation, horror, experimental, documentary, shorts, music videos, expanded cinema, premieres and classics, some with live scores - its all here in one of the world's most vibrant and inspiring annual events.

This year’s Flatpack will see eleven days of joyous audio-visual invention in venues all over Birmingham, taking you from a Korean-style DVD lounge to canalside walks, from once-lost archive treasures  with live music to the best new films from around the world.

Yes, that's right, I've curated TWO Cartoon parties happening on opposite sides of the country on the same day - in Calgary as part of the Calgary Underground Film Festival, and at the Registry Theatre in Kitchener, Ontario. Details are below:

Calgary: Saturday April 12, 10m-1pm
Globe Cinema - 617 8 Ave SW
https://www.calgaryundergroundfilm.org/2014/saturday-morning-cartoon-party

Kitchener: Saturday April 12, 10am-1pm
Registry Theatre - 122 Frederick St.
http://www.registrytheatre.com/saturday-morning-cartoon-party-2/

Remember Saturday mornings? Kids today may not realize the significance of the Saturday morning ritual, but once upon a time, we had to wait a whole week to get our cartoon fix, and when we got it, we tended to binge. In that gleefully gluttonous spirit, the Calgary Underground Film Festival presents a 3-hour trip down memory lane with a tribute to the eye-popping, brain-addling Saturday morning cartoons of yore, complete with a smorgasbord of delicious sugary cereals (and yes, we have soy too!) You’ll see both faves and obscurities spanning the 60s through the 80s, all punctuated with
vintage commercials and PSAs! The lineup is always a secret, but there will be sci-fi , monsters, crime-solving, hot dogs, kid power, bubblegum bands and general nonsense galore! So get ready for a sugar rush and an explosion of nostalgia all wrapped up in one candy-coated package.

The Saturday Morning All-You-Can-Eat Cereal Cartoon Party!
Curated by Kier-La Janisse

Saturday April 19, 10m-Noon
Metro Cinema at the Garneau
Edmonton, AB
http://www.metrocinema.org/film_view/4678/

Remember Saturday mornings? Kids today may not realize the significance of the Saturday morning ritual, but once upon a time, we had to wait a whole week to get our cartoon fix, and when we got it, we tended to binge. In that gleefully gluttonous spirit, the Calgary Underground Film Festival presents a 3-hour trip down memory lane with a tribute to the eye-popping, brain-addling Saturday morning cartoons of yore, complete with a smorgasbord of delicious sugary cereals (and yes, we have soy too!) You’ll see both faves and obscurities spanning the 60s through the 80s, all punctuated with
vintage commercials and PSAs! The lineup is always a secret, but there will be sci-fi , monsters, crime-solving, hot dogs, kid power, bubblegum bands and general nonsense galore! So get ready for a sugar rush and an explosion of nostalgia all wrapped up in one candy-coated package.

The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies presents
SCHOOL OF SHOCK: PAIN AND PLEASURE IN THE CLASSROOM SAFETY FILM
Presented by Kier-La Janisse

Friday April 25, 2014
Dead by Dawn Horror Film Festival
Filmhouse - 88 Lothian Rd.Edinburgh, Scotland
www.deadbydawn.co.uk

For many genre fans, a love affair with horror and the grotesque began early on, sometimes fuelled by unlikely sources. One of these was the classroom safety film, which for many kids was their first time seeing other children threatened by true danger, being confronted with a combination of gore effects and actual accident footage, and being offered a pictorial glimpse at things their parents didn’t want to talk about. Thousands of these films were made in North America from the 1940s through the 1980s, when companies like Centron, McGraw-Hill, Coronet, Encyclopaedia Britannica Films, Avis Films, Crawley Films, Bell Labs, the NFB and others thrived  on the burgeoning market for classroom or workplace educational films.

Subjects ranged from safety in and around vehicles, to drug abuse and venereal disease, teaching children scary lessons about everything from dental hygiene to how to spot a pedophile. The most memorable of these films deliberately used horror visuals to entice and/or shock children into paying attention – such as those by prolific producer Sid Davis (1916-2006) - and some were even made by directors with genre film pedigrees, such as Herk Harvey of Carnival of Souls, William Crain of Blacula and Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde, and cinematographer Douglas Knapp, who later shot John Carpenter’s Dark Star and Assault on Precinct 13.

This lecture and screening will present some of the most notorious educational films of the 40-year golden age of social hygiene onscreen. We’ll also briefly look at educational television PSAs, from the British Public Information Films through the incredibly grisly Australian drunk driving commercials of the 1990s.

The classic ‘era’ of classroom films may be over, but viewed from today’s perspective, some of these films offer up a fascinating survey of changing social mores and cultural preoccupations (not to mention fashions!). Being safe has never looked so grim.

WARNING: This program contains graphic imagery, including real accident and casualty footage.

Program length: 120mins.

This display in the ICA's Fox Reading Room focuses on the work of Polish painter, sculptor and filmmaker Walerian Borowczyk (1923 - 2006). Primarily known for his erotic feature films (Immoral Tales, The Beast), Borowczyk trained in painting and sculpture, a background that greatly influenced his approach to filmmaking. Having established himself as a poster designer in Poland during the 1950s, Borowczyk emigrated to France in 1959, where he worked first as an animator and later as a live-action filmmaker. Throughout his career, Borowczyk became associated with key figures in both the Polish and French avant garde, including the poster artist Jan Lenica, cine-essayist Chris Marker, and electro-acoustic composer Bernard Parmegiani, not to mention surrealists such as André Breton, André Pieyre de Mandiargues and Max Ernst.

Featuring works on paper, wooden sound sculptures and rarely seen archival material (much of which was created as preliminary studies for his groundbreaking animations), this display is the first in the UK to be devoted to this unique and often overlooked artist and filmmaker.

Taking centre stage is Borowczyk's 1964 animation, Les Jeux des Anges to be screened in the cinema. The film features barren lunar landscapes, windowless spaces and mutilated angels, capturing many of the aesthetic tropes and themes found in his oeuvre as a whole. The film also marks the beginning of Borowczyk's collaboration with Bernard Parmegiani, a protégé of musique conrète pioneer Pierre Schaeffer. Here, Parmegiani's shrill, chilling sounds mesh effortlessly with Borowczyk's desolate, nihilistic imagery to create a perfect union of senses.

In partnership with the KINOTEKA Polish Film Festival with seasons at the BFI, ICA, and Arrow Films DVD box set release of his films

Details: http://www.ica.org.uk/whats-on/walerian-borowczyk-listening-eye

Cigarette Burns Cinema presents:
SKIP TRACER - on 16mm!
presented by Spectacular Optical's Kier-La Janisse

Thursday June 12 - 7:00pm - FREE!

We're heading back to the pub, with more adventures in cinematic oddities.
This time, we visit Canada with lost Canuxploitation SKIP TRACER, unavailable on DVD, bluray and with a minuscule VHS release in the early 80s, we're really looking forward to this screening.

SKIP TRACER follows John, a debt collector as he tries to reclaim his Employee of the Year crown, along the way he teaches rookie Brent, the harsh heartless tricks of the trade. This gritty drama is a character piece, exploring the driven lust and questioning the very thing that he is chasing.
We're pleased to welcome Kier-La Janisse, a Canadian film writer and programmer, who grew up during the all-important Canadian Tax Shelter years - a time when Canada was churning out hundreds genre of films, thanks to an incredible increase in taxation allowances. Kier-La is also the author of House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films and editor of the upcoming Spectacular Optical Book One: Kid Power!

I'm super excited to be introducing a screening of ALUCARDA at a historic Masonic Temple in London on Saturday June 14, part of the East End Film Festival's weekend of witchery curated by Electric Sheep and Strange Attractor Press.

text from Electric Sheep website:

Electric Sheep is proud to present an afternoon of orphans and dark magic with a screening of Alucarda at the amazing Masonic Temple, Andaz Hotel Liverpool Street, London, on Saturday 14 June, as part of the Magic and the Macabre weekend at the East End Film Festival. Acclaimed writer and festival programmer Kier-La Janisse, author of House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films (FAB Press), will introduce the screening.

Loosely based on Sheridan Le Fanu’s ‘Carmilla’, extravagant, sumptuous, macabre Alucarda hails from the golden age of Mexican horror. Raven-haired orphan Alucarda has been brought up in a convent to shield her from the evil influence of her diabolical father. But the devil in her blood cannot be suppressed and she draws the newly arrived Justine into her world. Thereon ensue copious amounts of nudity, wild-eyed hysteria, repressed desires, hints of lesbian love, religious exaltation, levitation, exorcism, self-flagellating nuns and unholy rituals, most of it set in a womb-like convent with nuns dressed in what looks like bloodied bandages. Part of the Panique movement co-founded by Alejandro Jodorowsky, director Juan López Moctezuma shared his interest in creating a magical and ritualistic kind of spectacle that would shake up audiences’ perceptions. He certainly succeeded with this astounding, surreal, eye-popping stunner.

+ The Moon Bird (Brothers McLeod, UK 2010, 15 minutes)

A dark animated fairy tale in black and white, about an orphan girl kidnapped by a witch who wants her tears for a magic potion.

Co-curated by Strange Attractor Press, this special weekend of EEFF screenings at the Andaz Hotel Liverpool Street’s Masonic Temple includes witches, ghosts and devilish mermaids, taking you from Wicca to haunted Mexican convents, and from British classics to a special evening with Dave McKean. Full schedule below.

Saturday 14 June

DAYTIME TICKET: £13.00 | BUY TICKETS
EVENING TICKET: £13.00 | BUY TICKETS

12:00 Witchumentary Double Bill + Discussion
with Mark Pilkington (Strange Attractor) and William Fowler & Vic Pratt (BFI Flipside)

Legend of the Witches
Malcolm Leigh | UK | 1970 | 72 mins

Featuring Alex & Maxine Sanders, the spirit of the late 1960s magical revival is captured in this exploration of the currents of English witchcraft.

Secret Rites (in association with BFI Flipside)
Derek Ford | 1971 | Derek Ford | 47 mins

A rarely seen mondo-esque documentary sees a young West London hairdresser join a Notting Hill coven in a spectacular nightclub rite.

15:00 Alucarda
Juan Lopez Moctezuna | 1978 | Mexico | 74 mins

Alucarda has been brought up in a convent to shield her from her father’s evil influence, but the devil in her cannot be suppressed.

The Moon Bird
Brothers McLeod | 2010 | UK | 15 mins

An orphan girl is kidnapped by a witch in this dark animated fairy tale.

18:00 Possession Double Bill

Invocation of My Demon Brother
Kenneth Anger | 1969 | USA | 12 mins

Part of Anger’s Magick Lantern series with a soundtrack by a Moog-wielding Mick Jagger.

Night Tide
Curtis Harrington | 1961 | USA | 86 mins
+ post-screening discussion with Will Fowler (BFI Flipside) & Mark Pilkington (Strange Attractor)

Seaman Johnny Drake (Dennis Hopper) falls for Mora (Linda Lawson), who believes she’s descended from the sirens.

20:30 The Last Winter
Larry Fessenden | 2006 | USA/Iceland | 107 mins

Oil company employees, led by Ron Perlman, are building an ice road in the remote Arctic. When a member of their team is found dead, fears arise that nature may be striking back.

Sunday 15 June

DAYTIME TICKET: £13.00 | BUY TICKETS
EVENING TICKET: £13.00 | BUY TICKETS

12:00 British 60s Double Bill

Eye of the Devil
J. Lee Thompson | 1966 | UK | 92 mins

Vineyard owner (David Niven) returns to his castle, where he and wife (Deborah Kerr) are confronted by a witch, calling for a blood sacrifice.

14:00 Night of the Eagle
Sidney Hayers | 1962 | UK | 87 mins

A psychology professor discovers that his wife has been practicing witchcraft and presses her to stop. Then things begin to go horribly, supernaturally wrong.

16:00 Audrey Rose
Robert Wise | 1977 | USA | 113 mins – 16mm Screening
A young Anthony Hopkins is unnervingly obsessed with the idea that Ivy Templeton is the reincarnation of his daughter.

19:00 An Evening with Dave McKean

Illustrator and designer Dave McKean has created books and graphic novels of The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman) and The Homecomeing (Ray Bradbury), worked with Richard Dawkins and Stephen King, designed characters for Harry Potter, and exhibited across the world. Join us for an evening with a truly unique artist, where Dave will discuss his work, and offer an exclusive first look at footage from his upcoming feature Luna. His other work can be seen on www.keanoshow.com

Mirrormask
2005 | USA/UK | 104 mins + Shorts + Dave McKean in conversation with SF Said

A collaboration with Neil Gaiman, Mirrormask is a dizzying journey into a complex fantasy world. 15-year-old circus worker Helena finds herself in a landscape filled with giants, monkeybirds and dangerous sphinxes. The mysterious Mirrormask is her only hope of escape.

The Week Before
1998 | UK | 23 mins

A card game between God and the Devil, inspired by jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt.

[N]eon
2002 | UK | 28 mins

Bruised from a failed marriage, a man wanders around Venice finding old books, memories, and a momentary ghost.

Montreal's most exciting film event of the year is back and ready to hammer you with three full weeks of non-stop movie mayhem!

Returning to Concordia University (featuring newly-restored seating in the Hall theatre) from July 17-Aug 5th, Fantasia's full lineup and schedule will be announced July 10th at their official site: www.fantasiafestival.com

Our own World Premiere Launch for the KID POWER! anthology book happens on Sunday July 20th at 1:30pm at the J.A. DeSeve Cinema. Here's the official event description:

KID POWER Book Launch, Screening and Cereal Buffet!
Fantasia Film Festival, Montreal Canada
Sunday, July 20 – 1:30pm
J.A. DeSeve Cinema (at Maisonneuve & MacKay on the Concordia campus)

Fantasia is proud to host the world premiere launch of Spectacular Optical’s first anthology book, Kid Power! – all about cool, tuff and inspiring kids in cult film and television.  Co-edited by Kier-La Janisse and Canuxploitation’s Paul Corupe and featuring writing by a diverse array of genre film criticism’s most unique voices, Kid Power! covers the gamut from The Peanut Butter Solution to The ABC Afterschool Special and the dark side of Disney. And tons more! The launch will be accompanied by a rare 35mm screening of Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) and a FREE cereal buffet!

Buying in person will save you both on shipping and on the cover price, as we’ll be selling the books on-site for a special price of $25.00 CAD! We’ll have T-shirts for sale too, and maybe even some KENNY skateboard decks!

THE SATURDAY MORNING CARTOON PARTY!
Curated by Kier-La Janisse

GIMLI FILM FESTIVAL
Saturday July 26, 10am-Noon
Gimli Theatre | Gimli, Manitoba
Tickets: http://www.gimlifilm.com/films-archive/2014/saturday-morning-cartoon-party/

Remember Saturday mornings? Kids today may not realize the significance of the Saturday morning ritual, but once upon a time, we had to wait a whole week to get our cartoon fix, and when we got it, we tended to binge. In that gleefully gluttonous spirit, curator Kier-La Janisse presents a 2-hour trip down memory lane with a tribute to the eye-popping, brain-addling Saturday morning cartoons of yore, complete with a smorgasbord of delicious sugary cereals (and yes, we have soy too!)! You’ll see both faves and obscurities spanning the 60s through the 80s, all punctuated with vintage commercials and PSAs! The lineup is always a secret, but there will be sci-fi, monsters, crime-solving, rock bands and general tomfoolery, so get ready for a sugar rush and an explosion of nostalgia all wrapped up in one candy-coated package.

August 13, 2014 at 9pm
The Royal Cinema, 608 College St, Toronto
Cost: $12 advance / $15 at the door
tickets: http://theblackmuseum.com/?p=1246

For many genre fans, a love affair with horror and the grotesque began early on, sometimes fuelled by unlikely sources. One of these was the classroom safety film, which for many kids was their first time seeing other children threatened by true danger, being confronted with a combination of gore effects and actual accident footage, and being offered a pictorial glimpse at things their parents didn’t want to talk about. Thousands of these films were made in North America from the 1940s through the 1980s, when companies like Centron, McGraw-Hill, Coronet, Encyclopaedia Britannica Films, Avis Films, Crawley Films, Bell Labs, the NFB and others thrived on the burgeoning market for classroom or workplace educational films.

Subjects ranged from safety in and around vehicles, to drug abuse and venereal disease, teaching children scary lessons about everything from dental hygiene to how to spot a pedophile. The most memorable of these films deliberately used horror visuals to entice and/or shock children into paying attention – such as those by prolific producer Sid Davis (1916-2006) – and some were even made by directors with genre film pedigrees, such as Carnival of Souls’ Herk Harvey, a key figure in the industrial film scene.

This lecture and screening by Kier-La Janisse, guest lecturer from The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies, will present some of the most notorious educational films of the 40-year golden age of social hygiene onscreen. We’ll also briefly look at educational television PSAs, from the British Public Information Films through the incredibly grisly Australian drunk driving commercials of the 1990s.

The classic era of classroom films may be over, but viewed from today’s perspective, some of these films offer up a fascinating survey of changing social mores and cultural preoccupations (not to mention fashions!). Being safe has never looked so grim.

WARNING: This program contains graphic imagery, including real accident and casualty footage.

KID POWER! Book launch + CELIA screening
with director Ann Turner, Actress Rebecca Smart and KID POWER authors Briony Kidd and Alexandra Heller-Nicholas in person!

Friday August 22, 2014
Hobart, Tasmania

Info: http://strangerwithmyface.com/

The Stranger With My Face Horror Film festival is back for a third year from 21-24 August in Hobart, Tasmania and has announced its opening night film.

The opening night film on Friday 22 August in Hobart is the 1989 cult film Celia, directed by Ann Turner (Dallas Doll, Irresistible) and starring then child star Rebecca Smart (nominated for an AFI award for Black Rock).

Both Turner and Smart will be attendance at the special screening honouring a film that was widely acclaimed on its release but has steadily grown in reputation since then. In 2009 English Time Out included the film in its “50 Greatest Debut Movies” list.

Celia is the story of a rebellious child growing up in Melbourne in the 1950s, in a community gripped by paranoia about ‘reds under the bed’. Her fear and confusion come to a head when a government ban on rabbits robs her of her beloved pet, and fantasy and reality begin to merge.

“It’s actually not exactly a horror film, despite the fact that it was renamed Celia: Child of Terror for release in North America,” says festival director Briony Kidd. “But it’s a dark, very powerful story with fantasy elements. It encapsulates what our festival is about, in terms of the idea of entertainment as response to personal and political struggle. It’s also just a superb piece of filmmaking.”

The event will double as the Australian launch of a new international anthology, Spectacular Optical Book 1: Kid Power!, which features an essay about the film Celia. Also present will be Melbourne-based author Alexandra Heller-Nicholas (Rape Revenge Films: A Critical Study), whose essay on Italian child actor of the 1970s, Nicoletta Elmi, features in the book.

Ann Turner says, “I’m excited to be coming to Hobart, home of the freshest air on the planet and the best titled film festival, Stranger With My Face, and to team up with Rebecca Smart who I haven’t seen in person for 26 years, although I’ve viewed her extraordinary performance through those years, magically alive on celluloid. Women making horror films, Kid Power…. I’m looking forward to days and nights full of chills and thrills.”

Kid Power‘s editor Kier-La Janisse: “I’m elated to be collaborating with the Stranger with My Face Festival, a festival that in only a few short years has become an integral event in the international genre film community. I couldn’t ask for a more fitting Australian launch, considering that Celia is not only a central film in the book, but also one of many amazing Australian contributions, including new writing from scholar Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and a poignant essay on Seven Little Australians.”

The four-day Stranger With My Face Horror Film Festival in Hobart, Tasmania, features a shorts film program, the awards nights of the 48-Hour Tasploitaiton Challenge and the Tasmanian Gothic Script Challenge (two events conducted by Stranger With My Face during July), and a range of talks, workshops, panels and events.

The full program will be online on 28 July at http://www.strangerwithmyface.com. The festival’s principle supporter this year is Screen Tasmania.

Saturday Morning All-You-Can-Eat-Cereal Cartoon Party Vol. 3

Curated by Kier-La Janisse | 180 minutes — To Be Announced, DV, Various, 2014

Saturday August 30th, 2014
Mayfair Theatre, 1074 Bank St.
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Website: http://mayfairtheatre.ca/movies/Saturday-Morning-AllYouCanEatCereal-Cartoon-Party/

Once more, Metro brings you this super-fun sugar- fuelled event, featuring an all new program of cartoons! Put on your best PJs and experience it all over again on the big screen! Programmed for all ages, the cereal will be all-you-can-eat and the cartoons (hand-picked from the 70s & 80s) will last over 2 hours.

ADULTS $12 / STUDENTS & SENIORS $10 / CHILDREN 12 & UNDER - $8 – ADMISSION INCLUDES CEREAL.

September 18-25, 2014
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Austin, TX

www.fantasticfest.com

Founded in 2005, Fantastic Fest is the largest genre film festival in the U.S. specializing in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, action and fantastic movies from all around the world. Fantastic Fest is held each year at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin, Texas, named the best cinema in America by Entertainment Weekly. In years past the festival has been home to world premieres of FRANKENWEENIE, RED DAWN, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 & 4, THERE WILL BE BLOOD, APOCALYPTO, ZOMBIELAND, MACHETE KILLS and RED, while the guest roster has included such talent as Tim Burton, Andy and Lana Wachowski, Mel Gibson, Bill Murray, Errol Morris, Edward Norton, Ryan Reynolds, Karl Urban, Josh Hartnett, The RZA, Dolph Lundgren, Paul Rudd, Bill Pullman, Paul Thomas Anderson, Kevin Smith, Jon Favreau, George Romero, Darren Aronofsky and Mike Judge. Fantastic Fest also features world, national and regional premieres of new genre films by emerging artists.

Add to this the Mercado Fantastico/Fantastic Market which facilitates the co-production of new features with an emphasis on Spain, Portugal and Latin America; the amazing Fantastic Arcade which showcases the best  discoveries in independent video game design; a killer short film section (curated by yours truly!); the newly-inaugurated MONDO-Con dedicated to graphic arts; and an unbeatable roster of special events make Fantastic Fest an essential destination in the annual festival calendar.

The Saturday Morning All-You-Can-Eat-Cereal Cartoon Party

Curated by Spectacular Optical's Kier-La Janisse

A tribute to the eye-popping, brain-addling Saturday morning cartoons of yore, complete with a smorgasbord of delicious sugary cereals. Jammies are encouraged!

October 4th, 2014 & May 30th, 2015 at 10:00 AM
Registry Theatre, Kitchener ON

http://www.registrytheatre.com/saturday-morning-cartoon-party-3/

Tickets: $12, $6 for children 6 & under, $5 EyeGo

Call 519-578-1570 or Buy Tickets Online

THE SATURDAY MORNING ALL YOU CAN EAT CEREAL CARTOON PARTY - DEDFEST HALLOWEEN EDITION!
Saturday Oct 25 - 11:00am-1:00pm
Metro Cinema, Edmonton
Tix + details at the DEDFest website HERE

Join us for what we hope will be a new DEDfest tradition – our Halloween-themed version of the Saturday Morning Cartoon Party! Curated by DEDfest guest and expert on all things horror and pop culture Kier-la Janisse, this all-ages event will feature those favourite cartoons from the 1960’s to 1980’s that border on the spooky. Complete with vintage commercials in between! And the best part – all proceeds go to the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation.

COSTUMES ARE ENCOURAGED!!

This event is sponsored by Adele Hartley, who donated her "KID POWER FILM FESTIVAL" perk from our KID POWER Indiegogo campaign to benefit this Stollery Kids fundraiser.

Author and Editor Kier-La Janisse in Person!

Friday Nov 7th - 7:30pm
Brattle Theatre
Harvard Square, Cambridge Mass.

(1976) dir Michael Ritchie w/Walter Matthau, Tatum O’Neal, Jackie Earle Haley, Vic Morrow [102 min; 35mm]
They don’t make ‘em like this anymore! “Walter Matthau whips a ragtag ‘tween team of foul-mouthed outcasts into one of the tuffest brigades this side of Vietnam. This mid-70s time capsule will truly shock and surprise you at how true-to-life little league really can be.” – Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

Join us for the Boston premiere of KID POWER! – a new book of essays and interviews all about cool kids in cult film and TV, edited by film writer and programmer Kier-La Janisse and Canuxploitation scholar Paul Corupe – with this ultra-rare 35mm screening of the one and only, original BAD NEWS BEARS!

Kier-La Janisse will appear in person and books will be available at the event.

Tickets: http://www.brattlefilm.org/2014/11/07/kid-power-book-launch-event-with-the-bad-news-bears/#.VE2u9BYtPK8

THE COLLOQUIUM FOR UNPOPULAR CULTURE presents: KIER-LA JANISSE on HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN

WHEN: Saturday 8 November 2014, 4-5:30pm

WHERE: Room 471, 20 Cooper Square [East 5th and Bowery]

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, NYU

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Cinema is full of neurotic personalities, but few things are more transfixing than a woman losing her mind onscreen. Horror as a genre provides the most welcoming platform for these histrionics: crippling paranoia, desperate loneliness, masochistic death-wishes, dangerous obsessiveness, apocalyptic hysteria. Unlike her male counterpart - ‘the eccentric’ - the female neurotic lives a shamed existence, making these films rare places where her destructive emotions get to play.

Canadian author, publisher and film programmer KIER-LA JANISSE’S 2012 book HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN is an examination of these characters through a daringly personal autobiographical lens. Anecdotes and memories interweave with film history, criticism, trivia and confrontational imagery to create a reflective personal history and examination of female madness, both onscreen and off. Through a discussion of over 200 films that span the beginning and end of the most turbulent period of the women’s liberation movement - often a source of panic in horror cinema - we witness shocking societal responses to what is characterized as “a female problem”. Collectively, these films ask the question of how much of this problem is manufactured, both from within and from without.

KIER-LA JANISSE will be giving a presentation illustrated by clips and onscreen images in which she lays bare the process - and consequences - of inserting herself into the larger narrative of horror studies.

PhilaMOCA, Reelblack Inc., and Spectacular Optical present a special screening of the 1986 all-children action classic HAWK JONES in celebration of the release of SPECTACULAR OPTICAL BOOK ONE: KID POWER!

Co-editor Kier-La Janisse in attendance!

Sunday, November 9, 2014
PhilaMOCA - 531 N. 12th St.
Philadelphia, PA

Doors 7:00, Movie at 7:30
$10, no refunds or exchanges

"The movie with the kids in it!" screams the VHS cover of cop action movie HAWK JONES. Conceived as DIRTY HARRY for the milk and cookies crowd, siblings Richard and Tor created HAWK JONES in 1986 to put a cast of amateur child actors through the much-loved cliches of the 1980s buddy-cop drama. The low-budget classic stars six-year-old Valiant Duhart as the titular tough-as-nails police detective who has to track down local gangster Antonio Coppola and his gang of punks while dealing with his new partner, female rookie cop McAllister. Like the greatest backyard game of cops and robbers ever attempted, Hawk catches hell from his boss, gets involved in car chases and blows away bad guys with a plastic toy arsenal, all the while exuding a charming childhood innocence that made fans of legions of kids that grew up watching his antics on VHS. You've seen BUGSY MALONE, but you can't miss HAWK JONES, which is chock full of the kinds of badass kids spotlighted in Spectacular Optical's new KID POWER anthology. (Paul Corupe)

Co-editor Kier-La Janisse will be in attendance to introduce the film.

http://www.reelblack.com/
http://www.philamoca.org/

An event/gathering to celebrate the release of Light in the Attic Records’ Native North America (Vol. 1): Aboriginal Folk, Rock, and Country 1966-1985 compilation (2-CD/3-LP) featuring live poetry from Duke Redbird, listening session, and a 16mm screening of Willie Dunn’s 1968 short film, The Ballad of Crowfoot (NFB). (Spectacular Optical's Kier-La Janisse will be testing her rusty 16mm skillz as the projectionist!)

Friday, November 28, 2014
8-10 pm

DOUBLE DOUBLE LAND
209 Augusta Avenue (alley entrance, first door on your right)
Toronto, Ontario

Admission by donation if able (suggested amount $5-10, but open to all regardless, funds raised will go towards Duke's performance)

Largely unheard, criminally undocumented, but at their core, utterly revolutionary, the recordings of the diverse North American Aboriginal community will finally take their rightful place in our collective history in the form of Native North America (Vol. 1): Aboriginal Folk, Rock, and Country 1966–1985. An anthology of music that was once near-extinct and off-the-grid is now available for all to hear, in what is, without a doubt, Light In The Attic’s most ambitious and historically significant project in the label’s 12-year journey.

Native North America (Vol. 1) features music from the Indigenous peoples of Canada and the northern United States, recorded in the turbulent decades between 1966 to 1985. It represents the fusion of shifting global popular culture and a reawakening of Aboriginal spirituality and expression. The majority of this material has been widely unavailable for decades, hindered by lack of distribution or industry support and by limited mass media coverage, until now. You’ll hear Arctic garage rock from the Nunavik region of northern Quebec, melancholy Yup’ik folk from Alaska, and hushed country blues from the Wagmatcook First Nation reserve in Nova Scotia. You’ll hear echoes of Neil Young, Velvet Underground, Leonard Cohen, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Johnny Cash, and more among the songs, but injected with Native consciousness, storytelling, poetry, history, and ceremony.

The stories behind the music presented on Native North America (Vol. 1) range from standard rock-and-roll dreams to transcendental epiphanies. They have been collected with love and respect by Vancouver-based record archaeologist and curator Kevin “Sipreano” Howes in a 15-year quest to unearth the history that falls between the notes of this unique music. Tirelessly, Howes scoured obscure, remote areas for the original vinyl recordings and the artists who made them, going so far as to send messages in Inuktitut over community radio airwaves in hopes that these lost cultural heroes would resurface.
With cooperation and guidance from the artists, producers, family members, and behind the scenes players, Native North America (Vol. 1) sheds real light on the painful struggles and deep traditions of the greater Indigenous community and the significance of its music. The songs speak of joy and spirituality, but also tell of real tragedy and strife, like that of Algonquin/Mohawk artist Willy Mitchell, whose music career was sparked by a bullet to the head from the gun of a trigger-happy police officer, or those of Inuk singer-songwriter Willie Thrasher, who was robbed of his family and traditional Inuit culture by the residential school system.

Considering the financially motivated destruction of our environment, the conservative political landscape, and corporate bottom-line dominance, it’s bittersweet to report that the revolutionary songs featured on Native North America hold as much meaning today as when they were originally recorded. Dedicated to legendary Métis singer-songwriter and poet Willie Dunn, featured on the anthology but who sadly passed away during its making, Native North America (Vol. 1) is only the beginning. A companion set featuring a crucial selection of folk, rock, and country from the United States’ Lower 48 and Mexico is currently in production.

Kid Power! presents:
A COSMIC CHRISTMAS (1977) + other Holiday cult classics
with director CLIVE SMITH in person!
Saturday Dec 13, 2:00pm - 3:30pm
The Royal Cinema, Toronto Canada

http://www.theroyal.to/

Tickets HERE

** Just Announced! A COSMIC CHRISTMAS director Clive Smith will be raffling off rare, original COSMIC CHRISTMAS paraphernalia from his own personal collection!!**

Join us for a special matinee program of rare retro Xmas TV specials, movie trailers, commercials and other weird holiday ephemera in this seasonal instalment of the Royal’s new KID POWER! series. Cartoons, Christmas capers, cults, kooks and kids will provide the onscreen entertainment alongside a real-life smorgasbord of gingerbread cookies, candy canes and other Xmas delights!

While the lineup of kid-friendly TV specials both beloved and obscure is totally top-secret, we can give you a bit of a tease: it will include a rare big-screen appearance by Nelvana’s first psychedelic holiday special A COSMIC CHRISTMAS (1977), written by Nelvana’s Patrick Loubert and children’s programming mainstay Ken Sobol (who also wrote Nelvana’s THE DEVIL AND DANIEL MOUSE as well as the influential PBS series INSIDE/OUT) and directed by maverick animator Clive Smith, who will be appearing at The Royal in person for a Q+A after the screening!

This jam-packed program of specials and clips is at turns hilarious and poignant, and - as with all KID POWER programming - at the center of each story is a feisty, determined child who has to figure out how to solve problems independently.

The KID POWER! series is an initiative of the Royal Cinema and Spectacular Optical, the publishers of the cult film book KID POWER! which will be available at all screenings, and in our online store at: http://www.spectacularoptical.ca/store/product/spectacular-optical-book-one-kid-power/