Interview:
Evrim Ersoy,
creative director,
Fantastic Fest
Fantastic Fest runs Sept. 20-27 at the Alamo South Lamar. The genre festival opens Sept. 20 with director David Gordon Green’s Halloween sequel, with star Jamie Lee Curtis in attendance, and will close Sept. 27 with director Drew Goddard’s Bad Times at the El Royale, which stars Jeff Bridges, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, and Chris Hemsworth. World premieres includes director Gareth Evans’ Apostle, the J.J. Abrams-produced Overlord, and Nicolas Cage’s Between Worlds. U.S. premieres include director Gaspar Noé Climax, director Jeremy Saulnier’s Hold the Dark, director Peter Strickland’s In Fabric, and actor Jonah Hill’s directorial debut, Mid90s. Other films include Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, The Boat, Destoryer, An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn, Keeper an Eye Out, The Night Comes for Us, Under the Silver Lake, The Unthinkabe, and Jean-Claude Van Damme’s The Bouncer. Documentaries include Life After Flash, with subject Sam Jones in attendance for a 35mm screening of Flash Gordon. Animated features include Laika, Violence Voyager, and The Wolf House. Repertory titles include Maniac, with director William Lustig in attendance, and the American Genre Film Archives’ Blood Lake, Drug Stories, I Was A Teenage Serial Killer, and Mary Jane’s Not a Virgin Anymore. This year’s Fantastic Fest theme is “Korean Quota Quickies,” with screenings of the 1970s South Korean films Ban Geum-Ryeon and Quit Your Life. In addition, Tenacious D—featuring Jack Black and Kyle Gass—will perform and screen episodes of the band’s animated TV series Post-Apocalypto. Fantastic Fest also has undergone significant change since controversy shrouded last year’s festival, when it was reported that the Alamo Drafthouse had rehired its former Birth.Movies.Death editor-in-chief Devin Faraci as a copywriter after accusations of sexual assault led to his 2016 resignation. The Drafthouse also severed ties with Fantastic Fest co-founder and Ain't It Cool News founder Harry Knowles after he was accused of sexual harassment. Fantastic Fest’s international programmer Todd Brown resigned in protest and Fox Searchlight Pictures withdrew the opening night film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. In response to last year’s controversy, the Drafthouse drew up a code of conduct to ensure its theaters are a safe space for audiences—including those attending Fantastic Fest—and assembled a new board of directors comprising of Kier-La Janisse, Peter Kuplowsky, Curran Nault, Suki-Rose Simakis, and Elijah Wood "to further enhance and refine the experience of the festival and to provide the best, most open and inclusive environment for our family of film-loving fanatics." During this interview, Fantastic Fest creative director Evrim Ersoy addresses how last year's events may have informed this year's program and discusses the lineup of films that screens during the festival.
Aired: Sept. 13, 2018 Web site: http://fantasticfest.com/ |
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