Kqek.com Digital / Big Head Amusements / Artscopeto - Podcasts

In this week's composer interview, Joe Kraemer discusses his latest work, the Amazon production Comrade Detective, a satire of a fake Soviet era detective series; and King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen.  Also discussed are DVD audio commentaries and vinyl, and a lengthy editorial on classic Canadian detective shows set in Any City, U.S.A., plus some teasing details on Video Store Day, coming Saturday October 21st to a bricks & mortar video shop near you. Visit KQEK.com for more info, links, and a review of Comrade Detective: Season 1. If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Visit KQEK.com for additional film reviews, soundtrack reviews, interviews, and read the Editor's Blog by Mark R. Hasan for additional info and related links. Special Thanks to Joe Kraemer, and Adrianna Perez and Molly McIsaac at White Bear PR for facilitating this interview. Visit Joe Kraemer's website for more info on the composer and his vast C.V.

In my occasional non-film podcast, ArtScopeTO, I chat with Hamilton-Toronto painter & photographer Hanna Kostanski, whose paintings of urban Toronto locations spanning the 1910s through the 1970s are showcased until August 26, 2017 in the exhibit 20th Century Toronto: Intersections & Interactions at The Urban Gallery. Further info and stills from the exhibition are available via the Editor's Blog at KQEK.com. If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Special Thanks to Hanna Kostanski for her time, Urban Gallery's manager Calvin Hambrook and curator Allen Shugar and Glenda Fordham at Fordham P.R. for facilitating the interview. Visit Hanna Kostanski's website for more info.

This week’s podcast features a compact Q&A with legendary Goblin member Maurizio Guarini, who joined the iconic Italian prog-rock band and film composing group in 1975, and co-composed & performed on many of Goblin’s greatest albums, including Roller, Suspiria, and Patrick. Guarini, now based in Richmond Hill outside of Toronto, was recently commissioned by the Italian Institute of Culture to compose and perform a new score for L’inferno (1911), Italy's first feature film, and a surreal adaptation of Dante’s The Divine Comedy, the famous narrative poem completed in 1320. Visit KQEK.com for more info, links, and a film review of L'Inferno. If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Visit KQEK.com for additional film reviews, soundtrack reviews, interviews, and read the Editor's Blog by Mark R. Hasan for additional info and related links. Special Thanks to Maurizio Guarini and his wife Cinzia, and David at Daniloff Productions for facilitating the interview. Visit

Julia Marchese discusses directing Out of Print (2014), a passionate documentary on the New Beverly Cinema, the feisty, independent rep cinema renowned for programming rare slices of film history; and the increasing difficulty for programmers to access and screen 35mm film prints in an age of digital projections and DCPs. Visit KQEK.com for a film review of Out of Print, which was recently released on DVD from Level 33 Entertainment, and thematically related reviews of Cinemania (2002),  The Dying of the Light (2016), Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the American Drive-In Movie (2013), and Side by Side (2012). If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Visit KQEK.com for additional film reviews, soundtrack reviews, interviews, and read the Editor's Blog by Mark R. Hasan for additional info and related links.

Craig Atkinson discusses his directorial debut, Do Not Resist (2016), an unsettling documentary on the militarization of local police departments. Filmed just as the violence in Ferguson began to erupt, Atkinson details the overuse of S.W.A.T. for mundane search warrants, and the current government grants that enable departments to buy army surplus vehicles. Visit KQEK.com for a film review of Do Not Resist, which recently screened at Toronto's Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, and Detropia (2015), filmed and co-produced by Atkinson. If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Visit KQEK.com for additional film reviews, soundtrack reviews, interviews, and read the Editor's Blog by Mark R. Hasan for additional info and related links.

Jared Scott discusses his latest film, The Age of Consequences (2016), a provocative documentary on climate change, featuring many former military officials who add deeper credence to the correlation between extreme shifts in climate, mass population migration, and war. Scott also touches upon the film's themes, and his storytelling technique which includes the use of chapters, moments of respite for audiences, and Malcolm Francis’ excellent score. Visit KQEK.com for a film review of Age of Consequences, which recently screened at Toronto's Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema. If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Visit KQEK.com for additional film reviews, soundtrack reviews, interviews, and read the Editor's Blog by Mark R. Hasan for additional info and related links.

Begun in 2012 and completed in the spring of 2016, my experimental documentary BSV 1172: Your Friendly Neighbourhood Video Store premiered November 13th, 2016, at the San Diego Underground Film Festival, and in this two-part blog I offer thoughts on its genesis (filming the environs of a so-called obsolete form of home entertainment with dead tech), and also present Part One of an edited version of the conversation between I Lost It at the Video Store author Tom Roston and NOW magazine's Norman Wilner which took place at the location and subject of my film, Toronto's Bay Street Video. Visit Big Head Amusements for additional info on and stills from BSV 1172, plus links to a Teaser Trailer. Visit KQEK.com for links to an additional podcast interview with Tom Roston, a review of his book, and some reviews and related media tied to the current podcast. If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Visit KQEK.com for additional film reviews, soundtrack reviews, interviews, and

Victor Kanefsky discusses the art of editing, structure, balance, and pacing in a conversation that spans both his latest directorial work, Art Bastard (2016), a lively documentary on painter Robert Cenedella, and his lengthy career as an editor in many genres, including horror (Ganja & Hess) and documentary (Style Wars). Visit KQEK.com for a film review of Art Bastard, which recently screened at Toronto's Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, plus some related review links. If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Visit KQEK.com for additional film reviews, soundtrack reviews, interviews, and read the Editor's Blog by Mark R. Hasan for additional info and related links.

In what’s hopefully the first in a series of vinyl related podcasts, I speak with Cary Mansfield, Varese Sarabande’s Vice President of A&R, about the label's recent trio of limited LP editions of catalogue titles – John Powell’s The Bourne Identity (2002), Don Davis’ The Matrix (1999), and Marco Beltrami’s Scream (1996) and Scream 2 (1997) – and the quirks and nuances of pressing an LP and the market itself, being more collector-oriented that when I began collecting soundtrack LPs in the late 1980s. Visit KQEK.com for a review of Varese Sarabande’s Bourne Identity soundtrack LP, and some links on documentaries and vintage industrial shorts covering the history of vinyl records, the long-playing LP, and extreme vinyl collectors. If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Visit KQEK.com for additional film reviews, soundtrack reviews, interviews, and read the Editor's Blog by Mark R. Hasan for additional info and related links.

In a radical move for director Tim Burton, the score for his latest film was written by the collaborative team of Mike Higham and Matthew Margeson, both skilled in composing, orchestrating, and arranging for a diversity of projects (including several Hans Zimmer productions).  I’ve divided the podcast on Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children into separate halves, starting with Matthew Margeson in Part 1, and Mike Higham in Part 2. Additionally, coming soon is a separate and more detailed Q&A with Higham on his other specialized skill, an ace music editor. Visit KQEK.com for more info and a review of La-La Land Records’ Miss Peregrine soundtrack CD. If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Visit KQEK.com for additional film reviews, soundtrack reviews, interviews, and read the Editor's Blog by Mark R. Hasan for additional info and related links.

In a radical move for director Tim Burton, the score for his latest film was written by the collaborative team of Mike Higham and Matthew Margeson, both skilled in composing, orchestrating, and arranging for a diversity of projects (including several Hans Zimmer productions).  I’ve divided the podcast on Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children into separate halves, starting with Matthew Margeson in Part 1, and Mike Higham in Part 2. Additionally, coming soon is a separate and more detailed Q&A with Higham on his other specialized skill, an ace music editor. Visit KQEK.com for more info and a review of La-La Land Records’ Miss Peregrine soundtrack CD. If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Visit KQEK.com for additional film reviews, soundtrack reviews, interviews, and read the Editor's Blog by Mark R. Hasan for additional info and related links.

In my latest conversation with Iranian-American composer Nima Fakhrara, we touch upon some of the organic experimentation that gives his recent horror score The Girl in the Photographs its eerie tenor, and the fusion of Persian and vintage electronic sounds for 1979 Revolution: Black Friday (of which both soundtrack albums are available digitally and on CD from Lakeshore Records). This interview is also available as a visual podcast. Visit KQEK.com for more info and related CD reviews. Additional info on the making of the visual podcast is available at my filmmaking site, Big Head Amusements. My interview with Fakhrara on the sci-fi puzzle film The Signal (2014) is also available on iTunes, Libsyn, and YouTube. If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Visit KQEK.com for additional film reviews, soundtrack reviews, interviews, and read the Editor's Blog by Mark R. Hasan for additional info and related links.

  This partial Editor's Blog features edited excerpts from the pre-screening intros of Julian Roffman's The Mask (1961), Canada's first feature-length 3D and horror film, screened in 2012 and 2015 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. The 2012 extract focuses on the fragile state of a rare 35mm  print and the 3D process, while the 2015 extract covers both the book launch of The Canadian Horror Film: Terror of the Soul, with editors Gina Freitag and Andre Loiselle providing contextual background info on Canadian film history and The Mask's uniqueness. Read the full Editor's Blog at KQEK.com. Read a detailed review of KINO's 3D Blu-ray and DVD editions of The Mask. Additional info on The Canadian Horror Film is also available. If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Visit KQEK.com for additional film reviews, soundtrack reviews, interviews, and read the Editor's Blog by Mark R. Hasan for additional info and related links. Also available: HD extracts from visual podast version at

  Author & journalist Tom Roston (PBS's POV) discusses I Lost It at the Video Store: A Filmmaker’s Oral History of a Vanished Era (The Critical Press), his brisk and engaging chronicle of the disappearing bricks & mortar video rental shop that used to be the main home movie resource for film fans and emerging filmmakers. A review of Tom Roston's I Lost It at the Video Store is available at KQEK.com. Coming soon: a follow-up podcast featuring edited excerpts from the lengthy discussion & audience Q&A with author Roston and NOW Magazine's Senior Film Writer Norman Wilner, recorded live at Bay Street Video on Monday May 2, 2016. If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Visit KQEK.com for additional film reviews, soundtrack reviews, interviews, and read the Editor's Blog by Mark R. Hasan for additional info and related links.

  As part of Reel Canada's National Canadian Film Day celebrations, actor and artist Stephen Lack participated in a lengthy Q&A with NOW Magazine's senior film writer Norman Wilner after a free screening of David Cronenberg's cranium-cracking classique Scanners (1981) at Toronto's Royal Cinema. Topics include Scanners’ 35 years of cult fame, blowing up Louis Del Grande’s head, co-star Patrick McGoohan, director Cronenberg, make-up whiz Dick Smith, and The Rubber Gun, a 1977 film co-written by Lack and director Allan Moyle which is seeking a Canadian partner in assembling a special edition release using rare materials from Lack’s own private archives. Following this slightly edited version of the half-hour Q&A are my editorial thoughts on the ongoing problems in finding indie, art, cult, and CanCon tax shelter classics (such as Kings and Desperate Men) on DVD and as digital downloads. If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Visit KQEK.com for additional film r

I'm back with the first of several podcasts, after taking an extended break to finish up a new experimental doc, BSV 1172. 2016 starts with an interview with the esteemed Brian Reitzell on scoring NBC’s Hannibal, of which music from Season 3 was recently released digitally and on CD from Lakeshore Records and on LP via Invada Records. Reitzell also discusses musique concrete, working with David Slade, Tangerine Dream, and using vintage analogue synthesizers. This interview is also available as a visual podcast. Visit KQEK.com for more info. Additional info on the making of the visual podcast (which involved a vintage video synthesizer) is available at my filmmaking site, Big Head Amusements. If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Visit KQEK.com for additional film reviews, soundtrack reviews, interviews, and read the Editor's Blog by Mark R. Hasan for additional info and related links.

Back in 1973, veteran TV and feature film director Ted Post helmed The Baby, a film written by playwright and occasional film & TV writer Abe Polsky. The Baby tells the story of a social worker assigned to check in on a most unusual case: a grown man living in a crib with the emotional and intellectual capacity of an infant. The eccentric plot, bizarre characters, twist ending, and classic seventies kitsch motivated writer / director Dan Spurgeon to adapt Polsky’s script into a play with a little more camp value and grindhouse qualities. Spurgeon’s bawdy play, which remains very faithful to the characters and Polsky’s plotting, debuted in Los Angeles in 2013 with actor Frank Blocker playing the venomous matriarch Mama. Currently running at Toronto’s Storefront Theatre until November 1st, The Baby retains several members from the original L.A. production, and in this month’s podcast I spoke with writer / director Dan Spurgeon and star Frank Blocker about the impressionable film, the play’s genesis and crea

Interview with Italian film composer Fabio Frizzi, conducted prior to his follow-up concert Frizzi 2 Fulci at London’s famous Barbican in the fall of 2014. In addition to discussing the thrill of performing his music live in London, Frizzi discusses his early film work – Oscar Brazzi’s “sexy” film Giro girotondo... con il sesso è bello il mondo (1975) and Lucio Fulci’s Il cav. Costante Nicosia demoniaco, ovvero: Dracula in Brianza (1975) – plus working with Fulci on Zombi (1979), The Beyond (1981), and scoring severe eye trauma. Frizzi also talks about the restoration of his Contraband (1980) score, which makes its premiere release via Beat Records, who’ve also released a 2-CD set of Frizzi’s 2013 London concert. Please note: this interview was edited just prior to Frizzi's announcenent in mid-July of Frizzi 2 Fulci's North American tour, including a performance at The Opera House in Toronto on Thursday October 8th. A two-part podcast interview with Frizzi regarding his 2013 concert at London's Union Chapel i

Interview with film composer Claudio Simonetti regarding the expanded, remastered release of Demons (1985) on LP and CD from Rustblade Records. Topics include crafting the score, the remixes, the great sound engineering typical of Italian soundtracks of the 70s and 80s, vinyl releases, an upcoming recording of Goblin's Profondo Rosso / Deep Red score by his new band Claudio Simonetti's Goblin set for release later this year by Rustblade, and the possibility of releasing Simonetti's music for the 1922 classic silent film Nosferatu. Also available: a print Q&A with Rustblade's owner Stefano Rossello on the nuances of releasing vinyl albums. Read the Editor's Blog at KQEK.com for related film reviews.   If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Visit KQEK.com for additional film reviews, soundtrack reviews, interviews, and incisive Editor's Blogs by Mark R. Hasan. All podcast editing, mixing, and audio restoration produced in-house. For inquiries and demo reels, pleas

Interview with film composer Craig Safan regarding the expanded, remastered releases of The Last Starfighter (1984) on CD from Intrada Records, and Warning Sign (1985) on CD and LP from Invada Records. Topics include electronic / orchestral scoring, 'baking' master tapes, and discussing Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985), Son of the Morning Star (1991), and his upcoming album Rough Magic from Perseverance Records, inspired by ancient cave paintings in Europe. Read the Editor's Blog at KQEK.com for related film score reviews. Visit Craig Safan's website at www.craigsafan.com.   If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Visit KQEK.com for additional film reviews, soundtrack reviews, interviews, and incisive Editor's Blogs by Mark R. Hasan. All podcast editing, mixing, and audio restoration produced in-house. For inquiries and demo reels, please visit Mondomark.com.