AFS Viewfinders Podcast: A Dialogue With Master Film Programmer Kier-la Janisse

Austin Film Society Lead Programmer Lars Nilsen here, using the first person singular for once in introducing a pretty remarkable dialogue we recorded a few weeks ago with programmer-author-editor-publisher-educator Kier-la Janisse.  Kier-la has done an awful lot in all of these arenas, from creating the Cinemuerte Film Festival, programming for Alamo Drafthouse during its most formative years (during which time she mentored poor lost benighted me), turning genre film scholarship on its head with the brilliant and influential autobiographical film critique HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN, starting the Miskatonic Institute Of Horror Studies and publisher Spectacular Optical and more.

Her insights and anecdotes are fascinating and hilarious even if you have little or no interest in film programming. I hope you’ll enjoy this (too-brief) discussion.

Listen to the podcast here or in your iTunes app.

This seems like a good place to drop this in too. Kier-la is funding her newest book COCKFIGHT, and her research is uncovering a hitherto unknown world of weirdness connected with the 1974 Monte Hellman outlaw classic COCKFIGHTER. You can get in on the ground floor by contributing to the project and pre-buying your copy of the book here.