Reality Check: Apocalypse Miao

In a pair of Q and As recorded at the London Science-Fiction and Fantastic Film Festival (SCI-FI-LONDON), Alex Fitch talks to the creators of two new low budget portrayals of the apocalypse on screen. Stars Alan Bagh and Thomas Favaloro, writer / director James Nguyen and producer Jeff Gross discuss the B movie spoof Birdemic II: The Resurrection and co-writer / star Vera Miao talks about her excellent mid-apocalyptic road movie Best Friends Forever. (Originally broadcast as an episode of I’m ready for my close-up on Resonance 104.4 FM, 3rd May 2013)

Posters for Birdemic II and Best Friends Forever

This year’s SCI-FI-LONDON festival takes place at various venues around London from 30th April – more info at www.sci-fi-london.com

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

Websites: www.bestfriendsforeverfilm.com / www.birdemic.com

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Reality Check: the True Love of Arthur Sleep

Alex Fitch talks to graphic designer turned film-maker Sam Harris about his short silent film Arthur Sleep, a half hour Stygian odyssey that mixes elements of The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari and Eraserhead, as a trip on the London Underground takes a traveller into more mysterious destinations than he envisioned. Also, in a Q and A recorded at last year’s SCI-FI-LONDON, Alex talks to the writers and producer of True Love, an SF thriller that tests a couple’s devotion to each other as a set of innocuous questions in a surrealist prison turn to torture.
(Originally broadcast Friday 26th April on Resonance 104.4 FM)

Arthur Sleep is premiering at Deptford Old Town Hall, New Cross, London SE14 6AF on 28 April at 4pm with a live score performed by members of the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and London art-rock bands – more info at www.freefilmfestivals.org / True Love is released in Japanese cinemas on 27th April and this year’s SCI-FI-LONDON festival takes place at various venues around London from 30th April – more info at www.sci-fi-london.com

Stills from Arthur Sleep and True Love

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Reality Check: Time and relative Dimensions in the Search for Simon

Alex Fitch talks to the cast and crew of two new low budget British SF movies: director Sloane U’Ren, editor Adam Garstone and members of the cast of Dimensions discuss their ‘Merchant Ivory’ style time travel film which mixes a love triangle with a time loop that joins their pasts with their futures. Also, on the set of new alien abductee comedy drama The Search for Simon, director Martin Gooch and one of the stars – Doctor Who alumnus Sophie Aldred – talk about this crowd funded feature that mixes elements of travelogue with the X-Files.

Posters for Dimensions and The Search for Simon

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Alex Fitch talks to the directors of two new cutting-edge animated films which mix animation and live action footage to beguiling effect. In a Q and A recorded at SCI-FI-LONDON, the London International Festival of Science Fiction and Fantastic Film, Zoltan Sostai discusses his film Cycle, a spiritual successor to Tron and The Matrix, which sees a nameless astronaut trying to escape a bleak urban landscape which twists and loops back on itself, creating an endless maze he can’t find the exit from.

Also, British animator Paul Bush talks about his first feature film Babledom which looks into the layers of history and potential future that are unearthed by explorers of the modern city. Mixing a dialogue between two residents of a dystopian city in the style of Chris Marker’s La Jetée, with visuals that recall the architecture of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, Babledom is an evocative look at mankind’s varied relationships with the crowded spaces we inhabit.

Still from Babledom and poster for Cycle

Cycle was released in Hungarian cinemas on 21st February 2013 following its London première at SCI-FI-LONDON in 2012 / Babledom is released in UK cinemas on 8th March 2013. (Expanded podcast of an episode of I’m ready for my close-up, broadcast 01/03/13 on Resonance 104.4 FM)

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Reality Check: The life electric

In a show looking at the possible consequences of computer technology and Artificial Intelligence on humanity, Alex Fitch talks to the directors of two new films that address these themes and how it might impact on peoples lives and after-lives. Kareem Gray discusses his movie Zero One, a cross between Knight Rider and The Terminator in which a couple of hackers discover a sentient intelligence on the internet with the power to download itself into robots and other machines; Martin Gooch and members of the cast of Death discuss this new British fantasy film starring Leslie Philips in which a pair of siblings return to their family manse after the death of their father and discover he had been working on a computer programme that allows people to converse with the dead…

Both interviews recorded in front of a live cinema audience at SCI-FI-LONDON, the London Science Fiction and Fantastic Film Festival, April 2012.

Originally broadcast Friday 1st February 2013, on Resonance 104.4 FM (London)

Stills from Death and Zero One

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Reality Check: The Scarifyers

As we enter Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary year, Reality Check investigates a radio drama series tangentially connected to the franchise. The Scarifyers is a horror / black comedy series, with new instalments broadcast each year on BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC 7) and released on CD and concern the adventures of an elderly horror writer and his retired police sidekick as they investigate supernatural crimes and occurrences in 1950s Britain. Alex Fitch talks to series writer and producer Simon Barnard and CD cover artist Garen Ewing about the genre crossing narrative, their love of old SF and horror and the use of iconic actors in new serialised roles in a series whose cast includes Terry Molloy (Doctor Who‘s Davros), Nicholas Courtney (Doctor Who‘s Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart) and David Warner (Time Bandits et al.). The supporting cast includes actors famous for roles in Doctor Who and other Sci-Fi dramas such as Gabriel Woolf, Philip Madoc, Gareth David-Lloyd and Brian Blessed.

Promo material for The Thirteen Hallows, David Warner and Terry Molloy, cover of The Scarifyers comic no.1

(Expanded podcast of an episode of I’m ready for my close-up, broadcast 25/01/13 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: Bafflegab productions website
Garen Ewing’s website
Listen to Alex’s previous interview with Garen about The Rainbow Orchid

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