Interview audio

Stargate actor – Peter Williams interview

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Peter Williams is a Jamaican-born Canadian actor best known to sci-fans as Apophis on Stargate SG-1. Peter has done a number of roles in movie and tv and we spoke at Shore Leave 2018 about acting and his interests and insrpirations.

0:48 – Peter talks about how he got into acting. He grew up in Jamaica and emigrated to Canada in 1981.

2:58 – Peter said he got into acting for superficial reasons. To work you have to be in the union and to get into the union you have to have worked. He talks about how he got into the business and he did a lot of comedy to start but he doesn’t consider himself a comedy guy.

4:19 – He was never typecast as Jamaican but he didn’t get the role in Cool Runnings because he wasn’t considered Jamaican enough.

5:22 – He had a degree in geography and archaeology and loved Egyptology so getting on Stargate was fun for him. The budget for the show was stout so it had a lot of quality production people. Most of the set impressed him.

7:00 – He loves studying the Roman Empire and especially the rise and fall of empires. He’s a language nerd too.

10:30 – He vaguely recalled wearing armor in a previous role. He loves costumes and would like to play a centurion or Roman would be fun.

11:28 – He liked Star Trek and Lost in Space. 2001, and he loves Back to the Future. He’s gotten more into sci-fi through thye fandom.

12:45 – He’s into biology, plants and their healing properties. He’s recently seen the rings of Saturn and the moons of Jupiter, and a ring nebula and was fascinated by them.

14:30 – He lives in a small town and people seem to want to hear his opinion as an actor. He’d also like to get into a social consciousness role if he had the chance.

15:23 – He’s on twitter @actualapophis.

Links of interest

https://twitter.com/actualapophis?lang=en

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

 

Guests: Peter Williams

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, Stargate, Ancient Rome, Egyptology, Jupiter, Saturn, acting, Cool Runnings, Jamaica, Canada, plant healing

Argentine Horror Films – “Blood Circuits” (SUNY Press, 2018) – Jonathan Risner interview

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Jonathan Risner is Assistant Professor of Spanish at Indiana University Bloomington. He discovered Argentine horror and wondered how much of the country’s brutal dictatorship impacted that country’s horror films. We discuss his book on the topic.

1:27 – Jonathan talks about how he got into studying and writing about Argentinian horror cinema. He wondered if an Argentinian horror film could be made without referencing the brutality of the dictatorship in that country.

4:43 – Jonathan then talks about how he turned his dissertation into the book. He included new Argentinian films that have come out since 2012.   There’s not a tradition of Argentine horror cinema. Horror most often associated with other countries. Lots of people have started making great low budget horror films in Argentina.

14:00 – Since independence, Argentinian films have sort of shown a tension between city and country.

15:45 – He also looks at films that are done with English dialogue. These films are often designed to break into the US B-movie market.

19:08 – Another book chapter is on punk horror cinema that is supposed to be purposefully offensive.

21:45 – The dictatorship was dealt with on screen with melodramas and documentaries. A new generation of film makers are using horror to deal with it.

23:45 – The book has a filmography with associated US distributors and youtube links.

30:00 – Argentine horror film is not coherent. There is no stylistic thread through them.

33:00 – Jonathan interviewed a psychoanalyst who had been a college student during the dictatorship and he began crying. That was a moving moment for Jonathon.

41:45 – Jonathan joked about how hard it was to get good punk horror film stills because the film quality is poor, not corporate punk, he joked.

42:45 – He had to mix comedies with the horror films because it got tough to watch so much brutal horror.

45:56 – People can find the book and read the first chapter on the SUNY Press website.

Links of interest

SUNY Press Blood Circuits page

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

Guests: Jonathan Risner

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: horror, films, Argentina, big-budget, interview, punk horror, dictatorship, memory, psychoanalysis

Classical “monster” art – “Portraits of Human Monsters in the Renaissance” (Medieval Institute Publications, 2018) – Touba Ghadessi interview

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Touba Ghadessi is an Associate Professor of Art History at the Wheaton College Massachusetts. We spoke about her book on how the “monstrous” form was portrayed in 16th and 17th century art found among noble courts.

3:45 – Touba talks about the book and what it means to be a monster in the 16th century.

8:00 – Touba thought she might find definite categories of “monsters” but the meaning was more porous. Courts loved having dwarves at court.

12:00 – Touba talks about a dwarf that was taught to fight, to speak other languages and taught many different skills by his court patrons. Some dwarves were mentally incapacitated and used as jesters sometimes.

21:24 – There’s a long history of dwarfism in other cultures being a perfect miniature representation of a human being.

25:45 – In the 16th century, anatomists started looking at dwarves as biological entities rather than omens of something.

27:30 – Touba could look at purchase inventories for courts to see what was being bought for dwarves by their patrons.

29:30 – She mostly got records from Northern Italian courts and some French courts.

38:00 – It was difficult for Touba to read about the vivisection work that some 16th century scientists did.

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

Guests: Touba Ghadessi

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: art, dwarf, hirsute, paintings, 16th century, 17th century, italy, france, nobility, castrati, royal courts