In this podcast Dr Ellen Wright talks with Dr Adrian Smith of the university of Sussex.
Adrian is an expert on exploitation cinema. ‘But what is exploitation cinema?’ I hear you ask. Well, as Roche observes, in his article, ‘Exploiting Exploitation Cinema: an Introduction‘ it is not a genre of films but:
‘an industry with a specific mode of production. Exploitation films are made cheap for easy profit. “Easy” because they are almost always genre films relying on time-tried formulas (horror, thillers, biker movies, surfer movies, women-in-prison films, martial arts, subgenres like gore, rape-revenge, slashers, nazisploitation, etc.). “Easy” because they offer audiences what they can’t get elsewhere: sex, violence and taboo topics. “Easy” because they have long targetted what has since become the largest demographic group of moviegoers: the 15-25 age group.’ – Roche (2015)
In this podcast Dr Lucy Neville of University of Leicester talks with me about sexual desire and pornography
Lucy is a Lecturer in Criminology with an interest in understanding women’s engagement with sex, sex work, and pornography. Her PhD thesis in Forensic Psychology involved investigating violence perpetuated against sex workers by both clients and intimate partners across seven metropolitan areas from 1980-2006, and since then she has worked on a number of projects focused around women involved in sex work.
Prior to working in academia she worked for several years at BBC Media Action, the BBC’s international development charity where she worked on projects as diverse as HIV/AIDs awareness in Cambodia, learning English as a second language in Bangladesh, gender-based violence in refugee camps in South Sudan, and a large-scale piece of research investigating the public perception of climate change across Africa.
In this episode we discuss some of the key ideas explored in Lucy’s fantastic book, Girls Who like Boys Who Like Boys. The book unpicks what it might be that some women enjoy about consuming, and in some cases producing, gay male pornography.
Not surprisingly then, we discuss some explicit topics and use some explicit language during this conversation, so if you are easily offended, this may not be the podcast episode for you. Then again, maybe you’ll learn something!
Feel free to comment below on the podcast or the subjects it covers, ask questions, raise points or make suggestions for further podcasts and blogs. You can sign up to receive email notifications when subsequent podcasts and posts become available. Simply enter your email at the ‘Follow Blog’ notices at the foot or sidebar of the page. You can also access previous podcasts by clicking here or the ‘Podcast’ toggle at the top any page.
Music is by kind permission of The Shannon Reilly Trio. The full version of the song Trouble can be found along with its video here, and purchased on the Shannon Reilly Trio album also called Trouble.
The podcast was produced thanks to the post-production expertise of John Ashbrook of Radio Pictures.
The opinions expressed on this blog are mine, and do not reflect the opinions of the De Montfort University or any other employee thereof. Nor is De Montfort University responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied within this blog.
This podcast is intended to sit alongside the Midlands Four Cities-funded Dialogue Days event I co organised with my De Montfort University colleague, Prof Justin Smith and Prof James Chapman and Dr Claire Jenkins at University of Leicester. The event, ‘Delving into the Archives: A Screen History Workshop,’ took place online, on Tuesday 10th of November 2020 and was a half-day event aimed at aspiring and existing postgraduate students whose research interests in Media History involve using archival sources. From leaders in the field to current PhDs, our expert presenters explored a range of skills and approaches to archival screen history, offered opportunities to engage with different kinds of material, and advised on research design and dissemination.
In this podcast I talk with Dr Claire Jenkins about her work on ‘100 Million Dollar Women’ – the women directors who are currently working and thriving in hollywood.
Claire is a lecturer in Film and Television Studies at of University of Leicester and I first came across her brilliant work at the one day conference I coordinated on Women in Hollywood, back in 2018.
During the course of our chat we consider these women and their work, the taste politics at play in the common and often derogatory judgement of ‘women’s’ films and ‘womens’ genres, the representation of the American family in Hollywood cinema and how women are frequently overlooked in the film industry and in film academia.
Feel free to comment below on the podcast or the subjects it covers, ask questions, raise points or make suggestions for further podcasts and blogs. You can sign up to receive email notifications when subsequent podcasts and posts become available. Simply enter your email at the ‘Follow Blog’ notices at the foot or sidebar of the page. You can also access previous podcasts by clicking here or the ‘Podcast’ toggle at the top any page.
Music is by kind permission of The Shannon Reilly Trio. The full version of the song Trouble can be found along with its video here, and purchased on the Shannon Reilly Trio album also called Trouble.
The podcast was produced thanks to the post-production expertise of John Ashbrook of Radio Pictures.
The opinions expressed on this blog are mine, and do not reflect the opinions of the De Montfort University or any other employee thereof. Nor is De Montfort University responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied within this blog.
I was very pleased to be asked by the delightful Dr. Kino (aka Dr Toby Reynolds) to take part in his podcast series Dr. Kino’s Film Emporium to talk about an under the radar film gem – and I chose the perhaps more under-the-counter classic Teaserama, by Irving and Paula Klaw, and starring burlesque legend Tempest Storm and pin-up star Bettie Page as my entry for the film emporium.
Toby’s work around Lacanian theory and cinema is really fascinating stuff and he’s a corking podcaster
It was only a matter of time before the highly entertaining Soho Bites podcast got around to examining the Windmill Theatre and the latest episode is the second of three episodes on the Windmill in film – featuring myself and former Windmill girl and longtime friend of the Here’s Looking at You podcast Jill Millard Shapiro.
Here I discuss the Windmill in film generally, and the production context and marketing of Val Guest’s 1949 Murder at the Windmill (aka. Mystery at the Burlesque) in particular, with the lovely Dom Delargy.
For more details of Soho Bites and the history of Soho, or the for the shownotes (Shoho Notes) click the links here, or listen to the podcast below:
In the latest Here’s Looking at You podcast Dr Ellen Wright talks with Jane Giles, programmer between 1988 and 1992 at the former doyenne of British repertory cinemas, The Scala cinema.
Located initially on the site of an old concert hall in Tottenham Street, Fitzrovia, it moved later to its legendary second home in the heart of Kings Cross but very much retained its carnivalesque roots.
For those who are not familiar with this unique, anti-establishment institution, the Scala was THE British repertory cinema, specialising in midnight movie marathons and showing an eclectic range of classic and cult films during its all too brief existence, from high art to pure trash and all in between.
We talk about the cinema space itself, about the turbulent times through which this distinctive cinema existed and much more.
An excellent article in The Guardian, by former owner, Stephen Woolley, about the iconic cinema can be found here and further details about Jane’s book SCALA CINEMA 1978-1993 can be found here
*NOTE* Jane has asked me to point out that I made an error as to the names of the Scala cats. They were in fact called Huston and Roy NOT Huston and Lee! Thanks Jane and apologies!
Feel free to comment below on the podcast or the subjects it covers, ask questions, raise points or make suggestions for further podcasts and blogs. You can sign up to receive email notifications when subsequent podcasts and posts become available. Simply enter your email at the ‘Follow Blog’ notices at the foot or sidebar of the page. You can also access previous podcasts by clicking here or the ‘Podcast’ toggle at the top any page.
Music is by kind permission of The Shannon Reilly Trio. The full version of the song Trouble can be found along with its video here, and purchased on the Shannon Reilly Trio album also called Trouble.
The podcast was produced thanks to the post-production expertise of John Ashbrook of Radio Pictures.
The opinions expressed on this blog are mine, and do not reflect the opinions of the De Montfort University or any other employee thereof. Nor is De Montfort University responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied within this blog.
In the latest HLAY podcast Dr Ellen Wright (and her friend Bobbie) talks with triple-threat burlesque powerhouse Cece Sinclair. Cece has been on the British burlesque seen for a few years now and has a reputation for her professionalism, her polished performances and her sheer likeability.
The 16th Here’s Looking At You podcast is a conversation with senior Lecturer in Film Studies at University of Exeter, Dr Lisa Stead.
Lisa is currently working on a very exciting AHRC-funded project entitled Reframing Vivien Leigh: Stardom, Archives and Access. This project examines for the first time how the legacies of screen star Vivien Leigh (1913-1967) are archived and curated by a range of public institutions in the South West of England.
For those who don’t recognise the name straight away, leigh was a stage and screen actress and two-time academy award winner and the female lead in the 1939 cinematic epic Gone With the Wind
I talk to Lisa about this project and, as I was in the process of putting the finishing touches to a one-day postgraduate archives event when we spoke, we also about the rewards of archival research.
The 15th instalment of the Here’s Looking at You podcast is a frank conversation with body-based performance artist, Nick Kilby.
Nick’s work examines often very challenging, broader political and philosophical ideas, such as cults, blood sports and toxic masculinity and in particular, during this conversation, we discuss a recent piece of work that I was lucky enough to see at last summer’s Borderlines conference at De Montfort University. The piece was entitled ‘Buckle Up: The Filth.’ It was 11 hours long but I only witnessed the climatic final 20 minutes. It left me literally speechless and was a very powerful, visceral immersive performance made in response to the rape revenge and pulp narratives and the #MeToo moment.
Yaaas Queen! After a short break Here’s looking at you returns and in this sickening podcast, Dr Ellen Wright has a discussion with thin, white and salty New York comedy queen and Ru Paul’s Drag Race alumni Miz Cracker.
Having met on the afternoon of Cracker’s last date on her sell-out UK It’s Time tour, Cracker wowed Ellen with her charisma, uniqueness, never and talent, not to mention just how sweet and frank she was.
Here's looking at you. 