Alex Fitch interviews Helen McCarthy, author of ‘Hayao Miyazaki – Master of Japanese Animation’, ‘500 Manga heroes and villains’ and co-author of ‘The Anime encyclopedia’ about the season of Japanese animated films she’s curated at the Barbican which coincides with the 90th anniversary of the medium. The season continues this month with a sold-out screening of Satoshi Kon’s new film Paprika, so Alex and Helen talk about the director as well as the work of his predecessors and contemporaries such as Miyazaki and Ôtomo plus the continuing influence of manga artist Osamu Tezuka.
Originally broadcast 10th May, 2007 (mp3 format, 28.7mb)

Links: If you want to queue for returns, here’s info on the Barbican Japanimation season… …plus next month’s ‘Animate the World’ season
Wikipedia pages on Satoshi Kon, Hayao Miyazaki, Katsuhiro ÅŒtomo, Osamu Tezuka and anime in general
For the latest Anime news, why not check out otakunews.com
Buy 500 Manga Heroes and Villains and The Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation Since 1917 from amazon.com
For more info and a selection of different file formats you can download or stream, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

Belatedly celebrating Walpurgis Nacht, Alex Fitch interviews Stephen Thrower, editor of the legendary Eyeball magazine about his Grindhouse festival on Saturday 5th May at the Riverside Studios cinema in Hammersmith; Stephen showed 6 rare American splatter movies to help illustrate his book (Nightmare USA) and introducing Q&As with the film-makers. Alex and Stephen talk about the history of Grindhouse cinema, its influence on recent teen slasher movies and reasons why Tarantino’s latest is looking like a flop…
Originally broadcast 3rd May, 2007 (mp3 format, 26.8mb)

*Yeah, alright, Psycho started filming in 1959, so strictly speaking, it’s 48 years of American Splatter, but that doesn’t have quite the same ring to it!

Links – Buy Stephen’s book from fabpress.com
Wikipedia page on Stephen Thrower
Kamera.co.uk review of Eyeball Compendium
For more info, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com
 

Alex Fitch interviews Louis Savvy, organiser of Sci-Fi London, the capital’s annual science fiction and fantasy festival about this year’s event. Sci-Fi London is held from the 3rd to the 6th of May and this year features such films as Recon 2022: The Mezzo incident and Plane Dead (a.k.a. Flight of the living dead), documentaries like Future by design and also runs concurrent with Cine-excess, a conference on cult cinema that includes screenings of David Mamet’s Edmond and Gyorgi Palfi’s Taxidermia. Alex and Louis discuss these films, the highlights of last year’s festival and (natch) the current state of sci-fi on the big and small screens.

Originally broadcast 26th April 2007 (mp3 format, 27.3mb)

Links: Sci-Fi London homepage
Cine Excess homepage
Taxidermia review at backprojection.com
If you’d like to buy any of the films that Louis Mentioned which showed in last year’s festival:
Die you zombie bastards!, C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America and The Machinist are available to buy on PAL region 2 DVD, while
Subject Two and Recon 2020: The Caprini Massacre are only available on NTSC Region 1 DVD…

For more info, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

To see a list of all episodes of I’m ready for my close-up that are available to download, please visit the archive page

N.B./ This year’s Sci-Fi London features a special 1950s Hammer quadruple bill on May 5th, all the proceeds of which go to help Resonance FM… So, if you were intrigued by my mention of Stolen Face on our Halloween show last year, now’s your chance to see it as well as: X the Unknown, Four Sided Triangle and the seminal British Sci-Fi film Spaceways! Click below for details…

Following the conclusion of this year’s London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, Alex Fitch interviews director Malcolm Ingram about his documentary Small Town Gay Bar and then talks to Inigo Andersson (a film night and club promoter) and Michael Hall (a video shop manager) who are helping to encourage access to gay film-making the rest of the year when the festival isn’t on…

Originally broadcast 12th April 2007 (mp3 format, 28.7mb)

Links: The London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival
IMDb page on Small Town Gay Bar
Film Wotever‘s Myspace page
Michael’s band Nebraska‘s Myspace page
MSNBC article on how TV is ‘less gay’ this year
Read reviews of films showing at the LLGFF at backprojection.com
Listen to an episode of Midnight Sex Talk about gay bars
If you’re one of our Californian listeners, you can catch Small Town Gay Bar at Outfest on Wednesday
For more info, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

Richard Thomas presents a show on the work of experimental film-makers Chris Welsby & Margaret Tait who explore(d) nuances of the landscape when captured on film…

Originally broadcast 5th April 2007 (mp3 format, 28.1mb)

Links: Chris Welsby’s website
Lux Online biography on Margaret Tait
Article on the London Film-makers’ co-op
Lux Online article on landscape film-makers
Fundació Antoni Tàpies website about the exhibition that gave this show its name
For more info, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

To coincide with this year’s London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival and the return of Doctor Who on Saturday, Alex Fitch interviews BFI librarian Emma Smart about whether there have been any significant developments in gay film-making and TV programme making since last year’s LLGFF. Also included in the show is an interview Alex recorded last year with sci-fi writer and critic Kim Newman about the gay following that genre shows like Doctor Who and The Avengers generate…

Originally broadcast 29th March 2007 (mp3 format, 28.5mb)

Links: The London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival
Listen to last year’s show on the LLGFF
Listen to the rest of my interview with Kim about Doctor Who
The official BBC Doctor Who website
For more info, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

As a belated follow up to his article on the subject, Alex Fitch talks to Times journalist John Clarke about the history of Black musicians on film from 1929’s Hallelujah to this year’s Dreamgirls. The show also features clips from Stormy Weather (1943), Shaft (1971) and The Blues Brothers (1980)…

Originally broadcast 15th March 2007 (mp3 format, 28.3mb)

Links: BBC article on the Dreamgirls controversy
TimesOnline articles by John on The Gospel according to Al Green and the rebirth of soul label Stax
Indiana University’s Black Film Archive
UCLA article on Soundies
Optronica at the BFI
For more info, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

On the 11th February, a large group of people gathered outside a video shop in South East London to protest about its closure and replacement by a proposed betting shop.

Alex Fitch was there to interview locals and their representatives about why the demise aroused such passion.

In contrast, this is followed by an interview with both the owner and the manager of a relatively new rental place in East London that looks potentially successful in this digital age and is intended to be more than just a video shop…

Originally broadcast 8th March 2007 (mp3 format, 28.3mb)

Links: Sue Luxton’s blog about the closure of Homeview
Brockley entries at ‘Transpontine’ blog
List of archived versions of ‘homeviewvideo.co.uk’
Close-up Film Library, Brick Lane
The economic theory of The Long Tail
For more info, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

 

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the venerable British periodical 2000AD, Duncan Nott and Alex Fitch present the second of two programmes about the popular comic book anthology. Tonight’s guest is Matt Smith, the current editor who talks about the present and future of the comic… (mp3 format, 27.2mb)

Links: 2000AD Online
Wikipedia pages on 2000AD and Matt Smith
Stream audio adventures of Strontium Dog and Judge Dredd from bbc.co.uk
For more info, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the venerable British comic book 2000AD, Alex Fitch and Duncan Nott present the first of two programmes about the popular anthology. This week’s guest is Pat Mills, the founder and original editor of the comic who has written such great strips as Judge Dredd, Sláine, Nemesis the Warlock and A.B.C. Warriors.

Links: 2000AD Online
Wikipedia pages on 2000AD and Pat Mills

N.B./ Downloads are now housed at www.archive.com, so click on the link for more info on this show.