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For a few months now, we’ve been feverishly plotting away at bringing Miskatonic’s dream of becoming a real bricks-and-mortar institution to fruition, and I’m happy to say that starting in July, that dream becomes a reality. Along with fellow Fango scribe David Bertrand, I’m opening a microcinema in Montreal, Canada called Blue Sunshine (after the Jeff Lieberman film, of course).
Barring any unforeseen mishaps, we should be open the last weekend of June, with three days a week of cult, trash, music and art-house screenings! But aside from the theatrical program, Blue Sunshine (3660 St-Laurent, third floor; see its Facebook page here) will also be the permanent home of The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies, and who better to christen the new pad than the writing/directing team behind the most beloved H.P. Lovecraft film adaptations of all time?
Stuart Gordon and Dennis Paoli (RE-ANIMATOR, FROM BEYOND, DAGON) will be the inaugural instructors at Miskatonic’s new home. They’ll deliver a two-hour master class on adapting Lovecraft to the screen: the challenges, the techniques and some insight as to why their films stand out amidst a sea of historically troubled counterparts.
Even with an entire yearly event specifically devoted to movies based on the author’s writings (the esteemed H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, Oregon), his work still manages to consistently defy attempts to capture his unique form of literary terror on the screen. It’s rare to find a Lovecraft film that pleases his fans and cinephiles alike; only Dan O’Bannon’s THE RESURRECTED (based on THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD) comes close to being as exciting an adaptation as Gordon and Paoli’s numerous collaborations.
Their class will take place at Blue Sunshine on Sunday, July 18 from 2-4 p.m., and will include film clips and be followed by a Q&A period. Seating is limited, as Blue Sunshine is a small space (max 60 people!), so it’s a rare chance to be in an intimate environment with some of the genre’s leading lights. See details at the Miskatonic Institute website here. Gordon and Paoli come to us courtesy of the Fantasia film festival—the epic Montreal genre showcase that keeps us sitting in the dark even in the most glorious of summer days—where they will be reuniting with cult icon Jeffrey Combs to present their one-man play NEVERMORE: AN EVENING WITH EDGAR ALLAN POE.
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