Cine-Excess I

To celebrate the launch of the world’s first MA in Cult Film and TV, the Cult Film Archive at Brunel University teamed up with SCI-FI-LONDON film festival to create Cine-Excess, an international conference dedicated to global cult film traditions.

GUESTS OF HONOUR

From left to right: John Landis, Brian Yuzna and Stuart Gordon.

CINE-EXCESS HIGHLIGHTS

John Landis, the director of cult classics such as An American Werewolf in London, The Blues Brothers and Michael Jackson’s Thriller opened the event on Thursday 3rd May 2007, as well as participating in an on-stage Q&A/career retrospective on Friday 4th May 2007.

An American Cult Filmmaker in London: John Landis on stage with Cine-Excess Organiser Xavier Mendik addresses the conference audience.

Other guests included celebrated cult body horror directors Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator) and Brian Yuzna (Society), who were reunited for a special Masters of Horror overview of their cult catalogue. Stuart Gordon also introduced the UK premiere of his new film Edmond, at an exclusive Cine-Excess screening.

Master of Horror: Stuart Gordon Introducing the UK Theatrical Premiere of Edmond at Cine-Excess.

Keynote Speakers at Cine-Excess included Professor Martin Barker from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Dr Matt Hills from the University of Cardiff and Professor Mark Jancovich from the University of East Anglia. The event also featured over 45 papers from cult film scholars from around the world discussing a wide range of global cult film traditions across twelve parallel conference strands.  Some of the key conference strands at Cine-Excess included:

    * Cult Case-Studies Cult Auteurs and Icons

    * Cult Consumers: Fandom and Audience Research

    * Cult Bodies: Gender, Sexuality and Self

    * New World Nightmares

    * Distributing Excess: Industry Panel

    * Beyond Asia Extreme: New Asian Cults

    * Continental Cults

    * Cruel Britannia

    * Porno Chic, Porno Shock

    * Cult and Cut

The Distributing Excess Industry Panel at Cine-Excess.

Cine-Excess also boasted exclusive UK Premieres including Edmond and Last House in the Woods (the latter introduced by director Gabriele Albanesi and Producer Gregory J. Rossi), as well as an exclusive screening of Taxidermia  (György Pálfi).

With its innovative mixture of international filmmakers, leading academics and film critics and UK theatrical premieres, Cine-Excess is set to become the B-movie buzzword for film critics and movie fans alike.