One of the biggest trends that we are seeing is the rise of movie piracy. Of course, this piracy doesn’t just extend to movies. It also includes television, video podcasts, and any other form of media.
But what is movie piracy? What does it entail and what do we need to know about it?
This article will have us look at the history of movie piracy and what you should know about it.
What is Movie Piracy and What to Know About It
You may be familiar with Steven Spielberg’s great film Jaws, released in 1975. It was a unique story for the time. It was one about a shark that terrorized beachgoers. Naturally, with the success of Jaws, there were many copycats.
In the 1980s, an Italian film called Great White had a similar plot to Jaws. Universal studios claimed that this film infringed upon the Jaws copyright. As a result, Universal sued Film Ventures International and prevented them from releasing Great White.
But, this incidence was unusual for the time.
In the early days of Hollywood, the various studios wanted to make films that were based on traditional genres or traditional stories. These included classic plays, Westerns, hard-boiled detective fiction, etc.
Often, these Hollywood studios were sued by playwrights, novelists, short story writers. They felt Hollywood was ripping off their stories and stealing their profits!
This began the conversation surrounding intellectual property. Piracy and copyright infringement can include the stealing of ideas and stories. Film producers are protective of the stories they produce.
If another producer were to produce a film with a similar story, they want to make sure they are getting a cut of the profits.
But it was also during the early days of cinema, that another controversy surrounding piracy arose.
Duplication and Intellectual Property
Thomas Edison, Siegmund Lubin, and other film pioneers would make copies of the negatives of films. They would print new versions of these films and sell them at lower prices.
Not all of the negatives were of their own original films. They were involved in the unauthorized distribution of other films.
This was a very early precursor to duplicating CDs, DVDs, or digital files. It was in 1903 when a court stated that duplication of film negatives (and their subsequent distribution) was illegal.
Thomas Edison, however, didn’t seem phased by these court decisions. He continued to engage in practices that infringed on copyright. He would adapt novels, plays, stories, and make films from them.
He did so without paying royalties to the original authors. This practice continued for many years.
It was in 1907 when Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes decided that a Hollywood studio – or any film producer – had to first obtain the rights to a published work before making a film from it. This decision came with the release of the film Ben Hur which was based on a popular novel.
What Hollywood Decided
In the decades after the 1907 court decision, Hollywood decided to self-regulate on these issues. They decided to settle any copyright infringement issues in-house without having to go to a court to settle any issues.
Many films then and even today would make films based on works in the public domain or those that have had their copyright protection expired. This makes it easier for independent filmmakers to produce a film based on existing popular works.
Hollywood also decided to protect its own intellectual property. Once a film was made from a particular work, only the film producer or studio had rights to that work. Others would have to pay up if they wanted those same rights.
One other protection also came during this time. It was that of preventing duplication of movies – or what we now call movie piracy.
Movie piracy is the unauthorized duplication of a movie. This can range from duplicating the film negatives (as Edison did), making copies of the films’ DVDs, making copies of a digital file, or even filming the screen displaying the movie through your smartphone. Distributing the film, whether for profit or not, is also unauthorized.
Movie piracy, along with other forms of media piracy, really skyrocketed in the 2000s with the advent of file-sharing applications such as Napster, Kazaa, and BitTorrent.
The movie industry reacted by suing these applications, movie-sharing websites, companies, and individuals – all who were involved in the unauthorized distribution of movies.
But one thing became clear – the demand to see movies-on-demand, online, and as cheaply as possible was not going away. Though it took some time, the movie (and other media industries) industry decided that it would make it’s content available online. Many movies can now be purchased digitally – often with a DRM protection so that it can only be seen or shared on a limited number of computers.
As a side note, one of the most popular websites for streaming movies and television shows is the Putlockers website – though there are many great alternatives.
Movie streaming has become the most popular way of watching movies. Through services such as Netflix, Hulu, BritBox, and many more we can now have a library of movies to watch on demand for a low subscription fee.
While piracy still exists, these streaming services have done a lot to stifle piracy and the incentive to pirate any content. Still, watching a movie for free is still better than paying a low subscription fee. Other alternatives have been to show films for free and intersperse them with advertisements.
Another challenge is to find a way to distribute content internationally. One movie can stream in some jurisdictions but cannot distribute to others. As a result, those inhabitants who live in a jurisdiction where a movie cannot be distributed may resort to pirating the content.
Now that you know what is movie piracy, what do you think can lessen movie piracy even more? Are copyright laws too restrictive in producing movies? What can we do to distribute movies more widely to other jurisdictions?
Be sure to read more great content on entrepreneurship and technology.


|Erlend Hella Matre|
Director / Producer
Erlend Hella Matre has been studying and working with visual art since his early teens. In Norway he studied fine arts and theater science at the University of Oslo. Since 1998 he has been working with design in theater and film in the Czech Republic, starting off studying stage design under professor Lubos Hruza at the theater faculty of applied arts at the Charles University, Prague. He has written short scripts for films as well as co-written a full feature.
Erlend Hella Matre has also experience as an actor both on the stage and in films in Norway as well as in Czech Republic.
He has done stage and film design, including costume design, at several Czech theaters and Czech film productions, commercials and music videos.
In his youth he was also an active musician with percussion as main instrument and piano and guitar as side instruments.
Andrea Shaffer has been in the film industry for 20 years. During this time she has worked in both in the west and the eastern block. She is passionate about challenging international film makers with ambitions concepts.
At the beginning of her film career she directed and produced short films, worked for global companies such as Panalux & Vantage Film, joined Buzz Production as an International Producer, represented directors at Stink Production (Moscow) and later returned to her home town, Prague, and formed Nomad Films Prague. Mindset is her new mission.
Andrea is also Head of International Sales at MagicLab Prague, a VFX/ post-production company focused on feature films and co-productions. Magiclab is a co-producer of A Man of Integrity awarded Un Certain Regard in Cannes 2017, Bille a family drama co-producer with Latvia/Devini Studio and My Grandpa Fell of Mars co-producer with Croatia/Dim Studio.
|Tel: +420 731 068 740|
|Tel: +420 602 343 717
The unconditional love of a parasite
Trying to get in touch with her daughter, who she had to leave as a baby, Eva (37) is torn between the need for recognition and fear of rejection. She even doubts if she has the right to tell Sandra (22) who she is…
Trapped between her brutal father and controlling grandmother, Sandra has turned into a complicated young woman. But Sandra can’t leave. Her childhood dreams keep her in a tight grip; what if her mother suddenly turns up and she’s not there?
As it happens, the young entomologist Karel (26) is in town this summer looking for a rare caterpillar. Sandra uses Karel to escape her family, and Eva uses Karel in her struggle to get in touch with Sandra. Drawn into Karel’s world of social ants and parasitic caterpillars, both women engage in an intimate relationship with him.
Through Karel’s simultaniosly cruel and beautiful world of insects, mother and daughter manage to shake off the stigma created by society’s expectations, morals and conventions, thus finaly finding a common ground on which they can unite.


The girl from Mount Druitt who became a remarkable comedy voice
Nakkiah is an actor, playwright and comedian.
She co-wrote and starred in the ABC TV series Black Comedy.
Nakkiah grew up in Mt Druitt, in outer western Sydney, in a close-knit Aboriginal family.
Despite this, she’s always tried to live by the advice given to her early on in life: when telling stories, always try to offend your mother.
While Nakkiah was in school, she wasn’t sure there was a place for her anywhere in the world.
Now she's become a successful playwright, director and actor.
Original broadcast September 2017
Nakkiah's play Blackie Blackie Brown is currently playing at the Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne


This week I head down another minor rabbit hole (or should I say Roseland Ballroom toilet?) after another weird association the text suggested to me that’s probably entirely irrelevant.
Poor little Ludwig’s lemming has gone missing, and Slothrop asks him in italics, in 3.25, “One lemming, kid?”
Years ago in a college class on the avant garde theater, I watched a documentary about a production by The Open Theater entitled The Serpent, which opened in 1969. With a subtitle labeling it a “ceremony,” The Serpent treats of what has emerged as my pet theme for this read of Gravity’s Rainbow — temptation — by dramatizing at times pretty obliquely that first of all temptations in the Garden of Eden. Filled with stylized movements and chanting, the play lives up to its subtitle, and vignettes like an autopsy complete with technical jargon and procedure resonate both with the notion of the ceremonial and with a certain fetish for the technical that runs through Pynchon’s novel.
The play is very weird, but also really mesmerizing, enough so that it has stuck with me for a long time now and set alarms flashing when I got to GR 3.25. As it turns out, Slothrop’s question to Ludwig is a repeating line lifted from a Gertrude Stein-ish section of the play, of which I’ve lifted an excerpt sourced from here:
God: Henceforth shall you thirst after me.
And now shall come a separation.
Between the dreams inside your head.
And those things which you believe to be outside your head
And the two shall war within you…
Second Woman of the Chorus: I’ve lost the beginning.
Third Woman: I’m in the middle.
Fourth Woman: Knowing neither the end nor the beginning.
Second Woman: One lemming.
Third Woman: One lemming.
Fourth Woman: One lemming…
First Woman: I went to a dinner.
That cluster of women approximates the old Greek convention of a chorus, and as I recall, they interrupt one another rhythmically and repeat that line many times throughout the play with an inflection that I can still hear (though the video I link above doesn’t reproduce it, alas).
The Serpent seems to be concerned with the idea of ceremony, and with its Biblical theme and the old instructive miracle plays in mind, I find it hard not to turn my thoughts to Pynchon’s preoccupation with the divide between the Elect and the Preterite — a divide that The Open Theater was in some ways working to close within the theater (it’s interesting to read some of the intro matter for the play here, though since it’s not all available, I don’t feel comfortable quoting it or working on a more involved thesis).
As I said at the outset, this is a bit of a rabbit hole, and not likely a very rich one to plumb any further. The emphasis Pynchon puts on the phrase seems odd (how often does he resort to italics in the book, I wonder?), and the dramatic work certainly shares some themes with Gravity’s Rainbow, but that’s hardly enough to hang an assertion of an intentional reference on.


Scott Feinberg at The Hollywood Reporter is conducting anonymous interviews with members of the Academy leading up to the Oscars this weekend, and the first interview is a horrorshow of bigotry.
1. “What no one wants to say out loud is that Selma is a well-crafted movie, but there’s no art to it. If the movie had been directed by a 60-year-old white male, I don’t think that people would have been carrying on about it to the level that they were.”
No, they’d be carrying on about it on a totally different level, the level where we gauge the hubris of white directors claiming black narratives for their own gain for the 900th time in the history of film.
2. “[On Selma]: I’ve got to tell you, having the cast show up in T-shirts saying “I can’t breathe” [at their New York premiere] — I thought that stuff was offensive. Did…
Ver la entrada original 560 palabras más


Hemingway & Gellhorn DVD
We compared price of Hemingway & Gellhorn DVD across hundreds of online stores. We found Hemingway & Gellhorn DVD in 1 store with lowest price $19.97 in HBO Store. For detailed price comparison of Hemingway & Gellhorn DVD check table below.
|HBO Store||[show price]|
Hemingway & Gellhorn DVD description from HBO Store
Starring two of todays most acclaimed actors, and directed by Oscar nominee Philip Kaufman (in his first film for television) , Hemingway & Gellhorn tells the story of the passionate love affair and tumultuous marriage between Martha Gellhorn (Kidman) and Ernest Hemingway (Owen) , following the adventurous writers through all the great conflicts of their time from the Spanish Civil War and beyond. Considered by many to be the greatest of all war correspondents man or woman Gellhorns drive and success catapulted her beyond the confines of her marriage into a revered and respected career independent of Hemingways. Epic in scale, with masterfully woven archival footage, Hemingway & Gellhorn offers a unique glimpse at a powerful relationship born and torn by war. Special Features: Inside Hemingway & Gellhorn Visual Effects Piece Audio Commentaries
This is my first HBO product and I'm really satisfied with it. I cant find better for the price of 19.97.


I decided to start off this feature with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory .
The Movie (the newer version, directed by Tim Burton)
What I thought:
The book was definitely an amazing piece of children's literature. It was well-written and had excellent pacing. There was a lot of crazy and imaginative things that will appeal to anyone, not just children. Also, it had some really nice themes.
I thought that the movie was excellent. All the main parts of the book were in the movie. There were a few changes, but i think that just made the movie even better, ex.
- In the book, all the children except Charlie brought two parents with them. In the movie, all of them brought only one, therefore there were less people around and it was less confusing.
- In the movie a story arc about Willy WOnka's father was added, which was heart-warming and beautiful. I wish it was in the book.


And as promised I’m back with a look at what happens when the studio hits the reset button on one of it’s biggest francises, how does Amazing Spider-man fare in comparison to Sam Raimi’s first effort released just over a decade ago? Read on and find out.
The dictionary of things that aren’t really diseases defines Originitis as “Inflammation of the origin.” When I say Originitis however I’m referring to how origin sequences have a habit of causing pacing in Superhero movies to slow to a crawl while they jump through a few loops and get their character where they need to be. It’s a very common condition with superhero genres with some movies spending between a third and a half of their total running time on these sequences.
Amazing Spider-man found itself in a unique position, since the original Spider-man was only out so recently they could have opted to do a “Soft reboot” and start off with Spidey already powered up, much like the 90’s cartoon did in it’s first episode that also featured the Lizard. After all there isn’t many people out there who doesn’t know that Spider-man was bitten by a radioactive spider and even if there wasn’t, all it takes is a small flashback to fill in that bit.
Presumably to set itself apart from Raimi’s trilogy and establish that this takes place in a brand spanking new universe where anything can happen, we get a hard reboot showing everything all over again with unnecessarily slightly adapted characters for modern times. This really leads to the first half of the movie being like a checklist of events we’ve seen before.
Highlight Peter’s weakness as a social outcast and phyiscally.
Introduce loving aunt and uncle
Discovery of powers
Revenge of the nerd.
Annoying of uncle and subsequent speech about responsibility (curious enough missing out the “with great power” line, probably to avoid repetition)
Death of the uncle
Congratulations, your lead character has now been infused with enough angst to become a fully motivated superhero!
I can’t really hold this against it because really, every plot ever written is basically a checklist of stuff that has to happen at certain points. It’s the job of the script to mask this with larger than life characters that take on lives of their own, with dialogue that flows smoothly and captures your attention and doesn’t let go, with set pieces that challenge your imagination and get your adrenaline pumping.
This is where I felt Amazing Spider-man let itself and it’s cast down, there’s not much point casting brilliant actors like Garfield, Stone, Sheen and Leary in your movie if you’re not going to make the most of them and to me the script dropped the ball at that part. Scene’s felt like going through the motions and attempts to be cute rather than adding anything substancial to the plot, from Peter’s “Subway Discovery” scene to “Revenge of the nerd” the opening half certainly isn’t a snore fest, but it never shoots for above and beyond either, seemingly willing to just settle for “slightly charming.”
I could say more but what is there more to say, Martin Sheen was a dependable Uncle Ben but the movie didn’t real add anything to the overall mytho’s not in the original Raimi one. Might as well move on to something new to talk about.
The Good Guys
The cast is without a doubt the strongest thing’s about this movie, Stone and Garfields chemistry is instantly clear and both of them are absolute pleasures to watch on screen. Despite the modern changes Garfield is clearly Peter Parker (I’ve seen people complain that he’s too pretty but honestly, Peter Parker’s not an ugly guy in the comic), if I have one “problem” with the portrayal of Peter it would simply be for all the talk that “Spidey will be cracking wise” again, they gave away EVERY SINGLE WISECRACK in the trailers.
Emma Stone, despite being a perfect Mary Jane with her usual red hair colour brings Gwen to life with ease. Prior to seeing it a friend told me that Gwen is more like Mj in this movie than Kirsten Dunst was in Raimi’s trilogy but I disagree, I thought here we got a solid renedition of Gwen. Denis Leary’s Captain Stacey carries the hardass badge well to his final moments and managed to drive my lil sister to tears even at a point. Martin Sheen as I mentioned before was a predictably solid uncle ben. If there was one character I thought was under-utilized it would have been Sally Field as Aunt May, who it seemed was all but forgotten once the action started.
The Big Bad
There’s no doubt that Curt Connor’s/The Lizard is a classic Spidey villain from his first appearance in Amazing Spider-man 6, as evident by the fact that the character is still in use to this day. I’m not going to lie and say he’s one of my favourite’s but he’s certainly not a “Rhino” or “Shocker” c-lister that I could do without.
That said there’s a problem with the character, pretty much every lizard story is essentially Curt Connor’s losing control and giving into the creature within. This predictably enough is also what we get with the movie. Curt Connor’s is initially shown to be a good man with morals, like all good man with morals, is put in a very bad position. Sadly from the second Curt injects the formula to regrow his arm he stops being a 3 dimensional character and becomes a 2 dimensional bad guy, gone is the conflicted personalities of Williem Dafoe’s Norman Osborn, replaced with Rhys Ifans going crazy. The lizard wasn’t a bad choice of villain by any means, just much like the rest of the movie, they don’t do anything particularly interesting with him.
Up til now I had a general rule of thumb, if a movie was shot in 3D I would see it in 3D. After seeing this I’m changing that rule to “if a movie is shot in 3D by a visually dynamic director (Scott, Cameron, Scorsese) then I’ll see it in 3D” The 3D added absolutely nothing to the movie at all and the “first person” web shooting gimmicks came across like the gimmicks that they were.
Nerd Problems : Put your fucking mask back on
In the original trilogy Tobey Maguire famously had a problem with keeping his mask on. Spidey would often find himself maskless at a climatic moment in the script just so the pretty boy lead could get more screen time and convey emotions better, after all it’s hard to convey emotion through an expressionless mask without just yelling all your dialogue like evil Tobey in Spider-man 3.
Andrew Garfield takes this problem to new extremes, it’s not an exaggeration that he probably spends at least 50% of his time in costume completely maskless. While I do understand the reasoning behind this it does have the side effect of making the lead hero look absolutely fucking incompetent. There’s a point when he takes his mask off when saving the kid from a car dangling off the side of the bridge because the kids scared of him initially (I dont think a grown man in skin tight spandex is much better but what do I know) What was with that? You know what’s going to happen after that, spidey’s going to be walking down the street one day and that kids going to see him, and because he’s young and doesn’t know any better he’s going to shout “look there’s spider-man” and before spidey knows it the secret’s out of the bag because he couldn’t keep his fucking mask on.
It’s not only that, later in the movie he fights in his civvies in his school hallway, even our school hallways had camera’s installed and with school bombings/shootings I think American schools would have even more. There’s a point after that later in the movie where he’s investigating the sewers for lizard lab and doing it completely maskless, why? I mean doesn’t hinder his sight or hearing or any of his abilities and it does protect his identity, why wouldn’t he wear it at all times?
Nerd Problems: Spider Sense? What Spider Sense.
“Spider-Man’s “spider-sense” manifests in a tingling feeling at the base of his skull, alerting him to personal danger in proportion to the severity of that danger. For instance, a little tingling such as a happenstance passing by of an enemy would prompt Peter to be alert, while a strong tingling, sometimes to the point of being painful, is interpreted as a need to take immediate evasive action on a deadly threat”
With that in mind, how the hell do the writers explain how Spider-man got shot not once but TWICE? The scene in which Peter discovers his powers heavily implies the spider-sense is there (even if it’s never outright stated, it’s a standard part of spider-mans powers and should be expected as part of any basic package) but they can’t even follow through on it for the whole movie.
Random Thoughts: Not big enough to impact what I thought of the movie, but enough for me to notice.
My blood pressure briefly spiked when I seen Peter Parker was using a skateboard five minutes into the movie but this honestly had no bearing on how much i enjoyed the movie, it was a choice I disagreed with but in the large scheme of things it was really only window dressing.
It’s strange how the time Spidey was actually shot with a real bullet, the injury changed from “life threatening/I don’t think he’s going to make it” to “not an issue” with a bit of web fluid.
Speaking of that bullet wound, the “Crane” scene was just a waste of time, I’d almost rather have the people of new york standing up the bad guys again.
Captain Stacey’s death really needed some more time spent with the character prior to hit me, he spent so much of the film just being a dick and I really wish we got more of him and spidey being side by side. His death in the comic brought me to tears but here, not so much.
Stan Lee’s cameo? Amusing cute etc What else is there to say.
So does Aunt May know the truth or is she just assuming Peter is pimping himself out and getting beat up for it in the village? I hope we get more Aunt May in the sequels, Sally Field was very underused here.
Interesting like the “Spectacular Spider-man” cartoon a few years ago Gwen is depicted as the smart scientist here as well. While not quite at odds with her original portrayal by Lee it was far from one of her more defining characteristics in the 60’s.
Speaking of Gwen I got the impression Peter confided in her way to quickly, did not get the impression he completely trusted her and really, I just got the impression he told her so he could hit that, not that I could blame him anyway.
Finally the scene at the end of the movie? Osborn? I mean who else could it be.
I’d give this a 3/5, maybe a 3.5/5 if I was feeling generous. It’s not a bad movie by any means but title aside I just didn’t think there was much “Amazing” about it. Truth be told despite preferring the cast in this I think I still prefer Raimi’s original over this, mostly for Willem Dafoe’s performance and the way it broke new ground with it’s clear cut sequences of Spidey swinging across the city, here we get gimmicky first person 3D and not really much else that sticks out in the memory the next day.


Immigration and refugee stories have been a popular theme in cinema for decades. These stories often explore the challenges and triumphs that come with moving to a new country and the struggles faced by refugees who flee from persecution and war. Here are some movies that have explored these themes in depth.
The Visitor is a drama film directed by Tom McCarthy. It tells the story of Walter Vale, a widowed professor who travels to New York City to attend a conference. When he arrives, he discovers that two immigrants, Tarek and Zainab, have been living in his apartment. The movie explores issues of immigration and the challenges faced by immigrants as they try to make a new life in a foreign country.
Brooklyn is a period drama film directed by John Crowley. It follows the story of Eilis Lacey, a young Irish immigrant who moves to Brooklyn, New York, in the 1950s to start a new life. The film explores themes of homesickness, cultural differences, and the challenges faced by immigrants as they try to adapt to a new country and culture.
The Kite Runner is a drama film directed by Marc Forster. It is based on the novel of the same name by Khaled Hosseini and tells the story of Amir, a young boy from Afghanistan who immigrates to the United States with his father. The movie explores themes of war, family, and redemption as Amir grapples with the trauma of his past and tries to forge a new life in America.
Children of Men is a dystopian science fiction film directed by Alfonso Cuarón. It is set in a future world where infertility has become a global crisis, and no children have been born for 18 years. The movie explores themes of immigration and refugees as the main character, Theo, helps a pregnant refugee woman escape the country and find safety.
The Good Lie is a drama film directed by Philippe Falardeau. It tells the story of a group of Sudanese refugees who are resettled in the United States after spending years in a refugee camp. The movie explores themes of culture shock, identity, and the challenges faced by refugees as they try to rebuild their lives in a new country.
In This World is a drama film directed by Michael Winterbottom. It tells the story of two Afghan refugees, Jamal and Enayat, who embark on a perilous journey from Pakistan to London. The movie explores themes of survival, hope, and the realities faced by refugees as they try to escape war and persecution.
The Visitor is a drama film directed by Giulio Paradisi. It tells the story of a group of aliens who arrive on Earth as refugees, seeking a new home after their planet is destroyed by a natural disaster. The movie explores themes of immigration, cultural differences, and the challenges faced by refugees as they try to integrate into a new society.
In conclusion, movies that explore themes of immigration and refugees provide important insight into the experiences of those who are forced to leave their homes and start anew in a foreign land. These movies can help to raise awareness about the challenges faced by immigrants and refugees and promote empathy and understanding for their struggles.
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Hi! I'm Tereza, 20 yrs old girl from Prague, Czech Republic and I'm in my second year on uni. I like the smell of new books, I drink coffee three times a day and I have an inexplicable obsession with dinosaurs. I'm also a huge geek, a nerdfighter, and watch dozens of tv shows, which is basically what my tumblr is all about. In real life I swear a lot.
Helena Bonham Carter pretending to be Belatrix pretending to be Hermione pretending to be Belatrix
No but her acting was so good in this scene that I had to pause and zoom in on her face to make sure it wasn’t actually Emma in makeup, and even then I wasn’t totally convinced.
Emma acted out the scene first, and then Helena Bonham Carter mimicked what she did. so it was Helena Bonham Carter pretending to be Emma Watson pretending to be Helena Bonham Carter pretending to be Bellatrix pretending to be Hermione pretending to be Bellatrix.


Stephen began acting in small school productions at a young age and studied acting at the Gaiety Theatre before he joined Boyzone. But it was only in 2003 that he really made his West End debut, a dream he'd always had, when he reprised the role of Joseph in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. On this page you'll find more about his work in theatre.
Musical theatre was always something I wanted to do and I did have opportunities before. Joseph came along, and it just felt right.
JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT
December 2002 - January 2003
February - September 2003
London West End
The Oxford Apollo
Liverpool Empire Theatre
The New London Theatre
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a musical written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice based on the story of Joseph's coat of many colours from the Bible's Book of Genesis. It was first produced in the West End in 1973 and a few years later on Broadway in 1982. In 1999, a film adaptation with the same name was released starring Donny Osmond.
Stephen starred as Joseph in the second West End revival of the show.
THE CHARACTER OF JOSEPH
Eleventh son of Jacob. Obviously his father's favourite, Joseph early on shows a talent for interpreting dreams and telling the future. This gets him into trouble with his brothers when he predicts his future will include ruling over the other eleven. However, it saves his life when in Egypt he correctly interprets Pharaoh's dreams. In the end he has risen to a great position of power, but he still forgives his brothers and brings his family to Egypt to partake of the bounty he has accumulated there. (WIKIPEDIA)
Gately's own engaging personality, which steadily emerges in twinkling smiles and droll asides as the colourful spectacle continues, is another powerful weapon in winning the audience's wholehearted support.
The Oxford Mail
Former Boyzone babe Stephen Gately grinned so gorgeously throughout his amazing performance of Joseph.
And with good cause because the show was absolutely brilliant. Bursting with vibrant energy, the feel-fantastic music just kept flowing
Swindon Evening Standard
But [Stephen] brings another dimension to the show. He sings so well and is so amused and mischievously at ease with his own persona – a kind of sexy Boy (Next-Door) George – that he makes all of the audience, of whatever persuasion, fall for him.
Stephen Gately gives an excellent performance as Joseph, he looks and sounds like a musical theatre star. His strong lyrical voice is perfect for the songs and he still has the young cheeky boyish grin that makes his Joseph look dashing without appearing the slightest bit vain.
CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG
September 2004 - March 2005
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a musical based on the film of the same name from 1968 about two children becoming fond of an old racing car (Chitty). When they hear that that car is to be sold to a man, they implore their inventor father to buy it, but as he can't afford it, their father tries to come up with creative ways to raise the money so as to not let his children down.
The musical premiered in the west End in 2002 at the London Palladium and later in 2005 on Broadway. When the show closed in 2005, it was the longest running show at the London Palladium and the flying car used in the show still holds the Guinness World Record as the most expensive stage prop!
London West End
THE CHARACTER OF THE CHILDCATCHER
The childcatcher was not an original character from Ian Fleming's book from 1964 but came from the mind of Roald Dahl who wrote the 1968 film's screenplay. The character was added to the story and remained in the stage musical adaptation of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. In the story, the childcatcher is Baroness Bomburst's most loyal servant, employed to hunt down any children wandering the streets of Vulgaria and imprison them because the Baroness loathes them and has banished them from the land. He carries a large net to do his bidding and occasionally lures children out with lollipops.
Though few of the characters are drawn with any complexity, another sometime pop star Stephen Gateley brings a darkly sinister edge to the role of the Childcatcher.
As the scary and hideous-looking Child Catcher, Stephen is hardly recognizable, though. He wears a skull-cap to look bald and appears with prosthetic ears and nose, as well as heavy makeup.
But on the night we watched the show, the minute the Child Catcher sauntered onstage, his mere presence instantly drew loud applause from the audience. They knew it was Gately-and he didn't disappoint a bit. Gately stepped into the Child Catcher's shoes in September 2004 and has not stopped earning raves for his performance.
December 2005 - January 2006
We all know the classic story of Cinderella whose fairy godmother turns into a princess for a special ball, until midnight that is, and who loses her glass shoe as she runs from the castle before the hour strikes. But did you know there are between 340 and 1,500 other versions of the story in the world?
Written by Tim Fountain, this pantomime version of Cinderella broke box office records at the Churchill Theatre and became its biggest selling pantomime that year. An extra week was added to meet public demand!
Stephen starred as Dandini and wrote a song especially for the production called "A Brighter Day".
THE CHARACTER OF DANDINI
THE CHARACTER OF DANDINI
Dandini is a character who only features in the pantomime and opera version of Cinderella in which he is the prince's servant. Dandini helps Prince Charming to meet Cinderella, the girl the prince fell for, without her knowledge by swapping places with him and dressing as the prince while the later pretends to be his servant.
There's a lot to learn but it's going really well. I think it's going to be a very, very funny show (but) I'm always nervous. Singing in front of thousands of people is easy because you're just yourself; with this you're in character and you've got so much to learn. I just want to get the first week out of the way and then it's easy - it's natural.
I love panto and it just seemed the right time. There was a stigma attached but you've got so many people doing it now. I wasn't doing much over Christmas so I thought 'yeah, I'll give it a bash'. For kids it's just amazing. It's just so cool to see panto at Christmas.
The first [pantomime] I went to see was, ironically, Cinderella. I went with my school because we didn't have an awful lot of money and my parents couldn't afford to take me. We had to save up each week to go on the school trip.
STEPHEN ON CINDERELLA AND PANTOMIME
THE WIZARD OF OZ
The Wizard of Oz is a musical based on the 1939 movie of the same name starring Judy Garland as Dorothy and which is said to be the most watched movie in the history of cinema. The story is about Dorothy and her dog Toto being magically swept away into the land of Oz after a tornado hit their town. While Dorothy tries to find a way back home, she explores the land and encounters new friends, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion. Together they follow the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City with the Wicked Witch of the West on their trail where they hope to meet the great and powerful Wizard of Oz.
Stephen starred in this local production as the Scarecrow and the farmhand Hunk.
THE CHARACTER OF THE SCARECROW
The Scarecrow is a magical being from the land of Oz made by Munchkins who is said to have been brought to life to scare the crows more effectively. He is only two days old when Dorothy meets him. The Scarecrow has a gentle, sweet and kind personality and is always willing to help others. He is very clumsy and uncoordinated though as he is made from straw. In the story, Dorothy encourages the Scarecrow to join her on her journey to the Emerald City to ask the Wizard for a brain, something the Scarecrow thinks he lacks.
Godspell is a musical written by Stephen Schwartz based on the Gospel of Saint Matthew. Featuring biblical characters, the story was adapted to bring in some aspects of the contemporary world and thus reconcile the Bible with our modern world. The musical was originally a project done by american drama students from Philadelphia before opening off-Broadway in 1971. Stephen Schwartz, an old alumnus of the same university as the students, worked on new music/lyrics for the show before it opened off-Broadway. The show has had many productions and tours all around the world over the years and Stephen joined the UK tour for 3 weeks in September 2007.
Stephen played Jesus in this new production of the musical.
Photo by Catherine Ashmore
THE CHARACTER OF JESUS
As the main figure of Christianity, Jesus Christ doesn't need an introduction. In the show, the character of Jesus is at the front and is a leader for almost the entire musical, teaching religious philosophy through modernised storytelling forms and contemporary culture references to the rest of the characters. And while some characters in the show accept Jesus as a teacher and leader, some others aren't as easy to convince. As the show is centered around the last days of Jesus, The Last Supper and the Crucifixion are two major events acted out in the show.
Photo by Catherine Ashmore
Playing Jesus on stage is definitely a big challenge. I mean I’ve played Joseph before but this had a lot more acting in it and was more challenging. And it’s more rocky, the music is rocky and I really like it, there are fantastic songs in there, very well known, and it’s also written by Stephen Schwartz who I absolutely love what he does.
It's got loads of great songs which people will recognise, Day by Day which was a huge hit and Prepare Ye The Way of the Lord and it's quite rocky so it's different for me, which is why I wanted to get involved in it. It's going to be a great challenge.
I really wanted to do this because all my mates said “You have to do it!”, it’s one of the greatest musicals, people love it, it’s well received, so that’s one reason why I wanted to do it. Another reason was that, you know, it’s a new adventure, it’s a new challenge for me playing Jesus. It’s gonna be fun.
STEPHEN ON GODSPELL
Even though it’s based on the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, Jesus is kind of teaching the ways of, you know, God to.. You could call them disciples but not really. And they kind of improvise and act stories out, which is quite nice. It’s not as big a role as Joseph, Joseph was a bigger role because the whole show focuses on Joseph while this focuses on all the characters, which I think is really nice and important.
THE PLAY WHAT I WROTE
The Play What I Wrote is a comedy play written by Hamish McColl, Sean Foley and Eddie Braben to celebrates the British comedy double acts Morecambe and Wise. The play opened in Liverpool in Summer 2001, premiere in the West End in November 2001and Broadway in March 2003. The plot centers around a play within a play: "Hamish thinks he is performing one of his 72 un-produced historical plays on a West End stage, but his former comedy partner Sean has advertised the night as a tribute to Morecambe and Wise." (BBC.com) Sean will then help Hamish put together the play. In the second half of The Play What I Wrote, a celebrity makes a surprise guest appearance and stars as one of the actors the duo manage to find for their own play. Stephen was one of the guest who appeared in the show in Peterborough.


On 29 June 1613 the Globe Theatre went up in flames during a performance of Henry the Eighth. A theatrical cannon, set off during the performance, misfired, igniting the wooden beams and thatching. According to one of the few surviving documents of the event, no one was hurt except a man whose burning breeches were put out with a bottle of ale. It was rebuilt in the following year.Fortunately, no such misfortune befell the CSC's production of the play. :) And what a production it was! Strong acting, choreography, set design. And the costumes! If this production doesn't sweep the awards for which it is eligible, well then, they ought to not bother having them.
I was especially impressed with the scene where the Surveyor is relating to the King something the Duke of Buckingham had said, and the actor playing Buckingham appears in the front row aisle with a spotlight, performing the same lines in synch with the Surveyor. A very cinematic technique, done without audio editing equipment that a movie maker would use, and it came off quite well, in live theater. You really need to see this show!! It runs through February 5, and tickets, I understand, are still available.
Photography is not allowed during performances, of course, but I was able to take some pictures during the pre-show reception, hosted by the ever gracious Charles Parsons, as well as after the performance. You can see these pics by clicking here, or on the images.


Babes with Blades' 2011-2012 season, The Double, should firmly establish in anyone's mind that this troupe is one of the more talented community ensembles that Chicago has to offer.
Even though seen in preview, the script was tight, the acting was first-class, and the "violence" was predictably top-shelf. There were, of course, the usual number of minor preview glitches, but these did nothing to detract from the show and, in fact, demonstrated the strength of the production in the way they were quickly left behind.
The script, the company's first foray into comedy, was crafted by Barbara Lhota, and reflects an endearment for the company, the period (1930s), and the genre. The comedy is broad but not slapstick, and clearly the actors are enjoying themselves as the plot unfolds and the mayhem begins.
Particularly strong in their parts were Lisa Herceg as Rosalind Rollins and Gillian Humiston as Minnie Sparks, but it should be said that there isn't a wooden nickel in the batch. And the direction by Leigh Barrett is crisp and clear - with so many story lines and actors to manage, she made the unfolding seem effortless.
Of course, what would a BwB production be without great stage violence, realized by Libby Beyreis? The Double builds nicely to a crescendo of swashbuckling derring-do that is simultaneously thrilling and comical. Given the imaginative multiplication of combatants and the swishing of blades across the entire stage, it was a treat to observe such skill and choreography from the front row.
What could be improved? Minor points, mostly: a few linguistic anachronisms creep in (being "freaked out" or "disrespected"), and there were a few times when the audience wasn't certain whether the time to applaud had come. Also, the first 15 minutes or so seemed a little muddier in exposition than they ideally might have been, but it wasn't long after that the roles and characters were sufficiently clear.
The long and the short of it, bub, is to find your way to this production at the Lincoln Square Theatre before it closes in late September!


Hamburg Kurdish Film Festival to be held on Nov. 22
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The 14th annual Hamburg Kurdish Film Festival (HKFF) will be held over a five-day period from Nov. 22 to Nov. 26 in the German city of its namesake.
According to Rawand Jawad, a board member of the festival, “The festival will begin with live music prepared by Kurdistan of Turkey (Bakur) artists Jamila and Hawre, followed by the first screening of the film ‘When the Seedlings Grow,’ directed by Syrian-Kurdistan (Rojava) filmmaker Rizgar Azad Kaya.”
“Out of 125 short, feature, and documentary films from all parts of Kurdistan, which were received by the Hamburg Kurdish Film Festival, we selected 19 films to be screened [...], including six documentaries, four feature films, and nine short films," Jawad added.
In addition, he noted that the third phase of the festival will be an award ceremony bestowing three awards, namely the best documentary, the best short film, and the committee prize.
Moreover, Jawad said that the awards will be given with the official logo of the festival and an undisclosed sum of money to the directors and cast of the winning films. He added that they intend to screen more awards and films in order to increase participation by the Kurdish film industry.
Launched in 2005, the HKFF’s goal is to create a space in which people can tell their Kurdish stories about resistance, women’s rights, and ongoing crimes against the ethnic group.
In addition, the festival seeks to further enhance Kurdish cinema to meet modern standards and to introduce Kurdish culture to the international community.


Less than one week left until the world premiere of the Nightwish fan-documentary To Nightwish With Love!
The documentary will have its premiere as an Internet stream, so fans from all over the world can watch! Be sure to check out the premiere teaser below! You will also find detailed information on the project and when and how to watch the documentary when it airs on August 20th.
Today, Finnish broadcaster Yle has released the first episode of the web-series accompanying the documentary, giving you a “making of” preview of what’s about to come! You can watch it here:
If you’re on facebook, be sure to follow the documentary’s page. Many things will happen there this week!
To Nightwish With Love - Facebook page


The man and I went to the movies last night and saw Yes Man. I was a bit apprehensive about seeing it because while I like Jim Carrey, he hasn’t exactly had a good run with movies in the last…oh five years.
But it was really really good! I walked out of it feeling happy and cheered up. Highly recommend it for a simple, fun movie. Five Jentopia stars!
Then this afternoon the man knocked off work early and we went and saw Seven Pounds. I don’t like movies that are sad, and I don’t like movies where you don’t know what is going on until right at the end. I’m not patient enough. So while the end was good (sad though), I didn’t really enjoy the movie. Two Jentopia stars.
I’ll tell you what else I didn’t enjoy. The toilets at Hoyts! I went when we first got there and most of the cubicles were out of paper, or disgustingly dirty. So when I was headed back to the cinema I said to one of the employees that the toilets are dirty and have no paper.
About three quarters of the way through the movie and a litre of water later I needed to go again, and they hadn’t changed at all! So I again told an employee, a girl this time. I said I’d told a guy about them over two hours ago and nothing has been done. She smiled and said ‘oh that’s your problem! You told a guy, ha ha’.
What a mole.


Vaani Kapoor Birthday, Age, Family. Thank You. Education: She attended Mata Jai Kaur Public School, Ashok Vihar, Delhi. In 2017, Vaani appeared in Yash Raj’s remake music video “MMain Yaar Manana Ni”. Birth Place – New Delhi In this film, she played the lead role along with Parineeti Chopra and Sushant Singh Rajput.
She has worked with famous fashion designers such as Payal Singhal and Selex Nayrangbam. Kapoor is unmarried till the year 2020. In an interview, she revealed that her father used to believe that girls should get married at an early age. She has featured on the covers of many popular magazines such as Maxim, FHM, Cosmopolitan, Femina Wedding Times, Elle, Vogue, and Femina. I love getting in my family time, and I also watch a lot of films and shows.
Vaani Kapoor is a popular Indian actress and a former model.
She was featured on the cover of popular magazines like Maxim, FHM, Cosmopolitan, Femina Wedding Times, Elle, Vogue, and Femina. She has an elder sister Nupur Chopra. Her Body Measurements 33-26-33 Inches.
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Just stay connected with us. Before beginning her modeling career, she wore braces. She is known for her work in Bollywood films.
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Vaani Kapoor Biography Biography of Vaani Kapoor Real Name – Vaani Kapoor. Her age as in 2020 in 31 years.
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Usually my blog is something about East London and its connection to my novels and this one is no exception except the link is a bit more tenuous.
On Friday night the Hero@Home and myself went to London for a very special evening at the theatre. It wasn’t so much that we had tickets for a West End play but who the star of the production was.
Now as most of you who follow me know I have a bit of a thing about Aidan Turner so when I tell you the show we went to see was the Lieutenant of Inishmore, with him in the title role you’ll understand why it was a special occasion.
However, although the majority of the female members of the audience were there to see Aidan strut his stuff as Padraic, homicidal, cat-loving terrorist, his presence didn’t dominate the production.
The Lieutenant of Inishmore is very much an ensemble piece and had with excellent performances by Chris Walley as Davey, Denis Conway as Padraic’s father Donny and Charlie Murphy, who many watching wanted to swap places with, as Padraic’s equally bonkers girlfriend.
The whole two-act play motored along very nicely with many, many laugh -out-loud moments throughout, and wittily clever dialogue ‘there be no statute of limitation on mammy trampling’ being just one. Given the serious nature of the underlying subject matter this was a grand achievement.
For some one of my generation who lived and worked in London during the IRA’s 1970s bombing campaign on the British mainland some of the references, such as the one to Airey Neave and trips to Belgium caused a moment of pause, but in the context of highlighting how stupid and mindless the violence of that time was it worked.
Now, what might you ask has a play set in the 1980’s on the West Coast of Ireland about a bunch of crazy terrorists got to do with my Nolan Family East London novels? Well I’ll tell you.
Ever since I saw Aidan Turner cast as the vampire with a conscience in BBC 3’s Being Human I’ve imagined him playing Patrick Nolan in a TV adaptation of my Victorian East London books, No Cure for Love, A Glimpse at Happiness, Perhaps Tomorrow and Hold onto Hope.
Seeing him move across the stage and deliver his line with panache has only confirmed my choice. However, should my books ever be adapted for the small screen, I don’t think Mr Turner will available because I’m sure by then he’ll be universally known as Bond, James Bond.


Odiyan’s VFX breakdown reveals how the magic was created
Mohanlal’s Odiyan was one of the most anticipated films last year. The film had extensive CGI work involved with the character of Odiyan Manikam transforming himself into different animals in the movie. The film was also action heavy and no wonder that the VFX team had to work overtime to ensure that the action pieces looked as authentic as possible. Recently, NY VFXWAALA, the team behind Odiyan’s visual effects, released a video showing what went behind creating those stunning visuals onscreen.


The Charlton and Woolwich Free Film Festival takes place again this year and we are pleased to be hosting two films. We very much hope you will join us
Tuesday 12 September, 7.00pm at St Richard’s Church Centre
In this film directed by Bill Forsyth, Gregory (John Gordon Sinclair) and his friends at school are starting to notice girls – particularly Dorothy (Dee Hepburn), not least because she’s on the football team and is a better player than all the boys. With counselling from his younger sister, Gregory finally asks Dorothy out, but turns up to the date only to discover that the girls at school have other plans for him.
A huge breakout hit on its original release in 1981, Gregory’s Girl was nominated for four BAFTA’s, winning for Best Original Screenplay. Bill Forsyth’s classic comedy remains to this day the ultimate depiction of coming-of-age awkwardness and an enduring favourite of Scottish cinema.
‘‘Gregory’s Girl’ is as flawless an example of personal cinema as this nation has to offer: witty, insightful, beautifully observed and heartbreakingly accurate, it says everything there is to say about suburban lust, adolescent romance, the pressure to fit in – truly, all of teenage life is here. The dialogue is poetic but wholly believable, the cast is note-perfect, the characterisation is broad but distinctive and the photography is simple, unfussy and real.’ TIME OUT GREATEST BRITISH FILMS OF ALL-TIME, 2021
St Richard’s Church Centre, Swallowfield Road, London, SE7 7NR
Wednesday 13 September, 7.00pm at St Luke’s Church
Ben Sharrock’s critically adored Limbo is a wry, funny and poignant cross-cultural satire that subtly sews together the hardship and hope of the refugee experience.
Set on a fictional remote Scottish island, it follows a group of new arrivals as they await the results of their asylum claims. Among them is Omar (Amir El-Masry), a young Syrian musician struggling with the guilt, regret and grief that comes with leaving his former life behind. This deadpan comedy-drama from a bold new voice in British film shines a light on the hearts and lives of those at the centre of a crisis that is mostly only experienced through the headlines.
But while he is stuck there, Omar he isn’t alone. In between brief long-distance conversations with his parents and passing interactions with oddball locals, Omar and hisnew flatmates attend outrageously misjudged ‘cultural awareness’ classes, binge Friends boxsets, and debate attending the local open mic night, all the while waiting for the delivery of letters that will ultimately determine their future.
Doors open at 6.30pm when refreshments will be served. There’ll be a chance to explore our historic church and to listen to the choir
St Luke’s Church, The Village, London, SE7 8UG
The Charlton and Woolwich Free Film Festival runs from 10 – 17 September 2023. Catch up on all the films being shown and the venues on their website.


Film and Television 'Under Construction' Seminar Series
2009 Seminar Series
Dr Adrian Martin
Trash/Dumb/Slacker/Stoner Contemporary American Film Comedy (with a Gender Twist)
A short presentation and very rare Australian screening of Gregg Araki’s Smiley Face (2007), starring the immortal Anna Faris! (For an analysis of her unique performance style and career, see Zachary Campbell’s article in the March issue of Rouge.
Dr Con Verevis and Alexia Kannas present a B for BAD film screening
Death Laid an Egg - La Morte ha fatto l’uovo (Giulio Questi, 1968)
Michael Honig presents a B for BAD film screening
Visitor Q - Bijitâ Q (Takashi Miike, 2001)
Coming from the low budget world of Japan’s V-cinema a prime example of controversial film maker Takashi Miike’s tool of exaggeration. Disturbing, funny, heartwarming.
Warning: This film contains content and themes that may offend some viewers. Audience discretion is advised.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul: Making the Ordinary Extraordinary
In Europe, 2009 has been dubbed the ‘Year of Apichatpong’, with a series of new installation and film commissions, in addition to retrospectives and publications by and about the master contemporary Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul. The multi-platform project titled Primitive premieres at the renowned contemporary art museum and exhibition centre, Haus der Kunst, in Munich from February 20 – May 17. This presentation will discuss Apichatpong’s ability to make the ordinary extraordinary in his highly personal films. It will focus on (and include a screening of) his new short online film Phantoms of Nabua (2009), which coincides with the Primitive installation. In Phantoms of Nabua, the filmmaker pays homage to a fluorescent light in a swamp and teens kick a ball raging with fire, in what is his most political film to-date.
Dianne Daley is doing a PhD thesis on the films of Apichatpong in FTV Monash, and is a teacher at RMIT.
Dr Belinda Smaill
Subjectivity and Emotion in Documentary Film
In the past documentary has been popularly perceived in ways that align it with education, science, history and other ‘discourses of sobriety’. This frame has never been adequate for conceptualising the stylistic and thematic breadth of documentary culture. In part, documentary is compelling because it frames subjectivity in distinct ways. This paper proposes a refocusing of debates and a renewed methodology to deal with documentary. This methodology will account for how emotionality marries with the social project of documentary in ways that make the non-fiction genre a compelling site for perceiving how fantasies of self and other circulate through specific textual practices in the public sphere. This is an investigation into how individuals are positioned by documentary representation as subjects that are entrenched in the emotions, whether it is pleasure, hope, pain, empathy or disgust. I will draw on a number of salient examples but will pay particular attention to the Brazilian documentary, Bus 174 (2002).
Dr. Belinda Smaill works in the Film and Television Studies section of Monash University. Her book on issues of subjectivity and emotion in documentary film will appear by the end of the year.
Professor Phillippe Met
Films That Never Were – Films That Could Never Be? Towards a Theory of Ghost Cinema
Despite a plethora of world encyclopedias of film and dictionaries of national cinemas, one particular history or archaeology of cinematic art remains to be told or written – that of the non-films or off-films which have literally filled filmic annals almost since the invention of the medium and make up what I propose to call ‘ghost cinema’. Films that never came to completion or fruition, films that were inherently or constitutively unfilmable, elusive films that haunt us as film enthusiasts, abortive films that go on to covertly inspire and fertilise the latter opuses of their unsuccessful originators. I will look at specific instances and possible paradigms (French and non-French, filmic and literary) in an effort to delineate this unchartered territory and examine the mythical, fetishistic aura that these mirage-films tend to acquire over time.
Professor Philippe Met is Visiting Fellow from the University of Pennsylvania, at University of Melbourne. He has written extensively on literature and cinema, and is Editor of the French Forum.
Phillippa Hawker (The Age film critic)
Text and Image: Sylvia Plath and Cinema
This presentation will offer an account of ongoing work concerning the multiple, complex relationships between the life and work of writer Sylvia Plath, and various forms of cinema: biographical, narrative, experimental. Some rare films and videos will be screened.
Philippa Hawker is film critic for The Age, has taught Arts at the University of Melbourne, and is completing her PhD there on Sylvia Plath. She has been the editor of Cinema Papers, and Co-Editor of Actor: Leslie Cheung (ACMI, 2003). Her work on Plath was been presented at conferences both in Australia and abroad.
Dr Simon Sellars
Crashing the Car: Impossible Ballardian Adaptations
The writing of J.G. Ballard displays a highly developed visual ¬– indeed filmic – sensibility, and has been the subject of numerous attempts to adapt it into cinematic form. Almost all of his 18 novels have been optioned at one stage or another, and there have been four feature films made from his work as well as a substantial amount of short films. This paper will initially focus on three of these adaptations: the short film Crash! (1970), directed by Harley Cokliss; the feature film Crash (1996), directed by David Cronenberg; and Jonathan Weiss’s The Atrocity Exhibition (2000). All three draw on material from a distinct period of Ballard’s career – 1968 to 1973 – and share striking similarities, notably across sound design, mise en scène and key narrative tropes such as the symbolism of crash-test dummies and the posthumanism of the automobile. This apparent fidelity is a testimony to the precise filmic nature of the original material, yet these films also convey the nagging sense that the ultimate Ballardian work has yet to be realised.
Dr Simon Sellars teaches in the School of English, Communications & Performance Studies at Monash University. He is the author of several academic articles on the work of J.G. Ballard, as well as a forthcoming book on ‘Ballardian’ philosophy, due to be published by Zer0 Books in late 2009. He publishes and edits the website Ballardian (http://www.ballardian.com) and in 2009 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Monash University for his thesis, ‘The Yes or No of the Borderzone: J.G. Ballard’s Affirmative Dystopias’.
Dr Claire Perkins
The Joker: Heath Ledger as Star
In 1998, Cinema Papers ran a goofy photo of an 18 year old Heath Ledger alongside a short blurb naming him as a talent “worth looking out for” in the future. Based principally on some local television work, the prediction was substantively and unpredictably fulfilled in the 2000s, where Ledger’s roles led to the production of a diverse star text that subverted the standard trajectory of an Australian soap star in Hollywood. Across a series of historical roles including A Knight’s Tale (2001), The Four Feathers (2002), Ned Kelly (2003) and The Brothers Grimm (2005), Ledger developed a style of ironic masculine toughness that came to epitomize the popular desire for a certain brand of “history” during this decade. This paper will discuss Ledger’s gruff stardom as an image strategically mobilised in the later films Brokeback Mountain (2005), I’m Not There (2007) and The Dark Knight (2008) and expanded by the fanatical speculation surrounding his sudden death in 2008.
Dr. Claire Perkins is Assistant Lecturer in Film and Television Studies at Monash University, Melbourne. Her writing has appeared in The Velvet Light Trap and CinemaScope and her book on American Smart Cinema is forthcoming from Edinburgh University Press.
Lisa Gye and Darren Tofts
Out of Florida: Creative Criticism
One of the key schools in criticism today is the loose grouping that comes ‘out of Florida’, inspired by the work of Gregory Ulmer (Heuretics, Internet Invention, Teletheory, Electronic Monumentality, etc) at Department of English, University of Florida. Writers influenced by his open, creative, playful, anti-hermeneutic approach to criticism include the USA film scholar Robert B. Ray (How a Film Theory Got Lost, The Avant-Garde Finds Andy Hardy). In Australia, two ‘branch Floridians’ are Lisa Gye and Darren Tofts, both of whom teach in Media and Communications at Swinburne University of Technology, and gave stunning speeches at the Monash B for Bad Cinema conference earlier this year. Their work mixes passions for pop culture and avant-garde alike with an investigation into the creative possibilities of new media … plus a good, hard dose of Australian sensibility. Together, Lisa and Darren edited the e-book Illogic of Sense: The Gregory L. Ulmer Remix (2007), downloadable from http://www.altx.com/ebooks/ulmer.html. Under Construction invites Lisa and Darren to reflect upon – and demonstrate – the unique, liberatory methods of the ‘Florida School’ as remixed within a cosmopolitan-Australian ethos.
A Reality in Exile: On the Cinephile Pedagogy of Hartmut Bitomsky
Why teach film? Unlike the work of other filmmakers who also engage in a pedagogic activity, most of the films of German documentarist Hartmut Bitomsky are actually a reflection on that condition, and constitute a powerful confluence between the seemingly different gestures of film criticism, film pedagogy and film directing. This unified expression of his work cannot be detached from the acute and mournful cinephilia that became possible only after modern cinema. Oscillating between a particular form of film criticism as practised between 1975 and 1985 in "Filmkritik" magazine and the production of documentaries on some of the most demanding subjects of German history, and especially an enriching pedagogical practice at dffb (a Berlin film academy) or as dean of CalArts in the U.S.A., Bitomsky had noticeable effects on new generations of filmmakers, especially on the so-called New Berlin School. Alongside fellow critic and documentarist Harun Farocki, Bitomsky emerged from the turmoils of May ‘68, with its extreme politicisation of all matters (including the production of images), but remained faithful to a practice of distanciation in order to deal with the overwhelming proliferation of images. Although all his films deal in some way with found footage, whether previously existing or of his own making as materials to quote from, they should not be interpreted merely as ideological disclosures of images. The specific audiovisual archive that now constitutes film and its history has been dealt with in detail in a series of films on film that Bitomsky has called his Cinema Anthology. The ambition of the series is to grasp what is buried in film, the singular invisibility of what is visible, “a reality in exile”, and it is particularly relevant for our understanding of how contemporary culture can relate film and thought.
The lecture will be followed by a screening of The Cinema and the Wind and Photography – Seven Chapters about Documentary Films (Germany, Hartmut Bitomsky, 1991, 56’).
Past and Present Conferences and Seminars
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