This month we're taking a long look at a very special film - Martin Bell, Mary Ellen Mark and Cheryl McCall's stunning documentary Streetwise.
This month we're taking a long look at a very special film - Martin Bell, Mary Ellen Mark and Cheryl McCall's stunning documentary Streetwise.
Dr. Mark Nicholls is the Senior Lecturer in Cinema Studies at the University of Melbourne. He has previously been a journalist for both ABC Radio and The Age newspaper, as well as a published playwright.
He is the author of Scorsese’s Men: Melancholia and the Mob (2004) which is available at Amazon.
Other works of Mark's include Lost Objects of Desire: The Performances of Jeremy Irons (2012; Amazon) and a series of stageplays published under the Unconventional Women banner by Prahran Publishing in Melbourne.
Thomas D. Clagett is a New Mexico-based author who writes extensively about America's West, including in his award-winning historical fiction novels The Pursuit of Murieta (2013; Amazon), West of Penance (2016; Amazon) and Line of Glory (2018; Amazon).
In 1990, Clagett published the definitive theoretical work on one of cinema's greatest directors, William Friedkin: Films of Aberration, Obsession and Reality, which is out of print but still available at Amazon.
Praise for Line of Glory:
"While most Alamo authors focus on the well-known participants, Clagett presents people on both sides of the battle who were, perhaps, more important to the outcome: ordinary soldiers, unheralded officers, women, and children. We learn of their loves, hatreds, hopes, and the glory (and dishonor) they earn as the battle begins and ends."
-Rod Miller, Spur Award-winning author
Dr. Jadranka Skorin-Kapov is a Professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and the author of several theoretical books on films and other subjects, including the recent Professional and Business Ethics Through Film: The Allure of Cinematic Presentation and Critical Thinking (2018; Amazon).
She also authored the excellent text on filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, one of cinema's most imaginative new minds, Darren Aronofsky’s Films and the Fragility of Hope, which is available at Amazon.
Dr. Tarja Laine is an Assistant Professor in Film Studies at the University of Amsterdam. Her works include Shame and Desire: Emotion, Intersubjectivity, Cinema (2007; Amazon) and Feeling Cinema: Emotional Dynamics in Film Studies (2011; Amazon).
She also wrote on Darren Aronofsky in 2015 with Bodies in Pain: Emotion and the Cinema of Darren Aronofsky, which is available at Amazon. Her most recent book is Emotional Ethics of The Hunger Games (2021; Amazon).
Dr. John Fawell is a Professor of Humanities at Boston University. He contributed an audio commentary for the DVD and Blu-ray releases of Rear Window which can be found on the individual release as well as in Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection from Universal Pictures.
Fawell's publications include The Art of Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West: A Critical Appreciation (2008; Amazon), The Essence of Chaplin: The Style, the Rhythm and the Grace of a Master (2014; Amazon) and the recent Ernst Lubitsch's The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg: The Art of Classical Hollywood (2018; Amazon).
Fawell's Hitchcock's Rear Window: The Well-Made Film from 2004, is available at Amazon.
"John Fawell builds his study on the previous research of other scholars, but he also questions some of their assumptions and criticisms about Hitchcock and his films in a most lively fashion. His study is a solid and substantial analysis."
- Gene Philips, editor of Stanley Kubrick: Interviews and author of Alfred Hitchcock
Murray Pomerance is one of the world's foremost authorities on Alfred Hitchcock. Among his dozens of publications on cinema exist a series of books about film's most famous director, including BFI Film Classics dissertations on both The Man Who Knew Too Much and Marnie.
His long-form analysis of the Master of Suspense begins with An Eye For Hitchcock (2004; Amazon) and continues with Alfred Hitchcock's America (2013; Amazon).
His latest books include A Dream of Hitchcock (2019; Amazon) and the brand new Voyage With Hitchcock (2021; Amazon).
"What comes through most vividly in this stylish study is the physical poetry of Hitchcock's American films. With grace and insight, Murray Pomerance describes the colors, the rhythms of speech and movement, and the concrete spaces of Hitchcock's America in a way that makes these films new again. This is a book every cinephile will want to read."
- Robert Burgoyne, University of St Andrews and author of Film Nation: Hollywood Looks at US History
Dr. Lesley Brill is Emeritus Professor of English and Film Studies at Wayne State University in Detroit. He has published several books on cinema, including The Hitchcock Romance: Love and Irony in Hitchcock's Films (1988; Amazon) and Crowds, Power and Transformation in Cinema (2006; Amazon).
His 1997 work on John Huston - John Huston's Filmmaking from the Cambridge Studies in Film series - examines the famed director as an auteur, and is available at Amazon.
"It is a searching, thoughtful, and illuminating study, written with care and clarity by a leading film scholar and devoted to an area hitherto little explored in film studies. It will surely find wide readership among those interested in the art and the cultural significance of cinema."
- Gilberto Perez, Sarah Lawrence College
Dr. Alexandra Heller-Nicholas is an Adjunct Professor in Film and Television at Deakin University. She has a true passion for horror cinema and has written a number of books on various topics therein, including Rape-Revenge Films: A Critical Study (2011; Amazon), Found Footage Horror Films: Fear and the Appearance of Reality (2013; Amazon) and 1,000 Women in Horror: 1895-2018 (2020; Amazon).
She wrote Suspiria for the Devil's Advocates series in 2015, which is available at Amazon.
"Heller-Nicholas offers a persuasive insight into why Suspiria remains popular, delving into the “exquisite terror” of the film which is simultaneously mesmerising and impenetrable."
- Kate Robertson, Screening the Past
Luke Buckmaster is a film critic and writer who has worked for a large number of publications over the years, including Filmink Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He is currently a film critic for The Guardian.
His work includes the excellent book Miller and Max: George Miller and the Making of a Film Legend about the Mad Max films, which is available at Amazon.
"Buckmaster, like any good biographer, starts his tome with an action scene before flashing back to Miller’s youth. Miller and Max is a fascinating guide on how to get a low budget movie off the ground."
- Roger Crow, On Magazine
Samm Deighan is the Associate Editor of Diabolique Magazine and co-host of the Daughters of Darkness podcast, as well as a contributor to Senses of Cinema.
She has recently published The Legacy of World War II in European Arthouse Cinema (2021; Amazon) and previously wrote about M for the Devil's Advocates series, which is also available at Amazon.
Sue Russell is a crime and criminal justice writer who has written previously for the Washington Post, New Scientist, Salon, the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times and countless other publications.
Along with Elizabeth Williams, Russell authored The Illustrated Courtroom: 50 Years of Court Art (2014; Amazon).
Her most famous work remains the definitive biography of serial killer Aileen Wuornos, Lethal Intent, which has remained at the top of the heap of true crime non-fiction ever since its 1992 release, and is available at Amazon.
"Shocking, sad, revealing, and deeply researched, this true account of the life and crimes of serial killer Aileen Wuornos will fascinate true-crime fans."
- John Douglas, former FBI profiler and best-selling author
Lynne Griffin is a Canadian actress who has been performing on stage and screen since the start of the 1970s. Her television credits include roles in Picket Fences, NYPD Blue, Earth: Final Conflict, Warehouse 13 and the Canadian drama Wind at My Back.
She is best known for her horror roles on the big screen, though, with her debut in Bob Clark's Black Christmas (1974) and Curtains (1983) being particular standouts. Her death scene in the former stands out as one of the most memorable in the film.
In 1980 she was nominated for a Genie Award (now the Canadian Screen Awards) for Outstanding Performance by an Actress.
Paul Corupe is a Canadian-based film writer who has been a contributor to Rue Morgue Magazine since 2004. The majority of his writing looks at Canadian films, and Canadian horror films specifically.
He contributed a chapter to the non-fiction book The Canadian Horror Film: Terror of the Soul (2015; Amazon) and runs the Canadian B-movie website Canuxploitation!.
Corupe co-edited the 2016 non-fiction book Satanic Panic: Pop-Culture Paranoia in the 1980s, which is available at Amazon.
"Satanic Panic studies this moral frenzy from a vast array of perspectives in fascinating depth, outlining the fears of anxious parents and a confused mainstream culture about teens supposedly embroiled in Satanic cults and potentially carrying out ritual abuse, devil worship, suicide or murder at any given moment."
- Diane Rodgers, Cinema Retro
Brian Eggert is one of the most thoughtful, learned film critics currently working. Since 2007 he has run Deep Focus Review, mixing current film reviews with his The Definitives, Reader's Choice and Re(focused)views specialty sections.
Eggert obtained his Master's Degree in Film Studies from Tiffin University, where he was awarded with the Award of Excellence in Graduate Education in 2018. He is a member of the Minnesota Film Critics Alliance.
Julianne White is an Australian-born actress who has worked extensively in film and television. She is based in the United Kingdom, where she has appeared on the small screen in EastEnders, The Bill, Casualty, Holby City, Silent Witness, New Tricks and even the seminal comedy The Young Ones.
In 2000 she starred alongside Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley, Amanda Redman and Ian McShane in Jonathan Glazer's feature directorial debut Sexy Beast, where she played the role of Jackie, wife to the late Cavan Kendall's Aitch, to critical acclaim.
Neil Sinyard was formerly the Head Professor of Film Studies at the University of Hull in the United Kingdom. He has written extensively about cinema, including in his books George Stevens: The Films of a Hollywood Giant (2019; Amazon), A Wonderful Heart: The Films of William Wyler (2013; Amazon) and Filming Literature: The Art of Screen Adaptation (2013; Amazon).
Sinyard also contributed to the excellent Indicator Blu-ray release of The China Syndrome, with a brand new essay included in the collection's 40-page booklet. He has contributed similar essays and audio commentaries to countless other home video releases from Indicator, Criterion and others.
The late Dr. Don Graham was, according to the Dallas Morning News, "the premier scholar and critic on Texas literature, films and pop culture." Indeed, Graham's works included no less than a dozen full-length books on The Lone Star State, many of which are now unfortunately out of print.
Graham was the J. Frank Dobie Regents Professor at the University of Texas, as well as a contributor to many publications including Texas Monthly. In 2018 he published the definitive book on George Stevens' epic Giant, Giant: Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, Edna Ferber, and the Making of a Legendary American Film, which comes highly recommended and is available at Amazon.
It was our pleasure to get the chance to chat with Don - who was affable, educated, humorous and passionate - prior to his passing.
"Don Graham is a masterful storyteller. Just as Giant the movie was the talk of the town back in 1956, I know Don's lively narrative will be the talk of the town today. He captures West Texas and the big screen stars perfectly."
- Former First Lady Laura Bush
Helen Goltz is a prolific Australian author, having written many fiction and non-fiction novels including the Miss Matilda Hayward series, the Death By series, the Mitchell Parker Novels series, the Grave Tales true crime series (with Chris Adams), and a series of romance novels under the name Ally Adams. She has worked for or contributed to both Fairfax and News Limited media and the Seven Network, among others.
Her non-fiction work No Picnic at Hanging Rock examines the mystery behind the true story, looking at both Lady Joan Lindsay's original novel and Peter Weir's remarkable film, and is available at Amazon.
Karen Robson is an Australian-born entertainment lawyer working in film finance for Pryor Cashman LLP, based in Los Angeles, California. She obtained her Bachelor of Laws from the University of Sydney in 1981, after obtaining her B.A. with First Class Honours two years prior.
Before this, Robson had a short stint as an actress, where she is best known for her major role as the beautiful and mysterious Irma in Peter Weir's masterpiece Picnic at Hanging Rock. She has since worked as Producer for director husband Ramin Niami's feature films.
Jamey Duvall is a passionate cinephile, and the Founder and Producer of the long-running and popular film podcast Movie Geeks United (including spin-off shows The Blu Report, Movie Geek Yearbook and The Kubrick Series).
Dean Treadway is a film writer and podcaster who has previously worked as Programming Coordinator at Turner Network Television (TNT), and Programming Director at Dahlonega International Film Festival. He runs Filmicability with Dean Treadway and has worked with the Movies Geeks United podcast.
Frank Murray is a Film Producer who has worked on Noah Baumbach's Margot at the Wedding, Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, Spike Jonze's Synecdoche, New York and Jason Woliner's Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, among many other credits.
In 2015 he co-produced Ang Lee's Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, and the following year co-produced Todd Haynes' Wonderstruck. He worked closely with Paul Schrader as the sole producer of his haunting drama-thriller First Reformed in 2017.
