Hello everyone and welcome back to our regularly scheduled programming of news, reviews, interviews and movie views that makes up The Spread.
We’ve been on a brief hiatus while we sorted out some big changes, which we’re eager to share with you all very soon, and we can’t wait to catch everyone up on some of the great content you may have missed while we at Cinema Jam HQ were busy planning our next stunning online media move and moving our base of operations to the fabulous Roundhouse in Camden (which now also serves as a brilliant venue for our BiteSize Courses). We christened the venue with our weekend course on the skills needed to shoot a James Bond level film (hosted by the incredible Phil Méheux, who shot both Casino Royale and Goldeneye) and it was terrific. You can check all the photos of the event right here.
We’ve had such success with our cinematography short courses, in fact, that we’re doing an encore of our roaringly successful one with DoP Richard Greatrex (Shakespeare in Love) this September. You can find all the details here, and make sure to book well in advance as we sold out quite quickly last time!
But now, to the content! In keeping with saying hello to our brilliant new office and venue in Camden, while saying a very fond fairwell to our previous brilliant office and venue in Camden, we’ve got a theme of New Frontiers and the Old West for you this month. We’ve got a host of magnificent features, if we don’t say so ourselves, from the Old West: charting the sad story of Kevin Costner’s hidden gem and forgotten masterpiece Wyatt Earp, dissecting the roots and stylistic flourishes of the genre to find out what makes a Western a Western and (with a tinge of that New Frontier spirit too) welcoming new writer Josh Merritt with his takes on two urban cowboy cult classics Death Wish 3 and John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13. Rounding off with an in-depth analysis that finds comic book hit Logan to be one of the best Westerns of the past decade.
Then it’s off to the New Frontier as we get an insider’s perspective from AD Cooper on this year’s BAFTA’s Lucky 225 debacle and the future of female filmmakers in the UK before going in for a closer inspection of the importance of the role of female directors in blockbuster superhero filmmaking, in the wake of Wonder Woman’s barnstorming success this summer. We’ve also got a terrific review of the terrific film itself, courtesy of Neill McNamara. Not to mention reviews that check out the Old English Wild West of restrained emotions and risqué sexuality in My Cousin Rachel and a new acting frontier with the leading debut of young McKenna Grace in star-studded drama Gifted.
We also take a look at Universal’s stab at forging a whole new movie universe with The Mummy and whether Michael Bay really does have some new tricks up his sleeve for Transformers: The Last Knight or whether it’s all old hat. Then Matthew Wilson reports to us from the Edinburgh International Film Festival with sneak peeks at the work of two up-and-coming directors that are sure to make a storm when they’re released later this year: Jamie M. Dagg’s Sweet Virginia and Francis Lee’s God’s Own Country.
Speaking of incredible up-and-coming talent, we also have amazing interviews this issue with director, and Cinema Jam member, Ben Garfield as well as cinematopher Burak Oguz Saguner while our Jammer of the Month, illustrious editor Jim Page, talks to us about some exciting news from the Edinburgh International Film Festival of his very own where his latest film, The Pugilist, was nominated for Best Actor and the Michael Powell Best British Film Award (just losing out to God’s Own Country, coincidentally).
It’s been a crazy and wonderfully busy month for Cinema Jam and we’re looking forward to the next one, so stay tuned for all the big news coming your way. Until next time!
