Category Archives: I’m Ready for my Closeup

I’m ready for my close-up special: London Film Festival 2012 review part 2

In the second of two special hour long editions of I’m ready for my close-up, celebrating the 56th BFI London Film Festival, Alex Fitch talks to film critic Sarah Cronin about films they’ve seen at this year’s LFF. Films reviewed include: restored German silent movie The Loves of Pharaoh, sex therapy drama The Sessions, Italian Big Brother satire Reality, new Thomas Vinterberg film The Hunt, restored Lee Van Cleef spaghetti western The Big Gundown, François Ozon’s In the House, Korean crime drama Nameless Gangsters and Helpless, an adaptation of Miyabe Miyuki’s novel Burning Train to Korea. Alex talks to retired film editor Ian Rakoff about hostage drama Argo and comedy SF film Robot and Frank. Also, director Chi Keung Fung, best known for co-writing Stephen Chow’s Shaolin Soccer, discusses his directorial debut The Bounty, with translation by Wan Yee Wong, Australian director Amanda Jane talks about her family comedy drama The Wedding Party, and actor / director Ben Affleck discusses his new film Argo. (Originally broadcast in an edited version 18/10/12 on Resonance FM)

Poster for The Bounty, Argo (film within a film + actual), The Wedding Party, The Sessions

Visit www.archive.org, for more info and formats you can stream / download.

Links: Official London Film Festival website
Electric Sheep Magazine online
Ian Rakoff’s blog
Info about the real Argo incident
Australian official website for The Wedding Party
Info about HK15 and Terracotta film festivals
Continue reading →

I’m ready for my close-up special: London Film Festival 2012 review part 2 [ 1:02:46 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I’m ready for my close-up special: London Film Festival 2012 review part 1

In the first of two special hour long editions to celebrate the 56th BFI London Film Festival, Alex Fitch talks to cartoonist and film critic Mark Stafford about films they’ve seen at this year’s LFF. Films reviewed include: the new Ralph Steadman documentary: For no good reason, Brandon Cronenberg’s Antiviral, The Shining documentary Room 237, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Sally Potter’s Ginger and Rosa, Hyde Park on Hudson, Good Vibrations, West of Memphis, Beware of Mr. Baker, Animated Monty Python reunion: A Liar’s Autobiography, French cartoon Ernest and Celestine, and Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie…
Also, Alex talks to director Richard Bates Jr. about his excellent new teen body horror movie Excision, which stars Traci Lords, Malcolm McDowell and John Waters and is best described as a cross between We need to talk about Kevin and I was a teenage Frankenstein! (Originally broadcast in an edited version 16/10/12 on Resonance FM)

Posters for Beasts of the Southern Wild, Excision, Antiviral

Visit www.archive.org, for more info and formats you can stream / download.

Links: Official London Film Festival website
Mark Stafford’s website
London Cartoon Museum
Electric Sheep Magazine online
Continue reading →

I'm ready for my close-up special: London Film Festival 2012 review part 1 [ 1:02:18 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Reality Check: Home Invasions

Alex Fitch interviews the directors of two new British horror films that deal with supernatural home invasions and their consequences. Oliver S. Milburn discusses his debut film The Harsh Light of Day which looks at a home owner’s Faustian deal with a vampire to get revenge on the thieves who murdered his wife, and Pat Holden talks about his new movie When the lights went out, starring Kate Ashfield (Shaun of the Dead), produced by Bil Bungar (Moon), and dramatises the story of the 1966 haunting of a semi-detached house in Pontefract.

Posters for When the lights went out and The harsh light of day

(Expanded podcast of an episode of I’m ready for my close-up, broadcast 19/09/12 on Resonance 104.4 FM)

When the lights went out was released in cinemas on 14th September and The Harsh Light of Day is released on DVD on 1st October. Continue reading →

Reality Check: Home Invasions [ 36:06 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Electric Sheep Podcast: Philosophy and Murder

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 and 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.

Still from the opening credits of The Edgar Wallace Mysteries / Poster for The Kingdom of Survival

Visit www.archive.org, for more info and formats you can stream / download.

Links: Bloody Murder blog on The Edgar Wallace Mysteries
Wikipedia page on Edgar Wallace
Buy The Edgar Wallace Mysteries from Network DVD

Info about The Kingdom of Survival at showboatfilms.com
Watch clips from The Kingdom of Survival on youtube
Continue reading →

Electric Sheep Magazine Podcast: Philosophy and Murder [ 40:20 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Reality Check: Counter Measures

In the second of a pair of podcasts about Doctor Who audio spin-offs, Alex Fitch talks to actor John Banks, producer David Richardson and director Ken Bentley about Counter Measures, a new Nigel Kneale influenced audio drama that continues the story of the supporting cast from Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks. Alex also talks to actress Pamela Salem about reprising her Daleks role for the new series as well as her history of appearing in British telefantasy such as Blake’s 7 and Into the Labyrinth plus her role of Miss Moneypenny in the Bond film Never Say Never Again.

Counter Measures poster and still from Remembrance of the Daleks featuring Pamela Salem and Simon Williams

(Expanded podcast of the second half of a ‘Clear Spot’, broadcast 17/08/12 on Resonance 104.4 FM)

For more info about this podcast and a variety of other episodes you can download, please visit the home of this episode at www.sci-fi-london.com

Links: More info on Counter Measures at bigfinish.com
Previous podcast on Doctor Who spin-offs The Minister of Chance and Kaldor City
Wikipedia pages on Doctor Who serials: Remembrance of the Daleks and Robots of Death featuring Pamela Salem

Listen to Alex’s shows on Doctor Who companion Professor Bernice Summerfield and Who convenions, featuring an interview with Sylvester McCoy Continue reading →

Reality Check: Counter Measures [ 37:47 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Reality Check: The Minister of Chance

In the first of pair of podcasts about Doctor Who audio spin-offs, Alex Fitch talks to the writer / director, Dan Freeman, and one of the stars, Paul Darrow, of The Minister of Chance. The series is a crowd-funded, mp3 download serial which follows the SF / fantasy adventures of The Minister, a character who first appeared in the Doctor Who webcast, Death Comes to Time. Alex talks to Dan about the creation of DCtT and The Minister of Chance and to Paul about acting alongside Paul McGann and Sylvester McCoy and reprising his iconic role of role of Avon in Blake’s 7 and Kaldor City audio plays.

Promotional images for The Minister of Chance and Kaldor City, starring Paul Darrow

For more info about this podcast and a variety of other episodes you can download, please visit the home of this episode at www.sci-fi-london.com

Links: Minister of Chance / Kaldor City / Blake’s 7 audio websites Continue reading →

Reality Check: The Minister of Chance [ 37:41 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Reality Check: Trek Nation

Alex Fitch and Dr. Marek Kukula (Public Astronomer, Royal Greenwich Observatory) conduct a Q and A with Eugene ‘Rod’ Roddenberry after a screening of his film Trek Nation, which looks at the legacy of Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek. Recorded in front of an audience at SCI-FI-LONDON, Spring 2012.

Trek Nation poster featuring Eugene ‘Rod’ Roddenberry

For more info about this podcast and a variety of other episodes you can download, please visit the home of this episode at www.sci-fi-london.com

Links: Official Roddenberry and Trek Nation websites
More info on the short film White Room and interview with the director, Greg Aronowitz
More info on SCI-FI-LONDON
Listen to interviews with Star Trek actors George Takei and Brent Spiner
Continue reading →

Reality Check: Trek Nation [ 36:08 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Electric Sheep Podcast: Unreliable images

In a pair of Q and As recorded at SCI-FI-LONDON, the London International Science-Fiction and Fantastic Film Festival, Alex Fitch talks to director John Simon about his adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s Radio Free Albemuth and to director Berton Pierce and special effects expert Greg Aronowitz about the film Sense of Scale, a documentary on model making in the cinema.

Stills from Sense of Scale and Radio Free Albemuth

Visit www.archive.org, for more info and formats you can stream / download.

Links: Radio Free Albemuth website
Listen to Alex’s previous interview with John Simon
Watch the trailer for Sense of scale on youtube.com
More info about Greg Aronowitz work at barnyardfx.blogspot.co.uk Continue reading →

Electric Sheep Podcast: Unreliable images [ 45:46 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Electric Sheep podcast: Modern Hauntings

Alex Fitch talks to a pair of directors who made their first films on very low budgets and deal with subjects of hauntings that are to do as much with memory as anything supernatural. Eduardo Sánchez discusses his debut film The Blair Witch Project and his latest movie, Lovely Molly, which follows a young woman’s mental breakdown while being tormented by the ghosts of her past. Also, in an interview recorded at SCI-FI-LONDON, Shawn Holmes talks about his micro-budget feature Memory Lane which sees an Afghanistan veteran cheating death repeatedly to revisit his memories of a dead girlfriend and solve the riddle of her death.

Posters for Memory Lane and Lovely Molly

Visit www.archive.org, for more info and formats you can stream / download.

Links: Memory Lane and Lovely Molly websites
Info about the Memory Lane screening at SCI-FI-LONDON
Interview with Eduardo Sánchez about his previous film, Seventh Moon Continue reading →

Electric Sheep podcast: Modern Hauntings [ 29:53 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Reality Check: Documentary approaches to SF film

Alex Fitch talks to a pair of film-makers whose experiences outside of cinema have given them unique approaches to the medium. Shezad Dawood is a fine artist who, following a short film about westerns called Feature, is now tackling the SF genre with his movie Piercing Brightness, an extract of which is currently showing at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford. Jim Monroe is a novelist and graphic novelist, whose excellent mockumentary Ghosts with shit jobs closed this year’s SCI-FI-LONDON festival and presents the lives of poor North Americans after the economy of the West collapses.

Stills from Piercing Darkness and Ghosts with shit jobs

For more info about this podcast and a variety of other episodes you can download, please visit the home of this episode at www.sci-fi-london.com

Links: Shezad Dawood’s website
Info about the presentation of Piercing Brightness at Museum of Modern Art, Oxford
Info about the filming in Preston

Buy Ghosts with shit jobs from the film’s official website
Review of the film in The Guardian
Jim Monroe’s publishing / multi-media company – No Media Kings

Continue reading →

Reality Check: Documentary approaches to SF film [ 43:49 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Resonance FM Podcasts

The Resonance Audio Archive

Category Archives: I’m Ready for my Closeup

I’m ready for my close-up special: London Film Festival 2012 review part 2

I’m ready for my close-up special: London Film Festival 2012 review part 1

Reality Check: Home Invasions

Electric Sheep Podcast: Philosophy and Murder

Reality Check: Counter Measures

Reality Check: The Minister of Chance

Reality Check: Trek Nation

Electric Sheep Podcast: Unreliable images

Electric Sheep podcast: Modern Hauntings

Reality Check: Documentary approaches to SF film