The Projection Booth Podcast

The boys from From the Files of Police Squad (in Color), our limited series about Police Squad! and The Naked Gun films are back and talking about something we didn't discuss there...Released in 1984, Zucker Abrahams Zucker’s Top Secret is a send up of both Elvis movies and WWII espionage films. It’s a very odd duck which stars Val Kilmer as Nick Rivers, a teen idol who has made a name for himself with a series of songs about surfing and skeet shooting. Nick goes behind the Iron Curtain to East Germany where things haven’t changed much since WWII, especially that it’s Nazis in charge of everything, rather than the communist party. He becomes embroiled in intrigue though Nick Rivers sticks his neck out for nobody until he meets the gorgeous Hillary Flammond (Lucy Gutteridge) and her band of freedom fighters. Chris Stachiw and Mark Begley join Mike to discuss the film while the episode features interviews with actors Ian McNeice and Christopher Villiers, screenwriter Martyn Burke, and writers/directors Jim Abrahams and David Zucker.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

Our Black History Month coverage continues with a look at Christopher St. John's Top of the Heap. Released in 1972 the film stars St. John as George Lattimer, a DC police officer who’s confronted with pressures from his job, his wife, and his daughter. When his mother dies, George undergoes a bit of a breakdown where he starts fantasizing about another life including being an astronaut.Gary Phillips and Samm Deighan join Mike to discuss this sorely under-seen film while Christopher St. John talks about how Top of the Heap came together despite interference from the film's producer.The Code Red Blu-Ray of Top of the Heap is out of print. In the meantime, you can see the film via Shout Factory TV, Tubi, and other streaming services.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

Heather Drain and Leon Chase join Mike to kick-off Black History Month with a look at Bill Gunn’s 1973 film Ganja & Hess which stars Duane Jones as Hess Green, a scholar who is stabbed with an ancient dagger by a crazed house guest, the husband of Ganja Meda (Marlene Clark). Hess is resurrected and helps Ganja be reborn as well. The two are now addicted to blood in one of the most unusual vampire films around.Special guests musician Sam Waymon and author Christopher Sieving (Pleading the Blood: Bill Gunn's Ganja & Hess) discuss the behind-the-scenes of Gunn's seminal sophomore film.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

On this special episode, Mike talks with Clay Tatum and Whitmer Thomas about their 2022 feature film The Civil Dead.Find out where the movie is playing near you at https://claytatum.com/The-Civil-DeadBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

Filmmaker Elsbeth Fraanje spoke with Mike from Park City, Utah about her latest documentary, Sexual Healing, an insightful and inspiring look at sexuality in the disabled community.Keep up with the film via Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/sexualhealing__documentary/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

Mike spoke with Matt Maiellaro and Dave Willis about the latest entry in the Aqua Teen saga, Aqua Teen Forever: Plantasm. The film finds our heroes, Meatwad, Master Shake, and Frylock, out of their house and in various states of distress. Frylock is working for a corporate conglomerate run by an egomaniac with self-esteem problems.Buy Aqua Teen Forever: Plantasm today on Blu-Ray and 4K. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

We’re discussing the 1988 film from Karen Shakhnazarov, Zero City. The film stars Leonid Filatov as Aleksei Varakin, he’s from a Moscow Mechanical Plant and comes to a small town to meet with a man about air conditioners. He soon finds himself in an absurdist nightmare where he’s served a cake that looks like his own head by a chef who is not his father and commits suicide.Samm Deighan and Alistair Pitts join Mike to talk about the film while director Karen Shakhnazarov provides more context to the making of the movie.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

The rest of Mike's interview with Andrew Birkin about his vast career from his early days as a photographer to The Name of the Rose, to The Cement Garden, and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

Mike talks with Assistant Professor of Modern Japanese Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta and guest curator Will Carroll (Suzuki Seijun and Postwar Japanese Cinema) and Peter Tatara, the brand-new Director of Film at Japan Society and founder of Anime NYC about the Japan Society's Seijun Suzuki Centennial.Celebrating 100 years of iconoclast director Seijun Suzuki (1923-2017), a singular force in Japanese cinema whose radical stylistic vision and unpredictable narratives shaped the B-movie genre, Japanese cinephilia and the political New Left, Japan Society and The Japan Foundation present Seijun Suzuki Centennial—a selection of six films from across the filmmaker’s nearly 60-film body of work, all on imported 35mm prints straight from Japan. Covering ground from his earliest yakuza feature (Satan’s Town) to his unbridled return to studio filmmaking after being blacklisted for 10 years (A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness) and his subsequent independent success (Kagero-za), this special series offers a rare glimpse into the core of Suzuki's creative genius.For complete information visit japansociety.org.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

Jim Donahue and Richard Hatem join Mike to discuss this formerly hard-to-find film while writer/director Juleen Compton discusses her career and struggles with Hollywood film making. in her at her titular Plastic Dome, a large structure which comes to act like a tent in a holy revival.Jim Donahue and Richard Hatem join Mike to discuss this formerly hard-to-find film while writer/director Juleen Compton discusses her career and struggles with Hollywood film making.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth