SWMF at Monster Fest 2013

  • Stranger With My Face Sidebar at Monster Fest 2013

    1 December at Cinema Nova, Melbourne

    The SWMF day of Monster Fest is an opportunity to sample some amazing contemporary filmmaking… and to look back on how far women in horror have come. Thanks to Monster Pictures for letting us take over the last day of their crazy and excellent festival. Look out, Melbourne, the scary women of SWMF are coming your way!

    Support indie genre filmmaking! Help spread the word by sharing the Facebook event page for the Stranger With My Face Sidebar.

  • Erzsébet

    “The Girlie Werewolf Hall of Fame”

    Mary Shelley Symposium
    • presented by Jazmina Cininas

    In creating a portrait gallery of female werewolves Jazmina’s aim is to expand existing visual mythographies of the female werewolf, drawing attention to the generally overlooked literary and historical narratives of female lycanthropy and the role of the feminine in the evolution of werewolf lore. Her chief medium for this project is the inherently transformative reduction linocut, whereby the plate is progressively cut into and destroyed while the print correspondingly becomes more complete.

    Jazmina recently completed her PhD, The Girlie Werewolf Hall of Fame: Historical and Contemporary Figurations of the Female Werewolf, at RMIT University, where she also lectures in Printmaking. Picture shows Erzsébet was frequently mistaken for a vampire (2011), reduction linocut, 37.0 x 28 cm (cropped).

    Sunday 1 December, 11.00 am

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  • IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY

    Feature film screening
    • 78 mins | D: Kayoko Asakura | S: Kkobbi Kim, Nanako Ohata, Akihiro Kitamura

    The debut feature of Japanese filmmaker Kayoko Asakura fuses Japanese splatter with American back-roads horror to create a bold and brutal hybrid that will remain with you long after the final credits have rolled. A Korean students nightmare experience in small town USA – unforgettable horror abounds!

    Set in California, Korean student, A-Joong, joins a group of Japanese friends at a country town cottage on the outskirts of L.A. Feeling isolated by the language barrier between herself and the others and the fact that the group only seem interested in sex and drugs, A-Joong prepares to leave the party, however is unable to due to their remote location. That night, two vicious siblings that earn a living through robbery and murder, attack the group of students, targeting one student who they believe witnessed a sinister act. What ensues is a night of horror as the students battle a family of homicidal maniacs!

    Sunday 1 December, 12.30 pm

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  • Stranger With My Face short films

    Followed by a panel discussion around issues of gender and genre, included in the ticket price. (see below)

    Briony Kidd has curated a selection of the best horror shorts by female filmmakers from Australia and around the world. Favourites from SWMF plus a couple of wildcards.

    TRITCH | D: Natalie James | 2011 | Australia | 15 minutes
    In modern day Shanghai, a wealthy housewife’s life of luxury becomes increasingly disrupted by the presence of a young ghost.

    DOLL PARTS | D: Karen Lam | 2011 | Canada | 9 minutes
    A serial killer’s bad day is made much worse when he picks up the wrong girl hitchhiking.

    SELF-PORTRAIT | D: Jovanka Vuckovic | 2012 | Canada | 2 minutes
    In the process of taking off her make-up, a woman reveals her true face.

    THE RED SHOES | D: Heidi Lee Douglas, Vivien Mason, Bryony Geeves | 2013 | Australia | 5 minutes
    A tourist in Sydney finds herself a new pair of shoes, with unpleasant results.

    RAVENOUS | D: Carmen Falk | 2013 | Australia | 7 minutes
    A young girl is left with her strange grandmother. It’s all a bit disturbing.

    STELLA BUIO | D: Lori Bowen | 2012 | USA | 15 minutes
    A medium reunites a family with the dearly departed as the reanimated corpse of their loved one wreaks havoc.

    Sunday 1 December, 2.30 pm

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  • “Beyond Scream Queens and Rape Revenge”

    A panel discussion about gender and the horror genre in 2013
    • Moderated by Briony Kidd
    Our speakers will share their perspectives on questions such as trends in horror, the rise of the female director, sexism in genre and more.

    Originally from Montreal, URSULA DABROWSKY is an independent horror writer and director based in Adelaide. In 2009, she completed the first instalment of her Demon Trilogy, Family Demons. Her sophomore effort, Inner Demon, is due for release in 2014. Ursula is currently developing Demonheart, with script consultant, Stephen Cleary. She is also working on an online horror game, Demon House, with games producer, Dan Thorsland.

    KIER-LA JANISSE is a writer and film programmer based in Montreal, Canada. She has written for Filmmaker, Rue Morgue and Fangoria magazines, has contributed to The Scarecrow Movie Guide (Sasquatch Books, 2004) and Destroy All Movies!! A Complete Guide to Punk on Film (Fantagraphics, 2011), and is the author of A Violent Professional: The Films of Luciano Rossi (FAB Press, 2007) and House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films (FAB Press, 2012).

    ALEXANDRA HELLER-NICHOLAS is a film writer based in Melbourne, Australia. Rape-Revenge Films: A Critical Study is her first book and is published by McFarland. Her second book, ‘Found Footage Horror Films: Fear and the Appearance of Reality’ is to be released in late 2013.

    After a series of experimental shorts, PHILIP BROPHY made his feature debut with Body Melt (“A slime-soaked all-out shocker!”—Fangoria) in 1992. He’s also a musician, composer, sound designer, writer and film curator. Recent film project include The Morbid Forest and The Prostrate Christ and the animation The Hungry Vagina.

    This event is included in the short films screening (see above)

    Sunday 1 December, 2.30 pm
  • Let’s Scare Jessica To Death

    Feature film screening
    89 mins | D: John D. Hancock | S: Zohra Lampert, Barton Heyman, Kevin O’Connor

    PRESENTED BY KIER-LA JANISSE

    One of the most subtle masterpieces of 70s genre cinema is John Hancock’s moody, ethereal Let’s Scare Jessica to Death starring Zohra Lampert as a young woman recently released from a mental institution. Her husband’s bright idea is to move to a new home so that his wife can “get better” – in this case an imposing, labyrinthine house on a remote apple farm, far removed from New York City. Jessica is fascinated by rumors about the house’s previous inhabitants, the Bishop family, whose 20-year old daughter Abigail drowned in her wedding dress in the cove behind the house. Abigail’s body was never recovered, and the townsfolk believe that she is still alive, roaming the country as a vampire. When a transient hippie named Emily comes to say with them, these vampiric myths intertwine with Jessica’s increasing view of Emily as a predator who wants to steal away her husband and keep Jessica a prisoner on the farm. As Jessica’s visions intensify, she finds it harder and harder to maintain any front of normality.

    Kier-La Janisse is a writer and film programmer based in Montreal, Canada. She a film programmer for Fantastic Fest and SF Indie, founder of The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies and Editor-in-Chief of Spectacular Optical. She has been a programmer for the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin, Texas, co-founded Montreal microcinema Blue Sunshine, founded the CineMuerte Horror Film Festival in Vancouver and was the subject of the documentary Celluloid Horror. She has written for Filmmaker, Rue Morgue and Fangoria magazines, has contributed to The Scarecrow Movie Guide (Sasquatch Books, 2004) and Destroy All Movies!! A Complete Guide to Punk on Film (Fantagraphics, 2011), and is the author of A Violent Professional: The Films of Luciano Rossi (FAB Press, 2007) and House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films (FAB Press, 2012)

    Kier-La Janisse will be signing her book House of Psychotic Women before and after the screening.

    Sunday 1 December, 5.00 pm

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