Portland Horror Film Festival Review: Short Film Round Up 2

By Joan Amenn Miss Blueberry Beauty Pageant Year: 2019 Runtime: 12 minutes Director/Writer: Sarah Kennedy Actors: Hannah Perry, Joanna Clarke, Jericah Potvin, Thomas Ian Campbell “Miss Blueberry Beauty Pageant” (2019) is such goofy, retro fun with a nice bit (or maybe bite) of horror thrown in to balance out the campiness. The lovely pageant contestants are decked out in their finest from the 1980’s (and … Continue reading Portland Horror Film Festival Review: Short Film Round Up 2

Portland Horror Film Festival: Zombie Infection-Belaban Hidup

Year: 2020 Runtime: 91 minutes Director: Ray Lee Writer: Misha Minut Panggau Actors: Pablo Amirul, Anna Melissa, Nelissa Nizam, Cassidy Panggau, Anwar Jebat, Zeina Debo By Joan Amenn At the Portland Horror Film Festival, director Ray Lee has a brief introduction to “Zombie Infection-Belaban Hidup” (2020) where he explains how difficult production conditions were for the cast and crew. He cites the various issues such … Continue reading Portland Horror Film Festival: Zombie Infection-Belaban Hidup

Review: Alhamdu and Exclusive Interview with Creative Director Sumer Zuberi

Year: 2021 Runtime: 4 minutes 38 seconds Director: Abbas Rattani By Joan Amenn An incredible vision has been unleashed on YouTube and it is the result of a brilliant collaboration by a group known as the Mipsterz. Iwas honored to speak to one of their Creative Directors, Sumer Zuberi, in anticipation of the release of their new short film, “Alhamdu” (2021).  It is a joyous … Continue reading Review: Alhamdu and Exclusive Interview with Creative Director Sumer Zuberi

Editorial: The Backlash Against Calls For Better Gender Representation On Screen

On 21st November Anita Sarkeesian tweeted to highlight the lack of female characters in the first episode of Disney’s new Star Wars show “The Mandalorian” and it caused an immediate backlash.

The discourse that’s still raging raises some fairly universal arguments which are worth exploring. It’s this discourse I want to focus on here, not the accuracy or otherwise of Sarkeesian’s tweet as I have not seen “The Mandalorian”. Continue reading Editorial: The Backlash Against Calls For Better Gender Representation On Screen