The Celluloid Mirror

Happy New Year! We're ringing in the new year with a sequel! Not to one of our own episodes, but actually to an episode of Guilt Free Features, the podcast of this month's guests Janet Kim and Karen Wang. Back in August 2020 we chatted with Karen and Janet about Face/Off and Con Air and all the Cagey Cageness of the one and only Nicolas Cage and the "Summer of Cage." This month, we're talking about Neil LaBute's less than stellar remake of The Wicker Man and Jon Turtletaub's ode to the puzzling genius of the Founding Fathers, National Treasure. What connects these two movies beyond being Nicolas Cage mid 2000s paychecks? Cults and Secret Societies! (Is there a difference? You tell us!) One is about a cult of women on an island in the Pacific Northwest. The other centers on secret societies like the Free Masons and has a certain culty devotion to the legends of the Found Fathers of the United States. Karen Wang is an award-winning writer, director, and producer of films. She has served regularly on the juries and curation teams of a number of screenwriting competitions and film incubator programs over the past fifteen years, while her own narrative work has been featured at festivals throughout the United States and Europe. Janet S. Kim is a Brooklyn-based director / photographer, writer, and producer.  She has created and produced content for various clients such as NBC, HBO, Amazon, and Sesame Street.  Her narrative work has screened at festivals throughout the United States. Listen to CageFest 1 on Guilt Free Features. The Wicker Man on Rotten Tomatoes National Treasure on Rotten Tomatoes Not Screened For Critics: Remembering a Very Special Labor Day (review of The Wicker Man) Roger Ebert on National Treasure All music in the episode is by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3788-funkorama License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Happy Holiday Season! On this episode we welcome Liam Billingham to the program! Liam Billingham is a podcast producer by day, and podcast host by night. He also sometimes makes movies, and really owes Sean Mannion an edit of a thing. He’s [a] dad and a recent transplant to LA from his adopted home of Brooklyn, New York. You can check out his podcast Oeuvre Busters at oeuvrebusters.com and see his other work at LiamBillingham.com. Liam played a fucking creep in Nicole Solomon’s film Small Talk. He’s psyched to join his pal Nicole and his greatest foe Sean Mannion for their podcast. On this very special Christmas episode, we discuss It's A Wonderful Life and The Exorcist! Thank you for watching and listening! If you enjoy the show, we'd love it if you could rate, review, and subscribe on your platform of choice (even though you're obviously getting the show here already...) It really, really helps people find the show. Share your thoughts with us on the show! Tell us your answers to the questions at the end of each episode, share film pairings you'd like  us to discuss, or just generally let us know what's on you reach out here, on social media (@4milecircus everywhere) or info@4milecircus.com  All music in the episode is by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3788-funkorama License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ References & Research: Why I watch It's A Wonderful Life every Christmas - The Guardian When ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ Was Accused of Being Communist Propaganda - In These Times "It's a Wonderful Life as Faerian Drama" - Mythlore "The Exorcist: CIA Script?" - Counterspy "History Has Not Been Kind To “The Exorcist” - Rewire 'Exorcist' Director: It Worked Because 'I Made That Film as a Believer" - The Hollywood Reporter "The right-wing agenda of the exorcism movie" - Salon "Why Are So Many Horror Films Christian Propaganda?" - Vice "My Coming Out Story, Starring a Priest, an Animal Sacrifice and Ricky Martin" - Narratively Wikipedia on Cult of Domesticity/Cult of True Womanhood The Devil Finds Work, Baldwin, James. (Dial Press, 1976.)

We got together and recorded a mini episode for The Celluloid Mirror so we could address some of the feedback and responses we've gotten on the first couple of episodes.  Want to be included next time we do a mini? Email us, leave a voice message, or message us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. We would really love to hear what you think about our conversations on film and share it with everyone else. We also discussed the documentaries of Marlon Riggs on The Criterion Channel, the Nxivm documentary series on HBO and Starz, and Class Action Park on HBO Max. Later this month (just in time for Christmas) is our conversation with OeuvreBusters' Liam G. Billingham about It's A Wonderful Life and The Exorcist! And a couple of other podcasts we mentioned you should check out: Girl Presses Play Brothers From Another Planet Taped Off TV All music in the episode is by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3788-funkorama License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The Celluloid Mirror is a film discussion podcast in which we look at two very different films to see what they reflect about one another, and the audience. On this month's episode, we discuss the Bruce Lee classic The Big Boss (1971) and Boots Riley's Sorry to Bother You (2018) and how envision workers fighting back against capitalist exploitation. Also in this episode we welcome special guest Che Broadnax to the program! Che Broadnax is a Brooklyn-based filmmaking multi-tool. He has been found behind the lens of indie features, in the edit suite for major networks, and hunched over the drafting table creating sequential art.Recently he photographed IFP Films’ sci-fi/horror/comedy WELCOME TO WILLITS, singer/songwriter Aria Jay’s GROWTH, and MTV’s CLIMATE CHANGE CHRISTMAS. His directorial debut, CIVIL WARRIORS won Best Narrative Feature at the 2016 Long Beach Indie International Film Festival. In another life, Che was known as Rev1: Last Revolutionary Emcee and released two politically charged hip hop albums. (imdb) (portfolio) Thanks for listening. If you enjoy the show we'd love it if you could rate, review, and subscribe on your platform of choice as it really helps with the discoverability of the show. As before if you would like to share your thoughts with us on the show, on the questions at the end of either episode, or on pairings you'd like to see reach out here, on social media (@4milecircus everywhere) or info@4milecircus.com  All music in the episode is by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3788-funkorama License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ References & Research: In Boots Riley’s Dark Comedy Sorry to Bother You, The Villain Is Capitalism Itself (The New Statesman) Boots Riley: ‘Capitalism must have poverty in order to exist’ (Dazed) Sorry to Bother You: is this the most shocking anti-capitalist film ever? (The Guardian) The Dragon Enters: The Big Boss DVD Review (CineOutsider) From Kung Fu to Hip Hop: Globalization, Revolution, and Popular Culture, Kato, M. T. ( SUNY Series, Explorations in Postcolonial Studies, 2007.) Beyond Bruce Lee: Chasing The Dragon Through film, Philosophy, and Pop Culture, Bowman, Paul.(Wallflower Press, 2013.)

The Celluloid Mirror is a film discussion podcast in which we look at two very different films to see what they reflect about one another, and the audience. On this episode of The Celluloid Mirror we welcome our first guest! Frequent guest of our 4MileCircus Podcast, Christina Raia. Christina Raia is a New York City based Writer/Director and the Founder of CongestedCat Productions. She focuses on socially conscious narrative projects, primarily in the horror and comedy genres. Her work, consisting of over a dozen short films, a web series, and two feature films, has screened at film festivals around the world with coverage on press outlets such as Indiewire and BuzzFeed. Through a desire to support other filmmakers, she teaches workshops on crowdfunding and creative distribution methods, empowering creators to build their audience and get their work made and seen. Find out more about Christina and her work at christinaraia.com and congestedcat.com. On today's episode we discuss Babe ('96) and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre ('74) and how they expose us to the horrors of animal agriculture and meat production. Thanks for listening. If you enjoy the show we'd love it if you could rate, review, and subscribe on your platform of choice (even though you're getting the show here already) as it really helps with the discoverability of the show. As before if you would like to share your thoughts with us on the show, on the questions at the end of either episode, or on pairings you'd like to see reach out here, on social media (@4milecircus everywhere) or info@4milecircus.com  All music in the episode is by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3788-funkorama License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ References & Research: People Magazine review of Babe Roger Ebert review of Babe Roger Ebert review of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Cincinnati Inquirer review of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre The Ultimate Pro-Vegetarian Film is the Last Movie You'd Expect on Slate Human and Nonhuman Horror Cinema on Luddite Robot The Texas Chainsaw Massacre a Vegan Allegory by Introverted Activist Seeing and Slaughtering in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) by Dawn Keetley "The "Babe" Vegetarians: Bioethics, Animal Minds, and Moral Methodology" by Nathan Nobis The Sexual Politics of Meat by Carol J. Adams "Learning Spirits: Spectral Pedagogy and Vegan Horror" by Rick Kelley

Introducing The Celluloid Mirror The Celluloid Mirror is a film discussion podcast in which we look at two very different films to see what they reflect about one another, and the audience. For our first film pairing we discuss Transformers: The Movie (1986) and Funny Games (2007). We discuss how these two films confront the audience and subvert their expectations for genre films. We have subtitled this pilot episode "The Audience Must Suffer." We've got some more fun pairings planned for future episodes and some great guests. You can subscribe to the show at anchor.fm/thecelluloidmirror where you can also leave us a voice message giving us your thoughts on one or all of the questions at the end of this episode, or message us via social media (@4MileCircus) or email us at info@4milecircus.com.  Would you like to get future episodes early and see the uncut video of our recording of this episode (and likely future ones)? Well, for that and so much more join our Patreon! Patreon.com/4milecircus All music in the episode is by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/ License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ References & Research: David Edelstein on Funny Games https://nymag.com/movies/reviews/45099/ A.O. Scott on Funny Games https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/14/movies/14funn.html Slate Review of Funny Games https://slate.com/culture/2008/03/michael-haneke-s-funny-games-reviewed.html Caryn James on Transformers https://www.nytimes.com/1986/08/09/movies/screen-transformers-animation-for-children.html How Less Alienation Creates More Exploitation? Audience Labour on Social Network Sites https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/392 Game over? The (re)play of horror in Michael Haneke's Funny Games U.S. https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/nc/2014/00000012/F0020001/art00004# Art, Entertainment, Entropy - Gene Youngblood The Myth of Superman - Umberto Eco The Spectator - Siegfried Kracauer

The Celluloid Mirror is a new podcast from 4MileCircus (4milecircus.com). Join Nicole Solomon and Sean Mannion as each episode they delve into two very different films to see what they reveal about each other and their audiences. Upcoming episodes include pairings of Funny Games (2007) and Transformers: The Movie (1986); Babe (1995) and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974); and The Big Boss (1971) and Sorry to Bother You (2018).