Hello there, everybody, and welcome back to the Disconnected. I'm here with
Lee Gambon, who is seemingly I'm learning about more and more every day as
he posts what he does on social media. But Lee is currently in Melbourne.
That's correct, right, Yeah, So what all what do you do
for film because it seems like you're kind of surrounded by everything. We do
a lot. Melbourne's really lucky. I think we're pretty spoiled. Like I
think we're lucky as an art city. There's a lot going on. So
there's a lot of film festivals, a lot of film groups as collectives,
as society as there's beautiful art deco cinemas, there's the cinema tech, there's
film festivals. I think I just said that, but there's a lot going
on in film culture as well as home media. There's like a really massive
quota of a collectors and people who buy home media, two really strong solid
home media people companies like in Print and Umbrella, and then also heaps of
people who work in home media. Like I just thought about it before jumping
on. I was like, there's heaps of people in Melbourne who actually do
what I do, which is awesome. It's like a really it's a really
healthy, healthy scene. So yeah, there's a lot of film stuff going
on. Also, Melbourne's really strong as far as like the live music scene,
and there's a lot of there's a lot of kind of parallels there,
I guess, or a bit of a family network there, and the art
live actually performing arts like theater and stuff, and also fine arts scene.
Like it's just a very i guess, cosmopolitan and very multi dimensional scene that
everyone sort of has different pockets in. And yeah, it's awesome, it's
great. I love it, I love Malvit. I couldn't live anyone else
in Australia, that's for sure. That's incredible. The amount of times that
I see things happening in Australia that is seemingly impossible to get done everywhere else
is just fascinating. Some of the things that you post about the ECMI seems
like somebody that you work with quite a lot. Can you tell everybody what
that is? Yeah, So I run a film collective called Cinemaniacs and Cinemaniac
Screen at ACME, which is basically a hub cinema and museum in the heart
of Melbourne, and we program a whole bunch of stuff every year, and
we get people to do presentations and to do talks and to do panels,
and we sometimes get people involved with the actual film itself to do video introductions,
which is always awesome. And so yeah, we're sort of in that
sort of round there, that's all. ACME is also the home of the
Cinema Tech, so people who are also associated with cinemaniacs here and there,
like Alouise Ross and Series Howard, all these people are affiliated with and run
the Cinema Tech as well. But yeah, ACME is like a really major
institution here. So basically a lot of print gets screened here. There's a
lot of museum stuff, there's a lot of exhibitions, a lot of rep
stuff happens. A lot of the festivals are held there as well, like
Melbourne International Film Festival, so you get a whole range of things happening.
You'll have international guests coming down doing you know, talks or exhibition, so
it's pretty much a major space. It's amazing. Lately, I feel like
your name is coming up multiple releases every single month, whether it's Umbrella or
via Vision with Imprint as one of their biggest lines. But they are both
of them kind of taking everything by storm. Over the last year, especially
Imprint. Imprint has exploded popularity and I am glad that they're coming out of
Australia because they seem to be in their own little niche and has allowed them
to do some things that other companies have not. And with Imprint, the
big thing is breaking into the paramount vaults. A lot of other companies have
tried to do that for years and Imprint suddenly got and continue to get films
that have never been able to be released on home video anywhere. What are
some of the titles that you've worked on that have been out of these two
labels that you're just beyond excited to be able to contribute. Well, you
just mentioned you just hit the nail on the head with titles that have been
in the vault for way too long, and one of them is The Fabulous
Stains, So I mean before I go into that, Yeah, Imprint is
amazing. Like the content that's churning out, what the company does, the
people that get involved, how diversity is, how the idea is like having
a package where basically you have audio commentary, video essay interviews with people involved
with the film. You know, that's just amazing just to have that kind
of one lineup. So the boutique release is fleshed out and meeting. That's
really important, I think. And it's just beautiful and the packaging stunning,
and the princes always looked great and oh just beautiful. But yeah, absolutely,
to answer your question about recent releases, in fact, the last title
I worked on for Imprint was Yeah, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stain,
which you know, A is a magnificent film, b like has been
hidden the ever and has this awesome legacy, like has an incredible legacy.
So I was really really tough to be assigned pretty much not only to work
on it, but be a producer on the release. So I was like
in charge of a whole range of things. So one thing about that movie
that really speaks to me is I was really and still am very ingrained in
the right girl culture. So early nineties I was obsessed with right I still
am. You know, all those bands Bikini Kill and Bratmanbil and all those
bands were really important to me and still very much are. And so it
was really cool to see how this film really did generate and spark this kind
of inspiration to that movement. Like, you know, so ten years after
the movie comes out, these young women who grew up at this movie start
this amazing movement. Right So people are Kathleen Hannah and Alison Wolfe, et
cetera. So I was like, okay, Toby val et cetera, And
I was like, okay, cool, that's a really good angle. So
I'm gonna go, Okay, let me start with that. Maybe I could
organize something involving Right Girl. And so I got the excellent Alison wolf who
of course was in Bratmobile and a whole bunch of other bands called Cold Hearts,
Party Line, Sex Stains, et cetera, who was you know,
an integral you know, co founder of Right Girl, to do the commentary
with me, which was just stunning, Like it was so much fun and
she's the best, Like she's so fun and she's awesome and her insight is
incredible and also very personal. But yeah, so we did this sort of
joint commentary. We could never figure out a time to do it together because
we you know, she lives in la but I you know, okay,
that's fine, let's just douns. So she sent me all her recording and
I did my recording and then I just edited it. And so what you'll
get is this, I feel, this incredibly rich collage, I guess of
a commentary where you have a lot of production history, a lot of what
happened on set, a lot of the conception of the film people involved with
it, like the legendary Nancy Dowd and Carol and Kuhn and all these amazing
people. And then also what you get is really personal accounts from Alison about
the film, what it did and how it shaped her and her ideas on
being a woman in a band and all this stuff. So it's really I
just feel really proud of that commentary. That and also I got Marion Canter,
who plays the guitarist in the band, so you know, not Diane
Lane and not Laura der the other musician, and she was awesome. So
she did like a really cool interview for it, a little Sarah Marcus.
So Sarah Marcus wrote a really cool book called Girl to the Front, The
True Story of Right Girl, and she's an incredible critic and academic, and
she did a very cool video essay about the film. And Debbie Rashan,
the fabulous Debbie Reshond did a video for her, and then also you've got
cat Allaner doing a video essay on women in punk prior to the eighties,
which is also went to see that, So there's a lot of stuff in
there. And then also in print have dug Deep and they've got archive interviews
with Laura Dern and Diane Lane and the director Lou Adler. But that's going
to be a really huge release and it comes out very soon, I believe,
so. Yeah, so it's going to be real and it's just incredible
that after doing all that I with cinemaniacs have I don't know how I did
it, but I did it, and I'm pretty proud of myself. During
here bekinniclare playing in Melbourne in March, and I managed to wrangle and whip
up this whole thing where we're going to screen the fabulous names and have playing
Cappy and Toby from Bikini Kill in conversation talking about the fact the stains and
what they grew up with as far as film and women and women in punk
and music. In film and music, I'd love them to talk about musical
biopics because I think that's really interesting and yeah, just also how right Girl
was presented in film and TV. But all that stuff, I just can't
wait to do it. But yeah, that's all been planned sold out in
a freaking day. That is a massive achievement. That's a really cool setup.
And yeah, something that seems to be not something that I could definitely
go out and see, that seems to be fairly fairly Milbourne centric. That's
amazing. It's also like a musicians when do we hear musicians talking about films
they love? You know, I think that's really important. Well, especially
for a film that's as important as that. That movie has gone to have
this giant legacy that people don't really realize nowadays because it's been kind of difficult
to see for quite a while, which is where Imprint steps in and is
killing. The fact that this release is has been side after for so long
and now to get it on EAHD and everybody will be able to get it
worldwide is just a stupendous achievement. Absolutely, And also like how important is
as far as feminist cinema. So I remember, man Allison, when we
were doing the prepping for our commentary, I was like, Allison, I
don't really want to talk about the guys expistles in the class, like we
know them, and Alison's like, yeah, me either. So it was
like but eventually I think we do anyway, but it's like, yeah,
it's not a focal point, like whatever, move on, let's still about
the women exactly. Yeah. Yeah, it's really interesting so as far as
like feminist cinema, teen centric cinema, and working class cinema, so that
or kids into that working class girls, which is awesome anyway, Yeah,
I completely agree. Umbrella seems to be focusing on another aspect that I wanted
to highlight tonight, and that is just really giving this massive respect for ARC
cinema as a whole because they have multiple lines like the sunbrit Cinema that they
dive into a lot of very specific Australian films, a lot of the oss
Plitation series. Obviously. How how do you connect to ARSI cinema? Is
it something that's special to you personally? Definitely the eco horror stuff, but
that's definitely the bag of people like Mark Hartley who's done such incredible work for
our cinema history and stuff, and people like Alexandra Hala Nicholas who's doing amazing
stuff with fangoria, with celebrating a lot of Ossy unsung Ozzie stuff. But
yeah, there's a lot of amazing people who do a lot of championing of
Australian cinema. For me personally, it's funny people assume that I'm a big
Hollywood nerd like I grew Yeah, it's just Hollywood stuff. I love austrange
cinema, like animal centric stuff like Dusty is one of my favorite films that
people don't talk about, and I think I'd rather release that DVDA that needs
a blue roy that needs a nice upbreaded And I put my hand up through
the commentary. But that was, you know, written by people like on
your Bog, who's amazing writer. She wrote Dark and Stormboy. But yeah,
of course I grew up loving things like, you know, all the
osplitation films and the horror stuff, and especially of course the animal centric stuff.
You know, Dark Eyed Razor, Back Long Weekend, you know,
Dusty, all these films. But yeah, it wasn't like I saught after
Ossie stuff, but I loved thinking. You know, there were obscure things
that I kind of in my child's brain would connect with American content. So
if I looked at something like Ginger Megs, when I saw that as a
kid, my brain went to things like you know, ninety nineties Dick Tracy
or you know, because I had that kind of say aesthetic, and they
came from comics. But yes, as far as like seeking out Ossie films,
not really, which is very bizarre, I guess from you know,
an American perspective, but I just grew up obsessed with American cinema and like
that's what was on television. I think there's an idea that a lot of
people who didn't grab an Australia thought we grew up with Ossie content. Of
course you did, but what it was that big compared to what we got
was the American stuff, you know, so that like for instance, sitcoms,
there was only a fair few kings with country and stuff like that.
There were a fair few and a lot more back when I grew up in
the eighties, but it was mostly American content. It was mostly you know,
you know, Channel ten we have the monopoly on universal stuff, and
Channel seven would have a lot of the paramount catalog and you know, Warner
Brothers was Channel nine and Uly you could set of have that and they all
had a distinct look for some reason they had the print always looked similar.
But yeah, it was kind of like just this culture that was sort of
built here growing up and being obsessively watching films and TV that was very American,
very American, and it's really interesting. I did a panel with Amanda
Reis, who of course does a lot of made for TV. She's you
know, a scholar on made for television films, and we're talking on that
panel it was me Kayla janniast John Harrison, and we're talking about how here
in Australia and TV movies aired, they were never really least as a TV
movie. It was just a film that was on you know, the Sunday
Night Film or the Wednesday Night Field. So it was never like, you
know, specifically for the network because they weren't for our networks, So for
your networks and that come here and you'd go, oh, was that actually
a TV movie or a theatrical one TV? So that kind of thing.
So it was just ingrained in our brains, like you know, I grew
up with all that stuff like everything, like I just loved it. And
so Australian content was there and I loved a lot of it. There's a
lot of kids TV stuff that was fucking crazy and wild, things like Hunter
and stuff. But yeah, yeah, I don't know. But as far
as like growing up with Ossie stuff, it was there, but I didn't
I never really sought after it just because it was Aussie. Yeah, that
makes sense, and it's proportional. I mean the amount of media that's been
produced, obviously a very small portion is going to be Australian overall, but
the amount of Hollywood content, it's it's gonna it's going to infiltrate other other
cultures when that's what they're paping in and when there is so much content that's
out there, you can only absorb so much. So yeah, that makes
complete sense. Are there certain things that really spark that interest for you when
you were little that you can recall being you know, these are some of
the first things that truly got me into film? Sorry of what, any
any film, any TV anything from general Yeah, oh god, a lot,
all of it, I believe it. I just hapioned everything, Like
I'm right now watching episodes of Designing Women, So I love everything. So
it's really hard for me to pinpoint things. But I would say the things
that I kind of as a little one as a kid, I really gravitated
to horror and monsters. So monster stuff was my thing. So universal,
monster movies were like comfort. They still are, you know, chuck on
all the sound cues and the dark you know what I mean, and you
got and you got you can sleep to them. They're like that nice blanket.
So yeah, monster movies, slasher films, basically all horror. And
then also I loved musicals and westerns and nah and stickcoms and just everything.
I just ate ate it all up. It was really hard for me not
to enjoy much. I even watched obsessed with current affairs programs like that's how
weird I was, but also like talk shows, you know, I just
watched everything. So it was really it's really hard to sort of navigate what
pinnacle films. However, I would say there are definite movies that are go
to films for comfort. But that's quite huge, Like you know how those
people who have like maybe ten or fifteen. For me, it's endless,
like even like my I do a pile up of Christmas viewing and it gets
here. It's just huge it's like, where the fuck are going to watch
all? But I'll have it on as a background, Like, you know,
it would go from like the sunny and share Christmas Special to you know,
it's silent. I did not two, you know, like it's this
beautiful running theme. So I just love everything, which is kind of but
it makes you well rounded and it makes you understand where all of that comes
from. And really, yeah, it all just kind of builds off of
each other in a way that just creates this massive culture awareness. So yeah,
that's to you just on your background. Clearly you love a lot of
different stuff as well, Like that's a huge collection of blues. So you're
not collecting for the boxes. You're collecting because you love the films. And
I know there's and god, everyone who buys physical media, because everyone should.
If you can't afford to, you should. It is a privilege,
but it is something that's really important for the legacy of films. But also
there are collectors who will buy a label and that's because they like the label,
and that's fine, but once they watch the films, that's awesome.
Luck it's great for them to actually get involved with the film. So that's
really important with the labels that we all work for that the curation is actually
really important because it kind of feeds into what people start to enjoy, and
I think that's amazing. Well, one of the things I wanted to highlight
is Australia seems to have this interesting sort of personality because they're are two big
labels that are doing the physical media down there, and with Umbrella and with
via Vision Slash Imprint, they they have this interesting diverse slate of releases that
you can pick up, and especially Umbrella with all of their different lines,
but Imprint is hitting everything as well. Why do you think physical media is
so important to Australians Because it seems like these are just hitting really hard across
the world at the moment. They've both gotten very popular globally because people care
about movies and I want to have them forever. And I think people are
savvy with how shitty streaming services are, like there's nothing on them. I
think I have access to four of them. I've got all the things I
want. But I don't know, look don't I can't answer that, but
I think, thank god people are buying movies because it keeps people like me
and the people that work in my industry, Catallengers like Alexandra all these people
who work in home media. We can eat and we can pay rent.
Right. But yeah, also because I think people love movies, they love
to collect things. They love the whole tangible feeling of having the film and
features. Absolutely. Like you mentioned Umbrella, Ben Hawwig, I'm gonna give
him a massive shout out what he's done recently. He's like started with Umbrella
just recently, but how he's just curating stuff like he curated the Reynolds box
set beautiful. This is where you have these people coming in going, oh
my god, who can do this? Who can you know, get John
Harrison to write a booklet on Reynolds Lee what can you bring to the table
for Best of the Whorehouse, I'll do a video essay on sex work in
musicals from day he goes done, like you know, like that's how diverse
I want to be. And then just all that kind of stuff. The
content also, like the archive thing, you know, people saving prints and
bringing them to digital format. It's incredible. So people like, yeah,
you know what Jeff Harrison and Unbrother's doing, and Mark Hartley with what he's
done with the odds stuff is incredible. So Imprint, I mean, Josh
Hibbert at Imprint is just incredible, has this amazing curatorial of film, like
it's all this great content, picks people associated with the film or you know,
it picks perfect people that would do something great for the release. You
know, it's amazing. And also just the diversity of voices, the diversity
of content digging into archive, so for instance, you wouldn't be able to
get a lot of extras that are old extras if you just relied on streaming
services, you know. So I think that's just I think, yeah,
I think people really find are finding it very important, and it's really interesting.
People are now starting to realize and go, oh fuck. You know,
if I post something on Facebook or whatever about a movie, they'll go,
how do you see that? And go you buy it? Like in
the olden days when you've got and they go ah, right, And you
know, people who are in the position, you know, thankfully, you
know we are, you know, but there's people who are in a position
who can afford to do that, so why not. And also if you
love art, it keeps the machine going, It keeps people a lot,
it keeps people eating you know, it's same with music. Buy records,
don't just download things download. You know, if you can afford to buy
physical media, why not. But yeah, I think it's important because people
want to own the product and don't and the streaming services A they don't have
much content and b it goes, it disappears. So if you want to
forever and the highest quality is in a lot of this physical media as well,
whether it's in a UHD disc, whether it's in Blu ray that there's
no doubt that even like the compression that comes across with some of the streaming
and the unreliability of it's it's unmatched when you're talking about physical media because it's
you just press the button and it's always going to be there. That just
can't change now that you're holding it. That's see. I mean remember when
like David A started, the thing that was so exciting for me was you
get to see the picture properly, so you're not relying when your videos where
the fucking tracking was going out or something. Jesus like, yes, your
gorgeous, I will never throw you out cover you know, fucking you know.
Roadshow released beautiful clamshell, but the print that you know, it looks
awful. So when the dvns came out, as like, oh, that
looks stunning, and then also all the stuff that came as extras, and
so I think the legacy of that is great. So it's really important for
me as a film guy and all the people who love movies to have all
that on there, so to have interviews with all these people who work from
these movies who are probably long gone, but that's all there on that disc.
So that's stunning. I think that's really important. So I think all
that archive, you know, if that gets lost, that's just an absolute
shame. Like you know, you want, you know, that interview with
whoever worked on you know, this classic from the forties and you just have
them talking. It's like that's that's something to cherish and it's legacy. So
I've been lucky and very privileged to interview heaps of people like for years,
and a lot of them you know pretty much, you know senior. It's
like you know, ad and they a they love to be able to talk
about their work, but be they get excited the fact that people care enough
to have it on a release and they go, oh my god, that's
why would you know. That's amazing this movie had this life again, So
it's really it's lovely. It's really nice to work in that field. Well,
to flip the highlight to you, I think it's also very nice that
we get amazing people like you that are able to put their voice in their
education behind something like The Stains. I mean that that's a film that has
a giant legacy, but because it's had such a gap from the original release
to now being able to be out on Blu ray, a lot has changed
since then, So getting some sort of contextual special features to go with that,
whether that be essays by Kat Ellinger, whether that be a commentary by
yourself and people involved, it is this incredible way to sort of educate an
entire generation that is out with physical media now and being able to see how
it's impacted others, how we are learning from it, how that legacy can
impact the future of film. And I just thank you and thank everybody that
is continuing to contribute to these because otherwise that's a lot that we would lose
completely. Oh, thank you. And it's really I love that you're mentioning
the idea of different voices and scholarship and all that stuff because it's nice.
What I like to do with my work is do both. So I like
to do production history as well as analytical, right, So if I'm going
to do a video essay, it's going to be analytical and a big shout
out to someone like Jonathan's hour and who is an editing master, because I
think video essays are really important because they kind of bring in this academic aspect
to it. Unless the video essay is about a star or a director or
whatever, but there's you know, usually thematic thing, right, So that's
really incredibly important, I think. But also having the production history people,
so the people who go in archives and dig deep and interview, like I
just for some reason have a bit of a weird idea that if you're going
to be working on a movie that was made safe from like the seventies onwards,
chances that people are alive, so why not reach out and try and
interview them because that's nice first hand accounts of the film anyway. But so
I like to do both. I love to do the productive history research,
interviews, archive as well as bringing my own thoughts or academia or whatever.
But I think that's another important aspect where all these different people that get hired
have something unique to offer, and when you have a release that's got multiple
voices or multiple perspectives, it just adds to it. I think it's just
beautiful. Like, I think that's really important. And like you know,
companies like Indicator and Arrow and stuff with the booklets, so like it's just
all amazing. And Keno Lab are just churning out such stunning, beautiful films
and constantly having a film critic or an academic or historian doing a commentary,
and they're always uniquely different and like well suited to the film and divert so
you can jump from you know, someone being on this Western from the fifties
to some eighties horror film. Beautiful. I think that's that's that's the real
cinephilia, where people just love everything and do all this incredible eclectic work.
And then of course you have specialists. Okay, here is the blah blah
blah, we need to get this person because I write a book on that.
Yeah, I just it's really cool, and I think you're right.
It's like all about that nourishing experience of having a release that's really meaty and
you know, filled with you know, all this stuff, and Imprint is
doing it right. There's been some highlights this year for me. You've already
mentioned one of the big ones. Kat Ellinger is a friend of mine.
First of all, she's incredible, and some of her Imprint visual essays this
year have been remarkable. She did one on Ken Russell's Horror that was mind
blowing that I just watched. The one that she did on Nastasia Kinski on
the Harem release. It is just incredible. And I'm curious if you would
share your basically your your method when you're doing something like a visual essay.
How much time does it take? How much work do you put into it,
because first of all, a lot of people still don't watch all these
features, and I just I want to give the idea of appreciating the art
that we have in front of us, because yes, it's a film.
Yes the film is probably the biggest deal on the disc, but all these
other things that go with it takes a lot of time and a lot of
work and a lot of education for people like yourself that have this this wealth
of knowledge, and it is I don't want to put the people down,
but it's you're just leaving something on the table that there's no reason to if
you're not, you know, appreciating the entire package. Well, that's probably
their time as well, Like how much time do you have to what?
I got this going to commentary to listen to it to Like that's why I
always find those people who do reviews. Yeah, that's their job to go
through it. I was like, that's a mat I love that job.
But yeah, so video, I love visual essays and I reckon I don't
know, I haven't done not a few. I see quite a few for
Eureka, but I love them. And the reason I love doing them is
because you can just hone in on a focus and you can just concentrate on
that and it's like fifteen to twenty minutes. That's beautiful. Not that I'm
saying I love doing commentaries, but that's a lot of work. Commentaries is
a lot of work, and it's and it's always fab I love it.
And I never say no to gigs, but you know, unless I go,
oh no, that person would be there for that one. But blah
blah, but commentaries is a lot of work. Well, that's a couple,
you know, A few weeks of heavy duty work. But video essays,
as far as I'm concerned, if you if you're doing it something that
you're kind of really familiar with, or it's something that's you know, pretty
second nature, or like you just get it, I reckon for me,
I don't know how to weigh up a time living on it. I don't
know how Cat works. I know Cat's very prolific as well, but I
reckon maybe a good three solid days. So you just sort of want to
curate your idea, map it out, have it all thought out, and
then do some you know, heavy duty extensive research for like one day or
something, and then just write it out. And it's just nice to be
able to pitch ideas to companies for video essays because they seldom come to you
and go, we want a video say on this. They'll just ask you
what do you think? So even like when it's really nice when a company
asks you what you think should be done for the release? And Cat and
I always talk about this, and which is something that we actually do really
love And it's not wanky to say this, but we really love giving people
jobs. We really I fucking love it. I love the idea of like
sharing, Like if you don't share, like, what's the point of being
a human. But anyway, so me and Kat always love to share work
or give work a point work. So when I got a resurrection, I
was like, Josh is like, oh, we need a video, like
how about cat Alenger doing a video essay on healing in movies? And then
he goes, done, let's do it. So She's done that and I
can't wait to heal see and see that. But it's the Yeah, it's
just that whole thing where you just pitch an idea and these companies are so
awesome if they go that sounds great. So like, you know, Eureka
did ed allan Poe thing with the black cat on it, and I was
like, let me do a video essay on cats in horror. So I've
got to do that and that was awesome fun. So that was already in
my bag, you know, being an animal horror guy. So I was
like, oh yeah, but yeah, the sex work in musicals was so
fun and it's really grim. So it's really interesting because Best of the Hall
House in Texas is probably one of the only musicals about post sex workers that
it is like everything else every other musical that a sex work or sex workers
is devastating. They always either die or they're kill right, So I did
this video essay where it was just grim and then how you know that,
Yeah, well that's that's what happens, right, this is the this is
the thing. So that was really cool to work on. And then it
kind of justice. It's an a juxtaposed with this film. It's quite you
know, bubbly, but the other things, you know. Doing video essay
on uh, the dead Zone for infre that was awesome fun because what I
pitched was the connection between the Dead Zone and Kujo and how there's a link
and so it was basically about the frank Dog thing and how Kuja was supposedly
the reincarnation of Franklin. So I got to do that and that was great
because that's something that adds another I feel like, adds another layer to the
Dead Zone experience. So the King Universe. But yeah, no, I
love video essays. I really love them. And there's all these other people
in the industry who haven't done them yet and they're like clamoring to do and
I'm like, just calm down, you'll get you, you'll get it.
The the Boxer Burt release that we've alluded to quite a few times already.
Was astonishing to see it get announced because it's it's another one where some of
the films in there have not always been super easy to see. But then
the response to it that that thing sold out like immediately right when it was
posted. Basically, I am just amazed that that sort of thing, even
in twenty twenty two, is still getting that sort of response and just so
fortunate. That's so bod and thank you. The other thing about the release
that came out at the same time that I worked on that Ben as well
got me on was The Wrong Turn Blu Ray, which is, you know,
a modern film because you know me, I don't really watch anything made
after two thousand, but the SA lot to do and that was so much
fun. That was hillbilly horror, so like you know, out of the
you know, the backwater kind of horror stuff, and that was fun to
work on and that I think sold out straight away as well. That went
crazy. Yeah, So so there you go. You can never really guess
which ones do really well. I think, yeah, amazing, but Umbrella,
yeah, they're doing incredible stuff. And Imprint just constantly amazing stuff and
like you said, the idea of going and getting stuff that has never been
at least like the Possession of Joel Delaney, like that was amazing. And
also a shout out to Alissa Rose, a good friend of mine who is
a costume historian. So the idea of like having her input on a video
essay just solely focusing on costume, like that's vital. No one's doing that,
you know, and that's amazing, and that she'll be doing things from
like, you know, something like seventies, like Joeldane it's on the beach,
and so you know, that's that's vital, Like it's all that stuff's
really invaluable. I think it's it's really important. I agree. And the
amount of Australian releases that seem to be permeating across the world is escalating for
some reason, like Imprint getting more popular, Umbrella getting more popular. To
those companies, does it feel like they're getting bigger globally down there? Do
you feel that that sort of growth happening right now? And you'd have to
ask the bosom to the sales right like and I know I do know that
when I you know, when you cruise all the the you know the fu
what they call the boards. People know about your print the umbrella. Yeah,
they kind of go did you get this? And people buy stuff.
And you've got people like Tony Mikis and Ryan Kendall and that who run the
things like the you know, the Imprint podcast, so you see how people
tune into that and then the sales of those titles go and then you know,
Imprint do sometimes you know, the limited run and they just get snatched
up really quickly or they do really well. So you know, sometimes I
get an insight, but it's not my job too. It's like I hope
they sell, you know, like, yeah, I guess it's like any
business. But I feel like just from seeing what people are buying and just
put people post that they're doing. Okay, That's what I would like to
say, is that more shops need to host physical media. Yeah. That's
my big issue. So yeah, you know, because I I work in
retail. Well yeah, yeah, anyway, but retailers need shelf space for
movies and it's really it's really not good that they don't because the shop experience,
you know, and also like a lot of older people don't go online.
So I used to work at a DVD shop ages ago, and eighty
percent of the clientele who physically bought stuff, who were just in there going,
oh what's this or this is too expensive? Eighty percent of them were
seniors. They've had their kids, the kids and our adults, they've got
grandkids. They're on their own. It's either them as a couples or on
their own, and they want to spend the rest of their years watching the
old westerns. They watched all their old musicals, and I freaking loved those
people. They were beautiful and it was really lovely to be able to talk
to them about classics. And they bought stuff all the time. Now,
if they go into a and there's no films displayed, they're not going to
go online. And know that, you know, the Deanna Durban box sets.
So when you have, like, you know, a twenty year old
going, I just bought the freaking Freda Stev that's great, good on you,
keep it going. But I want that woman in her seventies who would
never go online, you know. So it's a bit agist and it's a
bit classist. So I'm just sort of a bit I get a bit pissed
off at that because I think having them displayed in a shop where these elderly
people who can actually talk staff who knows stuff, that's also really important.
And I think, yeah, that's gone. That's gone from the from Australia
at least, I don't know what it's like in the States, but yeah,
in Melbourne there's like very few stores that's hew host movies and I think
that's fucked. Yeah, and it's mostly gone here. There are a couple
standouts that are pretty well known, even just through collectors. Across the country.
There's a handful of physical stores that if you were, you know,
going on some sort of pilgrimage, you could you could go to these specific
things. But other than that, it's not like you can just hop into
a corner shop and purchase one of these boutique releases. Which it's sad,
and the way that we're able to get these titles out there is completely diminished
if it's all going to be online, because so many people, like you
said, they literally can't access online. They won't access online. It's just
not something that they think of. Yeah, and also like it's racist,
like there's a lot of people who don't speak English and stuff like that.
You know who want to sit this film and love them and grew up with
them, but they don't do internet. Like it's okay that people don't go
online. So like you know, when the fucking plague was happening, like
I mean it's still happening, but when it was like in full throttle and
everyone was expected to be at home on laptop. Sorry, you know everyone
has them. But yeah, the other thing, yeah, the other thing
that the brick and mortar thing with shops is that oh my god, my
brain, it's is that the the other the flip side, sorry, that
the flip of it. So there's people who buy shitloads of movies, lets
them, we love you, my blah blah, but they would never go
to a store, right because they don't want to pay the retail price because
I don't want to like support a shop has bills and staff. So it's
like, well, you know, if you want to support these things when
you can play and there's no shops, well you need to actually pay that
extra ten dollars or you know, like stial with it. So that's the
other the other flip side, just just humans. Yeah, it's tough and
Australia seems to be like GB Highfi seems to be the biggest deal, at
least from the outside view, but they only do local so JB High Fight,
only stock Umbrella and Imprint. They won't stop Arrow and Keino No,
and that's uh. Yeah, you are severely limiting yourself when you're doing something
like that because it's region coding. I mean, that's one of the biggest
problems. And obviously Australian releases most of them are region free for some reason,
they get away with it and that's great, but yeah, it would
be nice to see other cultures and true diversity being able to permeate. And
also most people who like buy these things they all have multi zones. But
that was the big conversation at the shop right, I was like, now
do you have a Malti zone? And you have to explain that to them,
which is fine, and then you go, okay, if your player
is one of these brands, you open the train, you type in and
when it was gorgeous, it was really cute because when these people in their
seventies, eighties and stuff found out they could play everything, it was there.
They were just in heaven. It was really beautiful, and I do
miss you know that woman that comes in and goes, I saw a movie
and blah blah blahl was in it, and you know, Ginger Rogers plays
a lawyer and they go, yes, that's this one, and they get
excited and they'll you know, hate by it, like that's it's just beautiful,
you know, like that kind of thing is that's precious. As far
as like movie share, sharing movie love with people who are older, I
think that's I think that's really lovely. The hard part is we need to
be able to pay somebody that has that sort of movie knowledge to work at
a shop like that, and nowadays that's damn near impossible to do. To
get somebody to work there. That can help a myriad of different types of
people that are coming in searching for information because a lot of the time those
people know more than the workers. Yeah, and I do. I will
stand by the ageism and classism of it all, I really do. I
think it's like there's a lot of people in their twenties who are from middle
class backgrounds who don't give a shit about movies, or for that matter,
probably don't even give a shit about the arts in general, who who are
old shit or they say things like you know, no one buys that anymore.
It's like, all right, well you're wrong, So those people,
those people should not have any fucking say those people to just do that thing
and just you know, live off mommy and daddy's money and go away,
because it's the people who actually care. I think it's I think film is
actually about community as well, and I think that's really important. I think
it's like that, you know, the sort of insular collector who shops and
hoards. Yeah, call good on you, because you're keeping things alive.
That's great, but you also need to you know, share an experience together.
I think it's really important. I do. I think like that's why
film collectives and film societies, bringing people together, building community, people doing
stuff, people sharing that kind of real kind of social networking between people.
I think that's really important. It's like it's actually really healthy, and it
makes the industries thrive rather than just you know, keeping it in your own
space. I think yeah. And if you're going to do that, I
mean, there are ways that you can do something around these communities all online
if you're not going to be able to go out and if you live in
the midst and your community doesn't have that, you can find a community online
to them brief yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's also just about conversation,
like talking to other people that movies. It doesn't even have to be
about events. It's just it's just about you know, like this whole idea
of talking to other people who love movies or if they don't love movies,
talking to people and showcasing your love for movies and that might spark you know,
connection, and also not being judgmental or assuming things like it's funny like
you know, people go, ah, Lee, you love this person.
They're into the same movies, and I end up meeting this person I don't
actually like them. But then you might meet someone who doesn't give a shit
about films and they can't they go, oh my god, tell me more,
and they get more excited. And also, like I think there's also
the tunnel vision thing where which drives me crazy, like sinophilia to a lot
of people think is assumed to be one kind of film. It's like so
and you know, like the horror community, and I'll use that term broadly.
You know, the idea is everyone's into the same fucking ten horror films.
It's like have you seen come on? You know, it's not just
black T shirts, you know, like come on, like let's let's see
beyond Freddy and I love Freddy to death, but come on. So there's
that kind of thing as well. And then also the weird people who just
have a weird, disinteresting stuff that was made, you know, in the
thirties and forties, like what's that? There's people, you know, there's
a lot of shit, like it just drives people who snub an entire genre.
Oh I don't like that. I like, there's so how is one
Western like the other? How is one musical? Like how is Fiddler on
the Roof like Cabaret? Tell me? But what's similar? Nothing? You
know, so this whole thing, you know, and the connection would be
the thematics. It's about people about to die, you know. So there's
all this. So all this stuff drives me mad. So I don't think
people need to love more things. I am the exact same way about foreign
films. The amount of times that I've tried to recommend something to somebody and
they say, well, I don't want to read the movie, I just
want to watch it, Like, well, you're completely limiting yourself. There's
so much beautiful cinema out in the world that you are just completely turning your
back to for no reason. Yeah, and it's funny that we're still calling
it foreign, you know, like right, yep, that shows my privilege
right there. Yeah, it's exactly what we grew up. Yeah, that's
right. But yeah, it's tricky. I mean, it's really tricky to
get people to love what you love, and sometimes you just can't. And
I remember, like when it's funny, like because you do the thing where
you kind of go, well, if it's something I really love and it's
just for me, then that's okay. Like when Olivia Newton John passed away,
I did a post going, you know, Greece was really important to
me as a kid, and if no one else understands that, that's fine,
because when she does that moment in this film, or when that happens
in the movie, or whatever is happening with Greece, that could just be
for me and that's okay, you know. Yeah, it put me and
my dog Buddy just watching Greece and that's okay. No one else has to
like Greece, but so that's that as well. So I think if things
are personal for people and it's okay, but it is nice when you go,
oh, come and see this movie and then they go, fuck,
that was amazing. I've never thought of see that. I've never seen that,
so well, yeah, just trust. So that's the beauty of cinemaniac.
So I can go, you know, trust my programming, come and
see this, I reckon, you'll dig it. And so you get people
who would never go and see you know, some melodrama from the fifties,
and they'll go and go, wow, that was really for a long ago.
Well yeah, you know. So that's the other thing as well.
I think there's film culture is really weird. I think it's either or it's
either like you and I and our kind of mass diverse community, or it's
people who don't actually care and they just let things like get fed to them
like the Netflix series. And I don't think that's a culture. It's really
NTO. No, it's people like an algorithm. Yeah, it's like I'm
dealing with mainstream sit like it's like same as music, Like are you seriously
going to listen to the top forty? Like you're not going to think of
it? Yeah, it's it's a waste. There's a big difference between algorithm
algorithm programming and in a human film element behind it. Because film programming in
itself is an art form. There's so much that goes into it to be
able to to curate for the masses in a way that is acceptable for everybody,
entertaining for everybody, and can be contextually important for a completely different culture
at that time. So you can really, can you explain to me,
because can you explain to me the algorithm thing for netflick? So is that
the thing where it sort of says, oh, you just watched yeah,
and you might lock these? Is that what it is? Yeah, So
they have computer programs that are built to like Spiderweb different films out. So
if one film is something that you obviously watched, maybe you've watched it a
few times, and they can say, oh, you must really like and
they make broad assumption. So you watched, you watched a nightmare on Elm
Street, you must obviously like all eighty slashers. So we're gonna recommend all
of them to you. And Okay, maybe that works for some people,
but for others, maybe that was, you know, researching for a video
essay. Now you don't want anything like that, So now your entire algorithm
is shot because that's nothing like what you're actually gonna want. Right, So,
if someone's watching diverse stuff on Netflix that that would fuck up with their
computer, it absolutely can. Yeah, the the the Netflix side of things
that cannot know what to recommend you. It could just show you everything across
the board. There's sometimes people don't even know that new releases are out because
they don't watch things that are related to that, even though it might exactly
interest them. So they get screwed out of art that could be made for
their interest entirely because I picked up, like, I've watched a lot of
docos and I will never say disc so there'll be documentaries on these things,
all right, just fucking I'll sign up for the free thing and just so
there's things like that, and then it's like, oh my god, that
doc was stunning. Why isn't it going to give the release? Yeah?
I do the same thing. A lot of what I stream are documentaries and
you can't find them anywhere else. And because of that, they recommend all
the documentaries. But most of my friends they've never heard of them because they
don't ever see those on their algorithms. Got it? Yeah, and even
like, like I wanted to check out the normally reinvention of one Day at
a time, and that the only way to say it was on Netflix.
So I did that thing that people called binge, so I actually did.
I was like, oh, this is fine, this is fine. So
New Takes, you know, the Latin X version of you know, the
Study. I loved it. I love Rida Marino beautiful. So I watched
that guy, this is excellent, But why just just put it on fucking
dvd? Yeah, because they like glitches at best, like it's horrible,
Like streaming is awful, like I'm sorry, it's really hard and so like
even like but thank god, shut up. Bless them. They released the
horror noir Blu ray, which I have right there. That and the the
Fridakin one Leap of Faith. So they released the thing, and you know,
I'm friends with Brian Fuller and I you need to make sure that freaking
the Queen one has a disc release because people who are really like, people
who actually love that ship want to own it. I agree. I am
dying to get that one on disc because I watched the first episode on show,
and I'm waiting for the disc so I can support that. Yeah,
it was a great series. Did you want You only saw the first episode,
yes, and it was enough to make me go, damn it,
I absolutely will pay money to hold this in my hand. Yeah. Yeah,
keep following it up though, because my favorite episode is actually the last
one of that series, of that season, which is all about the sort
of killer lesbian, killer bisexual woman trope, and it goes, it goes
really good places, like even like the whole wave of the two girls,
you know, the psychotic coupling of girls in the nineties, that whole wave
of things like heavenly creatures and stuff. So yeah, it's cool. Yeah.
Yeah. Shutter is kind of like quietly killing it with the documentaries they've
been doing the last few years. They are really diving deep into some of
these themes that not a lot of people in the horror community seem to want
to, and it seems to be this interesting underbelly of fans because for a
while people kind of bagged about how welcoming and accepting horror was, but no
reality, it wasn't that welcome or accepting. They they didn't give opportunities to
the people that they really deserve to get to some of those opportunities. It
ended up being kind of very similar eblist and classist to a lot of people.
And it seems like nowadays we are finally shining a light on some of
the creators that really deserved a little bit more of a of a chance back
there, especially when like something like horror is so classically traditionally for marginalized people,
working class people, and you know, they were you know, like
I love those old photos of seeing the lineups at Frankenstein and it's women of
the cues are all women, you know, like it was, you know,
women at home going to the movie, saving their pennies to go to
a film during the depression. But it's yeah, so that kind of things
are interesting. But also you mentioned Shutter giving opportunities to filmmakers to do stuff
with them, but they also acquire stuff that's already made that's excellent, like
Kaylor's folk horror docco which could have gone an extra ten hours, like you
know, however, I think it's like five hours less. That's excellent and
that you know, wow, like my god, and like the way she
structured it, like I was geographical every talking head was like just brilliant,
Like it was just a beautiful meeting documentary that you could pause and go all
right, you know, take your dog from wall, come back and keep
it watching. Just stunning. It reminded me of Tommy Hudson's Elm Street One
goes for four hours stunning. So yeah, amazing, amazing stuff. So
yeah, I love that there's a platform like Shutter. So I'm not a
I'm not anti streamers. I'm just like, just have content that's awesome,
which the ones that do have the docos beautiful, but also please put them
on disc. So when like Disclosure came on, I think that was a
Netflix thing, So my friend Jenny Olsen was producer on that. That was
stunning. So the trans representation in film history, film and TV just beautiful,
great talking heads. You know, Liver Cocks, et cetera. That
needs to be on disc. You know, after it's played out on Netflix,
where's it going to go just disappears. It's no, like that needs
to exhibit it's really important, Like that's life saving. Same as like when
Peacock, I think was Peacock did The Visible, which was like LGBT representation
in TV history which was freckent phenomenal. If you haven't seen it, it's
six parts, I think, and it goes right back from like late late
forties to now and it's it's so deep and really moving and like is really
clever and the way it's structured, because I remember first seeing it going,
I'm going to be in tears and love all these episodes until it gets to
later times, I'm not going to care. But they were clever because what
they did was say, for instance, when they got to a later episode,
they would talk about say, bisexual representation in television, and they'd bring
in tax then, so it's like, oh, fuck, you know you
bring They're bringing all this older stuff. So they're very clever. They kept
you know, nerds like maybe like classic TV all the way through. And
it's one of the best series about you know, TV history or film history
ever that needs a dis release. So there's all that stuff, you know,
like I'm looking forward to all these you know, the representation of in
horror stuff that's I know is coming out. But yeah, there's a lot
of good, good doc o stuff. I love it because it's all archive
and clips and you know that stuff. I just eat it up. I
loved. Sorry I'm ravinging on but the recent the one about black representation,
which is pretty much like a video say, but he had, you know,
fabulous Antonia Fargas and Laurence Fishburne. There's a couple of whoopee. But
it was amazing. That was just recent. That's on Netflix. I just
know. I learned about that because friends of mine posted on Facebook, what
the hell is this? This looks amazing where you and it was Netflix.
I had to go and do a Netflix. But that's another thing that needs
a dog disc release because I've got like shelves of docos and obviously doccos about
movies. You know, there are a lot that are just living and dying
on streaming and they're going to be forgotten fairly quickly, which is sad for
the people that can, you know, consume that, but also it's sad
for the creators the amount of time and work that goes into these to just
have him be lost into the ether they're gone. Basically, I'm sure you're
friends with him as well. But John Campopiono did the Itat documentary that anyone
else and that just got studying, like everyone needs to own that, you
know, like that can't just live in a streaming service and then disappear like
that's got on camera alone with Tim Curry, you know, like sorry,
like this is a man anyway, blah blah blah. But it's just that
whole thing of like the longevity, the the eternity of having a disc.
You know, I've still hold held on to all most of my DVDs because
a lot of them actually have content on it that you don't get again.
And also i'd buy a lot of TV stuff, and I know there's it's
going to be never or in years to come when Hill Street Blues gets a
Blue ray relief, you know. So I'm happy with DVDs because they look
fine. You know, I'm not too precious about whatever, but you know
you're not going to get moored on Blu ray looking better than how it was
shot, Like it's fine to have it on that beautiful shout factory release is
done it. You know, so a lot of stuff I'll hold on to
you. And also it's funny, I don't know you're probably I don't know
how you are. I'll have to ask you. But when a Blu Ray,
if something comes out and you've already got on DVDA do you need And
I'm like, oh fuck, and you kind of resting with that, and
most of the times I'm like, yes, I'll buy the blue. But
I don't know what's your thought because a lot of it, Yeah, there
are some of these things. I've got three and four copies because not only
are there certain features that are on other ones, but first of all,
I've watched that disc fifteen times. I don't want to just give that away
just yet. It's a part of me. I know, I know it's
weird. It's basically an extension of my personality at that point. I know,
yeah, you remember it's weird, but you remember when you bought it.
You remember when you know they do they have that kind of especially if
you do, like because I do the seasonal viewing, so like a style
do you know God's spell and fucking you know the being? You know?
Oh but it is true, you know, and they just have everybody so
you remember, oh that was last A said that that happened, Like,
you know, it's weird, but also you're right, it's like, I
don't want to give that away. Actually, like that'ster Like probably seven copies
of my Rizzley, like, do what, I don't need that many fucking
copies, and you kind of go, maybe I'll give it away to you
know, because we do raffle, we do prizes at Cinemaniacts. Maybe I'll
donate it. I don't want it even now, like we're doing An Unmarried
Woman on Friday. And I bought the box set of Mary Tyler Moore from
the US, but in Australia we had them out ages ago from Madman.
They put it out and I've got those. I think I bought three seasons
from mad Man, but now I can retire them because I've got the full
box set from the States with all the features, and the three of those
Mary Chyler more sets are going to go in the prizing. And still I'm
like, oh, which is like I don't fucking need I've got them,
right, you know. And maybe And also what my brain's going is forget
the fucking holding onto them because you've already got them. But also how cool
it will be if someone has never seen Mary tylerm or wins it and watches
it and falls in love with that show and all that show, you know.
So yeah, if they're like a maybe a young woman who's never watched
seventies feminist television saying something so revolutionary, you know. But anyway, so
that's you hope that happened well, and that touches on something that I really
wish people saw is more important in twenty twenty two. And that's just this
idea of accessibility. We have. We have the resources to do so much
with this art, and a lot of them that they're just held captive by
greed. They're they're held you know, or or people that they don't even
know they have the rights to some of these things. So some of these
movies are never going to be able to get released because we can't find who
owns the rights or film elements. And that all calls back to the important
thing at the beginning, which is archiving a lot of this, which is
why physical media is so damn important. Yeah, definitely, I was so
happy to say lots of the relays of Alligata, I think Justin. Justin
did a fucking awesome job with that relate. It's beautiful. But yeah,
thank god that got a release and it has the two cuts and oh,
just stunning, because that was that was one that when you mentioned that that
that comes to mind that was wrapped up in a lot of right stuff and
also like you know, licensing rights and music rights stuff like looking for mister
Goodbar, Like when is that going? I said the Light of Day,
that's something that people are clamoring, you know, another paramount title. But
also when you mentioned the rights thing, it's really tricky and it's really interesting
learning about that stuff because I'm doing producing work for altern Innocence and like you
know, Frank Jaffie is a legend. He does so much amazing work with
that label. And he'll go, oh, I'm trying to chase this title,
and I'll go and try and hunt things down and then I'll pitch to
him, what about these He goes, well, let's find out. So
that whole thing is another whole world and it's amazing to do and I'm really
happy to work for that company. It's such a good company. So important.
Again, but Frank is the legend, amazing work and also people that
he's associated with, like Jenny Olsen and stuff. You just do all this
incredible work with archive, with researching who owns what you know, knowing people
like Maya Smuckler who is at uc LA Archives. You know, all these
people just a wealth of knowledge. Like seriously, it's even John Camp of
course like amazing archives, that's what he does as well as being a filmmaker.
But just that whole stuff is just incredible. Like just to have those
people you know, an email away just to see what how that can help,
ah, invaluable. It's beautiful. And that's why doing it now is
so important because a lot of these people are not going to be alive much
longer. So some of those people that held some of those rates and can
confirm who owned something or can confirm where film elements are, we're losing some
of that knowledge every single day. That's that's why we're going to say work.
Yeah, and Ryan that the ernie of finding who owns the rights to
things is insane. So when this is so this is pretty funny, I'll
tell you a story. So years ago, it wasn't that long, vitually,
maybe eight years ago, I entertained the idea of turning of adapting Willard
One with the you know, Bruce Davison with the Rat into a musical or
a stage musical. And I really you know, the idea was it was
going to be puppetry and I had this whole SnO written down, I had
treatments written down, I had a thick two composers in idea blah blah blah,
and I was like, well, how do I do this? How
do I get the right? So it went from me asking I don't even
know where I started, but it went from like Warner Brothers to bing Crosby's
Company, to going back to the source novel. So all this stuff.
It ended up to get the adaptation rights to stage going to the University of
Belfast, which is where the original novel of The Ratman's Notebooks was held,
and they go, yes, you can do it for twenty five dollars ago,
all right, I have that money. Good. Sorry, So twenty
five thousand dollars So that was really interesting. Then it was like, oh
wow, so that's that was the journey. And it took about I reckon
I've got the email chain still eight months to find that to go through that,
and then years later got to know Bruce Davison, became friends with Sondra
Locke, the late great Sondra lock and I was doing all this Willard stuff
and then the Blu Ray came out from Screen Factory and that look beautiful.
Nathaniel. I love Nathaniel Thompson. He's a good friend and he does beautiful
work and we give each other jobs. But yeah, he got to do
the Willard and I was annoyed fucking stuck with Willard but that's okay and Ben
but yeah, but he did but that was he did a beautiful job.
And those bloody prints, my god, especially Willard, it just looks beautiful.
I know where I'm going with that. But yeah, the whole thing
about rights, so a lot of stuff just goes meant like it's just insane,
like where you end up with, right. I think a lot of
TV movie stuff that's where I really A lot of companies start to dive into
those because like Fun City, Recking awesome. I bless them because they're doing
some TV stuff And I did an essay for something coming up which I won't
mention because they'll kill me, but it's gonna be a really good set.
Yeah. I've had Jonathan on the channel and the way that he is curating
Fun City is magical. The stuff that they're putting out every single one is
just this stone called classic that is so underseene and people are falling in love
again and it makes me just giddy to see people, you know, all
of a sudden, all kinds of reviews coming in our letterbox and you can
see the world having a their taste curated again and it's just this magic.
Jonathan's amazing, another one. They're all all excellent, like everyone's doing such
beautiful work. But seriously, and that's every time one of these gets announced,
like you just said with the rates, because it's such a journey,
it's like a victory. It's something that really should be celebrated, and it's
I don't know, it's such a labor of love that it's really hard to
look at it as anything. Is like, wow, we are just so
fortunate to have every single one of these releases. I know, I know.
I think the TV movie stuff though, that's kind of like that's where
I record. I really want that to keep going strong, Like all those
movies the week. Could you imagine like a really nice print of Dawn and
Alexander and all that, just to have them all just looking stunning. Because
Fun City when they did oh fuck the graffiti one yes, the Primetime Panic
set, yeah, like and the one with the Carnies that was written by
Barbara Turn like sorry, but they look just perfect, like they look stunning
like that. Yeah, like really wow, because I remember even on television
they looked, you know, not great. But that's just what he's done.
Like it's amazing. There's so many filmmakers that did TV films that don't
have their stuff out there either that people would go crazy for. I mean
the amount of like Toby Hooper did like five other TV films that still aren't
out there. There's so many big filmmakers that did TV stuff that could just
see this massive resurgence and they tell me same as like Jonathan Demi with Sarah
t Yes, that's a nice blue right that looked stunning. My god,
was that shout factory? I think so? Yeah, But yeah, just
really cool stuff, like so much you know, and you know, Amanda's
work with TV movie stuff is amazing, like a book Are You in the
House Alone? And that? You know, that's like a bible for it.
Like, but yeah, just all that stuff, all the after school
specials you know, like they need to be released. Yeah, you know,
like it'd be great with Altered Inner since if they did, like I've
been pitching it to Frank and Frank's like, you know, we'll see.
But the idea of like doing box sets about like queer themed TV movies and
TVs, but you know, like what if I'm gay, or what's the
one with Scott Bayo, the Truth about Alex. They're great, you know,
Welcome Home Bobby, They're just really cool stuff. But yeah, there's
so much and also docs. It was so cool to see uh sealaboid closet
getting a four K Like, that's beautiful, that's unreal. And also I
just got my comp of the Columbia Yes because I worked hand Ah beautiful,
that's great. Yeah, working on the Anni that was that was amazing and
having to be shut up about that but yeah, that was very hard.
Like I spoke to Carol Burnett and Tim Curry that's like, shut the funk
up, like, but yeah, that was that was That was great to
work on. And that just looks like that's incredible, And they've done the
you know, archive stuff and just beautiful and they got in the thirties any
film. That was cool. That was really nice. Yeah, they went
kind of all out on this, this third version of this Columbia Classics.
I am astonished what all they were able to get into this box set.
I'm just now started to dive in and it's it's stupendous. I'm curious.
Go ahead, Oh I just I was just gonna say that the people I
work for with them are beauty. They're just beautiful as well, just awesome,
and they get it. They understand that these classic movies is where people
what people want because Sony, you know, they they put out the fucking
what's his name for? They do all the superhero they do all that superhero
stuff, right, But no, I don't know if anyone wants to buy
or four on blue ry do they? I'm sure they're okay, but for
the most part, you know, I agree. Sorry, uh as we
pull it in for a landing, I would love to hear what films you
would die to be, you know, part of the contributions for whether it's
visual essays, commentaries other than the Willard, the Willard Rebake on four K,
the pack, anything with his people. So I saw you posting about
your dog saving somebody's life. What was that about? Yeah? Do you
want another story? Yeah? Please? By all means? Yeah, So
buddy is he loves big walks, right, So he's a terrier cross.
So he's obsessed with like two to three hours four hours a day walking and
running. He's very active. And there was one day where it just rained
and buddy, we can't go out like it's raining. So he's pacing up
and down the house and like, all right, look if it breaks,
will go. So it broke in the we and he was not taking yess
sorry no for an answer. So okay, dude, we're going. And
he kept coming up. All right, put him on the lease, pasanas
on we go out. It did break in the weather, that's fine.
Did rain here and there. We went for a big walk around the suburbs,
and we came around back to my street, our street here and maybe
about four blocks up from us as this woman on her own named Olimpia,
who's this elderly Greek lady, and Buddy like loves her, knows her.
But this day when nuts like panicking, okay, what the hell, and
he was bolting across the road to get to her and go all right,
calm down, and he was barking and this is weird. And he's bolting
to her house and jumping up on a fence frantic. His tail's going crazy.
Barking, and it's not a happy bark, like he's stressed. And
I go, okay, what's going on? She must have heard us.
She clearly did, and she opened the door. It's a bit graphic,
people, but she opened the door and she was bleeding quite severely from her
face. And I go okay. And I love cinema gore like on My
Gorehound, but real life, I can't. I just get a bit weak,
and I was like, oh fuck, what's going on? And Buddy's
like bolts towards her circles her make sure she's all right, Like he's you
know, panicking for her, like really, but then also company and she
was bleeding, and I just I stayed with her. And this was one
time I didn't have my freaking phone with me. And then it's luckily this
woman was coming down the road and I go, you need to call an
ambulance. So we call the ambulance. Buddy knew that she was not well,
and it ended up that she had like burst blood vessels in her nose
and she's also on these medical medicines that thinned out her blood so she couldn't
Yeah. Wow, So got to the ambulance that had diffused the thing and
then she was saved. So the next couple of days later her daughters came,
was all fine, but then she told her GP that you know,
I mean, Buddy were there and the GPS like the dog saved, the
dog new the dog new was stressed from that far and could sense it.
And yeah, that's incredible, and he stayed. But he stayed with her
until she was ready to go to the ambulances. Amazing. Yeah, that's
incredible. So to answer a question, any movie with dogs, but especially
things like Pack So I know that's with warners. I know one archives of
that beautiful Dmity, which looks stunning and much better than the video I've got
but a blue ray of that. But I don't think one of archives really
do much with features. But heaps of things, a lot of TV stuff.
I just love whatever, Like I'm into everything, but I would love
seeing things like what needs Blu ray releases? Oh, things like looking for
Mister Woodbar. God, there's so much what the films that you want now
there, I mean, there's all kinds of them. I I really love
a lot of the like late night movies that came out in the nineties that
were really like neo noir ish really high on the thrillers. Yeah, yeah,
like the the Imprint box sets that they're doing the after the the Neo
Noir Cinema box sets. They're incredible, that sort of thing that there's so
many that people just forget exist that they could do seven more of those box
sets and still be like top tier quality. Yeah, yeah, that's right.
I love I love its kind of half hour specials that you'd say,
like really early in the morning or really late at night, like the two
minute were Wolf. Yeah, and yeah, all those kind of things that
just popped up that were like, what the fuck is it's just the filler.
Yeah, I would love a fuck could do some great stuff with that.
Yeah. Another company just stunning, Like that's the thing. These companies
are to keep going. So I thank god we will you know, find
the stuff because my god like act for the Doris Wishman sets and like just
beautiful and like you know, something weird. All they like everyone who works
in this field just stella like it's really good. I'm really really blessed to
be part of it, to be on a small part of it. It's
so cool. Well, we are all blessed to have you be a part
of it, Lee, So thank you for your time and energy not only
talking about it today, but to giving to all those releases and giving back
to Melbourne and doing everything that you're doing. So keep it up, and
uh, obviously what we've talked about today, keep supporting these companies, keep
keep sharing the love. Those communities are what keeps a lot of these releases
going. And in all reality, it's kind of like evangelizing for a religion
because we got to go out and save save some of these films, and
without some of us sharing the love, they're just gone into obscure and we
don't want that. That's right. And also just to tail in that,
I think it's really important to note that a lot of these films are actually
life affirming and really kind of important because you know, when a company like
Ald Innocence releases, uh, you know, a trans film that no one
has seen and it's from the early eighties, that's actually really fucking important.
That kind of makes it go wow, you know, Yeah, I don't
know. I think that's that's something as well. That's a whole other conversation,
just the idea of you know, women and people of color and you
know, queer people or whatever just in cinema history forever and having that champion
on these sets is really important. Like you know what Kino did with the
women directors of the Silent Era, that is that is just funny, Like
you know what, it's very important. It's not just about collecting, and
it's not just about you know, filling the gaps and shelves. It's actually
about Wow, you know, there's all these people have been here for ever
doing amazing work. It's not anything new. I agree. Yeah, very
important, and it seems to be a running theme that I've had a lot
of conversations lately where we've we've touched on this sort of accessibility to these other
shared experiences because it could be validating on a way that we don't get.
And truly, representation matters no matter how you look at it. Their every
segment of society would be less, less well known if we didn't at least
share some form of their experiences. Yeah and varied. Yes, absolutely,
we got to have that diversity because we live in a diverse world. Awesome.
I'm sorry if I choose your era to me. You know,