Cinema zines

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	Cinema Sewer #16 Radioactive Raunch! Post-apocalyptic films are a great excuse to depict the breakdown of social mores on the screen, and many films have embraced the theme in order to go down that line. Robin has thus decided to do an extensive round of reviews of the post-apocalyptic genre, from hollywood B-films (He stayed away from the most popular titles) to complete shlock films, including some porn using the "must repopulate the earth" excuse for rampant if not quite effective fornication, as Robin writes. The apocalyptic theme takes so much space that this issue contains much less porn reviews than usual, so I think that Robin wanted to compensate when he penciled in this random couple, totally unrelated to the post-apoc feature, and then had this luscious superhero comic to add some naked bodies to the mix. Then Robin reviews the new animated film and the new book just put out by Rick Trembles, which zinesters may know through his illustration work in Fish Piss, among other things. Following that is a hilarious christian rant against seeing any movie whatsoever, an in-depth analysis of the atmosphere of Amando de Ossorio's Horror of the Zombies, an insane piss-fuelled fetish film from Germany's Kit Kat fetish club, the four porn flicks Robins keeps confusing which each other, a tasteless (to Robin's; that's something!) Bali terror attack-related porn feature, a writer's early pre-video, porn-theatre experiences, an overview of Ted Roter's films (including a side bar on the nasty cop from the Climax of Blue Power, related but not by Roter), and this list is getting pretty long, so: and much more! Cinema Sewer is one of the most densely packed zines out there and it's also terribly funny. I don't care about most of the films reviewed yet I rabidly read the zine from cover to cover because Robin is completely hilarious, and his drawings definitely add a personal flavour to the mix. Size: comic book format, pages, $4 (Adult statement required)
	Cinema Sewer #15 Rollergirl Riot! Robin covers Rollerderby cinema. I'm not sure that 2 films constitute a "subgenre", but there you go, more information than you ever wanted to know about the MGM and the Roger Corman rollerderby films of the summer of 1972. As usual Robin shows that he searched his topic thoroughly before penning that article. After that, Robin writes about Don Knotts: The Love God? a disturbing feature dating from 1969. The Robin rants about Paris Hilton's sex tapes and the lust for celebrity. Another segment is about the farting televangelist tape, featuring one Robert Tilton of fraudulent informercials. After that, Robin interviews Bo Arne Vibenius, the director of They Call Her One Eye, a revenge flick dating from 1972 and which was the inspiration for Darryl Hannah's eyepatch in Kill Bill. Dwelving into pornlandia, we get a profile of Alex Braun, porn director and owner of the Lloyd's-insured, infaillible g-spot squirt-orgasm hands. Also featured are 80s bad-ass porn star Lee Carroll (interviewed) and 80s porn icon Seka, who's trying to revive her career. Still in porn, Robin starts to fantasize about "Sick comic books I'd love to see as movies", and he starts in this issue with Ramba, a comic book featuring a female assassin/dominatrix as its main character. Finally, there is a discussion between Robin and one of his readers about the impact of porn on its viewers, related to the review of Not A Love Story featured in issue #13. The discussion shows Robin being more sensible about porn than he was in issue #13 when he was discussing "pussy power" and the alleged positive impact of porn on feminism, which makes me feel more comfortable about Cinema Sewer now than then. The writing on porn in CS does make me squirm sometimes, but while this zine isn't written from a radical perspective, Robin definitely has his head on his shoulders, and more important, he is a serious film lover. Size: comic book format, 44 pages, $4 (Adult statement required)
	Cinema Sewer #13 This issue of Cinema Sewer starts with a gripping interview with Bodil Joensen, star of many animal sex movies made in the 70s. By the time the interview is conducted (1980), Joensen is not making any more movies. She exposes her descent from porn stardom to prostitution for survival, other people having made money with her films, and her being left with nothing. She is but a ghost of her former self, and is rumoured to have killed herself shortly after... The creature on the cover page is the mutated sheep from one of the cheesiest monster movies ever, The Godmonster of Indian Flats, and Robin takes us through its mediocrity. One of the really good features of this issue is a portrait of Leonard Schrader, brother of Taxi Driver scriptwriter Paul Schrader. His foremost film accomplishment is the movie The Killing of America, a hard-hitting exposé of death and murder in American culture, "wrapped in a powerful anti-gun message which was unmatched in the years prior to 2002's Bowling for Columbine." The most interesting part is not the film though, but the repressed lives that both Schraders went through, which unexpectedly lead them to film careers. On the other end of the spectrum, we have a portray of Mistress Anne Murray, one of the nastiest dominatrixes out there, celebrated in many S&M films that would make most fans of the genre recoil in terror. A short but funny feature is Robin's Top Money-losing Hollywood movies, which shows how badly the industry can fall flat on its face. There are many other interviews, reviews and lists on top of the regular and hilarious Letters section, which you get to discover if you get your own copy! On the bad side, Robin wrote a rant about how the wide availability of porn is responsible for women being more conscious of "pussy power", and things like Inga Muscio's Vagina Monologues. Robin, this is stupid, just get real okay? Size: comic book format, 44 pages, $4 (Adult statement required)
	Cinema Sewer #12 Robin Bougie is back with the flotsam of the cinema industry, with this issue being heavily slanted towards porn. First though, we start with Robin discussing his conflicting views about the Bumfights videos. Robin discovers within himself new moral limits he didn't know of in what he would decide not to endorse. After that, Robin goes into a massive rampage about people who do not know how to behave in a movie theater. A classic of porn, The Taming of Rebecca, could almost be a classic of horror cinema, and is duly examined here with full historical background. In another article, we learn that the parents of Thora Birch (Ghost World, American Beauty) seem to have been porn stars in the 80s, and based on this rumor documented with some credible evidence, Robin breaks into one of the most memorable moments of the history of Cinema Sewer and starts fantasizing about what a mainstream Hollywood porn movie would look like if only Birch could convince a few stars to help her out. Robin was clearly drooling all over the page when he wrote this part of the zine and even included a Thora Birch pin-up (which makes her look 10 years older...) After Robin, his friend Matt Daddy Deluxe gets his turn when he answers an ad promising to fulfill his porn fantasy onscreen. Matt documents the process as the company actually follows through and he gets his time in the (s)limelight. Robin documents the rise of new porn phenomenon Britni, dubbed the new Queen of Nasty as she's pushing the boundaries of porn, and we're shown she's got the appropriatedly perverted attitude when Robin interviews her. Other features include an interview with Rubin and Ed director Trent Harris, a review of racist-exploitation movie Fight For Your Life (was it marketed to blacks or whites?), Hong Kong Caterogy III film reviews, classic monster movie reviews, and wraps up with Cinema Sewer's infamous reader section with amusing cat profiles this time around. This zine is pure and fascinating entertainment. Size: comic book format, 44 pages, $4 (Adult statement required)
	Cinema Sewer #11 This is the all-horror issue, with a fantastic cover drawn by Rebecca Dart, and packed with Robin Bougie's drawings as usual. First we start with a review of films seen at CineMuerte, Vancouver's very own horror movie festival. Then there are reviews of a few classic or "special" movies, like The Candy Snatchers, Terror in Alcatraz and The Texas Dildo Masquerade. We then have Robin debunking all the claims about how snuff movies ever existed. Here's the short version: they don't, stupid! But hey, read this if you think that Cannibal Holocaust was real. Then Cinema Sewer meets Vancouver's Queen of Horror as Kier-La Janisse, organizer of CineMuerte festival and magazine reviews the best rape-revenge films. We have a whole bunch of Top 5's: The 5 most memorable horror film scores, the Top 5 made-for-TV horror movies, the Top 5 scariest scenes ever by none other than Stephen King (keeps nominating his own movies, bastard), and the Top 5 horror titles of all time. We get a good taste of Vancouver horror film-making with an interview with Ed Brisson and a review of Binge and Purge, starring vegan-queen Tanya Barnard! Finally, Robin gets some juicy reader mail and shares it with the world. This is a packed issue! And notice the bigger format too! Size: comic book format, 44 pages, $5 (Adult statement required)
	Cinema Sewer #10 Cinema Sewer is about unusual and hard-to-find video. This issue is chock full of good stuff: the Seymour Butts fistfuck obscenity court case, a Let My Puppets Come review (hardcore puppet porno!), the 100 worst true porn movie titles, an interview with Frederick Wiseman, documentary extraordinaire which had his first movie banned worldwide, a pin-up and biography of Louise Brooks, a gorgeous silent film actress, reactions to real-life anime-style Tetsuo: The Iron Man, a review of Darktown Strutters, an interview with Ralph Baksi, the man behind Fritz the Cat, an analysis of the differences between Ghost World movie and the book, plus other porn and blaxsploitation movie reviews. Finally, there's a new section where Hong Kong's category 3 movies are reviewed. Size: half-letter, 48 pages, $4 (Adult statement required)
	Cinemuerte #11 Long lost issue of Cinemuerte, only two copies available! This feminist horror and alternative cinema magazine was one of the best cinema zines in Vancouver (and would have been the best should Cinema Sewer have been published in another city (what do they put in the water in that city anyway?)) and I have found a couple copies at the bottom of a box. This issue contains the usual Coroner's Report, Kier-La's long and meaty Fantasia 2001 Festival (!) report, an interview with director Tomoya Sato, observations on the intersection between the nouvelle vague and eurotrash, an interview with Combat Shock director Buddy Giovinazzo, a survey of 2001's most outlandish films, and finally there are reviews of old films now released on video. Size: letter, 40 pages, $5
	Eclectic Screening Room #10 - Summer in the 70's The 1970s were a rich period for American cinema, where lots of experimentation was taking place in order to attract the young audiences with new sensibilities, before Lucas and Spielberg ruined the industry for everyone else. Greg goes as far as saying that this is the last decade where you can say that there was such a thing as "American Cinema", and then he goes on to list the most influential movies of that decade. They are not necessarily the most popular; lots of films in there did not shine at the box office but they opened some new ground that other films walked on. For each movie, Greg writes about what made the movie special in its time, reveals little known information that puts the films in perspective, shows the linkages between movies, etc. What he does in fact is paint a historical picture of that decade's cinema so that we are not only presented with a bunch of movies, but we are facing an era with recognizeable features and icons: Woody Allen, Pam Grier, the BBS, Robert Altman, John Cassavetes, Milos Forman, Mel Brooks... ESR is in the same league as Cinema Sewer: both zines written by lovers of cinema that are quite knowledgeable about their areas of interest, and it is capitvating to read them even without watching the movies they talk about. (Movies are a waste of time anyway.) Size: letter, 36 pages, $4