Podcast

Our guest this week is Phil Miller, investigative journalist and staff reporter at Declassified UK. We discuss the origins of British mercenaries in recent proxy wars and the extent of government culpability in his documentary (and the book it’s based on) Keenie Meenie: Britain’s Private Army (2020) - available online! We also touch on the issues around British intervention abroad, involvement in the international arms trade and the effects on migration. We’ve not been bawled over by any (...)

A longer episode than usual in which we are joined by Media Fund Strategic Coordinator Thomas Barlow. Among the many other things he does is conducting anti-fascist history tours in his home city of Manchester! Tom chose to focus on themes of revolution and social change in sci-fi, with a particular focus on Elysium, The Expanse and Battlestar Galactica. We discuss how the film and series creators depict the agents of change, the use of a single hero-like protagonist as opposed to the (...)

This week’s focus is "colonial chic" in light of the touted and actual removal of Gone With The Wind from a number of programmes and archives due to its racist outlook. We discuss themes of colonialism and postcolonialism through film, namely the above and Jane Austen’s work and their filmic representations. As the saying goes, it’s not what you’re looking at it’s what you see. Our picks this week are the Encounters Film Festival - GET YOUR PASS - and its expert, sharp-eyed curating - only £10 (...)

This week we are joined by Matt Howsam, a production coordinator in the VFX industry and a film critic. We mention the hilarious and highly original One Cut Of The Dead by Shin’ichirô Ueda, a Japanese Zombie comedy in the style of some of the best mockumentaries out there and a homage to low budget filmmaking. Depending on where you are you can watch it on Shudder or buy the DVD (it’s from 2017). Abla also highlights the Netflix series Unwell, which looks at the dark side of the wellness (...)

This week, Coco and Abla interview documentary filmmaker and journalist Pablo Navarrete. Pablo’s latest film No Extradition is a record of the campaign of support for Julian Assange who is facing extradition to the US. He also follows John Shipton, Assange’s father, over several months as he fought to secure his son’s release from Belmarsh prison in the UK. The filmmaker whose first documentary "Inside the Revolution: A Journey into the Heart of Venezuela" dates from 2009 was working for (...)

For this episode of Mydylarama’s Top Picks podcast, we’re joined by our guest, academic, film programmer and Japanese Avant-Garde and Experimental Film Festival producer George Crosthwait. George Crosthwait. George’s pick of the week, and also his first trip back to the cinema since February, is Shannon Murphy’s debut film ’Babyteeth’. An Australian coming-of-age drama that both impressed and confused him due to it’s tonal eccentricities. Abla’s picks of the week include Richard Pryor: Omit The (...)

Another fortnight, another episode! We start with our picks and move on to a discussion about American Horror Story: Apocalypse (S8, 2018). As huge horror fans, we’ll have other episodes down the line in this genre.... Coco’s Top Pick is American Son (2019), performed as a one set straight play, in which an interracial couple waits at the police station for news of their teenage son’s whereabouts, revealing the lies a family has told themselves about political race and the limitations of (...)

In this episode, we discuss our picks of the fortnight and focus on true crime documentary The Staircase and the issues that it brings up. The Dark finale was definitely a highlight, a truly gripping series, with twists and turns as bonkers as those in Lost, with none of the incoherence and sheer wackiness. Palestinian filmmaker Sameer Qumsieh’s doc Walled Citizen, in which he explores travelling with the world’s lowest ranking passport was screened as part of the Galway FF selection. You (...)

Mydy’s second podcast! It’s the second part Secorro’s look at the Netflix Black Lives Matter collection and associated films. We’re still tinkering with tech and format. Other episodes will feature discussions with more back and forth, as well as interviews and guest spots. As always, comments welcome! This week, from five films on Netflix, (1) Self-Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker (2020); (2) Strong Island (2017); (3) Skin (2019); (4) I Am Not Your Negro (2016); and (5) Black (...)

Our first Mydylarama podcast begins with this top 5 from Secorro Green. She lists her Netflix picks of the last 2 weeks that address issues around Black lives and identity - The "King Richard" episode of Trial by Media; Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story; Time: The Kalief Browder Story; American Gospel; Malcolm X. The grating but faint buzzing in the first 3 min is that of a very inconvenient leaf blower. Lesson learned. Comments and feedback (...)