Film at Eleven

The lovely people at Blue Underground have announced the DVD release of a Circle of Iron 2-Disc Special Edition.

At the height of his international fame, the legendary Bruce Lee – along with Coburn and Stirling Silliphant – began to write what he believed would be the greatest achievement of his film career. Five years after his mysterious death, Lee’s vision would finally be realized. David Carradine, Christopher Lee, Roddy McDowall and Eli Wallach star in this acclaimed cult hit that brings Lee’s personal philosophy to the screen with a still-potent combination of mysticism, humour and martial arts mayhem.

Digitally remastered and loaded with bonus material - including a director’s commentary and a stack of interviews - the DVD hits the shelves on May 29th.

Since its establishment in 1972, the Japan Foundation has been showing subtitled Japanese films overseas as part of its efforts to introduce Japanese culture to the world. Three years ago, the Japan Foundation resumed offering these English-subtitled prints to foreign residents of Japan so that they would have the opportunity to experience the wealth of Japanese cinema.

They have organized seven successful film events since 2004, and, as the eighth event, are presenting Rediscovery of Japanese Cinema. - six films that all enjoy critical acclaim overseas.

We have chosen these six films because of their strength as works of art. Both uninitiated audiences and avid cinema lovers will find them immensely attractive. The variety is also part of the appeal; as you will find elements of family drama, romance, and comedy, among others. You will also witness beautiful performances from actresses who were representative of the golden era of Japanese cinema, such as Hara Setsuko, Takamine Hideko, Tanaka Kinuyo, Kagawa Kyoko, and Wakao Ayako.

In addition to the screenings of stellar films, there will be a lecture by Dr. HIRANO Kyoko, author of Mr. Smith Goes to Tokyo: Japanese Cinema Under the American Occupation, 1945-1952 who recently published Manhattan no Kurosawa (lit. Kurosawa in Manhattan) in Japan. Between 1986 and 2004, Dr. Hirano worked for the Film Center at the Japan Society in New York., introducing numerous Japanese films to North American audiences. She will share with us her experiences in presenting Japanese cinema overseas. The late author and critic, Susan Sontag was very much involved in exploring world cinema, and programmed a series titled “Susan Sontag on Japanese Film” and its sequel. Three of the films shown during this film event, The Ball at the Anjo House, Where Chimneys Are Seen, and Twelve Pairs of Eyes, were highly recommended by Ms. Sontag.

Continue Reading »

It’s competition time!

To celebrate the upcoming UK release of Jonathan Yudis’ wonderfully funny Pervert!, we have three DVDs to give away to whoever can answer a few simple questions.

There’s clips as well.

So click here to find out if you’re a pervert, or just to see the extended lesbian scene if you prefer.

By popular demand, the people behind the serial killer superhero rock ‘n’ roll zombie road movie romance, Die You Zombie Bastards! now have officially licensed t-shirts for sale.

The shirts are silkscreened white on black and are available in both men’s and women’s sizes. Click here to find out more and to start shopping.

The 2nd International No Budget VideoFilmfestival has issued its final call for entries. There are two categories of films under consideration; extremely short films (under three minutes) and short films (between three and 15 minutes).

They are looking for narrative and fictional shorts and like accurately planned films, spontaneously done projects and exercises and inventive products which came into being by accident. Originality of narration or progress are the crucial factors of evaluation.

Filmmakers who are not willing to fix their creativity into a kind of commercial frame are invited to share their work with their festival audience!

The final deadline for submissions is Tuesday, 1st May.

The very talented actress and producer Rosemary Gore sent me an email recently to let me know that she will will be on the cover and have a feature profile in the June 2007 issue of In Magazine. This is the magazines 15th anniversary issue and will be unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival in June.

Check it out if you get the chance. In the meantime, try to track down Fear of the Dark, Baby Doll or Oil and Water and see for yourself why we’re such fans of her around these parts.

We are unashamed fans of Jonathan Yudis’ homage to sexploitation films in general, and Russ Meyer in in particular, in these parts. So it is with great delight that I saw on ISOYM that Pervert (review) is hitting UK stores on DVD on 30th April.

Head over to Amazon and order it now.

To celebrate the launch of the world’s first MA in Cult Film and TV, the Cult Film Archive at Brunel University have teamed up with the Sci-Fi-London film festival to create Cine-Excess, London’s first international conference dedicated to global cult film traditions.

‘Cult’ is a contemporary media buzz-word and cult status has become something that many filmmakers aspire to. Cine-Excess aims to bring together the people with the power to elevate a film to cultdom. Filmmakers, distributors and exhibitors will confront critics and fans at this unique event, which will feature both academic papers and roundtable discussions by key film industry figures. Delegates will also get the chance to watch the UK premieres of some exciting new cult films.

John Landis will open the event on Thursday, May 3rd and will be participating in an on-stage Q&A/career retrospective on Friday 4th May. Other guests include the incomparable Brian Yuzna and Stuart Gordon, who will introducing the UK premiere of his new film Edmond.

After the success of their first Four contests, Filmaka has launched its Fifth contest ‘The Secret’. Submissions are accepted till 30th April 2007.

The topic for Filmaka’s April contest is “The Secret,” and they are looking forward to seeing how filmmakers across the world explore this theme.All entries must be 1-3 minutes in length, and must be uploaded by midnight PST, April 30th, 2007. The top 15-20 filmmakers each month have a chance at the annual grand prize: a feature film contract.

Filmaka.com is an international competition, which accepts films in 10 different languages. Their award winning jury includes Werner Herzog, Neil LaBute, Paul Schrader, Wim Wenders, and John Madden.

Entry is free for students: email info@filmaka.com from your school issued email for more information or visit www.filmaka.com to view past contest entries, and for complete contest rules.