Open City Cinema and Cinematheque present an unforgettable evening with legendary film programmer and horror writer Kier-La Janisse as she returns to her former home town to launch her highly acclaimed new book House of Psychotic Women – an autobiographical and highly personal exploration of female neurosis in horror and exploitation films. House of Psychotic Women (available for sale before and after the screening) is packed with anecdotes and memories which interweave film history, criticism, trivia and confrontational imagery to create a reflective personal history and examination of female madness, both onscreen and off. This sharply-designed book is packed with rare stills, posters, pressbooks and artwork that combine with family photos and artifacts to form a titillating sensory overload, with a filmography that traverses the acclaimed and the obscure in equal measure. Films covered include everything from The Entity, to Antichrist, The Piano Teacher and Toys Are Not for Children.
Kier-La Janisse is a writer and film programmer who co-founded the Blue Sunshine Psychotronic Film Centre and The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies in Montreal, where she also edits the Fantasia Film Festival’s online magazine, Spectacular Optical. She has written for Filmmaker, Rue Morgue and Fangoria magazines and is also the author of A Violent Professional: The Films of Luciano Rossi, published by FAB Press in 2007. She has been a programmer for the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin,Texas, founded the CineMuerte Horror Film Festival and the Big Smash! Music-on-Film Festival (both in Vancouver)
“God, this woman can write, with a voice and intellect that’s so new. The truth in the most deadly unique way I’ve ever read.”
– RALPH BAKSHI
THE BROOD
DIR. DAVID CRONENBERG | 1979 | CANADA | 92 MIN
Kier La Janisse will introduce a special screening of David Cronenberg’s 1979 classic The Brood in a rare 35mm print direct from the archives in Ottawa.
The Brood is the most intense, and the most personal, of David Cronenberg’s early films – and, in some respects, it is also the most simple. Once described by Cronenberg as his version of Robert Benton’s Kramer vs. Kramer, The Brood is a much darker and more desperate insight into the anger and intensity of a marital breakdown – seen, as it is, through the eyes of a child. Nola, a victim of childhood abuse by her mother, falls under the psychiatric care of the mysterious and visionary Dr. Raglan, who encourages his patients to give physical expression to their pain and anger. Frank, Nola’s ex-husband, is concerned for the well-being of his daughter Candice, who one day returns from a visit with her mother covered in cuts and bruises. When Nola’s parents are suddenly murdered by a bizarre creature, Frank begins to suspect the true nature of Dr. Raglan’s work. (Canadian Film Encyclopedia)
This book launch and screening is generously sponsored by Joanne Lesko and Cindi French (Royal LePage Dynamic Real Estate), Howard Curle, Wild Planet, Into the Music, Kustom Kulture and the Film Studies program at the University of Manitoba.
The Brood is courtesy of Library and Archives Canada
