Electric Sheep Subterranea – Marebito / The Phantom Empire: The Thunder Riders

Electric Sheep presents subterranean screenings of minor masterpieces, oddball B-movies and genre classics in the convivial surroundings of Cinéphilia West.

Join us every second Sunday of the month for a feature film and a chat, preceded by an episode from a serial or series, which will be shown over a season of screenings.

On Sunday 8 November, as part of our season of underground-related films, we will be screening Takashi Shimizu’s Marebito (Stranger from Afar, 2004), a deeply sinister exploration of fear, obsession and urban paranoia, set in the Tokyo netherworld.

Far from his typical horror franchise offerings (Ju-on / The Grudge), Shimizu has crafted a bizarre and disturbing tale which mixes classic tropes of Japanese horror with Victorian Lost World fiction.

A cameraman (played by Tetsuo director Shinya Tsukamoto), intrigued by his footage of a terrified man who blinds him himself after contact with another culture, is drawn into a journey beneath the surface of the city in search of the spirits that reportedly haunt the subways.

This will be preceded by the second episode from the sci-fi Western musical The Phantom Empire (1935), in which a cowboy, who is also a radio show host, stumbles upon an ancient but highly advanced civilisation living under his ranch…
Has to be seen to be believed! If you missed last month’s instalment and want to catch up, you can do so here…

Every second Sunday of the month, Cinéphilia West.

ENTRY TO THIS SCREENING, AS TO ALL CINEPHILIA EVENTS, IS LIMITED TO MEMBERS. You can buy membership on the door.
For £10 a month, members, and one guest, are allowed free entry to all scheduled screenings and special film events, as well as 10% discounts off all books and DVDs in the shop and all the food and drink at the café; alternatively, members can pay £55 for a six-month membership or £100 for a 12-month membership. There will be up to a dozen monthly exclusive events, please check the Cinéphilia website for details.

SUNDAY 8 NOVEMBER, Cinéphilia West, 171 Westbourne Grove, London W11 2RS, 7pm
More info at www.cinephilia.co.uk
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Electric Sheep Film Club: Repulsion (1965)

For the seventh meeting of the Electric Sheep Film Club at the Prince Charles Cinema off Leicester Square, we’re showing the classic London-set thriller about paranoia and claustrophobia:

Repulsion (1965)

One of Roman Polanski’s finest films and the first he made in the UK, Repulsion charts the mental disintegration of a sexually troubled, beautiful young woman played by Catherine Deneuve. As elegant as it is creepy, Polanski’s taut psychological horror thriller superbly conveys the character’s claustrophobic loneliness and contrasts the mundanity of her life in 60s London with the startling surreal hallucinations that increasingly take over her inner world. An absolute 60s classic.

With thanks to BFI. The film will be followed by informal discussion with Electric Sheep writers in the bar.

Price: £5/£3.50 Prince Charles members
Certificate 15
Dir: Roman Polanski, UK 1965

Wednesday 4th November, 8pm, Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, WC2
More info at www.princecharlescinema.com and www.electricsheepmagazine.com

FILM WRITING COMPETITION:
Film students and aspiring film writers are invited to enter our film writing competition: write a 200-word review of Repulsion and send it to ladyvengeance (at) electricsheepmagazine.com, marked ‘Film writing competition’ in the subject line. A film professional will select the best review, and we are delighted to have renowned Polish film poster designer Andrzej Klimowski as our judge this month. Deadline: November 18. The selected review will be published on the Electric Sheep website. This is a new regular feature of the Electric Sheep Film Club. You can read last month’s winning review of Rollerball here.

IMDb page for Repulsion

In association with

Recommended events: Autumn comics conventions…

5th to the 26th of November: Comica, the three week festival of comics in and around the Institute of Comtemporary Arts in London includes appearances by Eddie Campbell, David Lloyd, Brian Talbot, James Jean and Tara McPherson. – more info at www.comicafestival.com

19th to the 22nd of November: The Thought Bubble sequential art festival in Leeds which includes appearances by Paul Cornell, Gary Erskine, Garen Ewing, Andy Diggle, Frank Quietly and many more – more info at www.thoughtbubblefestival.com

November Small Press events:

Handmade and bound - The Affordable book arts and zine fair, Sunday 1st November at the St Aloysius Social Club, near Euston,

The Small Press Comiket, Sunday 8th November which is part of the fortnight long Comica festival at The ICA, on The Mall, in Central London

“Are you zine friendly?”, Thursday 12th November, an Alternative Press event at the Foundry in Hoxton, promoting a new small press web resource: the Zine Friendly blog! And that’s at 86 Great Eastern Street.

For more info about all these events please visit: comicsandzines.wordpress.com

Electric Sheep / 7 Inch Cinema screening / performance: Bela Emerson & Bibio featuring Tusalava (1929)

7 Inch Cinema and Electric Sheep present live sets from BELA EMERSON and BIBIO + a programme of shorts.

By way of a warm-up for next year’s Flatpack Festival (23-28 March, Birmingham), roving film exhibitors 7 Inch Cinema are teaming up with Electric Sheep magazine for a night of visual music and films you can dance to. Within the velvet-draped refuge of the Roxy Bar and Screen, south London, you’ll find a freewheeling lineup of film and two very special guests…

BELA EMERSON: Mesmerising electric cellist who combines improvised performance with live processing using a host of pedals and gadgets. At the Roxy she’ll be accompanying a selection of classic avant-garde shorts including Len Lye’s debut Tusalava.

BIBIO: Since signing to Warp this year Bibio has produced some of his most ambitious and memorable work, stirring up textured electronica with elements of soul and hip hop to mighty effect. Tonight he’ll be accompanying cinefilm road-movies with a genre-hopping DJ set.

And with the London Film Festival going on up the road, there will also be a lucky dip of shorts, animation and music videos put together by 7 Inch Cinema and Electric Sheep.

MONDAY 19 OCTOBER, Roxy Bar and Screen, 7pm, £4
128-132 Borough High Street, London SE1 1LB

Links: Info about Tusalava at Screen Online
BELA EMERSON and BIBIO
Flatpack Festival
Roxy Bar and Screen

Also, the October 2009 online issue of Electric Sheep is now available and includes Alex Fitch’s interview with with Marc Price about his ‘£45′ Zombie film Colin , our round-up of the 2009 Frightfest including mini-reviews of Pontypool, Triangle and Trick ‘r Treat plus Alex’s article on ‘Retrofitting the future’ in Ghost in the Shell 2.0 and Evangelion 1.0…

In association with

Related events: Hunterian Museum Film Screening – Medical Miniaturisation – Thursday 22 October, 7pm

Join us for our first ever Hunterian Museum film screening of two works on the theme of medical miniaturisation. Anime expert Helen McCarthy will introduce the classic 1963 anime Astroboy: Mighty Microbe Army about the robot boy miniaturised to fight bacteria inside the body, followed by the 1966 movie Fantastic Voyage inspired by one of Osamu Tezuka’s early Manga works ‘The Monster on the 38th Parallel’. The museum and the exhibition ‘Sci-Fi Surgery: Medical Robots’ will be open from 6pm so that you can see the mini-bots that turn fantasy into reality. Screenings supported by the Japan Foundation, the Japan Society and Right Stuf, Inc. FREE, booking essential on 0207 869 6560

also: BOB BURNS’ HOLLYWOOD HALLOWEEN
For those of us that grew up having heard the stories from a mysterious place called Burbank of a horror movie fan and his wife entertaining countless trick or treaters with live Halloween shows, low and behold you too can now experience them at BOB BURNS’ HOLLYWOOD HALLOWEEN.COM. From now until October 31, you will be able to relive Bob, Kathy and countless others as they recount the experiences of recreating everything from HG Wells’ travels through time to the search through the bowels of the Nostromo being stalked by an ALIEN.
You can watch online chapters of this amazing documentary along with photo gallery, bios and links to other classic movie websites. Every week there will be 4 new chapters available to watch, with the entire documentary viewable from Oct 31st.
Experience Halloween the way it was meant to …through the eyes of Bob Burns and Friends.
www.bobburnshollywoodhalloween.com
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Electric Sheep Subterranea – The Third Man / The Phantom Empire: The Singing Cowboy

Starting in October, Electric Sheep presents subterranean screenings of minor masterpieces, oddball B-movies and genre classics in the convivial surroundings of Cinéphilia West.

Join us every second Sunday of the month for a feature film and a chat, preceded by an episode from a serial or series, which will be shown over a season of screenings.

On 11th October we start a season of underground themed films in honour of our venue’s location with a screening of Carol Reed’s The Third Man (1949) – watch Orson Welles’s Harry Lime skulk around post-war Vienna’s sewers in the ultimate British film noir!

This will be preceded by the first episode from the sci-fi Western musical The Phantom Empire (1935), in which a cowboy, who is also a radio show host, stumbles upon an ancient but highly advanced civilisation living under his ranch…

Has to be seen to be believed!

Every second Sunday of the month, Cinéphilia West.

ENTRY TO THIS SCREENING, AS TO ALL CINEPHILIA EVENTS, IS LIMITED TO MEMBERS. You can buy membership on the door.
For £10 a month, members, and one guest, are allowed free entry to all scheduled screenings and special film events, as well as 10% discounts off all books and DVDs in the shop and all the food and drink at the café; alternatively, members can pay £55 for a six-month membership or £100 for a 12-month membership. There will be up to a dozen monthly exclusive events, please check the Cinéphilia website for details.

SUNDAY 11 OCTOBER, Cinéphilia West, 171 Westbourne Grove, London W11 2RS, 7pm
More info at www.cinephilia.co.uk
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Electric Sheep Film Club: Rollerball (1975)

For the sixth meeting of the Electric Sheep Film Club at the Prince Charles Cinema off Leicester Square, we’re proud to be showing the classic SF movie:

Rollerball (1975)

One of the best dystopian sci-fi movies to come out of the 70s, Rollerball focuses on an ultra-violent sport used to keep an overpopulated planet under control and probes its links to politics, the media and big conglomerates. When a star player refuses to obey the owners of his team, the stage is set for a Gladiator-like confrontation between a rebellious individual and the corporate power that seeks to crush him.

With thanks to Park Circus. The film will be followed by informal discussion with Electric Sheep editor Virginie Selavy and other writers from the magazine in the bar.

Price: £5/£3.50 Prince Charles members
Certificate 15
Dir: Norman Jewison, USA 1975

Wednesday 7th October, 8pm, Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, WC2
More info at www.princecharlescinema.com and www.electricsheepmagazine.com

FILM WRITING COMPETITION:
We are launching a new competition in connection with our Prince Charles film club for film students and aspiring film writers: to enter the competition, you need to write a 200-word review of Rollerball and send it to ladyvengeance (at) electricsheepmagazine.com, marked ‘Film writing competition’ in the subject line. An ‘industry’ expert will select the best review, in this case SCI-FI-LONDON director Louis Savy. Deadline: October 21. The selected review will be published on the Electric Sheep website. This is to be a regular addition to the Electric Sheep Film Club.

IMDb page for Rollerball

Also, the October 2009 online issue of Electric Sheep is now available and includes Alex Fitch’s interview with with Marc Price about his ‘£45′ Zombie film Colin , our round-up of the 2009 Frightfest including mini-reviews of Pontypool, Triangle and Trick ‘r Treat plus Alex’s article on ‘Retrofitting the future’ in Ghost in the Shell 2.0 and Evangelion 1.0…

In association with:

Electric Sheep Film Club: White Lightnin’

For the fifth meeting of the all new Electric Sheep Film Club at the Prince Charles Cinema off Leicester Square, we’re proud to be showing the London premiere of:

Dominic Murphy’s White Lightnin’ (2009)

A dark, surreal semi-biopic about glue-sniffing, hard-drinking, hell-raising Appalachian mountain dancer Jesco White (impressively played by newcomer Ed Hogg), British director Dominic Murphy’s controversial debut feature takes us deeper and deeper into Jesco’s crazed visions and wild religious fantasies, culminating in horrific revenge and violent redemption.

We are delighted to welcome Dominic Murphy for a Q and A after the screening. Note the later than usual starting time of the screening.

With thanks to Momentum Pictures. White Lightnin’ starts its theatrical run at the ICA and Rich Mix (Bethnal Green), London, on September 25.

Price: £5/£3.50 Prince Charles members
Certificate 18 (TBC)
Dir: Dominic Murphy, UK 2009

Wednesday 3rd September, 9pm, Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, WC2
More info at www.princecharlescinema.com and www.electricsheepmagazine.com/events

IMDb page for White Lightnin’

In association with:

Electric Sheep Film Club: Carnival of Souls

For the fourth meeting of the all new Electric Sheep Film Club at the Prince Charles Cinema off Leicester Square, we’re proud to be showing:

Herk Harvey’s Carnival of Souls (1962)

This seminal atmospheric horror film influenced such masters of fright and strangeness as George A Romero and David Lynch. After surviving a car crash that left her friends dead, Mary Henry is beset by nightmarish visions involving a menacing ghost and becomes increasingly isolated from her community. As daily life is gradually contaminated by the otherworldly, the film takes on the texture of a horrific dream, fluid and eerie, rich, dark, deep and infinitely memorable.

The film will be followed by an informal discussion with Electric Sheep writers in the bar.
Price: £5/£3.50 Prince Charles members
Certificate 15
Dir: Herk Harvey, USA 1962

Wednesday 5th August, 8pm, Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, WC2
More info at www.princecharlescinema.com and www.electricsheepmagazine.com/events

IMDb page for Carnival of Souls
Wikipedia entry on Herk Harvey

This weekend the cult Italian rock band Goblin are headlining the Supersonic festival in Birmingham, playing the final gig of the festival at 11pm on Sunday 26th July. Before that, the band are doing a Q & A on stage about their music with Electric Sheep Magazine assistant editor Alex Fitch at 6.15pm. The name Goblin first appeared on the map in 1975, when the band recorded the soundtrack for Dario Argento’s film Profondo Rosso. This was the starting point for a decade long, highly creative and widely influential collaboration between the eccentric film maker and Goblin, that made the group become the aural signifier of Italian horror films of the 70s and 80s, creating sound tracks to such cult classics as Suspiria (1977) and Dawn of the Dead / Zombi (1978).

For more info about the Supersonic festival and how to buy tickets, please visit the festival website at www.capsule.org.uk/supersonic

The Q & A will be podcast in a future Electric Sheep Magazine podcast

Links: Goblin’s official website
Info about Goblin on wikipedia and the IMDb
Read Alex’s interview with director Dario Argento in Electric Sheep Magazine:

Dario Argento: With Goblin or with Claudio Simonetti, it’s different. For Profundo Rosso (Deep Red), we meet in my house nearly every night and they introduce me to the work of the day and it inspires me to do the next scene. It was very important. For Suspiria we collaborated on the music – it was good to do it before shooting.

For info on the latest issue of Electric Sheep magazine, please click here

In association with:

Related news:

Pho and Muc: comics and photos at the Arts Bar, Camberwell

Julian Hanshaw, winner of the 2008 Observer graphic short story competition for his comic strip “Sand Dunes and Sonic Booms”, exhibits images from his forthcoming travelogue / Thai cookery graphic novel “The Art of Pho”, alongside photos by Rob Athill of Saigon’s late night food vendors…

20th-26th July 5.30pm – late
Arts Bar (above Funky Munky),
25 Camberwell Church Street,
London SE5 8TR

also: Kevin O’Neill at the Illustration Cupboard

14 July – 08 August 2009

The Illustration Cupboard is pleased to present the first British exhibition of the world-famous graphic-novel artist Kevin O’Neill.

Monday – Friday 10am to 6pm / Saturday 12pm – 5pm / www.illustrationcupboard.com

and: Alternative Press Festival 2009

Wednesday 29th July – Sunday 2nd August 2009

A festival of events over five days celebrating the small press, self publishing and being creative in the print media.

Anthology Book launch / Wednesday 29th July / 7pm – 9pm

Free / Housmans radical booksellers / 5 Caledonian road / London / N1 9DX / www.housmans.com

Are you zine friendly? / Thursday 30th July / 7pm – late

Free / The Foundry / 86 Great Eastern Street / London / EC2A 3JL / www.foundry.tv

Spoken Word night out! / Friday 31st July / 7pm – Late

Free / The Griffin / 93 Leonard Street / London / EC2A 4RD

Collaborama! / Saturday 1st August / 11am – Late

Free / The Miller / 96 Snowsfields road / London Bridge / SE1 3SS / www.themiller.co.uk

Alternative Press Fair / Sunday 2nd August / 11am- 7pm

Free / St Aloysius Social Club / 20 Phoenix road / London / NW1 1TA

More info about all events at comicsandzines.wordpress.com and www.alternativepress.org.uk

plus: Laydeez do Comics ….

Is a graphic novel reading group or forum with a focus on comic works
based on life narrative, the drama of the domestic and the everyday.

Launching the first meeting in July 2009 the group is being set up by illustrator Nicola Streeten and artist Sarah Lightman. As well as selecting favourite works to base discussion on, artists, academics and fans will be invited to speak. A platform for people to test new works and ideas or works in progress will also be included.

The Sewing Room / The Rag Factory / 16-18 Heneage Street, London E1 5LJ

6.30-8.30pm, Monday 27 July / Guest Speaker: Sarah McIntyre, creator of Vern & Lettuce comic

More info here…

Electric Sheep Film Club: Oldboy / Oldeuboi

For the third meeting of the all new Electric Sheep Film Club at the Prince Charles Cinema off Leicester Square, we’re proud to be showing:

Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy (2003)

In Park Chan wook’s extraordinary visual assault, a man is kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years without knowing why. When he is finally released from this Kafka-esque nightmare, he is hell-bent on revenge and seeks to uncover his tormentor’s identity. What follows is a twisted cat and mouse game that takes the protagonist and the audience through extremes of emotion, exploring the dark energy of vengeance. Exhilarating, horrifying, blackly humorous and heart-wrenching in equal measure, this is an unmissable masterpiece of cinematic cruelty. Oldboy was Park’s breakthrough movie in the UK, cementing his reputation as one of the most original and challenging directors currently making movies in the Far East.
Please stay after the film to chat with other film-goers and Electric Sheep writers in the bar after the screening. (with thanks to Palisades Tartan)

Wednesday 1st July, 8pm, Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, WC2
More info at www.princecharlescinema.com and www.electricsheepmagazine.com/events

IMDb page for Oldboy
Wikipedia entry on Park Chan-Wook
Read Virginie’s interview with Park in Electric Sheep Magazine
Read Alex Fitch’s interview with Park in Wheel me out magazine / listen to the podcast

Related news:

The London Japanese Art Festival
is on the weekend of the 11th / 12th of July at Richmond Adult Community College and includes:
Manga and Anime Art Exhibition, craft and sales tables from Manga shops, toys and dolls and all sorts of Japanese art and culture related goods.
Talks by Helen McCarthy and Paul Gravett
Martial Arts
Kimono dressing (kitsuke) and kimono fashion show
Cosplay Masquerade and presentations
Manga drawing workshops
J-Pop Party
Set photo shoots and roving photographers
Origami and other paper art
Calligraphy
Koto music
Japanese Dancing
Taiko Drumming
Japanese food and drink, including Pocky, obento and sake, as well as the open cafe area
Three Yatai – Takoyaki, Okonomi-yaki, Yakisoba, Donbri

UK PREMIERE : OCEAN WAVES

The Japanese Art Festival is proud to announce that the event will be hosting the premiere of the Studio Ghibli anime Ocean Waves. Studio Ghibli is better known as the Oscar-winning animation studio who brought us Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle.

Never before released in the UK, Ocean Waves centres around the life of Taku, an average high school student. But soon his quiet life will be turned upside down with the arrival of Rikako: a beautiful exchange student from Tokyo. By the end of term Taku will have learnt a valuable lesson in love and friendship.

The Ocean Waves screening is courtesy of Optimum Releasing.

More info at www.japaneseartfestival.com

Electric Sheep Film Club: Audition / Ôdishon

For the second meeting of the all new Electric Sheep Film Club at the Prince Charles Cinema off Leicester Square, we’re proud to be showing:

Takashi Miike’s Audition (1999)

Enfant terrible Takashi Miike’s most notorious work remains genuinely shocking. The story of a middle-aged man who, following his son’s advice, holds auditions to find a new wife is the pretext for an exploration of fantasy, desire, cruelty and obsession that is as visually beautiful as it is gruesomely disturbing.
…and then chat with other film-goers and Electric Sheep writers about the film in the bar after the screening. (with thanks to Palisades Tartan)

Wednesday 3rd June, 8pm, Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, WC2
More info at www.princecharlescinema.com and www.electricsheepmagazine.com/events
IMDb page for Audition

Comics news:

LUC @ 176

The one month countdown starts now!

London Underground Comics’ latest event takes place at the 176 Project Space in Chalk Farm, London and features over 40 of the UK and beyond’s finest small press creators selling their wares in one of north London’s most beautiful gallery spaces.
Free tea and coffee, live DJs, animation projected on the 40 foot wall of the gallery and much more.

Exhibitors include: .
Oli Smith, Oliver Lambden, Sean Azzopardi, Daniel Merlin Goodbrey, David Baillie, Douglas Noble, Marc Ellerby, Jamie McKelvie, Kieron Gillen,Jake Harold, Dan Lester, Francesca Cassavetti, Sally-Anne Hickman, Richy K Chandler, Josceline Fenton, Phil Spence, Paul Rainey, Howard Hardiman and many more…

27th June, 176 Prince of Wales Road, London, NW5 3PT
More info: londonundergroundcomics.com / www.projectspace176.com

also:

An exhibition of Shaun (The Arrival) Tan’s prints, and 4 original pastels, is on at
The Illustration Cupboard at 22 Bury Street, SW1Y 6AL until 22nd June
More info at www.illustrationcupboard.com